About 15 years ago, I taught A Problem from Hell, a book on genocides (大屠杀), to a group of 18- and 19-year-olds in a mid-west university in the US. In my class there was a young man who had spent his boyhood in Bosnia as NATO bombed his hometown. My other students, amazed by his connection to the genocide in the textbook, asked him what it was like to grow up in a war-zone. “A pretty normal childhood as you had here,” he said. “We played cards inside a lot, and when there was no bombing we kicked a ball in the street.”
In the past few years, the world has seen a rapid increase in refugees (难民), with the number hitting 60 million. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s story collection The Refugees reminds us that literature is news that stays news. Set in the Vietnamese communities in California as well as in Vietnam, the stories do not aim to surprise us with new twists or shock us with wonderful details, as war and refugee stories could easily choose to do. Rather, like the young man from Bosnia, Nguyen’s characters tell these stories because they are the only ones known to them.
Included in the collection are two of the most touching pieces, both about siblings (兄弟或姊妹) separated by geography and history. In “Black-Eyed Women”, the narrator (讲述人), a young Vietnamese woman, is visited by the ghost of her elder brother, who died young on the boat when the family took flight from the war. The tale of love and loss, violence and violation, may not be unfamiliar to the reader, but the determination of the brother’s ghost (he has taken decades to swim across the Pacific to reach America) and the sister’s abandoning herself to a half death make the story lasting.
As an echo, the closing story, “Fatherland”, explores a more complex situation between two siblings. The narrator, a young Vietnamese woman, meets her half-sister, visiting from the US for the first time. Adding to the tension is the fact that her father has named the narrator and her siblings after his first set of children. Two sisters, one American and one Vietnamese, yet named the same by the father – it may sound strange, but isn’t it the fate many refugees have to face: a life left behind, that could have been theirs; and a life in an adopted country.
The theme of doubleness – choice and inevitability (不可避免性), home and homelessness, starting afresh and being stuck – is present not only in the stories of Vietnamese refugees, but also of those who have become refugees from their own homes and loved ones. “Smiling at your relatives never got you very far, but smiling at strangers and acquaintances sometimes did.” So a pilot, who fought in the Vietnam war and is now revisiting the country for the first time, thinks while waving at the locals from a tour bus. He’s distant from his daughter, just as a Mexican American in the collection is distant from his wife, or a young man from Hong Kong is distant from his father.
The collection is full of refugees, whether from external or from a deeper, more internal conflict between even those who are closest to each other. With anger but not despair, with reconciliation (和解) but not unrealistic hope, and with genuine humour that is not used to insult anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters.
1.The first paragraph is intended to .
A. describe the boring life of war victims
B. appeal to the readers to help war victims
C. criticize NATO’s killing of innocent people
D. introduce the story collection The Refugees
2.Which of the following about The Refugees is True?
A. It tells the news in a literary form.
B. It is full of surprising twists and plots.
C. The author experiences the stories himself.
D. Its characters narrate their own stories.
3.How are Black-Eyed Women and Fatherland mainly developed?
A. By giving examples.
B. Bymaking contrasts.
C. By providing evidence.
D. By making classifications.
4.We can infer from Paragraph 5 that .
A. relatives hate their loved ones for being left behind
B. separation from loved ones tends to make them distant
C. people become refugees due to their double character
D. smiling is a good way to keep loved ones together
5.Which of the following is the theme of The Refugees？
A. Despair, suffering, and regret.
B. Anger, humour and hope.
C. Sympathy, regret, and reconciliation.
D. Dream, hope, and expectation.
6.The Refugees mainly focuses on .
A. the problems of identity, love, and family for refugees
B. the miserable lives of refugees in the adopted countries
C. the refugees’ reunion with their families after separation
D. the various reasons for people’s being reduced to refugees
A person’s chances of falling ill from a new strain (菌株) of flu are at least partly determined by the first strain they ever met with, a study suggests.
Research in Science Journal looked at the 18 strains of influenza A ( 甲型流感) and the hemagglutinin protein (红血球凝集素蛋白) on its surface. They say there are only two types of this protein and people are protected from the one their body meets first, but at risk from the other one. A UK expert said that could explain different patterns in flu pandemics (流行病).The researchers, from University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest their findings could explain why some flu outbreaks cause more deaths and serious illnesses in younger people. The first time a person's immune system meets a flu virus, it makes antibodies targeting hemagglutinin protein that sticks out of the surface of the virus — like a lollipop (棒棒糖).
Even though there are 18 types of influenza A, there are only two versions of hemagglutinin. The researchers, led by Dr Michael Worobey, classed them as “blue” and “orange” lollipops. They said people born before the late 1960s were exposed to “blue lollipop” flu viruses — H1 or H2 — as children. In later life they rarely fell ill from another “blue lollipop” flu — H5N1 bird flu, but they died from “orange” H7N9. Those born in the late 1960s and exposed to “orange lollipop” flu — H3 — have the opposite pattern.
His team looked at cases of H5N1 and H7N9 — two kinds of bird flu which have affected hundreds of people, but have not developed into pandemics. The researchers found a 75% protection rate against severe disease and 80% protection rate against death if patients had been exposed to a virus with the same protein version when they were children.
Dr Worobey said the finding could explain the unusual effect of the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic, which was more deadly among young adults. “Those young adults were killed by an H1 virus and from blood analysed many decades later there is a pretty strong indication that those individuals had been exposed to a mismatched H3 as children and were therefore not protected against H1. The fact that we are seeing exactly the same pattern with current H5N1 and H7N9 cases suggests that the same fundamental processes may govern both the historic 1918 pandemic and today’s contenders (斗争者) for the next big flu pandemic.”
Jonathan Ball, professor of University of Nottingham, said, “This is a really neat piece of work and provides a reason why human populations have been sensitive to different strains of bird influenza over the past 100 years or so. The findings are based on analysis of patient records and they certainly need further proof in the laboratory, but nonetheless the results are pretty amazing and inspiring.”
1.The findings, if proved, will help people .
A. protect themselves from flu attacks
B. analyze more clearly the records of a patient infected with a bird flu
C. find out who are easier to get infected with a bird flu than others
D. find new drugs to cure patients of flu infections
2.The researchers use “blue lollipop” and “orange lollipop” for two versions of hemagglutinin in order to produce .
A. a good visual effect B. a good logic effect
C. an effect of being abstract D. an effect of being clear
3.While what Dr Worobey said is focused on the facts, Jonathan Ball’s remarks on the research are focused on .
A. the popularity of the research B. challenges and current situation
C. summary and future plans D. evaluation and influences
4.What can serve as the best title of this passage?
A. Cure for Bird Flu Not Far Away
B. First Flu Affects Lifetime Risk
C. New Classification of Flu Pandemics
D. How Bird Flu Affects People
In modern society, it is usually considered good to be an extroverted(外向的) person. This means that life can be hard for introverted people. Their talents and abilities are often not recognized.
Some people often try to make introverts more outgoing. They think that being an introvert is a problem. But there is nothing wrong about being an introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of meeting and talking to others. They simply prefer to spend time on their own, away from the crowds. They like reading, writing and taking walks in the countryside. But extroverts need other people. If they spend a lot of time on their own, they get bored. They tend to be impulsive and talk a lot.
Our society puts a lot of pressure on people to be extrovert, to be outgoing and self-confident on every occasion. Susan Cain, the author of the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, has spoken about this problem. “I was nine years old,” Cain says. “In my suitcase there were lots of books. This seemed normal to me, because in our family we always read a lot. I thought it would be the same at summer camp. But I was wrong. To create camp spirit, all the children had to sing a cheer every morning. I couldn’t understand why. In the evening, I took out a book from my suitcase. But another girl said, ‘why are you being so quiet?’ The second time I took out a book, the counselor(辅导员) came to see me. She told me to remember the camp spirit and that it was important to be outgoing.”
At work, extroverts often do well. At job interviews, it is usually good to appear extrovert. It suggests that you will be good at the job. But it is wrong to think that only extroverts are good leaders. Introverts work in different ways to extroverts, but they can still do really great things. Darwin, for example, was a quiet, family man. He often took long walks so that he could think clearly. But Darwin’s ideas about evolution were revolutionary.
Introverts must understand that it is perfectly okay to be the way they are. It is not necessary to want to be the center of attention. You don’t have to take part in noisy, social activities if you don’t want to. And it is not necessary to try to become more outgoing.
1.This sentence “Introverts are generally misunderstood.” should be put at the beginning of Paragraph .
A. Two B. Three
C. Four D. Five
2.Paragraph 3 is constructed by means of .
A. analyzing reasons B. giving examples
C. listing arguments D. comparing facts
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. The talents and abilities of extroverts are usually ignored.
B. Some introverts feel caught between nature and social pressure.
C. Only extroverts are good leaders with better interpersonal skills.
D. It is necessary for introverts to try to become more outgoing.
Oh, the places you’ll go!
When it comes to habitat, human beings are creatures of habit. It has been known for a long time that, whether his habitat is a village, a city or, for real globe-trotters (周游世界者), the planet itself, an individual person generally visits the same places regularly. The details, though, have been surprisingly obscure. Now, thanks to an analysis of data collected from 40,000 smartphone users around the world, a new property of humanity’s locomotive (移动的) habits has been revealed.
It turns out that someone’s “location capacity”, the number of places which he or she visits regularly, remains constant over periods of months and years. What constitutes a “place” depends on what distance between two places makes them separate. But analyzing movement patterns helps illuminate the distinction and the researchers found that the average location capacity was 25. If a new location does make its way into the set of places an individual tends to visit, an old one drops out in response. People do not, in other words, gather places like collector cards. Rather, they cycle through them. Their geographical behavior is limited and predictable, not fancy-free.
The study demonstrating this, just published in Nature Human Behavior, does not offer any explanation for the limited location capacity it measures. But a statistical analysis carried out by the authors shows that it cannot be explained solely by constraints on time. Some other factor is at work. One of the researchers draws an analogy. He suggests that people’s cognitive capacity limits the number of places they can visit routinely, just as it limits the number of other people an individual can routinely socialize with. That socialization figure, about 150 for most people, is known as the Dunbar number, after its discoverer, Robin Dunbar.
Lehmann says his group is now in search of similar data from other primates (灵长目动物), in an attempt to work out where human patterns of mobility have their roots. For those, though, they will have to rely on old-fashioned methods of zoological observation unless they can work out a way to get chimpanzees to carry smartphones.
1.The underlined word “obscure” in paragraph 1 can be replaced by .
A. clear B. little known
C. accurate D. long forgotten
2.How can the researchers get similar data from other primates?
A. Observe the primates or let them carry smartphones.
B. Work together with Robin Dunbar.
C. Carry out statistical analysis.
D. Publish essays in Nature Human Behavior.
Human growth is a process of experimentation, trial, and error eventually leading to wisdom. Each time you choose to trust yourself and take action, you can never quite be certain how the situation will _________ .
Sometimes you are victorious, and sometimes you become disappointed. The__________ experiments, however, are no less valuable than the experiments that finally prove successful; in fact, you_____ learn more from your “failures” than you do from your _________ . If you have made what you think to be a mistake or failed to live up to your own _____ , you will most likely put up a barrier between your essence and the part of you that is the alleged (声称的) wrong-doer.
However, viewing past actions as _______ implies guilt and blame, and it is not possible to learn anything meaningful while you are engaged in blaming. _________ , forgiveness is required when you are severely judging yourself. Forgiveness is the act of erasing an________ debt. There are four kinds of forgiveness.
The first is beginner forgiveness for yourself. The second kind of forgiveness is beginner forgiveness for another.
The third kind of forgiveness is _________ forgiveness of yourself. This is for serious misbehaviors, the ones you carry with deep _____ . When you do something that violates your own values and principles, you create a gap between your standards and your actual _________ .
In such a case, you need to work very hard at ___________yourself for these deeds so that you can close this gap. This does not _______ that you should rush to forgive yourself or shouldn’t feel regret, _______taking pleasure in these feelings for a prolonged（延长）period of time is not healthy.
The __________and perhaps most difficult one of the advanced forgiveness of another. At some time of our life, you may have been severely wronged or hurt by another person to such a degree that forgiveness seems _________ .
However, harboring（心怀）anger and revenge fantasies only keeps you _______ in victimhood. （受害状态）. Under such a circumstance, you should force yourself to see the bigger picture. By doing do, you will be able to__________ the focus away from the anger and resentment. It is only through forgiveness that you can erase wrongdoing and _________ the memory. When you can ________ release the situation, you may come to see it as a necessary part of your growth.
1.A. turn up B. turn out C. break up D. break out
2.A. important B. engaged C. failed D. successful
3.A. obviously B. necessarily C. continuously D. usually
4.A. success B. failure C. fault D. benefit
5.A. ability B. expectations C. belief D. experiences
6.A. mistakes B. victories C. experiments D. fantasies
7.A. Still B. Therefore C. Instead D. However
8.A. abnormal B. original C. emotional D. unusual
9.A. ordinary B. advanced C. alternative D. certain
10.A. wisdom B. mercy C. injury D. shame
11.A. thought B. approach C. behavior D. purpose
12.A. punishing B. forgiving C. blaming D. praising
13.A. mean B. prove C. reflect D. represent
14.A. and B. or C. but D. so
15.A. uncertain B. previous C. next D. last
16.A. unbelievable B. unavoidable C. impossible D. valuable
17.A. trapped B. located C. lost D. occupied
18.A. drive B. drag C. put D. shift
19.A. keep B. refresh C. weaken D. clean
20.A. naturally B. finally C. definitely D. initially
---- May I take your order now?
---- .
A. Yes, my affairs are in order B. Yes, I’d like a dish of beef
C. No, it isn’t my order D. No, I don’t subscribe to it
