Listening and Speaking
1.
Books
Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting 1) products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books 2) survive. Time is of no account with great 3)thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first 4) passed through their authors’ minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the 5) printed page. The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products: for nothing in 6) literature can long survive but what is really good.
Books introduce us into the best 7) society; they bring us into the presence of the 8) greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really 9)alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their 10) experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.
Text A
Reading Comprehension
1.
A.
The topic sentence: Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual.
| Books |
|---|
contain | the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages |
picture for us | the marvels and beauties of nature |
help us | in our difficulties |
comfort us | in sorrow and in suffering |
change | hours of weariness into moments of delight |
store our minds | with ideas |
fill them | with good and happy thoughts |
lift us | out of and above ourselves |
B.
Example | Topic of the paragraph |
|---|
An oriental story of two men: a king who every night dreamt he was a beggar and a beggar who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace | rich imaginative experience of reading |
A story of Lady Jane Grey: not joining her father and mother hunting in the park, but sitting in an oriel window reading Plato’s beautiful account of the death of Socrates | pleasure of reading |
Macaulay’s biography and his quotations in a letter to a little girl: I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading. | satisfaction of reading |
2.
Books, indeed, endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts, giving us an even more vivid idea than the actual reality, in the same way that reflections are often more beautiful than real nature. Books scatter around our daily paths the blessings which are precious and priceless, giving us the imagination in which we walk with the sublime and enchanting regions. The world of books provides us with science, art, literature, philosophy, the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations, in other words, all that man has thought, all that man has done.
Reading and Discussing
Language in Use
4.
Noun(s) | Verb | Adjective(s) |
|---|
accumulation | accumulate | accumulative; accumulable |
charm | charm | charming; charmed |
comfort | comfort | comfortable |
delight | delight | delighted; delightful |
expenditure; expense | expend | expensive |
fame | fame | famous; famed |
imagination | imagine | imaginable; imaginary; imaginative |
marvel | marvel | mavel(l)ous |
philosophy | philosophize | philosophic; philosophical |
reflection | reflect | reflected; reflective |
sorrow | sorrow | sorrowful |
1) charm
2) philosophy
3) accumulated
4) sorrowful
5) comfort
5.
1) a
2) c
3) b
4) b
5) c
6) a
7) b
8) a
9) c
10) b
11) a
6.
1) endow
2) filled
3) supply
4) are provided
5) equipping
6) was honoured
7.
1) The feedback from consumers greatly supports Facebook and its development.
2) If you Google “scenic spots”, you’ll get more than a million results.
3) The newspaper headlined the movie star’s divorce with his wife.
4) While riding home, she relived her moment of glory again and again.
5) The citizens have expressed their desire for peace and order.
6) They present us a picture of the marvels and beauties of nature.
7) He has been the host of the famous TV talk show for three years.
8) A lot of high-tech components will be sent by ship to Shanghai to be assembled.
8.
Reference translation
1) ……我们还能遍访山川海岸，尽享大地之最美，而不觉疲倦，没有不便，更不用破费。
2) 但她说：“我希望他们在园子里打猎的快乐，与我在柏拉图文字里获得的愉悦相比，只不过是影子而已。”
3) 书籍的确赐予我们一座令人神往的思想宫殿。
4) “凡事皆镜像，”乔治•麦克唐纳说。“从镜子里面看，再普通的房子我也觉得充满诗情画意。”
5) 无须起身离开火炉，我们就可漫游天涯海角，或是飞到斯宾塞笔下的王国，在那里我们受到成群结队非凡美丽的仙女们的欢迎，或是飞到弥尔顿的天堂，在那里我们欣赏天使们合唱天堂颂歌。
9.
Reference translation
1) Driving is to Americans what flying is to birds. It is almost part of their nature.
2) The outline is to a writer as the blueprint is to an architect.
3) As food is to the body, so is learning to the mind.
4) The sun is as hot as the competition that he was confronted with at the Olympic Games.
5) Just as a sword is the weapon of a warrior, a pen is the weapon of a writer.
Text B
Reading Comprehension
1.
Time | when the author was 14 |
Places | downtown El Paso El Paso Public Library
|
Characters | |
Event | |
Result | The old man gave the author two pieces of advice which were very special and changed his life. Number one is to never judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you. Number two is to learn how to read. Your wisdom is the only thing that people can’t take away from you.
|
Language in Use
2.
1) belongings
2) dropouts
3) grand
4) request
5) originally
6) commitment
7) figures
8) surfing
9) soul
10) classics
3.
1) passed down
2) passed away
3) passed by
4) run away
5) take away
6) Stay away
7) reflect upon
8) come upon
9) give you a ride
10) go for a ride
4.
Reference translation
1) 我追寻着我的梦想，日出即行，日落即息。
2) “儿子，追寻你的梦想和心中的憧憬是重要的。”
3) 我把行李放在那位慈祥的老人那里，便走进了那座宏伟的知识殿堂。
4) “第一是切记不要从封面来判断一本书的好坏，因为外表有时也会蒙你。”
5) 书籍为我们展示大自然的神奇与美丽；艰难时扶持我们，伤痛难过时安抚我们，疲惫厌倦时娱乐我们，用思想充实我们的心智，愉悦我们的心绪，并鼓舞着我们战胜自我、超越自我。
Writing
Exercise 1
1) Ascham, in The Schoolmaster, tells a touching story of his last visit to Lady Jane Grey. He found her sitting in an oriel window reading Plato’s beautiful account of the death of Socrates. Her father and mother were hunting in the park, the hounds were in full cry and their voices came in through the open window. He expressed his surprise that she had not joined them. But, she said, “I wish that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato.”
2) The author uses this short story to tell readers: Lady Jane Grey loved reading at all times and nothing could distract her attention from her books. She had pure happiness from books. The idea the author wants to illustrate is: “Many of those who have had, as we say, all that this world can give, have yet told us they owed much of their purest happiness to books.”
Exercise 2
2) It is unforgivable that the big chemical plant pours waste water into the river without any treatment.
3) The young boy still holds on to the belief that one day he will leave the remote village.
4) I want to know what she did last summer in Canada.
5) It is quite apparent that he has some problems handling his emotions in public.
6) Have you arranged where we are going to meet tonight?
7) The audience was amazed by how the magician finished the magic trick.
8) Who the new coach of the team will be has not been announced yet.
Exercise 3
1) that
2) What
3) The fact
4) all that
5) seems
6) What
7) That
8) that
Exercise 4
Sample
What Reading Means to Me
Reading can mean different things to different people. Reading is to me what sunshine is to trees. I feel I cannot live without books. Sir John Lubbock in his “The Delights of Books” wrote, “Many of those who have had, as we say, all that this world can give, have yet told us they owed much of their purest happiness to books.” As a college student, I find happy and soothing moments in reading. When I come upon a problem, I always seek help from books in the first place, in which great thinkers past and present might have already provided their ready answers. When I need a brief break from work, I always turn to my favorite writer and explore the world side by side with him. Reading has always been an essential part of my life.
