Umbrella is a “difficult” novel. But if you enjoy challenges, just read on because Umbrella, as a Booker Prize winner, is one you can’t miss.

The story itself is not difficult to follow. It concerns a woman named Audrey, a Lo  ndoner who grows up during World War I, works in a military factory, and then survives an epidemic （传染病）spreading through Europe between 1915 and 1926. She is admitted to a mental hospital in 1922, and remains there, mind out of time, until 1971, when a doctor named Zach Busner awakens the sleeping beauty with a special drug. And decades later-on April 8,2010, to be exact — Busner

thinks back on all this as he visits his old hospital.

The story also involves painful facts of how the mentally ill were

mistreated, and the careers of Audrey’s two brothers, one of whom

becomes a soldier in the Great War. Fans of World War I will not want

to miss the vivid descriptions of battlefields.

What makes Will Self’s novel challenging is how he tells his story.

Is opens in the spring of 1971 but thereafter time travels back and

forth between Audrey’s Edwardian childhood and 2010, jumping

mid-sentence from one era to another with no reminders to guide the reader. It is a new style many many modernists adopted, who thought that the old ways were not enough to show the great changes at the beginning of the 20th century.

This story isn’t new: Oliver Sacks dealt with the same sleeping sickness and its treatment in Awakenings. What’s appealing about Umbrella is that Self combines from with content perfectly, using modernist techniques. The readers may feel confused about the switch of time, it’s Self’s wild style that offers other delights – richly detailed settings that bring mental hospitals alive and much more than that.

Yes, “Umbrella” is a “difficult” novel, but it amply rewards the effort.

66．The underlined phrase "mind out of time" in the second paragraph probably refers, to          .

       A．a way a person faces difficulties light-heartedly

       B．a condition where a person is unconscious

       C．a situation which makes someone embarrassed

       D．an occasion where a person doesn't mind the time

67．What troubles the readers most when they are reading Umbrella?

       A．The relations of the characters．

       B．The abstract language．

       C．The switch of time．

       D．The settings of battlefields．

68．We can safely infer from Paragraph 4,______．

       A．Self displays a fast-changing world to readers

       B．Self created the style in which he wrote his story

       C．Self avoided describing the scene of the war

       D．Self’s style was followed by many other writers

69．Who else wrote a similar story besides Self?

       A．Audrey．                                B．Zach Busner．

       C．Oliver Sacks．                          D．Audrey's brother．

70．The novel Umbrella really attracts the readers because______．

       A．the potential Self has as a modernist writer

       B．the strange writing technique Self created

       C．the new material Self chose for his story

       D．the perfect combination of the form and content

Energy is very important in modern life. People use energy to run machines, heat and cool their homes, cook, give light, and transport people and products from place to place. Most energy comes from fossil fuels—petroleum, coal, and natural gas. However, burning fuels causes pollution. Also, if we don’t find new kinds of energy, we will use up all the fossil fuels in the twenty-first century. Scientists are working hard to find other kinds of energy for the future. What might these sources of energy be?
Energy from the wind
All over the world, people use the power of the wind. It turns windmills and moves sailboats. It is a clean source of energy, and there is lots of it. Unfortunately, if the wind does not blow, there is no wind energy.
Energy from water
When water moves from a high place to a lower place, it makes energy. This energy is used to create electricity. In Brittany, France, for example, waterpower produces enough energy to light a town of 40,000people. Waterpower gives energy without pollution. However, people have to build dams to use this energy. Dams cost a lot of money, so water energy is expensive.
Energy from the earth
There is heat in rocks under the earth. Scientists use this heat to make geothermal energy. San Francisco gets half of the energy it needs from geothermal power. This kind of energy is cheap, but it is possible only in a few places in the world.
Energy from the sun
Solar panels on the roofs of houses can turn energy from the sun into electricity. These panels can create enough energy to heat an entire house. Solar power is clean and there is a lot of it in sunny places. But when the weather is bad, there is no sunlight for energy.
【小题1】What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Advantage of the energy from nature.

B．The future of the energy.

C．Scientists have been working hard to research other kinds of energy.

D．Energy is the most important power in the word.

【小题2】From the first paragraph we know ______.

A．energy can do everything for people

B．all the energy causes pollution

C．the new kinds of energy are badly needed

D．scientists have found other kinds of energy for the future

【小题3】What is the writer’s opinion about the energy?

A．Try to use water energy more though it costs a lot.

B．Each natural energy has its own advantages and disadvantages.

C．Solar power is environmental.

D．Wind power is the cheapest but we can’t get.

【小题4】What can be inferred from the passage?

A．In order to protect our environment, we should try other kinds of energy.

B．All scientists in the world will unite to find energy.

C．People in modern life use energy every day.

D．Energy changes people’s lives.

If we observe carefully, we van find that most of the flowers in nature are red, orange and yellow. If we have seen a black flower, it’s a chance in million. People have made a census(普查)to colours of more than four thousand kinds of flowers and discovered that only eight of them are black. Why?
As we know, sunlight is formed by seven different kinds of coloured light. The wave length of each light changes, so the quantity of heat in each light changes, too. Flowers, especially their petals(花瓣), are very delicate(纤弱) and prone(易于) to the harm caused by high temperature. Black flowers can take in all the light waves, which cause the flowers to dry up in a high temperature. So black flowers can rarely survive sunlight. But red flowers, orange flowers and yellow flowers can protect themselves from sunlight by reflecting the red light, orange light and yellow light, each of which has a large quantity of heat.
That is why red, orange and yellow flowers are very common in nature while black flowers are so rare.
【小题1】We can hardly find black flowers because  _____.

A．they are so weak that it’s difficult for them to grow up

B．there are no black flowers in the world.

C．the petals of black flowers are very delicate

D．they can take in the light of all wave lengths, which make the flowers dry up

【小题2】 Sunlight is formed by _____.

A．many different kinds of coloured light

B．three different kinds of coloured light—red, orange and yellow

C．seven different kinds of coloured light

D．four thousand kinds of coloured light

【小题3】The red, orange or yellow light contains _____.

A．less heat than the other lights	B．more heat than the other lights
C．a great deal of heat	D．a little heat

【小题4】“It is a chance in a million” means_____________

A．it is common

B．it is extremely rare

C．it’s lucky

D．it’s impossible

“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour(跑酷).
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond’s wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that’s parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.
Overcome all the obstacles on the course and in life it is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”
Another philosophy we’ve learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence.
【小题1】Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of     .

A．its founder, David Belle	B．the film, Casino Royale
C．its risks and tricks	D．the varieties of participants

【小题2】The underlined word “obstacles” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “   ”.

A．streets

B．objects

C．barriers

D．roofs

【小题3】Which of the following is true of parkour?

A．It challenges human abilities.	B．It is a good but boring sport.
C．It needs special training.	D．It is a team sport.

【小题4】As its participants move around a city,     .

A．they can ask for help	B．they may choose to escape
C．they should run to extremes	D．they must learn to survive

【小题5】Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?

A．Sports and extremes.	B．Excitement and freedom.
C．Dreams and success.	D．Determination and freedom.