Rae Armantrout, who has been a poetry professor at the University of California San Diego(UCSD) for two decades, has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for her most recent book, “Versed”.

“I’m delighted and amazed at how much media recognition that the Pulitzer brings, as compared to even the National Book Critics Award, which I was also surprised and delighted to win,” said Armantrout.

“For a long time, my writing has been just below the media radar, and to have this kind of attention, suddenly, with my 10th book, is really surprising.”

Armantrout, a native Californian, received her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, where she studied with noted poet Denise Levertov, and her master’s in creative writing from San Francisco State University. She is a founding member of Language Poets, a group in American poetry that analyzes the way language is used and raises questions to make the reader think.

In March, she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for “Versed.”

“This book has gotten more attention,” Armantrout said, “but I don’t feel as if it’s better.”

The first half of “Versed” focuses on the dark forces taking hold of the United States as it fought the war against Iraq. The second half looks at the dark forces casting a shadow over her own life after Armantrout was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

Armantrout was shocked to learn she had won the Pulitzer but many of her colleagues were not. “Rae Armantrout is a unique voice in American poetry,” said Seth Lerer, head of Arts and Humanities at UCSD.

“Versed”, published by the Wesleyan University Press, did appear in a larger printing than her earlier works, which is about 2,700 copies. The new edition is scheduled to appear in May.

1. According to Rae Armantrout, ____________.

A. her 10th book is much better            

B. her winning the Pulitzer is unexpected

C. the media is surprised at her works         

D. she likes being recognized by her readers

2. Which of the following is true of Rae Armantrout?

A. She published a poetry textbook.

B. She used to teach Denise Levertov.

C. She started a poets’ group with others.

D. She taught creative writing at UC Berkeley.

3. What can we learn about “Versed”?

A. It consists of three parts.

B. It is mainly about the American army.

C. It is a book published two decades ago.

D. It partly concerns the poet’s own life.

4. Rae Armantrout’s colleagues think that she ____________.

A. should write more                    B. has a sweet voice

C. deserves the prize                   D. is a strange professor

5. What can we learn from the text?

A. About 2,700 copies of “Versed” will be printed.

B. Cancer made Armantrout stop writing.

C. Armantrout got her degrees at UCSD.

D. “Versed” has been awarded twice.

 French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant--- giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog.

Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation.

 “The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal,” the hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery.

The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said.

The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to resemble the woman who had been the source of her new face.

The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants,

Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area's high sensitivity to foreign tissue.

Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality

There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers.

Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral（道德的）and ethical(伦理的)issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of the transplant.

1.The best title for the passage would be ________.

A. French Woman has First Partial Face Transplant

B. First Face Transplant Opens Debate

C. Risks and Ethical Problems of a Face Transplant

D. A Complete Face Transplant of a French Woman

2.Why did the woman need such an operation?

A. Her face had been bitten by a dog

B. Her face had been burnt in a fire.

C. She was born especially ugly

D. She wanted to test such an operation.

3.The underlined word "resemble"  means ________.

A. to remember forever

B. to recognize immediately

C. to set as an example

D. to present similarity or likeness to

4.What can we learn about the operation?

A. The woman had used the dead woman' s whole face.

B. There has arisen a debate about the operation.

C. The woman will suffer from psychological damage soon.

D. Such transplants have been performed by doctors.

 

 I used to watch her from my kitchen window. She seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground. The school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids as they played during break. I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched in wonder as she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her but no one could. I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone.

One day I asked her why she practiced so much. Without a moment of hesitation she said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is to get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” Well, I had to give it to her—she was determined. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. Every week, she led her school team to victory.

One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. “Oh, nothing,” came a soft reply, “I am just too short.” The coach told her that at 5’5” she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team—much less offered a scholarship—so she should stop dreaming about college. She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she truly wanted a scholarship and that nothing could stop her except one thing — her own attitude.

The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was offered a scholarship and on the college team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of.

1.The author was probably the girl’s        .

A. brother or sister            B. friend       C. mother          D. teacher

2.Why was the girl heartbroken ?

A. She was considered too short to be a top player.

B. Her coach stopped her training because of her height.

C. She couldn’t be on a college basketball team.

D. She wouldn’t be admitted by an ideal college.

3. We can learn from the passage that        .

A. her family wouldn’t like to pay her college fee

B. her father forced her to play basketball in collage

C. being a top basketball player can win you a scholarship for college

D. she wouldn’t like to turn to his father for help when in difficulty

4.Which word can best describe her father ?

A. Encouraging.     B. Optimistic.      C. Stubborn.            D. Cruel.

5.Which proverb best matches the story ?

A. Practice makes perfect.              B. Rome was not built in a day.

C. Where there is a will, there is a way.    D. Pride comes before a fall.

 

In 1995, Susan Boyle went to Glasgow to audition (试演) for My Kind of people, a televised talent show popular in the UK. She was immediately rejected. She was nervous during the audition, and felt she didn't perform well, but her brother said that she was rejected because of her plain looks. Boyle was not discouraged and continued to sing at church and at the karaoke nights in a local pub.

Boyle suffered a personal loss in 1997, when her father passed away. After his death. Boyle put her big dreams on hold to care for her sick mother Bridget Boyle. The mother and daughter often talked of Susan's possible fame. Bridget Boyle encouraged her daughter to take part in singing competitions. “She was the one who said I should enter Britain's Got Talent. We used to watch it together.” Susan later told reporters. “She thought I would win.”

In 1999, Boyle used all of her savings to pay for a professional demo (样本唱片) tape. which she sent to record companies. In 2002, Boyle began taking singing lessons from voice coach Fred O'Neil.

In 2007, Boyle's mother passed away at the age of 91. A neighbor reported that when Bridget Boyle died, her daughter “wouldn't come out for three or four days or answer the door or phone.” She lived alone with her cat, Pebbles. For over a year, she refused to sing. But in August of 2008, O'Neil urged her to try out for Britain's Got Talent. Convinced that the performance would be an honor to her mother, Boyle auditioned in Glasgow, Scotland. She sang I Dreamed A Dream in the first round of the show, which was aired on 11 April 2009.

The 47-year-old Scottish woman's plain looks provided a sharp contrast (对比) to her powerfully beautiful voice. The performance astonished the audience and the judges. Online videos of her performance totaled over 40 million views within a week. Although she failed to win the final of Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle became globally popular. Her first album I Dreamed A Dream has sold over five million copies.

Bridget Boyle's attitude towards her daughter's musical talent can be described as      .

A. critical      B. doubtful     C. indifferent        D. optimistic

From Para. 4 we learn that Boyle      .

A. was slightly discouraged by her voice coach

B. entered Britain's Got Talent to prove her ability

C. decided to give up her singing career

D. was deeply affected by her mother's death

Which of the following is TRUE about Susan Boyle?

A. Her international fame grew rapidly in 2008.

B. Her audition for My Kind of People failed.

C. She has never stopped singing since 1995.

D. She was the winner of Britain's Got Talent.

In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to      .

A. tell us how Boyle's dream came true

B. let us know more about Boyle's personal life

C. show how Boyle was influenced by her family

D. explain how to enter and win a talent show

 

     Jessica Tandy probably is best known for winning an Academy Award in 1989 for the movie Driving Miss Dairy. She was the oldest person to have won the award. But for many years, she had received praise for her great performances.

     Jessica Tandy was born in London in 1909. After her father died, her mother taught and took other jobs at night to make extra money to raise her, three children. Jessica’s older brothers showed an interest in the theater and often put on shows at home. Jessica said later that she was terrible in all of them. But she said taking part in those plays as a child created a desire in her to be someone else.

     Jessica loved going to the theater. This love led her to attend an acting school in 1924. She performed in her first play called The Manderson Girls at 18. But few people watched this play. In 1932, she married the famous actor Jack Hawkins. Their wedding pictures were on the front page of many British newspapers. In the same year, critics in London recognized her great acting skill in her performance in the play Children in Uniform.

     In 1940, Jessica ended her first marriage and moved to the USA. In New York, she met actor Hume Cronyn. Two years later, they married and moved to Hollywood.

     Her turning point came in 1947 when she played the lead part in Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. Tandy won the first of her four Tony awards for best actress in it. After that Hollywood producers began to choose her to be in the movie.

     Jessica Tandy said she hated seeing herself in the movies. She was surprised when she won the Academy Award for Driving Miss Daisy. She said that the wonderful part she had made up for her lack of experience in movies.

68. Jessica’s early interest in acting came from __________.

   A. her natural gift for acting                   B. her brothers’ influence

   C. her hope of helping raise her family          D. her mother’s encouragement

 69. What made Jessica first widely known to the public?

   A. Attending an acting school.             

   B. Her first play The Manderson Girls.

   C. Her marriage with Jack Hawkins.        

   D. Her wonderful performance in Driving Miss Daisy.

70. Which is the correct order of the following events?

   a. Jessica performed in The Manderson Girls.

   b. Jessica married Hume Cronyn

   c. Jessica played the lead part in A Streetcar Named Desire.

   d. Jessica moved to the USA.

   A. a, d, b, c         B. a, b, c, d         C. b, d, a, c          D. b, c, a, d

71. From the last paragraph, we can learn that __________.

   A. Jessica wasn’t interested in acting in movies

   B. winning the Academy Award was a surprise to Jessica

   C. Jessica would perform better if given a better part

   D. Jessica was as confident as commonly considered