We all like reading story books,      ?

 A．do we  B．do you  C．don’t we  D．don’t you

The winter skies are grey and it’s cold outside. The nights come early and we spend a lot more time __1__ and alone. Many people __2__ winter: so cold, so dark, so boring. But I like winter because I have more time to read.

For many students reading means school; it means __3__. Reading is something your teacher assigns and it’s something you’re __4__. Reading is something you have to do, not something you want to do. But for me and many other people, reading is the most __5__ thing we can imagine. Getting lost in a good book can __6__ a cold winter evening disappear. Dull grey skies are no __7__ for the fantastic adventures of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings《指環(huán)王》or for romantic trouble-making of Jane Austen’s Emma《愛瑪》, or for the youthful problems of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye《麥田守望者》.

      All of those books are studied in North American high schools. They are interesting and well written books that __8__ young people. __9__, even there, many high school students don’t enjoy reading the books because they are __10__ their school work: “Oh, my God! Two hundred pages! I’ll never be able to read __11__ much.” But sometimes a funny thing happens. They begin to read and they begin to follow the __12__. Suddenly, the world inside the book becomes more exciting and more wonderful than the world they __13__. At the moment the thought __14__ reading is work disappears and reading becomes __15__.

      Reading anything is __16__ but reading good books is a terrific （極好的） way to improve your English. Good writers write English very well and __17__ you with good examples to follow. And good books will tell you more about English __18__: what people think, how they talk, how they interact with each other. But don’t let me __19__ it by telling you that reading is good for you. Just think of it as a good way to __20_ on a cold winter evening.

1．A．indoors                       B．indoor               C．outdoors                  D．outside

2．A．like                             B．prefer               C．hate                         D．love

3．A．job                              B．worry               C．try                          D．work

4．A．checked                      B．tested on           C．examined                 D．based on

5．A．enjoyable                     B．reasonable          C．comfortable             D．considerable

6．A．want                           B．cause                C．make                       D．force

7．A．contest                        B．challenge           C．competition              D．match

8．A．a(chǎn)ppeal to                     B．respond to        C．react to                    D．reply to

9．A．Fortunately                  B．eventually         C．Unfortunately           D．Accidentally

10．A．free from                   B．part of              C．in place of                D．far from

11．A．not                            B．very                 C．this                         D．that

12．A．story                         B．subject              C．idea                          D．theme

13．A．leave for                    B．care about         C．flee from                 D．live in

14．A．what                         B．that                  C．this                         D．which

15．A．a(chǎn) comfort                  B．a(chǎn) failure            C．a(chǎn) success                 D．a(chǎn) pleasure

16．A．bad                           B．mean                C．great                       D．grand

17．A．provide                      B．offer                 C．give                         D．a(chǎn)ward

18．A．custom                      B．language            C．culture                     D．a(chǎn)rt

19．A．break                        B．spoil                 C．make                       D．develop

20．A．keep warm                B．stand still          C．stay calm                 D．stay cool

I really like reading and writing short stories. My favourite collection of short stories is a book called The Story Giant by Brian Patten, in which a giant , alone in a crumbling （將倒塌的）castle, knows all the stories in the world except one. He gets four children from different parts of the world to tell him stories in the hope that he will find the last story so he can stay alive. Do you think he finds the last story?

I also like reading novels. One of my favourite novels is called Life of Pi. It is written by a Canadian called Yann Martel and is about an Indian boy who spends a long time at sea after a shipwreck（海難）alone with nobody but a tiger.

Not many people read plays these days but many people still enjoy watching them at the theatre or on television. As for me, I read scripts（劇本）much more often than I go to see live theatre. I like plays which are either about great people and great events or about something from everyday life which is funny.

Perhaps the least popular form of literature is poetry. This is because many poems are very difficult to understand and often seem to be written by very clever people to be read by very clever people too. In my native England though there is a poet called Roger McGough who writes very funny and interesting poems which anybody can understand. Most of them are about everyday events and ordinary people. I wish I could write poems like him

1．In writing this passage, the author probably intends to ________

       A．develop students’ interest in books      B．recommend some excellent books

      C．express his /her love for literature     D．stress the importance of reading

2．According to Paragraph 1, what will happen if the last story can’t be found?

     A The story giant will die                      B．The kids will be killed. 

     C．The castle will disappear.                 D．There will be a shipwreck

3．According to the author, which of the following have the smallest number of readers ?

     A．Short stories      B．Novels               C．Plays                 D．Poems 

4．From the passage , we can know that the author was born in ________.

      A．Canada          B．Britain             C．India              D．the US