Amazon just released its list of the 10 best-selling books of 2014，and chances all you’ve already seen people reading them on the train．It's not too late to read—or reread—the bestsellers of the year．The following are the top four of them．
“The Invention of Wings”by Sue Monk Kid
Set in the south in the early 1800s，this Oprah Book Club book follows the complicated relationship between Handful，a slave，and Sarah，her owner，as they grow up together from childhood．Their confusing friendship，in the face of politics and societal norms，becomes a beautiful and difficult thing to watch as it changes over time．
“Gray Mountain”by John Grisham
When the economic recession(萧条)causes Samantha Kofer to lose her Wall Street law firm job．she takes a job at a legal aid clinic in Virginia until she can hopefully get back to big law．But while her new job，for the first time，puts her front and center in the court room，it also puts her in terrible danger．
“All the Light We Cannot See”by Anthony Doerr
This National Book Award Finalist follows both Marie—Laure，a blind French girl living with her father during World War II，and Werner，a German orphan with a skill for building and fixing radios．As their paths cross，this moving story will question how life and art are influenced by war．
“Twenty Seconds Ago(Jack Reacher，#19)”by Lee Child
After years of being out of the Army，Jack Reacher is pulled back into service at the CIA and State Department after someone tried to shoot the president of France．In Child’s latest Jack Reacher installment(系列丛书)，Reacher finds himself face to face with all old enemy and old memories．If you prefer emotional(情感)stories，you’ll choose _______________.
| A．The Invention of Wings and Gray Mountain |
| B．All the Light We Cannot See and Twenty Seconds Ago |
| C．The Invention of Wings and All the Light We Cannot See |
| D．Twenty Seconds Ago and Gray Mountain |
What is Samantha Kofer?
| A．A lawyer． | B．A doctor． |
| C．A merchant． | D．An official． |
Which book has won the top honor?
| A．The Invention of Wings |
| B．All the Light We Cannot See |
| C．Gray Mountain |
| D．Twenty Seconds Ago |
What type of writing is this text?
| A．A test report． | B．An announcement. |
| C．A book review． | D．Introduction of books． |
When people hear a president speak, they seldom think about others helping to shape the presentation（报告）. Today, however, presidents depend on writers such as J. Terry Edmonds to help them communicate（交流）effectively. Edmonds is the first African American ever to work as a full-time speechwriter for a U. S. president; he is so the first African American to serve as director of speechwriting for White House. His is an all-American story of success.
Edmonds grew up in Baltimore, Maryland; his father drove a truck, and his mother worked as a waitress. A. great reader, Edmonds 
showed a
gift for writing at his high School, Baltimore City College. After graduating in 1967, Edmonds went on to Morgan State University.
Edmonds began his career in business, with jobs in public relations and communications. He joined the world of politics as news secretary for his congressman （国会议员） from Baltimore During Bill Clinton’s presidency. He wrote speeches for Health and Human Services, Secretary Donna Shalala and
Only three local students won Chinese Blog（博客）Competition. And 15 of the 18 awards went to students from China.
170 students’ task: to get a fully-designed blog up and running, complete with many posting based on a theme of choice—all written in Chinese.
Themes ranged from local opinions－such as the usage of Singlish, education and whether Singapore can be a cultural centre－to food blogs.
The entries were judged on Language proficiency（熟练程度）and the quality of writing, as well as the design and level of exchanging ideas with readers.
Academics from the National University of Singapore and the SIM University IT experts, and a journalist from Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore made up the judges.
In the end, only three Singaporean students made it to the award list—the rest of the awards were swept up by students from China.
“No surprise.” said Mr. Chow Yaw Long, 37, teachers in charge from Ianova Junior College, which organized the event. “Although the topics were local subjects, the foreign students were generally better in terms of the content of the posts and their grasp of the Chinese language.”
One of the three local students winning the first prize in the Best Language Award was blogger Christina Gao，19, from the Saint Andrew’s Junior College, who spared no effort in researching for and writing her blog. Each entry took her between five and seven days to produce, complete with pictures and even podcasts（播客）.Her advice for bloggers is: Be responsible. “Some bloggers out there only seek to blame the authorities and other bloggers.” Said Miss Gao. “I think they lack responsibilities and there is no value to their posts.”The competition was organized by _______
| A．the National University of Singapore |
| B．Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao |
| C．Ianova Junior College |
| D．the Saint Andrew’s Junior College |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Chinese students won most of the awards. |
| B．Not all the themes were about local subjects |
| C．The blogs could be written in Chinese or Singlish. |
| D．The judges were from university in Singapore and China. |
What Miss Gao said suggests that _____________
| A．she likes to blame the authorities |
| B．she has a sense of responsibility |
| C．she thinks highly of the others’ blogs |
D．she loves to read v aluable posts |
I hated dinner parties. But I decided to give them another shot because I'm in London. And my friend Mallery invited me. And because dinner parties in London are very different from those back in New York. There, “I’m having a dinner party” means: "I'm booking a table for 12 at a restaurant you can't afford and we'll be sharing the checque evenly, no matter what you eat." Worse, in Manhattan there is always someone who leaves before the bill arrives. They'll throw down cash, half of what they owe, and then people like me, who don’t drink, end up paying even more. But if I try to use the same trick, the hostess will shout: "Where are you going?" And it's not like I can say I have somewhere to go: everyone know I have nowhere to go.
But in London, dinner parties are in people's homes. Not only that, the guests are an interesting mix. The last time I went to one, the guests were from France, India. Denmark and Nigeria; it was like a gathering at the United Nations in New York. The mix is less striking. It's like a gathering at Bloomingdale's, a well-known department store.
For New Yorkers, talking about other parts of the world means Brooklyn and Queens in New York. But at Mallery's, when I said that I had been to Myanmar recently, people knew where it was. In New York people would think it was a usual new club.What does the word "shot" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．Choice. | B．Try | C．Style. | D．Goal |
What does the writer dislike most about dinner parties in New York?
A Th
ere is a strange mix of people. B. The restaurants are expensive.
C. The bill is not fairly shared. D. People have to pay cashWhat does the author think of the parties in London?
| A．A bit unusual | B．Full of tricks. |
| C．Less costly. | D．More interesting. |
What is the author's opinion of some New Yorkers from her experience？
| A．Easy-going. | B．Self-centred. | C． Generous. |
D．Conservative. |
What is eBay? The simple answer is that it is a 
global trading platform where nearly anyone can
trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods, including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes- the list goes on and on.
The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school, he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tuft University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started eBay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the website that he had to upgrade(升级) and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great.com crashes of the late 1990s, eBay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping websites on the Internet.
eBay 
sells connections, not goods, putting buyer and seller into contact with each other. All you have to do is take an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business: the world is your market place .Of course for each item (商品)sold eBay gets a percentage and that is great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sol
d.We learn from the text that eBay provides people with_______.
| A．a way of buying and selling goods |
| B．a website for them to upgrade |
| C．a place to exhibit their own photos |
| D．a chance to buy things at low prices |
Why did Peter create eBay after graduating from university?
| A．For fun. | B．To make money. |
| C．For gathering the engineers. | D．To fulfill a task of his company. |
From “he has never looked back”in Paragraph 2, we learn that Peter______.
| A．did not feel lonely | B．was always hopeful |
| C．did not think about the past | D．became more and more successful |
How does eBay make money from its website?
| A．By bringing sellers together. | B．By charging for each sale. |
| C．By listing items online. | D．By making e-photos. |
Though war is something people hate, Director Feng Xiaoning often exposes his audien
ce to it.
“If we don’t impress the audience, who are without the painful experience of war, with the cruel injury to life and human nature war causes, how can we bring them a love of peace and objection to war?” asked the director with a glance in his eyes.
After Red River Valley and Lover’s Grief over the Yellow River, both of which star Chinese model and actress Ning Jing, Feng drew a satisfactory full stop to his war trilogy (三部曲) last month with Purple Sunset.
The film tells a story which took place in 1945, at the very moment when World War II was drawing to an end. A Chinese peasant and a Soviet woman soldier flee into a forest, where they seize a Japanese girl. They follow the girl in the hope that she will take them out of the forest, but instead they arri
ve in a Japanese base. Humanity (人道主义) prevents them from killing the young, innocent (无辜的) victim of Japanese militarism. This humanity, the longing for peace and eagerness to survive, make the three unite.
“If people are touched by justice, tolerance and unselfishness, I think I have achieved my goal,” Feng said. Feng admits that there are violent and bloody scenes in the film, such as tanks fighting and Japanese burning Chinese people alive, to show the cruelty of the war. But that’s never his personal preference, he says.
“Everyone who has watched my films can tell how much I hate war,” he said. “I wrote all the things for my war films by myself. Whenever I finished one, I felt as though I had suffered great pain.”
Feng regards every one of his productions as an opportunity to learn about human nature and humanity. In spite of violent scenes which frighten and sicken the audience, a balance is sought with beautiful scenery. Just like the sno
wy mountains in Red River Valley and the grand plateau (高原) in Lover’s Grief over the Yellow River, a beautiful vast grassland appears in this film. “I used to study art, and I appreciate beautiful things,” Feng said. “I believe that films should offer the audience a chance to enjoy beauty.”Director Feng Xiaoning shot war film because _____.
| A．he was deeply interested in such a topic |
| B．he wanted to give the audience the painful experience of war |
| C．he hoped to arouse people’s love of peace and objection to war |
| D．he dreamed of becoming a world-famous director |
All of the following belong to Feng’s war trilogy except _____.
| A．Red River Valley | B．Lover’s Grief over the Yellow River |
| C．Purple Sunset | D．In the Mood for Love |
A Chinese peasant and a Soviet woman solider seized a Japanese girl so that _____.
| A．they could find the Japanese base easily |
| B．she could take them out of the forest |
| C．they could kill her for revenge |
| D．it would cause the Japanese militarism to give in |
Scenes of Japanese burning Chinese people alive i
n the film are to ______.
| A．show that war is cruel |
| B．attract people’s interest |
| C．show Feng’s personal preference in dealing with details |
| D．make the film moving and interesting |
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