Choosing a career (P2)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
    What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?
    What jobs are considered good ones in China? What makes them more popular than others?

II. Reading
Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions:
1. What is the author's main purpose in writing the article?
A. To give advice on how to find a good job.
B. To inform us of the best jobs in the US and China.
C. To recommend some attractive jobs to readers.
D. To compare the differences in the definitions of best jobs in the US and China.
2. Which of the following statements might Tony Lee agree with?
A. Academics enjoy greater popularity in the US than in China.
B. Tenured university professor is becoming less popular than it used to be.
C. Mathematicians are now playing a more important role in a wider range of sectors than they used to. 
D. The 26th annual ranking of jobs in the US was mainly based on how much money people can earn from their jobs.
3. The underlined word "vocation" in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ____.
A. producer         B. profession             C. talent              D. balance
4. What does the article advise that you do first in order to choose a job suitable for yourself?
A. To think carefully about what you are interested in.
B. To research the career outlook of your dream job.
C. To make a career plan while you are in college.
D. To choose a university that is top in your field of study.

Key:
1. B。本文主要讲的是根据调查在中美两国最受欢迎的职业，所以答案为B。
2. C。由第四、五段可知Tony Lee认为相比过去数学家主要在学术领域从事工作，现在他们的就业领域相对广多了，所以C为正确答案。文中提到在中国和美国教师都是很受欢迎的职业，并没有对比大学教师等学术人才在中美哪个国家更受欢迎，所以A不对；文中提到Tenured university professor是美国第二受欢迎的职业，所以B不对；由第二段可知该排名是基于很多因素考虑的，故D不对。
3. B。根据上文提到的“”But what are the best jobs in China, then?”可以推知这里表示公务员被国人认为是最好的工作，所以此处vocation意为“职业，工作”，所以B为正确答案。
4. A。由倒数第四段的“Tian Song, a professor at Beijing Normal University, advises that we first think about what we are interested in.”可知A为正确答案。

III. Language study
They figure out if a decision makes sense for a company or organization, be it digging for oil or building a car.
句中的be it是一种表示让步的倒装结构，相当于whether it is digging for oil or building a car。 这是一种较少用且略带文学意味的习惯用法，它既可位于句首，也可位于句末或穿插句中。例如：The business of each day, be it selling goods or shipping them, usually goes quite smoothly. 每天的生意，无论是售货还是运货，都进行得很顺利。

Telling magical stories (P4)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
    Have you read the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
    If you did read it, what did you think of the novel?
    How much do you know about Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

 

II. Fast reading
Not all of you have read the book before. Now read the article quickly and find out what the novel is mainly about and what writing techniques were applied in the book.

Key: The novel tells the tale of the small and isolated town of Macondo – of its founding and its troubled history over a hundred years.
The book made its author the best-known practitioner of magical realism, the fictional combination of the everyday with fantastical elements such as a boy born with a pig’s tail and a priest floating above the ground.

III. Specific reading
Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions:
1. What is the main purpose of the article? 
A. To explain why One Hundred Years of Solitude influenced so many other books.
B. To analyze why Marquez's works appeal to readers across the world.
C. To inform us about how Marquez created magical realism and applied it to his writing.
D. To tell what inspired Marquez to write the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
2. According to the article, the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude ____. 
A. reflects the reality of Colombia to a certain extent
B. introduces the history of Macondo, a small town in Colombia
C. encouraged many Colombians to fight for their liberation
D. shows the way of life of ancient Latin American people
3. What can we infer from the article? 
A. Most of Marquez's works are about poor people's struggles in the middle of 20th century.
B. One Hundred Years of Solitude is required reading in many US high schools.
C. One Hundred Years of Solitude popularized magical realism in literature.
D. Marquez was the first writer to use the technique of magical realism in novels.
4. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the book One Hundred Years of Solitude according to the article? 
A. Readers from Latin America probably find the novel easy to relate to.
B. Though it is full of fantastical incidents, readers might find it absurd and boring.
C. Gerald Martin, Marquez's biographer, thinks the novel involves too much superstition.
D. Since the novel combines the fantastical and the realistic, readers might find it hard to understand.

Key:
1. B。本文主要分析了马尔克斯的作品《百年孤独》受欢迎的主要原因，所以答案为B。
2. A。由第五段的“The novel may be full of fantastical incidents, but it is grounded in reality.”可知A为正确答案。根据倒数第二段的“No Colombian reader would fail to recognize the similarities between this fictional place and their own country.”可知B项错误；文中提到了该书让哥伦比亚人有共鸣，但没有提到鼓励他们去为解放而战斗，所以可知C项错误；根据第五段的“It tells the tale of the small and isolated (与世隔绝的) town of Macondo of its founding and its troubled history over a hundred years.”可知D项错误。
3. C。由第四段的“The book made him literature’s best-known practitioner (实践者) of magical realism”可以推知C为正确答案。文中并没有提及马尔克斯大部分作品的特点，所以A不对；文中开篇提到《纽约时报》认为《百年孤独》应该被世人列为必读书，B项所述与文中有出入；为正确答案。D项在文中看不出来，所以也不对。
4. A。由最后两段，尤其是这两段的首句可以推知A为正确答案。

IV. After reading
Fill in the blanks with proper words according to the article.
Garcia Marquez is the first 1. ________ to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. His book One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the tale of the small and 2. ________ town of Macondo – of its founding and its troubled 3. ________ over a hundred years. The novel may be full of fantastical 4. ________, but it is grounded in 5. ________. It made him literature’s best-known practitioner of 6. ________ realism, the fictional combination of the everyday with 7. ________ elements. No Colombian reader would fail to recognize the 8. ________ between this fictional place and their own country. As Gerald Martin, Garcia Marquez’s biographer, told The Associated Press, One Hundred Years of Solitude was “the first novel in which Latin Americans 9. ________ themselves, that defined them, celebrated their 10. ________, their [belief] and superstition”.

Key:
1. Colombian        2. isolated        3. history        4. incidents        5. reality
6. magical            7. fantastical    8. similarities    9. recognized         10. passion

Be more like Dad (P6)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
    How are you getting along with your dad?
    Do you think of your father the same way you did when you were a kid? If not, what has changed?

II. Reading
Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions:
1. When he saw what his father did for him when he was young, the author _____.
A. thought it was just a father's duty to do those things
B. admired his father for his ability to do those things
C. wanted to tell his father how grateful he was to him
D. wished he could have helped his father
2. When the author was in college, ____.
A. he always missed the days he used to spend with his father
B. he gradually came to understand his father
C. he realized his father was always there for him
D. he worshiped his teachers more than his father
3. In his late 20s, the author _____.
A. looked up to his father in awe
B. wanted to keep his distance from his father
C. began to cherish his time with his father
D. was displeased with the job his father took up
4. What does the underlined part "the most essential truths" in the last paragraph refer to?
A. Love and understanding.
B. Secrets of being successful in one's job.
C. Ways to not be affected by stereotypes.
D. Knowledge of how to get along with one's father.

Key：
1. B。由第一段的“I never told him how that vision affected me. I simply wondered at his ability to do what he did”可以推知答案为B。
2. D。由第二段的“I started to think that other men were more significant than Daddy. Daddy couldn’t teach classes or explain complex philosophies (哲学) - not with only a high school education.”可以推知D为正确答案。
3. C。由第三段的“As I reached my late 20s I looked forward to returning home and hearing his warm, fulfilling (满足的) laughter. I rediscovered Daddy again - not as a boy in awe (敬畏), but as a man with respect.”可知C为正确答案。
4. A。由上文可知，随着年岁渐长，作者越来越能感受到父亲对自己的爱，也同时更能理解父亲，并且在对待自己的孩子的时候，也受父亲潜移默化的影响，按照父亲的某些方式去做，所以这里的“the most essential truths”主要指的是爱与理解，故答案为A。

III. After reading
Writing:
When the author was at college, he found his father not as powerful as he had once thought. But luckily, as time went by, the author came to understand his father. What do you think of your father? Write a story about something that happened between you and your father.