It’s hard to find Alice Munro in the media. Even after she won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Canadian writer just appeared for a quick interview and then dropped out of sight. On Dec 29, she still didn't seek the spotlight（聚光灯）when she was named one of the five Women of the Year by the Financial Times.

In Munro's eyes, ordinary lives always hide larger dramas. So she records what we casually think of as the everyday actions of normal people. She often focuses on life in her hometown, a small village in Ontario which she is most familiar with. She writes about the ordinary things in the village－fox forming, trees filled in the Ontario wilderness, poor country alcohol and long last illnesses. Above all, she talks about girls and women who have seemingly ordinary lives but struggle against daily misfortune.

   She has a special talent for uncovering the extraordinary in the ordinary. These are ordinary people, ordinary stories, but she has the magic. Her precise language, depth of detail and the logic of her storytelling have made her stories inviting.

Runaway, one of Munro’s representative works, is a good example of her writing style. One of the stories centers on the life of an ordinary woman Carla, who lives in a small Canadian town with her husband Clark. The story slowly forms a picture of Carla, trapped in a bad marriage, her unhappiness building into desperation until she decided to flee. The story of Carla is a story of the power and betrayals of love. It is about lost children and lots of chances that we can all find in life. There is pain beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart.

 Since she published her first collection of short stories in 1968, Munro has won many awards, with the Nobel Prize being her biggest honor. On Oct. 10, 2013, the Nobel Prize committee named Munro the “master of the contemporary short story”.

21.  We learn from Paragraph 1 that Alice Munro_________.

A. didn't get on well with the media          B. remained modest though very successful

C. didn’t value the title of Women of the Year 
D. was surprised at winning the Nobel Prize

22.  What makes Alice Munro’s stories fascinating according to the text?

A. Her writing techniques.                  B. The complicated plots.   

C. The humorous language.                   D. Her rich imagination.

23.  What is the text mainly about?

A. Alice Munro and her hometown.            B. The awards Alice Munro won.

C. Alice Munro and her writing style.           D. Alice Munro’s literary life.

So your room is a pile of unfinished projects, unsorted papers, a soccer sweater from last fall, and – beneath it all – puzzle pieces and pet food. You catch some old banana peel and dirty socks every time you walk in the door and you can’t see the top of your bed. ‘No baseball until your room is clean!’ your parents say.

Some kids seem to be born tidy. But if you were not, you probably hear ‘clean your room’ and ‘put piles under the bed and into the closet.’ You also know, though, that this kind of cleaning is just a quick fix.

Wouldn’t you like to clean up your room for good? A real clean-up job is not such a monumental task if you learn a few timesaving ‘tricks of trade’.

If you share a room, get your brother or sister to help. Then collect a pile of big boxes, and take a kitchen timer into your room, and you’re ready for the two easy steps that will turn you into a super sorter!

Do a ‘Big Sort’.

Think about what’s in that mess of stuff in your room.

A big job seems smaller when it’s broken into parts. Write different names on the empty boxes to fit the contents of your room. Write ‘Give Away’ on one box for things you don’t want. Draw a big ‘?’ on another box for those things that don’t belong anywhere else.

Set the timer for 60 minutes. Working for just an hour at a time, you won’t feel as if you’re climbing a mountain of messiness. Ready, set, GO! Put letters from friends and unsorted school papers into a ‘Papers’ box. Put the helmet in with ‘Sports Equipment.’ Throw stinky socks and dirty sweatshirts in a laundry basket. Hang up clothes that belong in the closet. Keep going! Pair your shoes and line them up next to your bed (or in your closet, if there is room). Put dirty dishes in the hall to take to the kitchen later. Take a look around. There’s your bed! Dad’s missing hammer! Tuesday’s homework assignment! Things are getting neater. Toss (扔) trash into the wastebasket.

 Depending on how messy your room is, this Big Sort could take several sessions. Keep at it!

Plan where things should live.

 Handle one of your Big Sort groups at a time. Do the items in your groups already have a home, and they just aren’t in it? Or do they need a ‘place to call home’?

 Dirty clothes, for example: if you usually toss them on the floor, put a clothes basket behind your door. Ready, aim… shoot your clothes into the basket. Score!

 Store similar supplies in one place. Desk supplies can go into the bottom and lid of an empty egg carton. Put puzzle piece in small empty gift boxes. Keep hobby supplies in plastic bags.

 Draw a map of your room to figure out where to put things. Once everything has a home, you can train yourself to put items in their place as soon as you’re done with them. That makes it much easier to keep your room neat.

24.  What behavior is regarded as a quick fix?

A. Leaving the soccer jersey on the door.    
B. Tossing the old banana peel into the dustbin.

C. Cleaning up the room by hiding everything.     

D. Tiding up the room with ‘tricks of trade’.

25.  Why does the writer suggest setting a timer while you clean your room?

A. Whatever you haven’t cleaned in an hour is not worth keeping

B. An hour is all the time it takes to clean your entire room.

C. Working for an hour at a time makes a big job seem smaller.

D. Training yourself to put items in their place takes time.

26.  What does the writer say will help you ‘find homes’ for all of your things?

A. Cleaning your kitchen.              B. Drawing a map of your room.
C. Throwing away boxes.              D. Tossing the unwanted on the floor.

There are many people you are well advised to treat kindly: Your child’s teacher, your husband or wife, your boss and so on.

   Until now, that best-behavior-required list has not included your Uber（优步） driver, or taxi drivers. Old thinking: Hey, they’re here to serve me. I don’t have to make a special effort to be nice to them.

    Dangerously wrong.

    A recent New York Times story told the educative tale of a Uber passenger, Hussein Kanji, who says he’s really not sure how he made his driver angry. All he knows is that his driver-generated rating(评分) went way down and the wait for a Uber car became hours instead of minutes.

    Be careful, Uberians: If you’re feeling angry when you get into the back seat and you give your driver the silent treatment, your reputation may get damaged in the driver-generated ratings. If you’re among the people described as “generally negative” by one Uber driver, watch out.

    Uber isn’t the only front on this battlefield. The ability to rate someone’s service is one of the successes of the Internet. It helps everyone weed out people with bad attitudes and worse habits.

    These ratings should cut both ways. A while back, the auction(竞买) site eBay made many of its sellers angry when it started preventing them from giving negative ratings to buyers. Until then, sellers and buyers had threatened each other with negative reviews. Too many negative reviews could get you thrown off.

    Then eBay shifted the balance of power to buyers. Sellers can still write a bad comment, but the overall rating cannot be anything but positive. Thus eBay has become a place where all is for the best. Think positive!

   We know that being nice to people all day can be exhausting. We’ve also seen people who shout at those who don’t measure up to their expectations for service.

    Uber is reportedly about to spread worldwide. It is a welcome competitor because it fits the needs of customers in a new way. We know Uber is a two-way street. But drivers who get too picky may end up with no passengers.

    Everyone, behave!

27.  Negative driver-generated ratings mean that ________.

    A. Uber drivers will never serve those customers

    B. drivers are too slow to pick up customers

    C. customers have to wait for a longer time when using Uber cars

D. customers have done damage to Uber cars

28.  The underlined phrase “weed out” (Para. 6) can best be replaced by _____.

    A. hate            B. get rid of          C. value           D. win back

29.  The example of eBay in the article is probably meant to show that ________.

A. in the Internet age, buyers have always had the advantage of ratings

B. the power of ratings should be given to both sides of a service

C. the main reason why eBay has become a successful auction site

D. controversy between customers and sellers has only come about recently

30.  The author has written this article to ________.

A. show that when using Uber, your behavior directly affects the service you get

B. prove that giving and receiving bad ratings can influence your life

C. suggest that tools like Uber and eBay can reflect what kind of person you are

D. stress that both customers and service providers should be respectful and positive

                            Home on the way

People need homes: children regard their parents' place as home; boarders call school "home" on weekdays; married couples work together to build new homes; and travelers … have no place to call "home", at least for a few nights.    31    . Don’t they have the right to a home? Of course they do.

Some regular travelers take their own belongings: like bed sheets, pillowcases and family photos to make them feel like home no matter where they are; some stay for long periods in the same hotel and as a result become very familiar with service and attendants;    32    . Furthermore, driving a camping car during one’s travels and sleeping in the vehicle at night is just like home -- only mobile!

And how about keeping relationships while in transit?    33    ; some send letters and postcards, or even photos; others may just call and say “hi”, just to let their friends know that they're still alive and well. People find ways to keep in touch. Making friends on the way helps travelers feel more or less at home.    34    .

Nowadays, fewer people are working in their local towns, so how do they develop a sense of belonging? Whenever we step out of our local boundaries, there is always another “home” waiting to be found.    31    , we can make the place we stay “home”.

A. Hotels provide a clean safe place to stay while you are travelling the world

B. others may simply put some flowers by the hotel window to make things more homely

C. Backpackers in youth hostels may become very good friends, even closer than siblings（手足）

D. So how about people who have to travel for quite a long time

E. No matter where you go to in the world, hotels are there, too

F. Some keep contact with their friends by means of Internet

G. Wherever we are, with just a little bit of effort and imagination

In any major Indian city, people are seen with an arm outstretched, mobile phone in hand, 56 (smile) widely and clicking away. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embraced the selfie (自拍), posting pictures online that he’s snapped with  57  (difference) world leaders.

  58  the act of selfie can sometimes have deadly consequences. India is home to   59 highest number of people who have died while taking photos of  60  ，with 19 of the world’s 49 recorded selfie-linked deaths since 2014.

Earlier this month, an 18-year-old college student on a class picnic   61  his balance while taking a selfie on top of a rock near a dam. He fell into the water and drowned, along with a classmate   62   jumped in to save him.

Since then, the Indian government  63  (declare) 16 no-selfie zones across Mumbai, warning people  64   taking unnecessary risks. Police have declared “no selfie” in areas considered to be  65   (danger)—particularly along the coastline in spots with no railings or fences. Anyone venturing into “no selfie” areas, even if they take no photos, will risk a fine of 1,200 rupees ($ 17.50).