阅读理解.docx

1、阅读理解To Have and Have NotIt had been boring hanging about the hotel all afternoon. The road crew were playing a game with dollar notes. Folding them into small planes to see whose would fly the furthest.1 Having nothing better to do，I joined in and won five，and then took the opportunity to escape wit

2、h my profit. Despite the evil-looking clouds，I had to get out for a while.I headed for a shop on the other side of the street. Unlike the others，it didnt have a sign shouting its name and business，and instead of the usual impersonal modern lighting，there was an appealing glow inside. Strangely nothi

3、ng was displayed in the window. Not put off by this，I went inside.It took my breath away. I didnt know where to look, where to start. On one wall there hung three hand-stitched American quilts that were in such wonderful condition they might have been newly-made. I came across tin toys and antique f

4、urniture, and on the wall in front of me, a 1957 Stratocaster guitar , also in excellent condition. A card pushed between the strings said $50. I ran my hand along a long shelf of records, reading their titles. And there was more.“Can I help you？” She startled me. I hadnt even seen the woman behind

5、the counter come in. The way she looked at me, so directly and with such power. It was a look of such intensity that for a moment I felt as if I were wrapped in some kind of magnetic or electrical field. I found it hard to take and almost turned away. But though it was uncomfortable. I was fascinate

6、d by the experience of her looking straight into me, and by the feeling that I was neither a stranger, nor strange, to her.Besides amusement her expression showed sympathy. It was impossible to tell her age；she reminded me faintly of my grandmother because, although her eyes were friendly, I could s

7、ee that she was not a woman to fall out with. I spoke at last. I was just looking really, I said, though secretly wondering how much of the stuff I could cram into the bus.The woman turned away and went at once towards a back room, indicating that I should follow her. But it in no way lived up to th

8、e first room. The light made me feel peculiar, too. It came from an oil lamp that was hung from the centre of the ceiling and created huge shadows over everything. There were no rare electric guitars, no old necklaces, no hand-painted boxes with delicate flowers. It was also obvious that it must hav

9、e taken years, decades, to collect so much rubbish, so many old documents arid papers.I noticed some old books, whose gold lettering had faded, making their titles impossible to read. They look interesting, I said, with some hesitation. To be able to understand that kind of writing you must first ha

10、ve had a similar experience, she said clearly. She noted the confused look on my face, but didnt add anything.She reached up for a small book which she handed to me. This is the best book I can give you at the moment, she laughed. “If you use it.” I opened the book to find it full. or rather empty,

11、with blank white pages, but paid her the few dollars she asked for it, becoming embarrassed when I realised the notes were still folded into little paper planes. I put the book in my pocket, thanked her and left.要还是不要在宾馆里闲待一个下午是很无聊的。巡回乐团道具管理组的成员在用美元玩游戏，把纸币折成纸飞机的形状然后看谁飞得最远。因为没有什么事情可以做，我加入了他们并且贏了五 局，之

12、后我找了个机会带着我贏的钱退出了游戏。尽管天色看起来不是很好，我还是决定出去 走一走.我向前走到了街道另一边的一个小店里。与其他的小店不同，它没有吸引眼球的名字和主要 经营的项目，取而代之的是普通的霓虹灯，里面则是吸引人的强光。奇怪的是并没有什么影子映 射在窗户上。我并没有因为这个而停住脚步，我走了进去。我屏住呼吸，不知道看哪里也不知道从哪里开始看。一面墙上挂着三个手工缝制的美国壁毯， 十分美丽，可能是新做的。我穿过易拉罐和散落的小玩意儿还有古董家具，在我面前的一面墙上 挂着一个崭新的1957年的Straocaster吉他。一张五十美元的卡插在琴弦上。我的手抚摸着放唱片 的架子，读着标题。这里

13、还有很多的“我可以帮助你吗？”她吓了我一跳。我没有看见在柜台后面的女人。她看我的方式如此居 高临下，这一时让我很紧张像是被一种磁场或是电场紧紧包裹住。很难避开那个眼神。但是尽 管很不舒服，我还是觉得那种被直视的感觉很美妙，那种感觉对我来说不陌生，对她来说也不 陌生o除了愉悦以外她的神情还流露出慈爱和怜悯。我猜不出她的年龄。尽管她的眼神充满了友善， 她使我想起了我的祖母。我能感觉到她是一个不喜欢与人争吵的人。最后我开口说话，“我真的只是看看”，私下里却在好奇有多少东西能够塞进汽车。她转身离开到后面的屋子，示意我应该跟随其后，但这并非是第一个房间，房间的灯光也让 我感觉很特别，灯光来自天花板上的油

14、饤，使一切都笼罩在巨大的阴影之下。这里没有罕见的电 吉他，没有古老的项链，没有鲜花装饰的手绘盒子。很明显它是陈旧的用来存放垃圾和那些平淡无奇的旧文献的。我发现了一些旧书，那些金字巳经退去使题目很难辨认。“它们看起来很有趣。”我迟疑地 说。“要想了解上面所写你必须有相似的经历/她清楚地说。她察觉到我的脸上充满了疑惑可是 却没有再说什么。她伸出手拿了一本小书然后递给了我。“这是目前我能够给你的最好的书”，她笑着说道，“如果你要用它”。我打开书发现全部是一片空白，但依然给了她向我要的几美元，当我察觉到美元依然是纸飞机的形状时不免有些尴尬。我把书放到包里，谢过她并离开了。Life as a Movie

15、 ExtraOrdinary people have always been attracted to the world of movies and movie stars. One way to get closer to this world is to become a movie extra. Although you have seen movie extras, you may not have paid attention to them. Extras are the people seated at tables in a restaurant while the two

16、main actors are in conversation. They are the guests at the wedding of the main characters. They are the people crossing the street while “the bad guy is being chased by the police. Extras dont normally speak any lines, but they help make the scenes look real1.Being a movie extra might seem like a l

17、ot of fun. You get to see what life is like behind the scenes. But dont forget that being an extra is really a job, and its mostly about doing nothing. First-time extras are often shocked to learn how slow the process of movie making is. In a finished movie, the action may move quickly. But it can s

18、ometimes take a whole day to shoot a scene that appears for just a few minutes on the screen.The main requirement for being an extra is the ability to wait. You may report to work at 5 or 6 a. m.，and then you wait until the director is ready for your scene. This could take several hours. Then there

19、may be technical problems, and you have to wait some more. After the director says “action”and you do the first “take”，you may have to do it again if he or she is not satisfied with the scene. In fact, you may have to do the same scene over and over again. You could be on the set for hours, sometime

20、s waiting outdoors in very hot or cold weather.2 You may not be finished until 11 p. m. or midnight. The pay isnt good, either often only a little bit above minimum wage. And you must pay the agent who gets you the job a commission of about 10 percent.So who would want to be a movie extra? In spite

21、of the long hours and low pay, many people still apply for the job. Some people truly enjoy the work. They like being on a movie set, and they enjoy the companionship of their fellow extras. Most of them have flexible schedules, which allow them to be available.3They may be students, waiters, homema

22、kers, retired people, or unemployed actors. Some unemployed actors hope the work will help them get real acting jobs, but it doesnt happen often. Most people in the movie industry make a sharp distinction between extras and actors, so extras are not usually considered for large parts.The next time y

23、ou see a movie，dont just watch the stars. Take a closer look at the people in the background, and ask yourself : Who are they? Why are they there? What else do they do in life? Maybe there is someone in the crowd who is just like you群众演员的人生人们常常被电影和电影演员吸引，接近他们的方式之一就是当群众演员。虽然你见过群众演员，但可能从没注意过他们。群众演员就是主

24、角在餐厅对话时在后面坐着的人，是主角举行婚礼时在现场的客人，是“坏人”被警察追捕的时候过马路的行人。虽然群众演员通常没有台词，但他们的存在使整个场景更真实。当群众演员看上去很有意思，你可以看到电影背后的情景。但是不要忘记群众演员是一个职业，而这个职业常常意味着无事可做。第一次当群众演员的人常常会感到震惊：原来拍电影这么缓慢。电影成品中的场景会播放的很快，但在拍摄的时候，屏幕上几分钟的镜头可能需要拍一整天。对群众演员来说，主要的要求就是要有耐心等待。可能告知你早晨五六点钟工作，但你要一直等导演准备好你要出演的一幕，可能一等就是几个小时。说不定还会出现技术问题，那就要等更长的时间。导演说“开始”之

25、后 你开始演你的第一场戏，要是导演不满意，你就要重演一遍。实际上，一遍又一遍地重复是常有的事。在拍摄现场，你可能一演就是几个小时，有时还要一直待在很热或很冷的环境中，工作可能会持续到晚上十一二点。报酬也不是那么理想很可能刚超过最低工资线，你还要从中拿出约10%给向你提供工作的中介。究劳哪些人会想当群众演员呢？虽然工作时间长而报酬又低，但还是有很多人乐意申请这份工作。有些人是真心喜欢这份工作，他们喜欢出现在电影中，也乐意同其他群众演员交流。这些人中大部分都是时间比较灵活的人，这样他们就能腾出时间来演戏。他们有可能是学生、服务生、家庭主妇、退休人员或者是失业的演员。一部分找不到工作的演员希望群众演

26、员的工作能够帮助他们找到一份正式的演出工作，但是希望很渺茫。电影业里的人大都对群众演员和正式演员有严格的区分，通常不会考虑让群众演员出演大角色。下次看电影的时候，别总是盯着影星，也看一下做背景的人，问问你自己：他们是谁？为什么在这里？在生活中他们做些什么呢？也许在人群中就有人过着跟你相似的生活。Pop Music in AfricaYoung musicians in African countries are creating a new kind of pop music. The tunes and the rhythms of their music combine African t

27、raditions with various forms of music popular today, such as hip-hop, rap, rock, jazz, or reggae. The result is music that may sound familiar to listeners anywhere in the world, but at the same time is distinctly African. It is different also in another way: Many of the songs are very serious and th

28、ey deal with important social or political issues in Africa today.Eric Wainaina is one of these African musicians. He grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, in a family of musicians. As a teenager, he listened to pop music from the United States, and later he moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of M

29、usic. Now he has produced a CD in Kenya. Erics most popular song, Land of A Little Something” is about Kenyas problem of bribery, or paying others for illegal favors. He wants people to listen to his songs and think about how to make Kenya a better place to live.Another musician who writes serious s

30、ongs is Witness Mwaijaga from Tanzania. Her own experiences have helped her understand the suffering of many African women. At the age of fifteen she lost her home, but she was luckier than other homeless young people. She could make a living by writing songs and singing on the street. By the time s

31、he was eighteen years old, she had become a star. Her songs are written in rap or hip-hop style about the problems that she sees in Tanzania, especially AIDS and the lack of rights for women1.Baaba Maal, from Senegal, also feels that pop music must go beyond entertainment. He says that in Senegal, s

32、torytellers have always been important people. In the past, they were the ones who kept the history of their people alive. Baaba believes that songwriters now have a similar responsibility. They must write about the world around them and help people understand how it could be better. The words of his songs are important, in fact. They speak of peace and cooperation among Africans, as well as the rights of women, love for one s family, and saving the environment2.On