Walking through my train yesterday, staggering from my seat to the buffet and back, I counted five people reading Harry Potter novels. Not children-these were real grown-ups reading children’s books, Maybe that would have been understandable. If these people had jumped whole-heartedly into a second childhood it would have made more sense. But they were card-carrying grown-ups with laptops and spreadsheets returning from sales meetings and seminars. Yet they chose to read a children’s book. I don’t imagine you’ll find this headcount exceptional. You can no longer get on the London Tube and not see a Harry Potter book. Nor is it just the film; these throwback readers were out there in droves long before the movie campaign opened. So who are these adult readers who have made JK Rowling the second-biggest female earner in Britain (after Madonna) As I have tramped along streets knee-deep in Harry Potter paperbacks, I’ve mentally slotted them into three groups. First come the Never-Readers, whom Harry has enticed into opening a book. Is this a bad thing Probably not. Writing has many advantages over film, but it can never compete with its magnetic punch. If these books can re-establish the novel as a thrilling experience for some people, then this can only be for the better. If it takes obsession-level hype to lure them into a bookshop. that’s fine by me. But will they go on to read anything else Again, we can only hope. The second group are the Occasional Readers. These people claim that tiredness, work and children allow them to read only a few books a year. Yet now—to be part of the crowd, to say they’ve read it—they put Harry Potter on their oh-so-select reading list. It’s infuriating, and maddening. Yes, I’m a writer myself, currently writing difficult, unreadable, hopefully unsettling novels, but there are so many other good books out there, so much rewarding, enlightening, enlarging works of fiction for adults; and yet these sad cases are swept along by the hype, the faddism, into reading a children’s book. The third group are the Regular Readers, for whom Harry is sandwiched between McEwan (英国当代作家) and Balzac, Roth (德国现代诗人) and Dickens. This is the real baffler—what on earth do they get out of reading it Why bother But if they call rattle through it in a week just to say they ve been there—like going to Longleat (朗利特山庄英国名胜) or the Eiffel Tower—the worst they’re doing is encouraging others. The word "tramped" underlined in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. walk through
B. trample
C. jog
D. run
"What does the middleman do but add to the price of goods in the shops" Such remarks are aimed at the intermediate operations between manufacturers and final customers. This practice usually attracts a lot of attention from the public and the press and the operation most talked about is what is often called wholesaling. The wholesaler buys goods in large quantities from the manufacturers and sells them in smaller parcels to retailers, and for this service his selling price to the retailer is raised several percent higher. But his job is made more difficult by retail demand not necessarily running level with manufacturers’ production. Because he adjusts or regulates the flow of goods by holding stock Until required, he frees the manufacturer, to some extent, from the effect on production of changing demand and having to bear the whole risk. The manufacturer can then keep up a steady production flow, and the retailer has no need to hold heavy stocks, who can call on the wholesaler for supplies any time. This wholesale function is like that of a valve in a water pipe. The middleman also bears part of the risk that would otherwise fall on the manufacturer and also the retailer. The wholesaler provides a purely commercial service, for which he is too well rewarded. But the point that is missed by many people is that the wholesaler is not just someone adding to the cost of goods. It is true one could eliminate the wholesaler but one would still be left with his function: that of making sure that goods find their way to the people who want them. "This practice" in Paragraph 1 most probably refers to the fact that the middleman ______.
A. increases the prices in the shops
B. buys from you and sells to me
C. aims remarks at manufacturers
D. interferes with end user customers
Walking through my train yesterday, staggering from my seat to the buffet and back, I counted five people reading Harry Potter novels. Not children-these were real grown-ups reading children’s books, Maybe that would have been understandable. If these people had jumped whole-heartedly into a second childhood it would have made more sense. But they were card-carrying grown-ups with laptops and spreadsheets returning from sales meetings and seminars. Yet they chose to read a children’s book. I don’t imagine you’ll find this headcount exceptional. You can no longer get on the London Tube and not see a Harry Potter book. Nor is it just the film; these throwback readers were out there in droves long before the movie campaign opened. So who are these adult readers who have made JK Rowling the second-biggest female earner in Britain (after Madonna) As I have tramped along streets knee-deep in Harry Potter paperbacks, I’ve mentally slotted them into three groups. First come the Never-Readers, whom Harry has enticed into opening a book. Is this a bad thing Probably not. Writing has many advantages over film, but it can never compete with its magnetic punch. If these books can re-establish the novel as a thrilling experience for some people, then this can only be for the better. If it takes obsession-level hype to lure them into a bookshop. that’s fine by me. But will they go on to read anything else Again, we can only hope. The second group are the Occasional Readers. These people claim that tiredness, work and children allow them to read only a few books a year. Yet now—to be part of the crowd, to say they’ve read it—they put Harry Potter on their oh-so-select reading list. It’s infuriating, and maddening. Yes, I’m a writer myself, currently writing difficult, unreadable, hopefully unsettling novels, but there are so many other good books out there, so much rewarding, enlightening, enlarging works of fiction for adults; and yet these sad cases are swept along by the hype, the faddism, into reading a children’s book. The third group are the Regular Readers, for whom Harry is sandwiched between McEwan (英国当代作家) and Balzac, Roth (德国现代诗人) and Dickens. This is the real baffler—what on earth do they get out of reading it Why bother But if they call rattle through it in a week just to say they ve been there—like going to Longleat (朗利特山庄英国名胜) or the Eiffel Tower—the worst they’re doing is encouraging others. The author believes that many adults read Harry Potter ______.
A. to follow suit
B. to kill time
C. to enjoy a second childhood
D. to share Harry’s adventures
In the second half of each year, many powerful storms are born in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean seas. Of (91) , only about half a dozen (92) the strong, circling winds of 75 miles per hour or more that give them hurricane status, and several usually (93) their way to the coast. There cause millions of dollars of (94) , and bring death to (95) numbers of people. The great storms that hit the coast start (96) innocent circling disturbances hundreds, even thousands of miles out to sea. As they travel aimlessly over water (97) by the summer sun, they are carried westward by the (98) winds. When conditions are just (99) , warm, moist air flows in (100) the bottom of such a disturbance, moves upward through it and comes out at the top. In the (101) , the moisture in this warm air produces rain, and with it the heat is converted to energy in the form of strong winds. As the heat increases, the (102) hurricane begins to swirl in a counter-clockwise motion. The average life of a hurricane is only about nine days, but it contains almost (103) power than we can imagine. The energy in the heat released by a hurricane’s rainfall in a(n) (104) day would (105) the entire electrical needs of the United States for more than six months. Water, not wind, is the main (106) of death and destruction in a hurricane. A(n) (107) hurricane brings 6-to 12-inch downpours (108) in sudden floods. (109) is the powerful movement of the sea-the mountains of water moving toward the low-pressure hurricane center. The water level (110) as much as 15 feet above normal as it moves toward shore.
A. normal
B. typical
C. ordinary
D. natural