Starry Night

Have you ever seen a real night sky that looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night? I hope not! So, why would an artist paint the sky this way? Perhaps I can answer that with another question. When you’re happy, why do you sing instead of speaking? Or when you’re in love, why do you speak of roses and honey? When we do these things, we, too are artists. We’re using something that goes beyond a mere scientific description in order to communicate our feelings more powerfully than straightforward words can. So consider for a moment that Van Gogh might not have been hallucinating (产生幻觉的) on the night he painted this. Maybe he felt something so powerful that he had to go beyond the familiar to express it.

I hope I’m reminding you of something you already know as I describe the experience of being outside at night under a crystal clear sky that makes everything seem clean and refreshing. So you look up. And suddenly you see the sky that you’ve seldom seen before. It’s not just the same old dark night sky tonight. Instead, the blackness is a deep, rich blue that is more bottomless than any ocean. The stars are not spots of light but brilliant, magical diamonds that dance like tiny angels. In just this special moment, the sky is somehow alive, and it seems to speak to you silently about the meaning of infinity (无限).

Now look at the painting again. Can you see something of what makes this such a famous and well-loved image? But there’s more here than that. Van Gogh painted this while he was quite struck down by a mental disease. It is natural to imagine that he frequently battled the fear that he would never escape his prison to true freedom. It is natural for us to imagine this because each of us has faced our own personal prison, whether it be disease, the loss of a loved one, serious financial problems … In such moments it is tempting to give up to despair (绝望) and collapse in hopelessness.

Looking at this painting, I imagine Van Gogh in just such a moment of despair, when he is struck by the memory of one of those amazing night skies. He recalls the sense that he is not alone, that there is a living, infinite world with rich colorful creatures and scenes all around.

And so the sky flows across the canvas (画布) full of vitality (活力) and power. The stars don’t just sparkle; they explode. Looking closer, we notice that the earth itself seems to respond to the movement in the sky, forming its own living waves in the mountain and rolling trees. In the sleepy village, the windows of the houses glow (发光) with the same light that brightens the universe. The giant trees at the left seem to capture the joy by stretching upwards toward the sky.

What a tremendous message of hope there is in this masterpiece! Even if our troubles persist, the world around us assures us that life is worth living. That’s what the angels sing about. Doesn’t it make you want to sing, too?

1.Looking at the painting Starry Night, we can see all the following except________.

A. The singing angels                             B. the giant trees

C. the sleepy village                               D. the sparkling stars

2.Van Gogh does NOT describe a feeling of ______ through the Starry Night.

   A. happiness         B. vitality            C. power                    D. despair

3.The underlined word “prison” in the 3rd paragraph probably means ______.

   A. trouble in one’s life                                   B. mental illness

   C. control from the authority                  D. a place where criminals are kept

4.What is the main purpose of this passage?

 A. To explain how Van Gogh painted the Starry Night.

 B. To tell us how to appreciate the Starry Night.

 C. To prove Van Gogh was in a hallucinating state of mind while painting the picture.

 D. To show us the beauty of the sky on a starry night.

How many coins nave you got in your pocket right now? Three? Two？ A bent one？

　　With a phonecard you can make up to 200 calls without any change at all.

　　（1） What do you do with it?

　　Go to a telephone box marked（you guessed it） “phonecard”.Put in your card, make your call and when you’ve finished, a screen tells you how much is left on your card.

　　（2） Now appear in a shop near you.

　　Near each Cardphone place you’ll find a shop where you can buy one. They’re at bus, train and city tube stations（地铁）.

　　Many universities, hospitals and clubs. Restaurants and gas stations on the highway and shopping centres. At airports and seaports.

　　（3） No more broken payphones.

　　Most broken payphones are like that because they’ve been vandalized（故意破坏）. There are no coins in Cardphone to excite thieves’ interest in it. So you’re not probably to find a vandalized one.

　　Get a phonecard yourself and try it out ,or get a bigger wallet.

　The passage is most probably ________ .

　　A. a warning

　　B. a note

　　C. an advertisement（广告）

　　D. an announcement

There are three sections（部分） in the passage. Which section do you think is about why phonecards are good?

　　A. Section 1．　　　　　　　　　　B. Section 2．

　　C. Section 3．　　　　　　　　　　D. None.

Choose the right order or the steps under“How do you use a phonecard”.

　　a. Put in your phonecard.

　　b. Look at the screen to find out how many calls you can still make.

　　c. Go to a telephone box marked “Phonecard”.

　　d. Make your call.

　　A. a, b, c, d　　　　　　　　　　　 B. c, a, d, b

　　C. a, d, c, b　　　　　　　　　　　 D. c, d, a, b

下面为五封《Crazy English》杂志的读者来信片段。请从以下选项（A、B、C、D、E和F）中，为每封来信选取最佳的回信。选项有一项是多余项。

1.I am a reader of CR. Recently I found students translate some articles of CR. I appreciate your offering an opportunity to us beginners to practise using English. So I want to ask how they can obtain these articles and translate them for you, and what qualities you require. Thank you.

2.I love your Crazy English Reader magazine! It provides valuable data for work in our English teaching. My wife and I are teaching Conversational English so I’ve been giving you a bit of a plug at our middle school. I told the students to “get a copy”. It’s good stuff! Fantastic!

3.I’m one of Yao’s fans from Guangzhou. I have read some articles about Yao Ming in No. 7 Crazy English Reader. I want to know his correspondence address and the official website. Could you please tell me? Thank you very much indeed.

4.First of all, I must say thank you very much to all the CR Reader editors who gave us a really good English magazine. Secondly, I want to give you a piece of advice. In each passage, you gave us some new words with their Chinese translation. However, as far as my knowledge, I think you should give us not only the Chinese meaning but also the English meaning so as to know the words more accurately.

5.I’m an editor of the English Monthly of our school. I have a question, that is, how to say the position of the paper e.g. , 编辑; 责任编辑and so on. I hope you can help me to tell me the word in English. The more the better. Thank you so much! I love the book very much. Now I do this work. I need to study more information about this work. If you have time, please email me. Thank you.

A.  Thank you for your suggestion. We may try that in some future issues of CR. I think the best way to improve your reading vocabulary is to be able to guess the meaning of the word from the other words around it. Also, if you have an English dictionary, it is good to look up the words and them mark them down in a notebook and review them later on. Then if you really want to learn how to use the words, try using them in conversation or in writing. Hope this helps.

B.  The best way for you to learn the different positions in a newspaper or magazine is to get a copy of an all English magazine or newspaper and then copy down the different positions. There are also titles such as Managing Editor, reporter, Copy Editor, Photo Editor and Layout Editor. I hope this helps. If you have some more specific questions, you can send them to me and I’ll try to answer.

C.  The best way to reach Yao directly is through his home team, the Shanghai Sharks. You can write to him at 2570 Xietu Road, Shanghai. For more information on Yao, you can look at the sports section in sina. Com. I hope this helps. Another idea is that you can try to write to Yao while he is living and playing in Houston. You can try to reach Yao in the US at: Yao Ming Compaq Center 10 Houston, TX 77046.

D.  Thank you for being such a cheerful reader of CR. Yes, you’re right we made a mistake in the writing of that Chinese word. Each issue we try to read very carefully each article and its translation to make sure there are no mistakes, but unfortunately a few mistakes always get by. But you encourage us to keep improving, so thank you.

E.  Yes, we do have several students who help us translate some of the articles in our magazine. We contact these translators directly after interviewing their translation work. Afterwards we assign the articles to them for translation. If you are interested in being one of our translators you can send us some information about yourself and a sample of your translation work.

F.Thank you for helping us to promote CR. We’re glad it’s helpful to your students. We always try to include articles that reflect real life. It’s our hope that CR will not only improve students’ English but also open up a different worldview.

Makoto、Mr. Zheng、Mr. Zhu、Jack 和Xiao Wang 正在广州寻找合适的餐厅，第1--5题是对他们个人情况的介绍。阅读下列餐厅的信息(A、B、C、D、E、F)， 选出符合他们各人需要的最佳选择。选项中有一项是多余的。

1. Makoto is a Japanese tourist who has stayed in Guangzhou for a few days. He wants to make a tour of North China but unfortunately he has no time. So he would like to find a restaurant where he can taste northern food and experience the life in the north.

2. Mr. Zheng was born in Hunan but went to Japan at an early age. This time he came to Guangzhou to deal with some business affairs. Coming back to his homeland after being away for about 20 years, he hopes to find a restaurant serving food of his home town.

3. It is the first time for Mr. Zhu, who comes from the northeast of China, to visit Guangdong Province. He is interested in traditional Cantonese food and Cantonese lifestyle.

4. Jack is a successful businessman. He is flying to Guangzhou to meet some people, who are likely to sign a contract with him. He wants to find a high quality restaurant. Of course, it is the quality rather than the price that he cares about.

5. Xiao Wang, a migrant worker in Guangzhou, plans to hold a party with his 10 friends. All of them are fond of the Sichuan cuisine. Xiao Wang hopes to spend less than 600 yuan for the dinner.

When several different people look at the same person, it is not unusual for each of them to see different things; when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times, you may see different things. The following are only some of the factors that lead to these varying perceptions(感知, 认知):

(1) Each person’s perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning education and personal experiences.

(2) Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we’ve observed. It is not necessarily true that a person's perception is based on observations of a particular person. Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person, or you may focus(聚焦) primarily on the situation or role relationship. Most people do not use the same standard to measure their parents, their friends and strangers.

(3) Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don’t see what may be obvious to others because of our own needs, desires, or temporary emotional states. This is a process known as selective perception. Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory(矛盾的) information is particularly obvious, but it can be done. We can ignore(忽视) the misdeed — “He’s basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting(入店行窃).” We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information— “All kids are naughty. Taking a book from the bookstore isn’t such a big deal.” We can change the meaning of the contradictory information — “It wasn’t shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.” …

The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is _______.

A. what we see and what we hear  B. cultural background and personal experiences

C. experiences one learns from others  D. critical measures taken by other people

While one observes a particular person, _______.

A. he is likely to take everything into consideration

B. he pays more attention to the person's advantages

C. children often differ from grown-ups in perception

D. his perception may be affected by other people's opinions

Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because _______.

A. their measuring standards are not the same

B. either of them may be slow to catch information

C. the time for observation is not long enough

D. each of them uses different languages to express his / her impressions

The worst thing in selective perception is that ________.

A. perceived information runs against your desire

B. it contains some private feelings that may be wrong

C. importance of the contradictory information can be praised

D. the same information may not be dealt with in the same way