After four silent years, the 27-year-old British singer Adele Adkins has finally introduced herself to the world again with Hello, the opening song from her third album 25, which will come out on Nov. 20.
Although Adele is a very successful singer now, music wasn’t always what she saw herself doing. At age 10, when she saw her grandmother’s pain over the death of Adele’s grandfather, she pictured herself as a heart surgeon.
"I wanted to fix people’s hearts," she told the UK music website i-D, remembering the childhood interest she’d had in biology classes until she found out that her real talent was for singing.
Adele didn’t go to medical school, but many would agree that she still has healing(治愈) powers. "Her songs find the kind of memory every listener holds somewhere in their heart. This kind of feeling is what people have always liked in Adele," said The Telegraph. "She writes a pop diary, sharing the simple secrets of her heart."
Most successful pop stars make albums at a fast pace, but not Adele. After her second album 21 won the 2012 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, she made it clear with her label that she would spend "four or five years" making her next album. She told Vogue magazine, "I won’t come out with new music until it’s better than 21."
Instead of seeking fame, Adele remained silent and moved to the countryside. In her free time, she loved to watch TV series Teen Mom, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead.
Living life as normally as possible is important to the singer’s art. "Nobody wants to listen to a record from someone who’s not living in the real world," Adele told i-D." So I live a low-key life for my fans."
【小题1】What does the text mainly tell us?A.The popularity of Adele’s album 25. |
B.The healing powers of Adele’s music. |
C.The secrets of Adele’s success in music. |
D.The reason for Adele’s becoming a singer. |
A.Adele wasn’t interested in music. |
B.Adele wasn’t good at music at first. |
C.Music wasn’t very important in Adele’s life. |
D.Music wasn’t all Adele wanted to be devoted to. |
A.To live a low-key life. |
B.To win the Grammy Award. |
C.To guarantee the quality of her music. |
D.To share the secrets of her heart as a musician. |
A.Her album Hello will come out on Nov. 20. |
B.She has kept a diary since childhood. |
C.She moved to the countryside before 2012. |
D.Her works are based on real life. |
A home is a place where we feel safe and loved. The warmth of a home doesn’t depend on its size or decoration (装饰).
·Have an indoor picnic
You want to enjoy a small picnic with your family, but neither the weather nor your daily schedule allows you to go to enjoy a nearby park. How about having a picnic indoors? You can have ice cream or sandwiches made in your own kitchen. The best part is that you don't have to wait for a long weekend for this picnic.
·Role play
Give each family member a different role to play. For example, ask your youngest daughter to play the role of Daddy.
·
Family meetings are often held to discuss different matters with your family members, share happy memories and talk about interesting stories. It can be a meeting when the family is sitting together at the dining table talking on a Friday night.
·Watch a movie
A.Plan a fun family meeting. |
B.Video chat with family members. |
C.Watching a movie alone can be boring. |
D.It is because you can have it at any time you want. |
E.See for yourself how your children view their parents. |
F.It will be difficult for all family members to gather around. |
G.It is the people in the house that make the home a place worth living. |
The vast majority of parents expect their children to grow up to be healthy, happy, and productive members of society.
The standards of perfection for parents these days are extremely high. Perfect parenting expectations begin with a drug free natural birth. Once our young are born we must breastfeed each baby for years. If we can’t breasted, we must at least feed on demand.
These standards are unreasonable. They’re also crazy. Parents can’t be perfect. Why? Because we’re human and so are our children.
A.We must make our own baby food. |
B.They are pushing themselves too far. |
C.Robots would be much easier to parent. |
D.There is only unlimited devotion to our children. |
E.A good enough parent meets the needs of their children. |
F.Parents have no enough time to live up to these high standards. |
G.To meet those goals, parents are told that they must spare no effort. |
Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn’t in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren, correcting our grammar, starting us off on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks, or inspiring a discussion on her most recent “Book of the Month Club” topic. Mom made learning fun.
It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her suffering in her later years. At eightyfive, she suffered a stroke (中风) and she went steadily downhill after that.
Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her limp body back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly.
After several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.
“Whrr,” she said weakly.
“Where?” I asked. “Mom, is there something you want?” “Whrr,” she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.
Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could gather said, “Not...was. Say were!”
We suddenly realized that Mom was correcting Brother Jim’s last sentence, “if it was up to me...”
Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads.
【小题1】What do the underlined words “went steadily downhill” in the 2nd paragraph mean?A.went lower and lower |
B.went worse and worse |
C.went down the hill |
D.went downstairs |
A.She gave up her teaching after retirement. |
B.She was always making her teaching interesting. |
C.She stopped her teaching because of her illness. |
D.She left the nursing home before her death. |
A.He loved her but was tired of his mother’s teaching. |
B.His mother should have enjoyed the rest of her life. |
C.His mother was great because she devoted herself to teaching. |
D.His mother was an excellent teacher before she retired. |
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