American author Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, known for his simple and 【小题1】 (直接的) writing style. When he was young, he was good at writing. 【小题2】 (逐步地), he took writing as his career. During his last 21 years, Hemingway wrote about nine books in 【小题3】 (总数). Because of his war experiences, most of his works take the war as the 【小题4】 (背景).

His famous 【小题5】 (小说), The Old Man and the Sea, tells the story of Santiago, an old fisherman, who tries to catch a huge fish while out at sea. The book includes some of the best examples of Hemingway’s style, such as the simple line on Page One describing Santiago “Everything about him was old 【小题6】 (除……之外) his eyes, and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated (不败的).” One of the book’s topics is the man’s ability to face the difficulty. Even when Santiago begins to 【小题7】 (怀疑) his skills as a fisherman, he refuses to give up. The book also looks at the topics such as pride, 【小题8】 (痛苦), and the fight against nature.

The book came out in 1952 and 【小题9】 (收到) mainly good reviews. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and also helped Hemingway win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. The book is well 【小题10】 (值得的) reading.

Journey to the West, or Xi You Ji, is a very famous Chinese TV play. It is about the great 【小题1】 [trɪp] of Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng. The stories come from a book of 【小题2】 same name by Wu Cheng’en in the Ming Dynasty (朝代).

The TV play was the first of its kind in China. The production team (制作团队) spent about six 【小题3】 (year), from 1982 to 1988, making it. The production team 【小题4】 (meet) with many problems. At that time, they only had very simple tools (简单的工具). Still, they tried their best to make the TV play well. They spent two months 【小题5】 (visit) over 60 places across China to find the best places for 【小题6】 [ˈdɪfrənt] stories. They needed the wire stunt (威亚) to help the actors “fly”, 【小题7】 no one knew how to do it. They flew to Hong Kong to learn the technique (技术).

Through the production team’s 【小题8】 [hɑːd] work, the TV play first aired (播出) in China in 1986. It 【小题9】 (quick) became very popular. About nine people in ten watched it. So far Chinese TV stations have rebroadcast (重播) the play more than 3, 000 times. Now, it is still popular 【小题10】 Chinese people. When people talk about “summer holiday”, lots of them think of the TV play. People in other countries also love it.

Shylock held his knife and told Antonia to get ready.

“Wait!” said Portia. “You will not do a【小题1】 that is not written in the contract. Is that right, Shylock?”

“Yes.” said Shylock. He w【小题2】 what the judge was going to say.

“Well,” said Portia, “I have read the contract c【小题3】 and it does not say anything about taking his blood. It says ‘a pound of flesh’. You can take your pound of flesh w【小题4】 one drop of his blood. If you do that, the duke will take everything you own.”

Now it was Graziano’s turn to praise the judge.

“Did you hear that, Shylock?” he asked. “What a w【小题5】 judge!”

“You wanted justice (公正).” Portia said to Shylock, “You will have more justice than you wanted.”

Shylock did not want to give everything to the duke. He decided to give up t【小题6】 the pound of flesh.

“Give me ninety thousand dollars,” he said, “and I will have p【小题7】 on the merchant and let him go.”

Bassanio was very happy to give him the money.

“Here it is, Shylock.” He was very e【小题8】 that Antonio would not die.

Portia, however, had m【小题9】 to say.

“Wait!” she said again. “He does not want the money. It is not written in the contract and he would not do anything that was not written in the contract.”

“Just give me the money I lent you. I won’t e【小题10】 ask for interest,” Shylock said impatiently. Bassanio was ready to give it to him, but again Portia stopped him.