【正文】 stWest culture clashes.Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918?2008): a Russian writer who was imprisoned in Soviet labour camps in 1945。 after eight years, he was exiled to Kazakhstan and not freed until 1956, when he became a teacher. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but not receive it until 1974. He went to Germany, Switzerland and the USA, returning to Russia in 1994. His best known novels were based on his experiences as a prisoner and include: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), Cancer Ward (1968), The Gulag Archipelago (1974?1978). His later works were about Russian history and identity.Graham Greene (1904?1991): a British novelist, shortstory writer, playwright, travel writer and essayist. He wrote a number of thrillers (he called them ?entertainments?) which dramatize an ambiguous moral dilemma, often revealing guilt, treachery, failure and a theme of pursuit. Greene was also a film critic and all of these novels have been made into films: Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), The Third Man (1950), The Quiet American (1955), and Our Man in Havana (1958).E. M. Forster (1879?1970): a British novelist and writer of short stories and essays. He lived at different periods in Italy, Egypt and India and taught at Cambridge University. His best known novels include A Room with a View (1908), Howard?s End (1910), A Passage to India (1924) which have all been made into films. His writing about reading and writing includes a book of lectures, Aspects of the Novel (1927).Thomas Merton (1915?1968): an American Catholic writer, who was a Trappist monk in Kentucky. He wrote over 70 books, including many essays about Buddhism and a translation into English of the Chinese classic, Chuang Tse. He had a great deal to say about the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures and wrote many letters to writers, poets, scholars and thinkers. He read a lot in English, Latin, French and Spanish and said he always had at least three books which he was reading at any one time.William Blake (1757?1827): a British poet, artist and mystic, who read widely in English, French, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He made many engravings to illustrate the work of such writers as Virgil, Dante and Chaucer, as well as his own poems. He stressed that imagination was more important than rationalism and the materialism of the 18th century and criticized the effects of the industrial revolution in England, but his work was largely disregarded by his peers. He is best known for his poetry in Songs of Innocence (1787) and Songs of Experience (1794). His belief in the oneness of all created things is shown in his muchquoted verse, ?To see the world in a grain of sand / And a heaven in a flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand / And eternity in an hour.?Clifton Fadiman (1904?1999): an American writer, radio and TV broadcaster and editor of anthologies. For over 50 years he was an editor and judge for the BookoftheMonth Club. In 1960 he wrote a popular guide to great books for American readers, The Lifetime Reading Plan, which discusses 133 authors and their major work: the 1997 edition includes 9 authors from China.J. K. Rowling (1965?): British writer of the seven Harry Potter fantasy books. She studied French and Classics at Exeter University, before teaching English in Portugal and training to teach French in Scotland. The main idea about a school for wizards and the orphan Harry Potter came on a delayed train journey from Manchester to London in 1990. She began to write as soon as she reached London. Twelve publishersrejected the first book before Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, agreed to publish it. Later books have repeatedly broken all the sales records (as have some of the films). She is one of the richest women in the UK and a notable supporter of many charities.Language points1 Variety?s the very spice of life, / That gives it all its flavour ? (Para 2)Spices are made from plants and added to food to give it its particular flavour or taste. The English proverb ?Variety is the spice of life? (the proverb es from Cowper?s poem) therefore means that variety gives life extra value and allows you to appreciate life in particular ways.2 We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home. (Para 3)This means that through reading we learn to look beyond our immediate experience or familiarenvironment to things beyond our immediate experience, ie to pletely different things that we canimagine and experience through books.3 When a baseball player hits a home run he hits the ball so hard and so far he?s able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. (Para 9)In the American game of baseball, the field of grass is diamondshaped and has four bases (specific points marked around the diamond), round which players must run to score points. One team bats (ie team members take turns to hit the ball and run round the bases) and the members of the other team throw (pitch) the ball and, when it is has been hit, try to catch it or get it quickly to one of the four bases. If a batting player can hit the ball hard enough, he can run round all four bases before the other team can get the ball and thus score maximum points ? with a home run. In the passage, a really good book is a home run.3 Choose the best answer to the questions.1 Why are we like Alice in wonderland when we read a book?(a) Because, like Alice, we often have accidents.(b) Because reading makes us feel young again.(c) Because reading opens the door to new experiences.(d) Because books lead us into a dream world.2 According to the writer, what is the advantage of reading over real life?(a) There is more variety in books than in real life.(b) We can experience variety and difference without going out of the h