C

I start every summer with the best of intentions: to attack one big book from the past, a classic that I was supposed to have read when young and ambitious. Often the pairings of books and settings have been purely accidental: “Moby Dick” on a three-day cross-country train trip; “The Magic Mountain” in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and little to do beyond row on the salt pond. Attempting “The Man Without Qualities” on a return to Hawaii, my native state, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes(册), then decided that I’d got the point and went swimming instead.

每年夏天，我都是抱着最好的打算开始的：攻读一本大部头，一部年轻时就雄心勃勃地想去读的经典。通常地，在什么场合读什么书我是完全随意的：《白鲸记》是在横越全国的三天的火车旅程中读完的；《魔山》是在新英格兰的一个门上没锁的海滨小屋里读完的，小屋的房间里没有电话和电视机，除了在盐池上划划船几乎没什么可做的。回到我的家乡夏威夷后，试着读《没有个性的人》却没有读完：读了一又四分之一卷后，我认定自己已得其要义，就放下书去游泳了。

But this summer I find myself at a loss. I’m not quite interested in Balzac, say, or “Tristram Shandy.” There’s always “War and Peace,” which I’ve covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the “War” part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone’s name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite ---- once more into “The Waves” or “Justine,” which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong in serious literature.

但是，今年夏天我发现自己迷茫了。比如说，我对巴尔扎克或《项狄传》不太感兴趣了。我一直在读《战争与和平》，好几次都是从头读了一点，结果读到“战争”部分，就把书撂一边了。过了一段时间，我意识到自己又不得不从头开始读，这时我已经忘记了书中人物的名字和社会地位。多么想回头读读自己最喜欢的书啊----再读一次《海浪》或《贾斯汀》，这两本书总给人一种假象，这么令人激动，这么有趣，怎么可能属于严肃文学呢？

And then there’s Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black,” which happens to be the name of my favorite cocktail(鸡尾酒) of the summer, created by Michael Cecconi at Savoy and Back Forty. It is easy to drink, and knocking back three or four seems like such a delightful idea. Cecconi’s theory: “I take whatever’s fresh at the greenmarket and turn it into liquid.” The result is a pure shot of afternoon in the park, making one feel cheerful and peaceful all at once, lying on uncut grass with eyes shut, sun beating through the lids...

然后再读读司汤达的《红与黑》，这恰巧是我最喜欢的夏天的鸡尾酒的名字，这种鸡尾酒是Savoy and Back Forty的Michael Cecconi调制的。喝起来很上口，豪饮三、四杯似乎是一个令人愉快的想法。Cecconi的观点是：“我买光农贸市场所有的新鲜东西，然后把它们都变成玉液琼浆。”结果，我在公园里喝了整整一个下午的酒，人瞬间就感到愉悦平和了，躺在未修剪的草地上，闭着双眼，阳光透过眼帘......

注释：

1.knock back (informal) 豪饮（尤指酒）

2. shot (informal) 少量饮料；（尤指）少量烈酒

27. What can we infer about the author from the first paragraph?

A. He has a cottage in New England. B. He shows talents for literature.

C. He enjoys reading when traveling. D. He admires a lot of great writers.

28.What do the underlined words “get bogged down” in paragraph 2 mean?

A. Get confused. B. Be carried away. C. Be interrupted. D. Make no progress.

29.Why does the author say reading his favorite books feels like cheating?

A. He finishes them quickly. B. He should read something serious.

C. He barely understands them. D. He has read them many times before.

30. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A. The Books of Summer B. To Read or Not to Read

C. My Summer Holidays D. It’s Never Too Late to Read

27.-30.CDBA