虢望

The Hunger Games is a book by the American author Suzanne Collins. It was published in 2008 and has sold millions of copies. It is the first book for young readers to sell a million electronic books and you can buy it in 26 different languages. The Hunger Games is now a very successful film. It made 152.5 million dollars in its first weekend in North America！

The idea for The Hunger Games came from one night in 2003. That night， Suzanne Collins was watching TV. It was at the time of the US invasion （入侵） of Iraq. The only programmes she could find on TV were “reality” programmes of young people competing to win a million dollars and news programmes about the war. Suzanne says that the two things started to mix together in her head and she had the idea for The Hunger Games.

The story is set in the future， after the destruction （毀灭） of North America. The country is called Panem. There are twelve poor districts （管辖区） governed by the rich Capitol. There was a thirteenth district in the past but the Capitol beat them because they rebelled （造反）.

The Capitol held The Hunger Games every year to punish the districts. One boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 had to be chosen as “tributes” （贡品） from each of the districts. The 24 of them had to fight and kill each other. The last one would get a lot of money.

The story is about Katniss Everdeen， a sixteen-year-old girl. Her father died and now she has to kill animals for her family to eat. Her younger sister， Prim， is chosen to be a “tribute”， but Katniss asks to go instead. The other “tribute” from District 12 is a boy named Peeta.

阅读选择

1. You can buy The Hunger Games in _______ different languages.

A. Twelve B. Eighteen

C. Twenty-six

2. The idea for The Hunger Games came when Suzanne was __________.

A. watching TV B. dancing

C. reading

3. In the story， The Hunger Games are held by __________.

A. all the people B. the Capitol

C. the children

4. Katniss has a younger sister named __________.

A. Suzanne B. Peeta

C. Prim