Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is the simple story of an old Cuban fisherman who undergoes the most difficult struggle of his life. In the title character, Santiago, Hemingway describes one of the most distinguished examples in American     1     of an individual looking deep within to work up the courage necessary to get through the achievements and sad events that life presents.

Alone on the sea, Santiago continuously     2     to find hope in several seemingly hopeless situations. The old man illustrates Hemingway’s ideal of     3     “grace under pressure”, as he refuses to give in to the enormous obstacles (障碍) presented by the sea. Relying on memories of his youth, Santiago finds the     4     to physically and emotionally carry on throughout the story.

After catching the great marlin (马林鱼) Santiago realizes he is unable to quickly kill the fish, and it proceeds to pull him farther out to sea. Yet, throughout the battle between man and fish the old man begins to recognize a(n)     5     between him and the marlin, repeatedly referring to it as his brother. Both the old man and the fish are only insignificant among the     6     creatures at sea, joined together by the fact that they are at the mercy of the sea.

The fish, therefore, changes from merely being Santiago’s prey (猎物) into a reflection of the old man’s     7     and physical state. When the sharks damage the dead marlin hanging off the side of the boat as Santiago struggles to sail home, the old man fights them off as if they were     8     him. Only when the marlin’s body has been entirely eaten away does Santiago give up, knowing he “was     9     now finally”.

Although the old man seemingly fails once the sharks steal his prize fish, they cannot take away the fact that Santiago has done the unthinkable by staying with and catching a fish “bigger than he had ever heard of”. In spite of not successfully bringing the fish back, Santiago fights with     10    — first to catch the marlin, then to protect his fish from the sharks — and in doing so declares his humanity by remaining resilient (坚韧的) in the face of achievements and sad events.

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily     1     the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his crazy passion and obsession for the beautiful former lover Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece, the Great Gatsby     2     themes of degradation, idealism,     3     to chance and social conflicts, creating     4     of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties described as a warming tale     5     the American Dream.

Fitzgerald-     6     by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore - began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new - something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and elaborately patterned." Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his     7     following a move to the French Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was vague and persuaded the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald repeatedly hesitated about the book's title and he considered a variety of     8    , including titles that referenced the Roman character Trimalchi o; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Red, White and Blue.

First published in April 1925, the Great Gatsby received     9     reviews and sold 20,000 copies in its first year. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work     10    . However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, the Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a competitor for the title "Great American Novel".