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 Hugo Awards, the world’s top sci-fi awards,     1     on Saturday night at the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention. Chinese writer Hai Ya’s The Space-Time Painter     2     the Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Hai created the story     3     by a painting masterpiece Qianli Jiangshan Tu (A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains) by Wang Ximeng from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), who painted the work at the age of 18.     4     on the life of Wang, Hai created a painter named Zhao Ximeng, a prodigy that painted for the emperor more than 1,000 years ago. After much misery and suffering, Zhao     5     his physical body and entered a space where a modern policeman that     6     a case concerning an ancient painting     7     his memory. The story, through the twists and turns in Zhao’s life,     8     the political struggles behind this marvelous painting and the struggles and fights of individuals against the torrents of time. Working in the financial industry and a sci-fi fan, Hai, now 33, started writing sci-fi stories in 2016 and     9     his first work in 2019. Pitying on Wang who was so talented but had such a short life, Hai     10     his life through sci-fi, he said in previous interviews.

Rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sold for almost $10 million Wednesday, becoming the most expensive work of literature ever to appear at auction, according to Christie’s.

The collection of 36 plays, published shortly after the playwright’s death, is one of only five complete copies still in private hands, the auction house said.

The First Folio is considered among the most important collections of literature in the English language. It contains 18 works that had not     1     appeared in print, and would otherwise have been lost to history, including “Macbeth” and “Twelfth Night.”

Published in 1623 by the actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, friends of the English playwright, the book is formally titled “Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies,” based on the three genres the pair used to     2     the plays.

The     3     sold on Wednesday was the first complete copy to appear at auction since one went for $6.1 million in 2001. It was put up for sale by Mills College in Oakland, California, which had kept the item in its collection since 1977.

After a six-minute bidding battle between three telephone buyers, the item was purchased by book dealer and antiquarian Stephan Loewentheil for $9.98 million. In a phone interview following the sale, he described Shakespeare’s original folios as the “holy grail of books.”

“(The First Folio) is the greatest work in the English language,     4     the greatest work of theater, so it’s something that anyone who loves intellectualism has to consider a divine object,” said Loewentheil, who owns stores     5     in rare books and photography in New York and Maryland.

In a press statement, head of books and     6     at Christie’s, Margaret Ford, said it was “befitting” that Shakespeare’s work now holds the auction world record “given its tremendous significance and influence around the globe.”

Although around 750 copies of the First Folio were produced, just 235 are known to have     7     to the present day. Of these, only 56 are considered to be complete, with almost all of them now held by institutions in the US and UK, according to Christie’s, whose sale catalog said the item’s “extraordinary rarity ... cannot be     8    .”

Believing that the copies in private hands might “never to come to market again,” Loewentheil said that there may not be “too many more chances left” to obtain a copy.

The book came in a binding dating back to the early 19th century. It was sold alongside a letter by Shakespeare scholar Edmond Malone from 1809     9     its authenticity.

The final sale price exceeded the auction house’s estimates, which had predicted top bids of $4 million to $6 million. A number of other items at Wednesday’s sale sold for seven-figure sums — including a Ming dynasty carpet that went under the hammer for over $1.7 million — providing further evidence that the top end of the auction market is weathering some the challenges     10     by the pandemic.

“For the great objects that really matter, the markets for art, literature and photographs have remained very strong,” Loewentheil said.

Finding Comfort in War and Peace

Over the past 15 years, Yiyun Li, a Chinese-American author, has read War and Peace at least a dozen times. Her hardback copy of Leo Tolstoy's 1,200 - page saga bristles with colored notes, like some exotic lizard's spine. The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction, Ms. Li believes, but a cure for     1    . At the most difficult times in her life, she says, she has turned to it again and again, reassured by its "    2    " in the face of uncertainty.

War and Peace - originally     3     The Year 1805 - is widely considered the world's greatest novel. It is also among the most daunting(令人敬畏的), acknowledged Richard Pevear, one of its translators, "as     4     as Russia itself." Its huge canvas(画布)encompasses(包含)not just Napoleon's wars against the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires from 1805 to 1812, but a cast whose actions and emotions span the breath of human consciousness. As a literary critic has noted, Tolstoy is the supreme novelist of human conflicts. His epic(史诗)is a(n)     5     examination of how people respond to the pressure of both wars and ordinary life.

So large is Tolstoy's world, Ms. Li reckoned, that there could be no better companion for people     6     in isolation. She thought of virtual book club to sustain readers through the lockdown. Participants around the globe would plough through this book together and share their thoughts on social media. It would be an anchor in     7     times. To their amazement, when it began in mid-March 3,000 people on six continents signed up.

Other book clubs have     8     up to discuss great literature during the pandemic. But Tolstoy's novel reflects the atmosphere of life in quarantine better. Its     9     structure, shifting between battlefields and the salons of Russian high society, mirrors the disorienting split in readers' own attention - between their own personal, stilled states and the calamity(灾祸)    10     outside.