The Creator of Middle Earth

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, better known as J. R. R. Tolkien, was born in 1892 in South Africa. His parents had moved there looking for    1    better job for his father. Three years    2    (late), his mother took him on a trip to England to visit family. While they were away, they received terrible news    3    his father had died.

    4    (grow) up without a father must have been difficult for Tolkien. Worse still, when he was only twelve years old, his mother also passed away.    5    a child, he had a great passion for language and in 1908, he went to Oxford University    6    (study)languages and literature. In 1915, he joined the army and    7    (fight)in the battle against the Germans. But soon, he became too ill to fight and returned to England the following year. He didn’t have a satisfying childhood himself, so around 1933, he spent much time telling his children fantasy,    8    (story)of a hobbit(霍比特人)called Bilbo. He first put it in writing in 1936,    9    turned out to be a surprising hit. The publisher asked him to write another. He did so and in 1948 published The Lord of the Rings, which     10    (publish)in three volumes between 1954 and 1955.

Tolkien, aged eighty-one, died in 1973.

Du Fu was    1     Chinese poet and politician of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bai, he is     2       （frequent） called the     3    (great) of the Chinese poets.     4    （bear） into a scholarly family, Du Fu received a     5    （tradition） Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 735. As a result, he     6    （spend） much of his youth traveling. During his travels he was recognized as a poet and met other poets of the period,     7     （include） the great Li Bai. He had a strong     8     （admire） for this older, freewheeling contemporary.

With hidden satire (讽刺) he wrote “Liren xing”,     9     speaks of the luxury(奢侈) of the court. He was an expert     10     all poetic styles current in his day.