Early in the Iliad, Homer's epic poem（史诗）about the legendary, Trojan War, there occurs a famous anecdote known as the catalogue of ships, which names all the Greek leaders and contingents(小分队) who came to fight at Troy. Before unfolding this impressive muster roll (花名册)，Homer makes a special, public appeal to the Muses to ensure he gets the facts right:
Tell me now, Muses, who have your homes on Olympus-- for you are goddesses, and ever-present, and know all things, and we hear only rumour: nor do we know anything
These lines reflect a central claim of epic poetry—that through the inspiration of the Muses, daughters of Memory, it can preserve the knowledge of people and the events of the past —a formidable power in the non-literate, oral cultures in which the Iliad evolved. The Iliad was composed around 750-700 BC, but its origins lie at least some five centuries earlier, deep in the Mycenaean Bronze Age---the world the Iliad poetically evokes.
The Iliad is keenly aware of its role as the keeper of memory, and credibility is central to its storytelling. The epic is a work of fiction, and relates the events of a few weeks in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War fought between Greeks and Trojans over beautiful Helen, the Greek queen who deserted her husband to elope with a Trojan prince. Its cast of characters includes not only warriors and their captives and families, but the immortal Olympian gods, who perform many supernatural acts in the course of their eager participation in the action around Troy.
The Iliad has the reputation for being an exclusively(专门地) male epic, weak on female characters, but to choose only one example—Homer's delicate characterization of Helen as a woman driven by reluctant remorseful(悔恨的) passion is as hauntingly（萦绕心头地）credible as any Anna Karenina.
Longinus, a scholar in the 1st Century AD wrote that in recording as he does the wounding of the gods, their quarrels, vengeance, tears, imprisonment and all their passions Homer has done his best to make the men in the Iliad gods and gods men. The scene between Achilles and Priam displays this inversion and crystallises what the Iliad poets had learned in the course of the epic’s Journey. That the gods we worship might not answer, and on occasion humanity must rise to fill their place. That glory is closely associated with painful loss. That the victor shares the humanity of the most vulnerable of the vanquished（战败者）; that there is no such thing as pure victory in war.
1. The Iliad about the legendary Trojan War, might date back to _______.| A．the third century BC | B．the seventh century BC |
| C．the eighth century BC | D．the thirteenth century BC |
| A．being reliable is essential to the storytelling of the Iliad |
| B．Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans lasted over a decade |
| C．Trojan War ended owning to the Olympian gods’ absence |
| D．beautiful Helen is a woman worth respecting in the Iliad |
| A．Because it focuses only on men and war. |
| B．Because too few females were well depicted. |
| C．Because its cast of characters includes only males. |
| D．Because Helen was described as a passionate woman. |
| A．Pure victory in war does not exist at all. |
| B．Glory is naturally accompanied with saddening loss. |
| C．The victor gains everything without any emotional loss. |
| D．Both the victor and the vanquished share the same humanity. |
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【推荐1】Victor Hugo, 1802 -1885, was a celebrated French literary giant. After the British and French invaders(入侵者) bad burnt the Winter Palace(圆明园) in October, 1860, he wrote a reply to an officer named Bartlette one year later.
Sir, you ask me what I think of the expedition(远征) to China. You must feel that it was laudable. In your opinion, the expedition, performed under the joint banner(联合旗帜) of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon, was nothing short of a British-French glory. Therefore, you would like to know to what extent I appreciate this glory. Since you ask, I will answer as follows:
In a corner of the world there existed a man-made miracle - the Winter Palace. Art has two sources: one, an ideal, from which has come European art; two, fancy, from which has come Easter art. The Winter Palace belongs in the art of fancy. The Winter Palace, indeed, was the fruit of all of the art that an almost superman race could have fancied.
For whom was the Winter Palace built, after all? Eventually, for the people. Because as time passes by, all that the people has made remains in the possession of mankind. Great artists, poets, philosophers - they all knew about the Winter Palace. Voltaire once talked about it. Many people at different times compared the Winter Palace to the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena, the Notre Dame. If they could not see the Winter Palace with their own eyes, they could dream about it- as if in the distance they saw a breath-taking masterpiece of art as they had never known before – as if there above the horizon of European civilization was towering the outline of Asian civilization.
Now, the miracle is no more! One day, two pirates broke into it One of them robbed; the other set every building and everything in it on fire! Judging by what they did, we know that the victors could degenerate into robbers. The two of them fell to dividing between themselves the treasure. What great victories they had won! What a heaven-sent fortune! One stuffed his pockets full to overflowing; the other filled in his bags with treasure. Then, hand in hand they made of, laughing happily.
Incidentally, I must thank you for giving me the opportunity to accuse. The rulers commit crimes but the ruled do not. The government becomes a robber, but the people will never.
France has gained a large portion of the treasure. Now, she thinks herself the rightful owner of the property财物), and she is displaying the riches of the Winter Palace! I can only hope that there will come one day when France will disburden herself of the heavy load on her conscience and clean herself off the crime by returning to China all the treasure taken from the Winter Palace.
Sit, such is my praise of the expedition to China.
1. Mr. Hugo wrote this letter mainly to_________.| A．show his praise of the expedition to China in reply to Bartlette’s request |
| B．persuade French officers to return the treasure taken from the Winter Palace |
| C．prove people hold different attitudes towards the burning of the Winter Palace |
| D．express his anger and condemnation over the burning of the Summar Palace |
| A．praiseworthy | B．violent | C．unreasonable | D．abundant |
| A．compare different architectural styles |
| B．praise European and African civilization |
| C．introduce some more famous buildings to Bartlette |
| D．emphasize the civilizational value of the Winter Palace |
| A．Bartlette and his fellow | B．Bartlette and Great Britain |
| C．France and Great Britain | D．the rulers and the ruled |
| A．satisfied | B．proud | C．disappointed | D．frightened |
【推荐2】Six Chinese survived the legendary tragedy of the RMS Titanic (泰坦尼克号), but disappeared soon after. Now a British director, Arthur Jones, will uncover their stories and histories of discrimination(歧视).
There were eight Chinese between the ages of 24 and 37 on the Titanic, boiler workers sharing one 59-pound third-class ticket, according to the record of Titanic Cruise Line, but only six survived from its sinking. When they arrived in the United States, they were not helped, like the other 705 survivors. Instead they were forced to leave the country within 24 hours, because of the Chinese Exclusion Act(排华法案) signed in 1882.
Some westerners questioned the six Chinese survivors as stowaways(偷渡者) and claimed that they survived because they secretly climbed on the lifeboat or dressed as women to board lifeboats. But Jones believes they did not do anything shameful in order to survive the disaster after visiting foreign files, museums and cooperating with American and Chinese historians. This is not only a story about the survivors of Titanic, but also a story of a group of brave Chinese people exploring the outside world at that time, he said.
To restore(还原) their ignored stories, Jones and his team found the son of Fang Lang, one of the Chinese survivors , in Wisconsin, US. In May, Jones will visit Taishan city in south China’s Guangzhou province, recorded as the survivors’ hometown. The filmmakers also established a website, whoarethesix.com, for more clues.
Ordinarily, people think of Titanic as a story of rich white people, but don’t know there were people from all over the world, including Chinese. Their stories are never told, Jones said.
1. Why did some westerners question the six Chinese as stowaways and claimed they dressed as women to board lifeboats?| A．Because they thought highly of their contribution to the Titanic. |
| B．Because they just looked down upon Chinese at that time. |
| C．Because they were not satisfied with the service the six provided. |
| D．Because they thought the six were not gentlemen. |
| A．Jones holds an opinion that the six did something against the law. |
| B．The six Chinese’s stories have never been told before. |
| C．There were 8 Chinese between the ages of 24 and 37 on the Titanic. |
| D．The six Chinese were forced to leave within one day after they landed in US. |
| A．look for | B．set up | C．work out | D．pick up |
| A．To share some specific details of the tragedy of the RMS Titanic. |
| B．To honor the brave heroes who passed away in the terrible accident. |
| C．To tell us a British director will uncover the stories of 6 Chinese Titanic survivors. |
| D．To tell some history stories in which westerns looked down upon Chinese. |
【推荐3】Despite being First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy usually kept her distance from politics. Yet in 1963, while still recovering from the death of her prematurely born son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, she agreed to join her husband John F. Kennedy on a trip to Texas. Unfortunately, in Dallas on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot while sitting next to Jackie, and the pink suit she was wearing became covered in her husband’s blood.
Jackie tightly held her husband on the way to Parkland Memorial Hospital, attempting to tend to his badly hurt head. John’s vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, had been in a separate vehicle in the same procession, and he and his wife Lady Bird proceeded to the hospital as well. Lady Bird later described how she saw, “in the president’s car, a bundle of pink, just like a drift of blossoms lying on the back seat. I think it was Mrs. Kennedy, lying over the President’s body.” She even kneeled on the blood-covered floor to pray. However, the time of his death was marked as 1 p.m.
Later, Jackie found a change of clothes waiting for her. She wiped off her face, but would later recall for a magazine writer: “One second later, I thought, ‘Why did I wash the blood off?’ I should have left it there; let them see what they’ve done.”
With this in mind, Jackie decided not to change her clothes, even as she agreed to be present as Johnson took the oath (誓词) of office. When offered the option to descend from the plane without being photographed, she again insisted, “We’ll go out the regular way. I want them to see what they have done.”
The former first lady had always understood the power of imagery to convey messages. By showing up in her bloody outfit, she reminded everyone there, and everyone who would later see photos from the ceremony of the murdered president.
1. According to the article, Jacqueline Kennedy refused to take off her suit after her husband was shot because ________.| A．she dared not recall the cruel assassination (刺杀) of her husband |
| B．she wanted to honor her husband in this way |
| C．she wasn’t given enough time to change into another outfit |
| D．she wanted to remind everyone of the violent act |
| A．a photographer | B．a policy economist |
| C．a government lawyer | D．his husband’s secretary |
| A．As First Lady, she was good at socializing with others. |
| B．She insisted on being photographed as usual when getting off the plane. |
| C．She lost control of her emotions after President Kennedy had been assassinated. |
| D．She didn’t attend the ceremony in which the new president Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office. |
| A．calm and determined | B．shy and unconfident |
| C．emotional and considerate | D．strong-minded and cold-hearted |
