Doris Lessing, a novelist whose books have swept across continents and reflected her concern about the social and political issues of her time, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. The award came with about $1. 6 million.
Ms Lessing never finished high school and largely educated herself through reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, non-fiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Ms Lessing was born Doris May Tayler in 1919 in what is now Iran. Her father was a bank clerk, and her mother was trained as a nurse. Attracted by the promise of farming riches, the family moved to Zimbabwe, where Ms Lessing had what she had called a painful childhood.
She left home when she was 15, and in 1937 she moved to Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, where she took jobs as a telephone operator and a nursemaid. She married at 19 and had two children. A few years later, feeling as if she were put in prison, she deserted her family. Afterwards she married Gottfried Lessing, and they had a son.
When she divorced Mr Lessing, she and her son, Peter, moved to London, where she began her writing career. Her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, was published in Britain in 1949. Ms Lessing's strongest influence may be that she inspired a generation of feminists（女权主义者）with her breakthrough novel, The Golden Notebook. The book was published in 1962, which wrote about the story of Anna Wulf, a woman who wanted to live freely and was, in some ways, Ms Lessing's secondary personality. She wrote about the inner lives of women and rejected the opinion that they should abandon their lives to marriage and children.
1. Ms Lessing's family moved from Iran to Zimbabwe because______________.| A．farming could make them become well off |
| B．her laid-off parents could find jobs |
| C．she could receive a better education |
| D．she could have a chance to take up writing |
| A．Doris Lessing is Ms Lessing's pen name |
| B．Doris May Tayler is the name of Ms Lessing's birthplace |
| C．Anna Wulf is Ms Lessing's name used before |
| D．Doris May Tayler is Ms Lessing's once-used name |
| A．Ms Lessing is the llth person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
| B．Ms Lessing got down to writing after graduation from high school. |
| C．Ms Lessing married three times and had three children. |
| D．Ms Lessing disapproved of women abandoning their lives to their marriage. |
| A．Ms Lessing's writing career took off in her twenties |
| B．The Golden Notebook was about Ms Lessing's broken marriage life |
| C．Ms Lessing's books are in connection with social and political issues of her time |
| D．the failure of Ms Lessing's marriages was due to her devotion to her career |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】In 1997, a group of twenty British women made history. Working in five teams with four women in each team, they walked to the North Pole. Apart from one experienced female guide, the other women were all ordinary people who had never done anything like this in their lives before. They managed to survive in an environment which had defeated several very experienced men during the same period.
Once on the ice, each woman had to ski along while dragging a sledge(雪橇) weighing over 50 kilos. This would not have been too bad on a smooth surface, but for long stretches (一片地域), the Arctic ice is pushed up into huge piles two or three meters high and the sledges had to be pulled up on side and carefully let down the other so that they didn't crash. The temperature was always below freezing point and sometimes strong winds made walking while pulling so much weight almost impossible. It was also very difficult to put up their tents when they stopped each night.
In such conditions the women were making good progress if they covered fourteen or fifteen kilometers a day. But there was another problem. Part of the journey was across a frozen sea with moving water underneath the ice and at some points the team would drift (漂流) back more than five kilometers during the night. That meant that after walking in these very terrible conditions for ten hours on one day, they had to spend part of the next day covering the same ground again. Furthermore, each day it would take three hours from waking up to setting off and another three hours every evening to set up the camp and prepare the evening meal.
So, how did they manage to succeed? They realized that they were part of a team. If anyone of them didn't pull her sledge or get her job done, she would endanger the success of the whole expedition (远征探险).Any form of selfishness could result in the efforts of everyone else being completely wasted, so personal feelings had to be put to one side. At the end of their journey, the women agreed that it was mental effort far more than physical fitness that got them to the North Pole.
1. During the expedition, the women had to be careful to avoid ________.| A．being left behind | B．damaging the sledges |
| C．falling over on the ice | D．breaking the ice |
| A．they got too tired | B．they kept getting lost |
| C．the ice was moving backwards | D．the temperatures were very low |
| A．Strict but caring. | B．Proud but patient. |
| C．Honest and devoted. | D．Determined and strong-willed. |
| A．Experience must be bought. |
| B．Facts speak louder than words. |
| C．He who risks nothing gains nothing. |
| D．Motivation and teamwork achieve goals. |
【推荐2】In January, 2017, snow began to fall across the Apennines. For days it came down, and the enormous drifts（雪堆）on the mountain grew taller by the hour.
In spite of the bad weather, Matrone and his wife decided to make the trip to the mountain resort and have an overnight getaway. Unfortunately, a small earthquake broke out that night, which caused an avalanche（雪崩）. The avalanche gathered speed and size, grabbing rocks and trees and anything else in its way as it roared down the mountain.
The snow-and the weight of everything it had brought down the mountain with it swept the hotel from its foundation and sent everything flying more than 100 yards away. Matrone was trapped 30 feet beneath the snow and ruins, unable to move. Every time he came to life from faint, he dreamed of walking alongside his wife.
Eight hours later, the rescuers arrived, The search work went on slowly. Finally, more than 30 hours after the search began, they heard something astonishing: a woman crying for help. Adriana and her son were the first to be rescued alive.
Finding the survivors electrified the rescuers. They tunneled quickly in the ruins. The rescue team had been working nonstop for more than two days when they heard a voice. It was Matrone. The angled beams had created a cocoon that prevented Matrone from being crushed（压）to death. Those near him had not been so lucky.
Rescuers raised the concrete beams off Matrone’s limbs and lifted him out. It was some 60 hours since the avalanche. He was one of 11 people out of 40 to have survived. Soon after, he was airlifted to a hospital in a nearby town.
Five days after his rescue, Matrone was given the heartbreaking news that his wife had died. Her body had been found near where Matrone had been trapped. The angel who had appeared in his dreams had never left his side.
1. What directly caused the hotel to be destroyed?| A．The snowfall. | B．The earthquake. |
| C．The avalanche. | D．The rocks and trees. |
| A．Made people feel satisfied. |
| B．Made people feel excited. |
| C．Equipped people with electronics. |
| D．Supplied people with electricity. |
| A．More than 30 hours. | B．About five days. |
| C．Less than 40 hours. | D．About two and a half days. |
| A．A Narrow Escape | B．A Scary Night. |
| C．A Perfect Rescue | D．A Dawn Avalanche. |
【推荐3】In May 2019, a friend who had previously been involved in the Restless Development Sierra Leone Business Brains project encouraged me to apply for the “Saving Lives II” project. Seeing this as an opportunity to move closer to my ambition of working in the medical field in the near future, I eagerly seized the chance. Fortunately, my performance during the interview led to me being awarded the role.
Following the basic training, I was sent to volunteer in Kurubonla, a remote community located in the northem region of Sierra Leone. This assignment presented challenges such as limited road access and communication networks. At first, I felt concerned about being sent there, but with a determined mindset, I set out on the journey, driven by a passion to contribute to my country’s development and to push my personal boundaries.
As I got to know the community, I quickly realized that the challenges extended beyond language barriers and cultural differences; there was also a sense of isolation from my peers. However, I refused to allow these challenges to stop me. I threw myself in my duties, working together with local leaders and community members to identify the most pressing needs. Together, we carried out the projects aimed at improving healthcare, education, and infrastructure (基础设施). Additionally, I organized workshops and training courses to share my knowledge and skills with the locals.
Over time, I witnessed the positive impact of our collective efforts. Healthcare facilities improved, the number of students in schools increased, and the overall quality of life in the community showed signs of improvement. These achievements were not solely mine; they were a testament to the cooperative spirit and commitment of the entire community.
1. What do we learn about the author from the first two paragraphs?| A．He was unwilling to volunteer in Sierra Leonne. |
| B．He felt excited about the assignment in Kurubonla. |
| C．He applied for the “Saving Lives Ⅱ” project for his future promise. |
| D．He was immediately sent to Kurubonla after he was awarded the role. |
| A．He assisted in the projects led by the locals. |
| B．He met with only language and cultural barriers. |
| C．He overcame challenges to serve the community. |
| D．He attended the training courses organized by the local leaders. |
| A．Devoted but stubborn. | B．Determined and passionate. |
| C．Confident and cautious. | D．Motivated but moody. |
| A．The author’s growth through volunteering. |
| B．Language and culture in voluntary work. |
| C．Collective efforts in community development. |
| D．Volunteers’ challenges in remote communities. |
【推荐1】On Feb. 19, the same day Harper Lee passed away, the world lost another literary giant. He was 84-year-old Umberto Eco, an Italian writer, whose masterpiece The Name of the Rose won him international fame when it was published in 1980. The novel sold more than 10 million copies in about 30 languages and was made into a movie in 1986 starring British actor Sean Connery.
A USA Today obituary (讣告) thus describes: “Eco was an author of books ranging from novels to scholarly books to essay collections; Eco was enthusiastic about the obscure as well as ordinary daily life; As a scholar, critic and novelist, he also did research on the mysterious theory of semiotics — the study of signs and symbols in language and the technical languages of the Internet.
The Name of the Rose can be seen as a much more complicated version of US writer Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code. The book is set in a 14th century Italian Monastery (修道院) where monks (修道士) are being murdered one by one in terrible manners. Two monks who travel to the monastery try to solve the murders. The book’s mystery develops around a complex-designed library and a lost Aristotle’s book on comedy.
Although the novel is full of Latin phrases and devotes many pages to analysis of Christian (基督教的) beliefs and ancient philosophy, it’s a fascinating detective thriller.
Eco also wrote some harsh literary criticism. He once wrote that “books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told”.
1. What can we learn about The Name of the Rose?| A．It earned Harper Lee worldwide reputation. |
| B．It featured the main character Sean Connery. |
| C．It was translated into no more than 30 versions. |
| D．It had its film adaptation after the book’s publication. |
| A．Eco was more than a novelist. |
| B．Eco was an expert in the Internet. |
| C．Eco was merely interested in ordinary daily life. |
| D．Eco not only wrote novels but also some dramas. |
| A．A long-lost ownerless book. |
| B．A complex-designed library. |
| C．Chain murdering in an Italian Monastery. |
| D．A story copied from the novel The Da Vinci Code. |
| A．Stories are far from reality. | B．Creativity is hard to come by. |
| C．Some books are well worth reading. | D．Writers need to polish their language. |
Henley Street，Stratford-Upon-Avon Tel：01789 204016
Shakespeare’s Birthplace was the childhood home of William Shakespeare．Take a step back in time and see what life was like for the young Shakespeare growing up in Stratford-Upon-Avon．The house has been exactly furnished，and includes both original and copy items similar to those which would have been there in the house when Shakespeare was a boy．Beautiful painted cloths hang on the walls，brightly colored fabrics fill the rooms and his father’s glove workshop has been recreated．At the back of the house is a beautiful garden containing many plants，herbs and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays．
The neighboring exhibition shows Shakespeare's life and focuses on many rare local items connected with him，as well as a copy of the first edition of his collected plays published in 1623．
◎Limited disabled access
◎Many restaurants close to Shakespeare’s Birthplace
◎Town center parking
◎Gift shop
◎Allow at least 45 minutes to visit the house and the exhibition
1. What can we see in Shakespeare’s birthplace?
| A．Old furniture． | B．Ancient restaurants. |
| C．Colored gloves． | D．Shakespeare’s plays. |
| A．￡5.2． | B．￡13.4． | C．￡15． | D．￡18.6． |
| A．4：00 pm． | B．5：00 pm． | C．5：30 pm． | D．6：00 pm. |
【推荐3】The writings of Shakespeare are today little read by young people in Britain. His young readership is limited to those who choose to study literature at university.
Shakespeare’s work, together with most other classics, is seen as remote, and written in a 400yearold version of English that is about as inviting as toothache.
Still, in Britain schools, it is compulsory to study the bard(诗人), and when something is made compulsory, usually the result is boredom, resentment(憎恨) or both.
This was my experience of the classics at school. But when I reached my late teenage years, I had a change of heart. Like every other young person since the dawn of time, the world confused me. I wanted answers, so I turned to books to find them.
I went on to take a PhD in literature and have taught it in Britain and China. I have never regretted it. There is something in literature that people want, even if they don’t read books. You see this in the popularity of TV and movie adaptations of great works, the recent film version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice being a case in point. These popular adaptations may help increase people’s interest in the classics.
Reading a simplified Romeo and Juliet may perhaps lead to a reading of Shakespeare’s actual play. If that is the case, then I welcome the trend. But do not make the mistake of thinking that it is the same thing. Shakespeare is a poet. His greatness is in his language. Reading someone else’s rewriting of his work is like peeling a banana, throwing away the fruit, and eating the skin. Take on the original. It really is worth the effort.
1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?| A．The language used in classics is no longer in use today. |
| B．British students usually find compulsory reading dull. |
| C．Only those studying literature read Shakespeare’s works. |
| D．For British people, Shakespeare’s works are no longer classics. |
| A．has liked literary classics since an early age |
| B．was forced to read the classics for a PhD |
| C．turned to literature to seek answers in his teens |
| D．thinks only people who read books like literature |
| A．a great hit |
| B．a good example |
| C．a movie adaptation |
| D．a popular phenomenon |
