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 【小题1】 better job for his father. Three years 【小题2】(late), his mother took him on a trip to England to visit family. While they were away, they received terrible news that his father had died.

【小题3】(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. As a child, he had a great passion for language and in 1908, he went to Oxford University 【小题4】(study) languages and literature. In 1915, he joined the army and fought in the battle against the Germans. But soon, he became too ill to fight and returned 【小题5】 England the following year. He didn’t have a 【小题6】(satisfy) childhood himself, so around in 1933, he spent much time telling his children fantasy 【小题7】(story) of a hobbit (霍比特人) called Bilbo. He first put it in writing in 1936, 【小题8】 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 【小题9】(publish) in three volumes between 1954 and 1955.

Tolkien, 【小题10】(age) eighty-one, died in 1973.