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Jane Austen ever popular

This summer, the UK will honor its favorite writer, Jane Austen (1775-1817), by making her face on the new £ 10 note. In the 200 years since her death, Austen’s fame has increased from the modest amount she enjoyed in her lifetime to the global fame she receives today.

And yet Austen’s work is so very English that it’s rather strange she should be so popular all over the world. Her novels are so of her time that it’s remarkable that she’s still appreciated in this very different age. Her most famous works — including Pride and Prejudice, the one for which she is most known — are set in the world of the English gentry (绅士阶层) in the 18th century.

Most of her fiction is about young women of that time. Women of the gentry could not work so their chances of happiness or even basic living depended upon finding a husband. This is a very serious subject, of course, but the joy of Austen’s stories is her ability to make wonderful, but also touching comedy out of something so serious.

Take Pride and Prejudice as an example. Elizabeth Bennet is one of five daughters in a countryside family that struggles because daughters can’t inherit (继承) the property. Her mother wants to marry off as many of them as possible. The pushy and annoying Mrs Bennet is one of the great comic characters in English literature.

The main plot of the novel is driven by the love-hate relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, a wealthy noble. At first, they don’t get on. Elizabeth finds Darcy too proud; she feels he thinks he is better than everyone else in the countryside. She thinks that he looks down upon her family in particular. Darcy, while admiring Elizabeth, believes that she has treated him unfairly. The pleasure of the novel is reading how these obstacles (阻碍) are overcome and how the comical and unexpected ending is achieved.

If we think about this story, it’s obvious why Jane Austen is still popular 200 years after her death, and why readers can still identify with (与……产生共鸣) characters from the long dead world of the 18th century English gentry. Although there have been many changes since that time, it’s still the greatest challenge in life for men and women to find the partner of their dreams.

【小题1】What can we conclude from Paragraph 2?
A.The author believes Jane Austen’s works are ahead of her time.
B.The author thinks that everyone should read Jane Austen’s books.
C.The author has doubts about Jane Austen’s popularity all over the world.
D.The author is surprised that Jane Austen’s books are still so famous.
【小题2】According to the passage, Pride and Prejudice __________.
A.has a sad and unexpected ending
B.deals with a serious social issue in a lighthearted way
C.centers on countryside people’s struggles in the 18th century
D.tells readers that everyone can succeed through hard work
【小题3】According to the passage, why does Jane Austen remain popular today?
A.Because readers enjoy reading love stories about wealthy nobles.
B.Because readers are attracted by the way people deal with difficulties in the stories.
C.Because readers can always find something new from her novels.
D.Because her works deal with the problems many of today’s readers still face.
【小题4】What’s the main purpose of the passage?
A.To tell us why Jane Austen is chosen to be on the new £ 10 note.
B.To introduce the story of Pride and Prejudice.
C.To explain why Jane Austen is still popular today.
D.To introduce Jane Austen’s creative writing style.
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同类题2

About 70 scientists were working on a very busy project. All of them felt really desperate due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting their job.
One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him, “Sir, I’ve promised to take my children to the exhibition going on in our township so I want to leave at 5:30 p. m.” His boss replied, “OK. You’re permitted to leave the office early today.”
The scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual, he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch only when he felt he was close to completion. The time was 8:30 p. m. suddenly he remembered his promise to the children. He looked for his boss but he was not there. Having told him in the morning himself, he closed everything and left for home. Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children. He reached home. The children were not there. His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive; any talk would boomerang on him. His wife asked him, “Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry?” The man replied, “If you would like to have coffee, I too will have but what about the children?” His wife replied, “You don’t know? Your boss came here at 5:15 p. m. and has taken them to the exhibition.”
What had really happened was the boss who gave him permission was observing him working seriously at 5:00 p. m. He thought to himself: this person will not leave the work, but he’s promised to take his children to the exhibition. So he took the lead in taking them there. The boss does not have to do it every time. But once it’s done, loyalty is established.
That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss even though the stress was extraordinarily huge. By the way, can you boldly guess who the boss was? He was none other than the mastermind behind India’s successful nuclear weapons program, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India.
【小题1】The scientist asked for an early leave because ________.
A.he felt increasingly desperate about his work
B.he’d promised to take his kids to a show
C.the task at hand was close to completion
D.he meant to accompany his wife at dinner
【小题2】The underlined sentence implies that the scientist thought his wife was ________.
A.ready to serve dinner for himB.dissatisfied with his coming home late
C.grateful to his kind- hearted bossD.delighted to see him back home
【小题3】The boss took children to the exhibition ________.
A.when it was too late for the scientist to do so
B.when the man’s wife asked him to do so
C.because the scientist was absorbed in his work
D.because he also wanted to see what was on show
【小题4】All the scientists stayed loyal to their boss ________.
A.because he had power over them
B.to learn how to live under pressure
C.out of gratefulness for his thoughtfulness
D.every time he took the children to the show

同类题3

   Blind people can read. They do so by running their fingers along a line of raised points or dots on paper. Of course, they first have to learn the code(代码). Here are some examples of it. One dot stands for the letter “A”. Two dots side by side mean “C”. Four dots arranged to look like a box(::) stand for the letter “G”. By placing the dots in special patterns, all the letters of the alphabet can be formed.

This code was made up by a Frenchman called Louis Braille. Though he could see at birth, he became sightless when he was only three. Braille was cutting leather in his father’s shop. His knife slipped and cut his eye. Infection(感染)spread to both eyes, and he became blind.

At 10, he was placed in a home for the blind. But young Braille had great talent. He became a skilled musician and soon got a job as a church organist(风琴弹奏者)in Paris.

Because he had talent and was quick, he became a teacher at a school for the blind. While there, he heard that a captain had sent messages to his soldiers that they could read at night without light. His messages were in the simple form of raised dots and dashes. This was the clue Braille needed. At the age of 15, he worked out his own six-dot code. Each group of dots is called a cell. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. For the rest of his life, Braille taught his young flock to read both written and musical works using his code.

For the last 17 years of his life, Braille was ill with tuberculosis. He died at the age of 43.

【小题1】What is the text mainly about?
A.Different reading methods.B.Blind people around the world.
C.How blind people communicate.D.Louis Braille and his six-dot code.
【小题2】Louis Braille developed an alphabet for blind people after he __________.
A.worked as an organistB.became blind as a young child
C.became a skilled musician in a churchD.was inspired by a captain’s messages
【小题3】The underlined word “flock” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to “____________”.
A.soldiersB.blind students
C.famous teachersD.skilled musicians
【小题4】The text is developed ______________.
A.in time orderB.in space order
C.by listing examplesD.by making comparisons

同类题4

Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all time, really did foolish experiments? Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic that other people just thought they were foolish?

Sometimes, people think they already know the answer to a question or the solution to a problem. Sometimes, they really do know an answer or a solution, but without thinking they are important.
Charles Darwin didn’t settle for(满足于)just thinking he knew something. And, he believed all things could be important however simple they seemed to be.
Suppose you drop sheets of paper that are of exactly the same size and shape. If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way. Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other sheets. What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn’t be worth anything.
But this simple experiment is important. It explains part of our present-day understandings of physics, ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton. And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek physics.
Scientists sometimes stop to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them. Even the simplest idea, which we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations of science.
【小题1】The passage tells us that Charles Darwin    .
A.was a great English scientist
B.always liked doing the experiments that others thought difficult
C.thought even the simplest thing was important
D.didn’t get well with others
【小题2】The underlined phrase “set aside” most probably means    .
A.throw awayB.store up
C.put to useD.realize
【小题3】The author of the passage tries to    .
A.convince us that Charles Darwin, Galileo and Newton are the greatest scientists in the world
B.draw the conclusion that basic sciences are simple things
C.prove that two sheets of paper, with the same size and shape, will fall at the same speed
D.draw our attention to everyday happenings around us
【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE?
A.Darwin really did foolish experiments.
B.According to some people Darwin did foolish experiments.
C.It is believed by all the people that things could be important though they seemed to be simple.
D.Galileo and Newton worked out ancient Greek physics.

同类题5

   Not so long ago, most people didn’t know who Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was going to become. She was just an average high athlete. There was every indication that she was just another Jamaican teenager without much of a future. However, one person wanted to change this. Stephen Francis observed then eighteen-year-old Shelly-Ann at a track meet and was convinced that he had seen the beginnings of true greatness. Her times were not exactly impressive, but even so, he sensed there was something trying to get out, something the other coaches had overlooked when they had assessed her and found her lacking. He decided to offer Shelly-Ann a place in his very strict training sessions. Their cooperation quickly produced results, and a few years later at Jamaica’s Olympic trials in early 2008, Shelly-Ann, who at that time only ranked number 70 in the world, beat Jamaica’s unchallenged queen of the sprint (短跑).

"Where did she come from?" asked an astonished sprinting world, before concluding that she must be one of those one-hit wonders that spring up from time to time, only to disappear again without signs. But Shelly-Ann was to prove that she was anything but a one-hit wonder. At the Beijing Olympics she swept away any doubts about her ability to perform consistently by becoming the first Jamaican woman ever to win the 100 metres Olympic gold. She did it again one year on at the World Championships in Berlin, becoming world champion with a time of 10.73 — the fourth fastest time ever.

Shelly-Ann is a little woman with a big smile. She has a mental toughness that did not come about by chance. Her journey to becoming the fastest woman on earth has been anything but smooth and effortless. She grew up in one of Jamaica’s toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse, where she lived in a one-room apartment, sleeping four in a bed with her mother and two brothers. Waterhouse, one of the poorest communities in Jamaica, is a really violent and overpopulated place. Several of Shelly-Ann’s friends and family were caught up in the killings; one of her cousins was shot dead only a few streets away from where she lived. Sometimes her family didn’t have enough to eat. She ran at the school championships barefooted because she couldn’t afford shoes. Her mother Maxime, one of a family of fourteen, had been an athlete herself as a young girl but, like so many other girls in Waterhouse, had to stop after she had her first baby. Maxime’s early entry into the adult world with its responsibilities gave her the determination to ensure that her kids would not end up in Waterhouse’s roundabout of poverty. One of the first things Maxime used to do with Shelly-Ann was taking her to the track, and she was ready to sacrifice everything.

It didn’t take long for Shelly-Ann to realize that sports could be her way out of Waterhouse. On a summer evening in Beijing in 2008, all those long, hard hours of work and commitment finally bore fruit. The barefoot kid who just a few years previously had been living in poverty, surrounded by criminals and violence, had written a new chapter in the history of sports.

But Shelly-Ann’s victory was far greater than that. The night she won Olympic gold in Beijing, the routine murders in Waterhouse and the drug wars in the neighbouring streets stopped. The dark cloud above one of the world’s toughest criminal neighbourhoods simply disappeared for a few days. "I have so much fire burning for my country," Shelly said. She plans to start a foundation for homeless children and wants to build a community centre in Waterhouse. She hopes to inspire the Jamaicans to lay down their weapons. She intends to fight to make it a woman’s as well as a man’s world.

As Muhammad Ali puts it, "Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them. A desire, a dream, a vision." One of the things Shelly-Ann can be proud of is her understanding of this truth.

【小题1】Why did Stephen Francis decide to coach Shelly-Ann?
A.He had a strong desire to free her family from trouble.
B.He sensed a great potential in her despite her weaknesses.
C.She had big problems maintaining her performance.
D.She suffered a lot of defeats at the previous track meets.
【小题2】What did the sprinting world think of Shelly-Ann before the 2008 Olympic Games?
A.She would become a promising star.
B.She badly needed to set higher goals.
C.Her sprinting career would not last long.
D.Her talent for sprinting was known to all.
【小题3】What made Maxime decide to train her daughter on the track?
A.Her success and lessons in her career.
B.Her interest in Shelly-Ann’s quick profit.
C.Her wish to get Shelly-Ann out of poverty.
D.Her early entrance into the sprinting world.
【小题4】What can we infer from Shelly-Ann’s statement underlined in Paragraph 5?
A.She was highly rewarded for her efforts.
B.She was eager to do more for her country.
C.She became an athletic star in her country.
D.She was the envy of the whole community.
【小题5】By mentioning Muhammad Ali’s words, the author intends to tell us that .
A.players should be highly inspired by coaches
B.great athletes need to concentrate on patience
C.hard work is necessary in one’s achievements
D.motivation allows great athletes to be on the top
【小题6】What is the best title for the passage?
A.The Making of a Great Athlete
B.The Dream for Championship
C.The Key to High Performance
D.The Power of Full Responsibility