Question

When Marilynne Robinson published her first novel, Housekeeping, in 1980, she was unknown in the literary world. But an early review in The New York Times ensured that the book would be noticed. “It’s as if, in writing it, she broke through the ordinary human condition with all its dissatisfactions, and achieved a kind of transfiguration（美化）,” wrote Anatole Broyard, with an enthusiasm and amazement that was shared by many critics and readers. The book became a classic, and Robinson was recognized as one of the outstanding American writers of our time. Yet it would be more than twenty years before she wrote another novel. 

During the period, Robinson devoted herself to writing nonfiction. Her essays and book reviews appeared in Harper’s and The New York Times Book Review, and in 1989 she published Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution, criticizing severely the environmental and public health dangers caused by the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in England—and the political and moral corruption(腐败). In 1998, Robinson published a collection of her critical and theological writings, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, which featured reassessments of such figures as Charles Darwin, John Calvin, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Aside from a single short story—“Connie Bronson,” published in The Paris Review in 1986—it wasn’t until 2004 that she returned to fiction with the novel Gilead, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, Home, came out this fall.

Her novels could be described as celebrations of the human—the characters in them are unforgettable creations. Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her sister Lucille, who are cared for by their eccentric（古怪的）Aunt Sylvie after their mother commits suicide. Robinson writes a lot about how each of the three is changed by their new life together. Gilead is an even more close exploration of personality: the book centres on John Ames, a seventy-seven-year-old pastor(牧师) who is writing an account of his life and his family history to leave to his young son after he dies. Home borrows characters from Gilead but centers on Ames’s friend Reverend Robert Boughton and his troubled son Jack. Robinson returned to the same territory as Gilead because, she said, “after I write a novel or a story, I miss the characters—I feel like losing some close friends.”

1.Robinson’s second novel came out ____.

A. in 1980                         B. in 1986                          C. in 1998                          D. in 2004

2.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A. Robinson’s achievements in fiction.

B. Robinson’s achievements in nonfiction.

C. Robinson’s influence on the literary world.

D. Robinson’s contributions to the environment.

3.According to Paragraph 3, who is John Ames?

A. He is Robinson’s close friend.

B. He is a character in Gilead. 

C. He is a figure in The Death of Adam.

D. He is a historian writing family stories.

4.From which section of a newspaper can you read this passage?

A. Career.                        B. Lifestyle.     　   C. Music.                           D. Culture.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.B

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：

    本文介绍Marilynne Robinson的写作成就及其作品的价值取向。80年出版第一本小说后转写散文和书评，20多年后的2004年出版第二本小说，今秋出版第三本小说。其小说赞美人性、其散文抨击腐败、其书评对一些知名人士做出重新评价。

1.从第二段it wasn’t until 2004 that she returned to fiction with the novel Gilead,一句可知，其第二部小说2004年出版。故选择D项。

2.第二段第一句During the period, Robinson devoted herself to writing nonfiction 表明本段介绍的是Robinson从事非文学创作的情况。故B项正确。

3.由Gilead is an even more close exploration of personality: the book centres on John Ames, 一句可知，Ames是小说Gilead中的人物。故选择B项。

4.本文是介绍作家的人物传记，应属于报纸上的“文化”专栏。career: 职业；lifestyle: 生活；music: 音乐。故选择D项。

考点：人物传记。