问答题
Read the following paragraph and answer the questions on your ANSWER SHEET.When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe, into the unguarded ear? Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
问答题
Who is the author of the novel from which this paragraph is taken? What is the title of the novel? (6 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The author of the novel is Theodore Dreiser. The excerpt is taken from Sister Carrie.
问答题
With which literary school is the author usually identified? (4 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：Dreiser identified himself with American Naturalism, an extension or continuation of Realism with the addition of pessimistic determinism.
【答案解析】解析：本题考查作者所属的文学流派。
问答题
How does the paragraph express the main points of that school? (5 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The subject matter of Naturalism deals with those raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to "degrading" behavior in their struggle to survive. These characters are mostly from the lower middle or the lower classes—they are poor, uneducated, and unsophisticated. Dreiser depiction of Carrie as a girl who comes to the city exemplifies it. And characters in the novel are conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, chance, or instinct; but they have compensating humanistic values which affirm their individuality and life as Dreiser writes: "either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse." And they don"t even strike a balance ("under the circumstances, there is no possibility").
【答案解析】解析：本题应该先回答自然主义的写作风格，然后在文章中寻找具体的例证。
问答题
What do you think about the author"s way of writing as reflected in the paragraph? (5 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：Theodore Dreiser is a outstanding representative of naturalism, whose novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Some critics believe that his literary talents were uniquely suited to the long novel form but his writing style is far too loquacious and circuitous for shorter narratives. Take the given excerpt for example. He begins his story with a philosophical speculation about the nature of existence ("Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility"). And he also depicts to every detail what the city and city life is ("A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms.") to make an organic whole of the narrative.