问答题
When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.It was a big, squarish frame house and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily"s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps— an eyesore among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson(the Town of Jefferson).Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of heredity obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily"s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris" generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it.This section above is an excerpt from William Faulkner"s short story A Rose for Emily. Please answer the following questions according to the excerpt:
问答题
What is the town people"s response toward Emily"s death and what"s the reason for that? Use your own words to give an illustration.(3 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The town people"s response to Emily"s death could be summarized as relief and sorry, because in her youth, Emily and her family were respected and known as some of the finest citizens, but as she grew old, she couldn"t accept the change, she was decaying with her house. She confined herself inside the house, refused to pay taxes and the smell from her house disturbed her neighbors. So her death was a relief to those town people. But her death also represented the pass of the old time, that"s why people would also feel sorry for her.
【答案解析】
问答题
These paragraphs typically show Faulkner"s major concern in literary writing. Please explain Faulkner"s literary concern in general with one representative work except this short story.(4 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：Faulkner"s major concern in his writing is the inevitable loss of the American South. He probes the inner lives of those who live in the South and tries to cope with the problems of a society in decline and transition. Take his The Sound and Fury for example, this novel is a complex account of the breakdown of the once distinguished and honored Compson family. We can see the new social and economic order that emerges in the South after the war has not lost the secret of the old positive moral values, and it also has adopted more ruthless and ambitious ways of the industrialized and mechanized North. So the characters in this novel are often deeply disturbed and in some sense, driven insane by the moral confusion and social decay.
【答案解析】
问答题
In the 3rd paragraph, Miss Emily is referred to as "a tradition". What does this tradition mean? When the paragraph ends with the sentence " Only a man of Colonel Sartoris" generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it" , what information does the writer want to give to his readers?(4 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：Tradition here refers all the old order, value and honor of the American South before the Civil War. The writer wants to inform his readers that Colonel Sartoris belongs to the same generation of Emily. He is making lies to maintain the honor of upper and ruling class. But it seems that no one in the town cares about the honor, so the honor is more like a burden to Emily and implies her tragic life.