单选题 The drama critic, on the other hand, has no such advantage. He cannot be selective; he must cover everything that is offered for public scrutiny in the principal playhouses of the city where he works. The column space that seemed, yesterday, so pitifully inadequate to contain his comments on Long Day's Journey Into Night is roughly the same as that which yawns today for his verdict on the latest scrap of milk-fed Kitsch that has chanced to find for itself a numbskull hacker with a hundred thousand dollars to lose. This state of affairs may help to explain why the New York theater reviewers are so often, and so unjustly, stigmatized as baleful and destructive fiends. They spend most of their professional lives attempting to pronounce intelligent judgments on plays that have no aspiration to intelligence. It is hardly surprising that they lash out occasionally; in fact, what amazes me about them is that they do not lash out more violently and more frequently. As Shaw said of his fellow-critics in the nineties, they are "a culpably indulgent body of men." Imagine the verbal excoriations that would be inflicted if Lionel Trilling, or someone of comparable eminence, were called on to review five books a month of which three were novelettes composed of criminal confessions. The butchers of Broadway would seem lambs by comparison.

单选题 In writing this passage, the author's chief concern seems to be to ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】在写这篇短文的过程中,作者主要关注的事情似乎是捍卫戏剧评论家的工作。作者在文中说,这种事态也许有助于说明纽约戏院的评论家们为什么那么频繁地、那么不公正地被污蔑为有害的、甚至让人毁灭的恶魔。他们将职业生涯的大部分时间用于明智地评判不太明智的戏剧。他们偶而破口大骂就不足为怪了。实际上,他们让我感到奇怪的是,他们骂得不够激烈,不够频繁。这几句话足以说明作者是在保护戏剧评论家。
单选题 The passage indicates that the drama critic is ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】这篇短文表明,戏剧评论家受到他的专栏的某些要求的制约。根据第三句,戏剧评论家受篇幅的制约。
单选题 Tile passage suggests that as a play Long Day's Journey into Night was ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】本文暗示,作为戏剧,《日夜兼程》是值得的。第三句暗示,如果不是篇幅所限,戏剧评论家对《日夜兼程》的评论会更充分一些。这说明,戏剧《日夜兼程》是值得的。
单选题 Lionel Trilling is most probably a ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】莱昂内尔·特里林很可能是一位书评家。本文倒数第二句告诉我们,莱昂内尔·特里林受人邀请评论书籍。
单选题 The paragraph previous to this one most probably discusses the ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】这个自然段前面的一个自然段很可能论述书评家的工作。根据第一句话,作者改变了他的话题,因为他运用了on the other hand(另一方面)这个词组。与戏剧评论相对应的很可能是书评,这是选A的第一个依据。第二个依据是他在文章结尾处把书评家和戏剧评论家进行了比较。