填空题
The Beginning of American Literature
American has always been a land of beginnings. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}Europeans "discovered" America in the fifteenth century, the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life, an escape from {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}and persecution, a chance to start again. We can say that, as nation, America begins with that hope. When, {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}, does American literature begin?
American literature begins with American experiences. Long before the first colonists arrived, before Christopher Columbus, before the Northmen who "found" America about the year 1,000, {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}Americans lived here. Each tribe's literature was {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of lining with the land. {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}kind of experience, one filled with fear and excitement, found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}home in Spain, French and English. In addition, the journals of the people who lived and died in the New England wilderness tell unforgettable tales of hard and sometimes {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}experiences of those {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}years.
Experience, then, is the key to early American literature. The New World {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}a great variety of experiences, and these experiences {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}a wide variety of expressions by an even wider variety of early American writers. These writers included John Smith, {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}spent only two-and-a-half years on the American continent. They included Jonathan Edwards and William Byrd, who {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}of themselves as British subjects, never {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own. American Indians, explorers, Puritan ministers, frontier wives, plantation owner—they are all the {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}of the first American literature.
51. A. Before B. After C. If D. Unless
52. A. happiness B. prosperity C. wealth D. poverty
53. A. but B. however C. and D. so
54. A. naughty B. natural C. national D. native
55. A. loosely B. densely C. tightly D. heavily
56. A. Another B. Other C. The other D. Others
57. A. gave B. sent C. brought D. took
58. A. favourable B. unforgettable C. heartbreaking D. significant
59. A. early B. later C. final D. late
60. A. improved B. promoted C. developed D. provided
61. A. destroyed B. demanded C. disrupted D. disputed
62. A. whose B. that C. which D. who
63. A. imagined B. wondered C. thought D. expected
64. A. to suspect B. suspecting C. suspect D. suspected
65. A. creators B. conductors C. contributors D. conqueror