单选题 Mary Barton, particularly in its early chapters, is a moving response to the suffering of the industrial worker in the England of the 1840"s. What is most impressive about the book is the intense and painstaking effort made by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, to convey the experience of everyday life in working-class homes. Her method is partly documentary in nature; the novel includes such features as a carefully annotated reproduction of dialect, the exact details of food prices in an account of a tea party, an itemized description of the furniture of the Bartons" living room, and a transcription of the ballad " The Oldham Weaver. " The interest of this record is considerable, even though the method has a slightly distancing effect. As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could hardly help approaching working-class life as an outside observer and a reporter, and the reader of the novel is always conscious of this fact. But there is genuine imaginative re-creation in her accounts of the walk in Green Heys Fields, of tea at the Bartons" house, and of John Barton and his friend"s discovery of the starving family in the cellar in the chapter "Poverty and Death." Indeed, for a similarly convincing re-creation of such families" emotions and responses(which are more crucial than the material details on which the mere reporter is apt to concentrate), the English novel had to wait 60 years for the early writing of D. H. Lawrence. If Gaskell never quite conveys the sense of full participation that would completely authenticate this aspect of Mary Barton, she still brings to these scenes an intuitive recognition of feelings that has its own sufficient conviction. The chapter "Old Alice"s History" brilliantly dramatizes the situation of that early generation of workers brought from the villages and the countryside to the urban industrial centers. The account of Job Legh, the weaver and naturalist who is devoted to the study of biology, vividly embodies one kind of response to an urban industrial environment; an affinity for living things that hardens, by its very contrast with its environment, into a kind of crankiness. The early chapters—about factory workers walking out in spring into Green Heys Fields; about Alice Wilson, remembering in her cellar the twig-gathering for brooms in the native village that she will never again see; about Job Legh, intent on his impaled insects—capture the characteristic responses of a generation to the new and crushing experience of industrialism. The other early chapters eloquently portray the development of the instinctive cooperation with each other that was already becoming an important tradition among workers.
单选题 Which of the following best describes the author"s attitude toward Gaskell"s use of the method of documentary record in Mary Barton?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:由题干关键词“documentary”定位至第一段第三句。该句提到作者Elizabeth Gaskell在小说中应用了“纪实”的写作方法,接着作者对这种方法进行了描述:方言的详细(carefully)注解,茶话会上食物的准确(exact)价格,家具的分类(itemized)描述,从这些修饰词的感情色彩来看,作者对小说纪实的写作方法是肯定的,而且本段最后一句也提到“这种记录的好处是巨大的,尽管这种方法会拉大与读者的距离”,可见C“有保留的赞成”符合文意。排除A“不加批评的热衷”,B“犹豫不决的矛盾”和D“顺从的接受”。
单选题 According to the passage, Mary Barton and the early novels of D.H. Lawrence share which of the following?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:由题干定位至第二段。作者在该段首先用例子证明Gaskell作为中产阶级的一员,用旁观者的身份来描写劳动阶级的生活,然后又指出对该类家庭的情感和反应做出类似描述的是60年后劳伦斯的作品,可见Gaskell和D.H.Lawrence在描述劳动阶级的感觉上是有相似性的,并不是在对其生存环境的客观描述上,故A项正确,排除B项;本段并没有提及adjustment to urban life,排除C项;由本段文意可知,Gaskell是以一个旁观者的身份对劳动阶级进行描述的,且本段最后一句提到,即便她不能完全参与到劳动者的生活中,她对其情感认知也有充足的证据,故排除D项。
单选题 It can be inferred from examples given in the last paragraph of the passage that which of the following was part of "the new and crushing experience of industrialism" for many members of the English working class in the nineteenth century?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:由题干定位至最后一段。本段提到了小说在“Old Alice"s History”一章描述早期的_丁人从农村到城市工业中心这一过程中的反应,并且以小说角色作为例子说明他们适应城市工业化环境变化过程中的努力和不适,可见他们在工业化过程中的新压迫感来自于地理环境的变化(geographical displacement),故选B,排除A“高昂的食品价格”,C“危险的工作环境”和D“与同事的疏远”。
单选题 It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that Mary Barton might have been an even better novel if Gaskell had
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:作者在第二段提到,Gaskell属于中产阶级,因此在描述劳动阶级的时候难免会是一个旁观者,紧接着该段最后一句提到,如果Gaskell能完全参与到劳动阶层,就可以完全证实小说的描述,可见作者认为只要Gaskell超越了旁观者的角色,就可以把小说写得更好,故D项正确,排除其他选项。
单选题 The author of the passage describes Mary Barton as each of the following EXCEPT:
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:第一段第二句指出,小说Mary Barton描述的是劳动阶级家庭的日常生活经历,是Gaskell的沥血之作,通过impressive一词及小说主题可知,作者认为该部小说是有见解的(insightful),排除A项;该段第三句提到纪实性描述时,作者用了carefully(仔细地),exact(准确的),itemized(分类的)和transcription(手抄)等词,可见作者认为该小说是一丝不苟的(meticulous),排除B项;该段第一句提到,Mary Barton小说中描述了19世纪40年代英国工人阶级的遭遇,通过suffering一词可知,作者认为小说是辛酸的(poignant),排除C项;只有D项lyrical(抒情的),文中未提到,故为答案。