【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文] The economic depression in the late-nineteenth-century United States contributed significantly to a growing movement in literature toward realism and naturalism. After the 1870's, a number of important authors began to reject the romanticism that had prevailed immediately following the Civil War of 1861-1865 and turned instead to realism. Determined to portray life as it was, with loyalty to real life and accurate representation without any idealization, they studied local dialects, wrote stories which focused on life in specific regions of the country, and emphasized the true relationships between people. In doing so, they reflected broader trends in the society, such as industrialization, evolutionary theory which emphasized the effect of the environment on humans, and the influence of science. Realists such as Joel Chandler Harris and Ellen Glasgow depicted life in the South, Hamlin Garland described life on the Great Plains, and Sarah Orne Jewett wrote about everyday life in rural New England. Another realist, Bret Harte, achieved fame with stories that portrayed local life in the California mining camps. Samuel Clemens, who adopted the pen name Mark Twain, became the country's most outstanding realist author, observing life around him with a humorous and skeptical eye. In his stories and novels, Twain drew on his own experiences and used dialect and common speech instead of literary language, touching off a major change in American prose style. Other writers became impatient even with realism. Pushing evolutionary theory to its limits, they wrote of a world in which a cruel and merciless environment determined human fate. These writers, called naturalists, often focused on economic hardship, studying people struggling with poverty, and other aspects of urban and industrial life. Naturalists brought to their writing a passion for direct and honest experience. Theodore Dreiser, the foremost naturalist writer, in novels such as Sister Carrie, grimly portrayed a dark world in which human beings were tossed about by forces beyond their understanding or control. Dreiser thought that writers should tell the truth about human affairs, not fabricate romance, and Sister Carrie, he said, was not intended as a piece of literary craftsmanship, but was a picture of conditions. Q: According to the talk, what was a highly significant factor in the development of realist and naturalist literature? 解题思路：四个选项均为名词性短语，听录音时应重点抓住各项的关键词或短语：Civil War, economic depression, recognition和interest。 讲话在开始部分便指出：19世纪晚期发生在美国的经济萧条对文学中现实主义和自然主义的蓬勃发展做出了显著贡献。也就是说，经济萧条是现实主义和自然主义发展的过程中很重要的因素，故答案为B。其他三项都不符合讲话内容。

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[听力原文] Q: Why is Mark Twain considered as a very important literary figure? 解题思路：四个选项都以because开头，可知听音重点应放在因果关系处。听录音时抓住各项的关键信息(wrote humorous stories and novels, rejected romanticism as a literary approach, the first realist writer和influenced American prose style)。 讲话在提到马克·吐温(Mark Twain)的时候，首先表明他是全国最杰出的现实主义作家，然后又说他凭借自己的经历，舍弃文学用语，利用方言和日常用语，触发了美国散文风格的重大改变。由此可知答案选D。他以幽默、怀疑的视角洞察生活，并不表示他创作幽默故事，排除A项；B项讲话中未提及；讲话中说他是“最杰出的”现实主义作家，而不是“第一位”，排除C项。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[听力原文] Q: What can we learn about Theodore Dreiser, according to the talk? 解题思路：三项以he开头，一项以his开头，可见问题与某位男士有关，四项是对其写作特点或观点的描述。听录音应首先听清he指代的对象，注意重点抓住四个选项的关键信息(historical subjects, elements of humor, more as a social observer和emphasize the positive aspects)。 讲话最后部分提到了西奥多·德莱塞(Theodore Dreiser)。在说到其作品《嘉莉妹妹》时，提到德莱塞认为他的创作初衷并不是为了展现文学技艺，而是为了记录现实情况。选项C中的social observer对应“记录现实情况”、literary artist则对应“展现文学技艺”，可知C项为正确答案。其余三项在讲话中均未提及。