单选题 .  Emily Dickinson was a nineteenth-century American woman who lived her life completely unknown to anyone except her family and a few friends. Less than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. In spite of this, she is regarded today as a great poet, perhaps the greatest poet the United States has produced. Along with the Greek poet Sappho, she may be one of the two greatest women poets who have ever lived.
    Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in a small Massachusetts town called Amherst. Hers was an old family; her ancestors had come to the United States 200 years before. Her parents were not really rich, but they were certainly not poor. She had an older brother, Austin, and a younger sister, Lavinia. Her parents seem to have been rather withdrawn people, and the members of the family spent a good deal of time by themselves. She doesn't seem to have liked her mother very much. She spoke once of never really having a mother.
    She was educated at the local Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Women's Seminary. Although she was sometimes described as pretty, she never married. In all outward respects, her life appeared to be rather boring.
    The time and place in which she lived was not a good one for a woman artist to succeed. Women are expected to be obedient to men and to remain in their place at home. Rather than waste her life in the meaningless round of social events that were open to women, she decided at some point to retreat from the world in order to write her poetry. From then on, she spent a great deal of time in her bedroom writing. In later years when she was standing in front of her bedroom door, she looked at her niece and said, "It's just a turn-and freedom, Mary!" It was when she closed the door of her room and turned the key that locked the door that the most important and creative hours of her life were spent, the hours when she wrote her poetry. She was regarded as a recluse by many of her neighbors, that is, as a person who spent a good deal of time by herself.1.  According to the author, who is the greatest woman poet in America? ______
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[参考译文] 艾米丽·狄金森是一位19世纪的美国女性,她在一生中,除了家人和几个朋友外,几乎完全不为外界所知。她在世时发表的诗歌不足十余首。尽管如此,今天的人们认为她是位伟大的诗人,也许是美国历史上最伟大的诗人。她与古希腊女诗人萨福一起,也许是有史以来最伟大的两位女诗人之一。
   狄金森于1830年12月10日出生在马萨诸塞州一个名为安默斯特的小镇。她的家族历史久远,她的祖辈们200年前就来到了美洲。狄金森的父母不是巨富,但是肯定也不贫穷。她有一个哥哥奥斯丁,还有一个妹妹拉维尼亚。她的父母似乎不爱交际,因此家里人有大量时间在一起。她好像不太喜欢自己的妈妈。有一次,她说o己从来没有真正拥有过妈妈。
   她在当地的安默斯特学院和曼荷莲女子神学院接受了教育。尽管有时有人会说她漂亮,她却终生未嫁。从所有的表象来看,她的生活好像非常枯燥。
   她生活的时代和地方都不利于一个女性艺术家成功。那时人们希望女性能顺从男性,能在家操持家务。狄金森不愿意浪费生命去参与当时对女性开放的无聊的社会活动。有一天她决定从外部世界退回来写诗。从那时起,她花了大量时间在自己的卧室里写作。多年以后,有一次,她站在卧室门前,看着侄女说“玛丽,门轻轻关上,一切就都自由自在。”正是当她关上房门、扭动钥匙时,她就迎来了生命中最重要、最具有创造力的时刻——她写诗的时刻。她的许多邻居认为她是个隐居者,也就是一个花大量时间独处的人。
本文属于人物传记,介绍了美国著名女诗人艾米丽·狄金森的生平。人物传记以描述为主,文章一般按照时间顺序展开,难度不大。
   细节题。答案来自于文章首段第三句“尽管如此,她今天依然被看作是一位伟大的诗人,也许是美国有史以来最伟大的诗人。”