The centenary of the birth of William Faulkner, one of the great modern novelists, was cel

ebrated in September, 1997. Faulkner wrote about the southern states of the United States of America where he grew up, and where his family had an important part to play in the history of that region. His work became a touchstone for insights into the troubled issues of southern American identity, race relations, and the family interrelation- ships of the old-time southern gentry.

Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. Despite his interest in writing, he left Oxford High School, Mississippi, without graduating. After World War I, he entered the University of Mississippi as a special student, a right to study which was granted to war veterans, although Faulkner had training with the Air Force in Canada, he did not enter combat.

Faulkner began to write poems, a verse play, short stories and finished his first novel Satoris in 1928. His fiction was centered for 14 of the 19 novels published during his lifetime a fictional region called Yoknapatawpha County. The name is said to be stem from the India Chickasaw word meaning split land.

In December 1950, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he accepted it in Stockholm, his speech emphasized that he wished to continue writing, but in a positive way that affirmed the power of humanity to prevail over adverse circumstances. As he said in his speech, he still felt that, despite the threat of nuclear war then hanging over the world, the central concern of the writer should be, the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself". He wanted the tension and problems that he had cast the spotlight on in the southern states of America to be resolved by the life-affirming attitudes and actions of his characters.

Like playwright Tennessee Williams, Faulkner was a major voice who spoke for the troubled heart of the southern states of America. His achievement is all the more remarkable because, as a schoolboy, he was not only a frequent truant but also reportedly failed to reach pass grades in English class. His collected short stories, novels, poems, allegorical stories and other writings which form. a legacy of literature which casts profound illumination on the special culture of the South, a culture, which developed from a history and social circumstances that were often tumultuous and always unique.

From the focus on a fictional county, and by remaining true to his view of a close-knit but authentic society that reflected the greater world around him, Faulkner in the end fashioned a saga of the Deep South that is one of the major achievements of 20th-century literature, (451)

Which of the following statements about William Faulkner is NOT true？

A．William Faulkner's work focuses on several troubled problems of southern America.

B．William Faulkner died one hundred years ago.

C．Although William Faulkner could not graduate from high school, he had great interests in writing.

D．William Faulkner once joined the army when he was young.