The biographer has to dance between two shaky posi...

第1题

The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject（研究对

The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject(研究对象). Too close a relation, and the writer may lose objectivity. Not close enough, and the writer may lack the sympathy necessary to any effort to portray a mind, a soul—the quality of life. Who should write the biography of a family, for example？ Because of their closeness to the subject, family members may have special information, but by the same token, they may not have the distance that would allow them to be fair. Similarly, a king's servant might not be the best one to write a biography of that king. But a foreigner might not have the knowledge and sympathy necessary to write the king's biography—not for a readership from within the kingdom, at any rate.

There is no ideal position for such a task. The biographer has to work within the position he or she has in the world, adjusting that position as necessary to deal with the subject. Every position has strengths and weaknesses: to thrive, a writer must try to become aware of these, evaluate them in terms of the subject, and select a position accordingly.

When their subjects are heroes or famous figures, biographies often reveal a democratic motive: they attempt to show that their subjects are only human, no better than anyone else. Other biographies are meant to change us, to invite us to become better than we are. The biographies of Jesus (耶稣) found in the Bible are in this class.

Biographers may claim that their account is the "authentic" one. In advancing this claim, they are helped if the biography is "authorized" by the subject; this presumably allows the biographer special access to private information. "Unauthorized" biographies also have their appeal, however, since they can suggest an independence of mind in the biographer. In book promotions, the "unauthorized" characterization usually suggests the prospect of juicy gossip that the subject had hoped to suppress. A subject might have several biographies, even several "authentic" ones. We sense intuitively that no one is in a position to tell the story of a life, perhaps not even the subject, and this has been proved by the history of biography.

According to the author, an ideal biographer would be one who ______.

A．knows the subject very well and yet maintains a proper distance from him

B．is close to the subject and knows the techniques of biography writing

C．is independent and treats the subject with fairness and objectivity

D．possesses special private information and is sympathetic toward the subject

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第2题

Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage. The biographer has to dance between

two shaky positions with respect to the subject. Too close a relation, and the writer may be objectivity. Not close enough, and the writer may lack the sympathy necessary to any effort to portray a mind, a soul-the quality of life. Who should write the biography of a family, for example？ Because of their closeness to the subject, family members may have special information, but by the same token, they may not have the distance that would allow them to be fair. Similarly, a king’s servant might not be the best one to write a biography of that king. But a foreigner might not have the knowledge and sympathy necessary to write the king’s biography-not for a readership from within the kingdom, at any rate.

There is no ideal position for such a task. The biographer has to work with the position he or she has in the world, adjusting that position as necessary to deal with the subject. Every position has strengths and weaknesses: to thrive, a writer must try to become aware of these, evaluate them in terms of the subject, and select a position accordingly.

When their subjects are heroes or famous figures, biographies often reveal a democratic motive: they attempt to show that their subjects are only human, no better than anyone else. Other biographies are meant to change us, to invite us to become better than we are. The biographies of Jesus found in the Bible are in this class.

Biographers may claim that their account is the “authentic” one. In advancing this claim, they are helped if the biography is “authorized” by the subject, this presumably allows the biographer special access to private information. “Unauthorized” biographies also have their appeal, however, since they can suggest an independence of mind in the biographer. In book promotions, the “unauthorized” characterisation usually suggests the prospect of juicy gossip that the subject had hoped to suppress. A subject might have several biographies, even several “authentic” ones. We sense intuitively that no one is in a position to tell the story of a life, perhaps not even the subject, and this has been proved by the history of biography.

第31题：According to the author, an ideal biographer would be one who ________.

A) knows the subject very well and yet maintains a proper distance from him

B) is close to the subject and knows the techniques of biography writing

C) is independent and treats the subject with fairness and objectivity

D) possesses special private information and is sympathetic toward the subject

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第3题

Part ADirections: Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by cho

Part A

Directions: Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject(研究对象). To close a relation, and the writer may lose objectivity. Not close enough, and the writer may lack the sympathy necessary to any effort to portray a mind, a soul—the quality of life. Who should write the biography of a family, for example. Because of their closeness to the subject, family members may have special information, but by the same token, they may not have the distance that would allow them to be fair. Similary, a king's servant might not be the best one to write a biography of that king. But a foreigner might not have the knowledge and sympathy necessary to Write the king's biography—not for a readership from within the kingdom, at any rate.

There is no ideal position for such a task. The biographer has to work with the position he or she has in the world, adjusting that position as necessary to deal with the subject. Every position has strengths and weaknesses: to thrive, a writer must try to become aware of these, evaluate them in terms of the subject, and select a position accordingly.

When their subjects are heroes or famous figures, biographies often reveal a democratic motive: they attempt to show that their subjects are only human, no better than anyone else. Other hiogr0phies are meant to change us, to invite us, to become better than we are. The biographies of Jesus(耶稣)found in the Bible are in this class.

Biographers may claim that their account is the "authentic" one. In advancing this claim, they are helped if the biography is "authorized” by the subject; this presumably allows the biographer special access to private information. "Unauthorized” biographies also have their appeal, however, since they can suggest an independence of mind in the biographer. In book promotions, the "unauthorized" characterisation usually suggests the prospect of juicy gossip that the subject had hoped to suppress. A subject might have several biographies, even several "authentic" ones. We sense intuitively that no one is in a position to tell the story of a life, perhaps not even the subject, and this has been proved by the history of biography.

According to the author, an ideal biographer would be one who______.

A．knows the subject very well and yet maintains a proper distance from him

B．is close to the subject and knows the techniques of biography writing

C．is independent and treats the subject with fairness and objectivity

D．possesses Special private information and is sympathetic toward the subject

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第4题

7. Einstein and “God” The debate over Science and ...

7. Einstein and “God” The debate over Science and Religion is like catnip for anyone wanting to spout off about the improbability of God or the arrogance of scientists. The public seems to have an insatiable appetite for this debate. Many of the current debates in science and religion turn on how we define certain key words, like “God”, “transcendence”, and “religion”. A great deal also rides on how much of reality we think can be explained by another loaded word, “science.” Take the case of Albert Einstein. He died more than half a century ago, but there’s a huge debate right now between religious believers and atheists over who gets to claim Einstein, the most famous scientist of the last century. Einstein himself made a number of provocative and rather cryptic comments about religion. He called himself “a deeply religious nonbeliever.” He said, “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” Most famously, he proclaimed, “God does not play dice with the universe.” Who is this God that Einstein invoked？ Was he simply using the word “God” as a synonym for order and harmony in the universe？ I have asked a number of scientists, theologians, and Einstein scholars, and I’ve heard many different responses. “Einstein clearly was an atheist（无神论者）in the sense that he didn’t believe in a personal God,” Richard Dawkins says. “He used the word God as a metaphoric name for that which we don’t yet understand, for the deep mysteries of the universe.” The Nobel Prize-winning physicist and fellow atheist Steven Weinberg believes Einstein was just using poetic language when he talked about religion, which Weinsberg considers a mistake. “Clearly, what Einstein meant by God is so vague and so far from conventional religion, it seems to me a misuse of the word,” Weinsberg says. “The concept of God historically has had a fairly definite meaning. God was conscious. God was powerful. God was benevolent to some extent. If you’re not going to use God to mean something like that, then you shouldn’t use the word.” Walter Isaacson, Einstein’s biographer, has a very different perspective. He claims that Einstein was a deist（自然神论信仰者）who knew exactly what he was doing when he talked about “God” and “religion.” When he was asked whether he was just using the word symbolically, he said, no, he wasn’t,” Isaacson told me. “He talked about having a cosmic religion. He thought there was a spirit manifesting in the laws of the universe, and that was his notion of God.” 14. Which of the following Can Not replace the underlined word “metaphoric”？

A、Figurative.

B、Symbolic.

C、Metaphorical.

D、Historical.

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第5题

George Washington was the first man not a king whose birthday was publicly celebrated duri

ng his lifetime. Before the colonies declared their independence, celebrations honoring the birthdays of British rulers were customary. After the Declaration of Independence, the American people ignored royal birthdays and began instead to celebrate General Washington's birthday. This custom started in 1778 during the army's cold snowy winter at Valle Forge, when one of the military bands marched to Washington's headquarters and played for him.

When the war ended in 1783, Washington eagerly returned to Mount Vernon. But his peaceful retirement was interrupted when he was unanimously chosen first president of the United States. He took office in 1789 and was reelected in 1792. In 1796, he refused a third term and retired from political life. He died two years later and was buried at Mount Vernon, which one million tourists visit every year. Shortly after his death, Washington was praised in these famous words: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the heart of his countrymen."

To the American people, Washington symbolizes dignity, statesmanship, and, above all, honesty. The famous cherry tree story, which was invented by Washington's first biographer, has become a lesson in morals for all American schoolchildren. The story goes like this: When George Washington was about six years old, his father gave him a hatchet (small axe), which the little boy loved to play with. One day, he tried the edge of his hatchet on his father's favorite young cherry tree and did enough damage to kill the tree. Next morning, his father noticed the damage and ran into the house shouting, "George, do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree.., in the garden？ George's famous reply was, "I can't tell a lie, Pa, you know I can't tell a lie. I cut it with my hatchet." His father, pleased with the boy's courage and honesty, quickly forgave him.

Because of this story, traditional dessert on Washington's birthday are cherry pie or a log-shaped cake decorated with cherries. Washington's Birthday is a legal holiday throughout the U.S.A. It is celebrated on the third Monday in February. In some states, this date is called Presidents' Day and honors both Washington and Lincoln.

George Washington's birthday was first celebrated ______.

A．before the War of Independence

B．after he died

C．after he became the President of the United States

D．during the War of Independence

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第6题

WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biogr

aphy？ I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree. But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes？ You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public and academic libraries will want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who escaped the net of the original compilers. Yet in 10 years' time a revised version of the whole caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, Professor Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13,000 more than in the current DNB. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.

When Dr Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100, 000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to "other quality newspapers" too. ) As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn't file copy on time; some who did sent too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nicholls.

There remains the dinner-party game of who's in, who's out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted. Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christie's entry in Missing Persons) notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried to escape by ship to America).

It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.

Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments. "Whether or not Hugo was a wall painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript. painter attest to his versatility." Then there had to be more women, too (12 per cent, against the original DBN's 3), such as Roy Strong's subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks.. "Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory." Doesn't seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote, "except for the entry in the List of Contributors there is no trace of J. W. Clerke".

The writer suggests that there is no sense in buying the latest volume

A．because it is not worth the price.

B．because it has fewer entries than before.

C．unless one has all the volumes in his collection.

D．unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly.

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第7题

Why should anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biogr

aphy？ I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree. But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes？ You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public and academic libraries want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who escaped the net of the original compilers, Yet in 10 years' time a revised version of the whole caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, Professor Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13,000 more than in the current DN B. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.

When Dr Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100,000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to" other quality newspapers" too.)As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn't file copy on time; some who did send too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nieholls.

There remains the dinner-party game of who's in, who's out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted: Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr. John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christies entry in Missing Persons) notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried to escape by ship to America).

It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.

Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments:" Whether or not Hugo was a wall-painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript. painter attest to his versatility." Then there had to be more women, too (12 per cent, against the original DBN's 3), such as Roy Strong's subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks:" Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory." Doesn't seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote," except for the entry in the List of Contributors there is no trace of J. W. Clerke".

The writer suggests that there is no sense in buying the latest volume______

A．because it is not worth the price.

B．because it has fewer entries than before.

C．unless one has all the volumes in his collection.

D．unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly.

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第8题

The （)（生物学家) proposed a new theory of life which challenges the established Darwi

A.biologist

B.biographer

C.biscuit

D.biosphere

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第9题

In this passage, the author focuses on ______.A．the difficulty of a biographer in finding

In this passage, the author focuses on ______.

A．the difficulty of a biographer in finding the proper perspective to do his job

B．the secret of a biographer to win more readers

C．the techniques required of a biographer to write a good biography

D．the characteristics of different kinds of biographies

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