Rae Armantrout, who has been a poetry professor at the University of California San Diego(UCSD) for two decades, has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for her most recent book, “Versed”.

“I’m delighted and amazed at how much media recognition that the Pulitzer brings, as compared to even the National Book Critics Award, which I was also surprised and delighted to win,” said Armantrout.

“For a long time, my writing has been just below the media radar, and to have this kind of attention, suddenly, with my 10th book, is really surprising.”

Armantrout, a native Californian, received her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, where she studied with noted poet Denise Levertov, and her master’s in creative writing from San Francisco State University. She is a founding member of Language Poets, a group in American poetry that analyzes the way language is used and raises questions to make the reader think.

In March, she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for “Versed.”

“This book has gotten more attention,” Armantrout said, “but I don’t feel as if it’s better.”

The first half of “Versed” focuses on the dark forces taking hold of the United States as it fought the war against Iraq. The second half looks at the dark forces casting a shadow over her own life after Armantrout was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

Armantrout was shocked to learn she had won the Pulitzer but many of her colleagues were not. “Rae Armantrout is a unique voice in American poetry,” said Seth Lerer, head of Arts and Humanities at UCSD.

“Versed”, published by the Wesleyan University Press, did appear in a larger printing than her earlier works, which is about 2,700 copies. The new edition is scheduled to appear in May.

1. According to Rae Armantrout, ____________.

A. her 10th book is much better                [來(lái)源:學(xué)*科*網(wǎng)]

B. her winning the Pulitzer is unexpected

C. the media is surprised at her works        

D. she likes being recognized by her readers

2. Which of the following is true of Rae Armantrout?

A. She published a poetry textbook.

B. She used to teach Denise Levertov.

C. She started a poets’ group with others.

D. She taught creative writing at UC Berkeley.

3. What can we learn about “Versed”?

A. It consists of three parts.

B. It is mainly about the American army.

C. It is a book published two decades ago.

D. It partly concerns the poet’s own life.

4. Rae Armantrout’s colleagues think that she ____________.

A. should write more                   B. has a sweet voice

C. deserves the prize                  D. is a strange professor

5. What can we learn from the text?

A. About 2,700 copies of “Versed” will be printed.[來(lái)源:]

B. Cancer made Armantrout stop writing.

C. Armantrout got her degrees at UCSD.

D. “Versed” has been awarded twice.

 

Robert Frost was one of America’s best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874. He lived in California during his early childhood. He was named after the chief Southern general in America’s Civil War. The general’s name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.
Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost’s childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. Robert Frost’s father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much wine and became angry. Robert was the victim of his anger.
Robert Frost finished high school in 1891. After high school, Robert’s grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. But Robert left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.
Robert Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until 1930, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.
In 1912, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called A Boy’s Will. When it appeared in 1913, Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.
Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine article about Frost. He also helped get Frost’s second book of poems published in America. That book was called North of Boston.
【小題1】The followings are writers EXCEPT __________.

A．Robert Edward Lee	B．Robert Lee Frost
C．Ernest Hemingway	D．Ezra Pound

【小題2】The passage wrote about Hemingway in order to show that __________.

A．he had great influence on Frost’s poetry and life

B．Frost’s poetry style was the same as Hemingway’s

C．Frost was unhappy because he was the victim of his father

D．Frost spent his childhood unhappily

【小題3】What can we learn from the passage?

A．Once Frost’s first book was published he gained great praise in his country.

B．After leaving Harvard University, he began to learn to write poetry.

C．Frost was found lo have a gift in poetry while he studied in high school.

D．Robert Frost’s father was angry and drank a lot because he didn’t realize his dream.

【小題4】What’s the passage mainly about?

A．Robert Frost’s unhappy childhood.

B．Robert Frost’ s first and second book.

C．Robert Frost’s family and jobs.

D．Robert Frost’s life and poetry.

Rae Armantrout, who has been a poetry professor at the University of California San Diego(UCSD) for two decades, has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for her most recent book, “Versed”.

“I’m delighted and amazed at how much media recognition that the Pulitzer brings, as compared to even the National Book Critics Award, which I was also surprised and delighted to win,” said Armantrout.

“For a long time, my writing has been just below the media radar, and to have this kind of attention, suddenly, with my 10th book, is really surprising.”

Armantrout, a native Californian, received her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, where she studied with noted poet Denise Levertov, and her master’s in creative writing from San Francisco State University. She is a founding member of Language Poets, a group in American poetry that analyzes the way language is used and raises questions to make the reader think.

In March, she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for “Versed.”

“This book has gotten more attention,” Armantrout said, “but I don’t feel as if it’s better.”

The first half of “Versed” focuses on the dark forces taking hold of the United States as it fought the war against Iraq. The second half looks at the dark forces casting a shadow over her own life after Armantrout was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

Armantrout was shocked to learn she had won the Pulitzer but many of her colleagues were not. “Rae Armantrout is a unique voice in American poetry,” said Seth Lerer, head of Arts and Humanities at UCSD.

“Versed”, published by the Wesleyan University Press, did appear in a larger printing than her earlier works, which is about 2,700 copies. The new edition is scheduled to appear in May.

1. According to Rae Armantrout, ____________.

A. her 10th book is much better            

B. her winning the Pulitzer is unexpected

C. the media is surprised at her works         

D. she likes being recognized by her readers

2. Which of the following is true of Rae Armantrout?

A. She published a poetry textbook.

B. She used to teach Denise Levertov.

C. She started a poets’ group with others.

D. She taught creative writing at UC Berkeley.

3. What can we learn about “Versed”?

A. It consists of three parts.

B. It is mainly about the American army.

C. It is a book published two decades ago.

D. It partly concerns the poet’s own life.

4. Rae Armantrout’s colleagues think that she ____________.

A. should write more                    B. has a sweet voice

C. deserves the prize                   D. is a strange professor

5. What can we learn from the text?

A. About 2,700 copies of “Versed” will be printed.

B. Cancer made Armantrout stop writing.

C. Armantrout got her degrees at UCSD.

D. “Versed” has been awarded twice.

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be , music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account of the realities he beheld, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.

The writer’s attitude toward the arts is one of

[A]. admiration. [B]. indifference. [C]. suspicion. [D]. repulsion

The author believes that a child.

[A]. should practice what the Hindoos preach.

[B]. frequently faces vital problems better than grownups do.

[C]. hardly ever knows his true origin.

[D]. is incapable of appreciating the arts.

. The author is primarily concerned with urging the reader to

[A]. look to the future for enlightenment. [B]. appraise the present for its true value.

[C]. honor the wisdom of the past ages. [D]. spend more time in leisure activities.

The passage is primarily concerned with problem of

[A]. history and economics. [B]. society and population.

[C]. biology and physics. [D]. theology and philosophy.

There is a famous story about British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing a poem when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
This was an age before telephones. Someone was delivering a message. When Coleridge got back to his poem, he had lost his inspiration. His poetic mood had been broken by the knock on his door. His unfinished poem, which could otherwise have been a masterpiece, would now never be more than a fragment (片段).
This story tells how unexpected communication can destroy an important thought，which brings us to the cellphone.
The most common complaint about cellphones is that people talk on them to the annoyance of people around them. But more damaging may be the cellphone’s disruption (中斷) of our thoughts.
We have already entered a golden age of little white lies about our cellphones, and this is by and large a healthy, protective development. “I didn’t hear it ring” or “I didn’t realize my phone had shut off” are among the lies we tell to give ourselves space where we’re beyond reach.
The notion of being unreachable is not a new concept – we have “Do Not Disturb” signs on the doors of hotel rooms. So why must we feel guilty when it comes to cellphones? Why must we apologize if we decide to shut off the phone for a while?
The problem is that we come from a long-established tradition of difficulty with distance communication. Until the recent mass deployment (使用) of cellphones, it was easy to communicate with someone next to us or a few feet away, but difficult with someone across town, the country or the globe. We came to take it for granted.
But cellphones make long-distance communication common, and endanger our time by ourselves. Now time alone, or a conversation with someone next to us which cannot be interrupted by a phone, is something to be cherished. Even cellphone devotees, myself usually included, can’t help at times wanting to throw their phone away, or curse the day they were invented.
But we don’t and won’t, and there really is no need. All that’s required to take back our private time is a general social recognition that we have the right to it. In other words, we have to develop a healthy contempt (輕視) for the rings of our own phones. Given the ease of making and receiving cellphone calls, if we don’t talk to the caller right now, we surely will shortly later.
A cellphone call deserves no greater priority (優(yōu)先考慮的事) than a random (隨機(jī)的) word from the person next to us. Though the call on my cellphone may be the one–in–a–million from Steven Spielberg–who has finally read my novel and wants to make it his next movie. But most likely it is not, and I’m better off thinking about the idea I just had for a new story, or the slice of pizza I’ll eat for lunch.
【小題1】What is the point of the anecdote（軼事，趣聞） about the poet Coleridge in the first three paragraphs?

A．To direct readers’ attention to the main topic.

B．To show how important inspiration is to a poet.

C．To emphasize the disadvantage of not having a cellphone.

D．To encourage readers to read the works of this poet.

【小題2】What does the writer think about people telling “white lies” about their cellphones?

A．It is a way of signaling that you don’t like the caller.

B．It is natural to tell lies about small things.

C．It is basically a good way to protect one’s privacy.

D．We should feel guilty when we can’t tell the truth.

【小題3】According to the author, what is the most annoying problem caused by cellphones?

A．People get annoyed by the cellphone rings that they fail to notice anything else.

B．People feel guilty when they are not able to answer their cellphones.

C．Cellphones interrupt people’s private time.

D．With cellphones it is no longer possible to be unreachable.

【小題4】What does the last paragraph suggest?

A．A person who calls us from afar deserves more of our attention.

B．Steven Spielberg once called the author to talk about the author’s novel.

C．You should always finish your lunch before you answer a call on the cellphone.

D．Never let cellphones interfere too much with your life.