共用题干 第一篇 The Beginning of American Literature America has always been a land of beginnings.After E...
The Beginning of American Literature
America has always been a land of beginnings.After Europeans"discovered"America in the fifteenth
century,the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life,an escape from
poverty and persecution,a chance to start again.We can say that,as a nation,America begins with that
hope.When,however,does American literature begin?
American literature begins with Amnerican experiences.Long before the first colonists arrived,before
Christopher Columbus，before the Northmen who"found"America about the year 1000,Native Americans
lived here. Each trilbe's literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daiiy life and reflected the unmistakably
American experience of lining with the land。Anoiher kind of experience,one filled with fear and excite-
ment,found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers sent home in Spain,French and
English.In addition,the journals of the people who lived and died in the New England wilderness tell
unforgettable tales of hard and sometimes heartbreaking experiences of those early years.
Experience,then,is the key to early American literature.The New World provided a great variety of
experiences,and these experiences deniauded a wide variety of expressions by an even wider variety of early
American writers.These wnters included John Smith,who spent only two-and-a-half year on the American
continent.They included Jonathlan Edwards and William Byrd,who thought of themselves as British sub-
jects,never suspecting a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own.
American Indians,explorers,Puritan ministers,frontier wives,plantation owners一they are all the creators
of the first American literature. The main purpose of the last paragraph is to tell the readers that_____________.
参考答案: D
参考解析: 首先找到“that hope”在文章中的位置：就是指第一段第二句中“…a genuine hope of a new life,”意思是：开始新生活的真诚希望。故选B。
从第二段第二句可知：很早以前，本上美国人就居住在这里。既然前一句说“美国文学 产生于美国人的生活经历”，由此可知美国文学产生于很早以前就居住这里的本土美国人的 生活经历。故选D。
由文章第一二段第三句话“Each tribe' s literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of lining with the land.”可知，从美洲土著 部落的文学中，我们可以找到他们日常生活的写照。
文章最后一段的第一句“Experience, then, is the key to early American literature.”是本 段的主题句，说的是：经历是早期美国文学的关键因素。
文章最后一段中“These writers included Johon Smith , who spent only two-and-a-half year on the American continent.They included Jonathan Edwards and William Byrd,who thought of them- selves as British subjects,never suspecting a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own.”意思是：这些文学家包括仅在美洲居住两年半的约翰·史密斯，还 有约翰逊·爱德华和维廉姆·白伊德。这两位自认为是大英帝国臣民的英国作家对一场将会 创造出一个拥有自己文学的美利坚合众国的革命从来没有任何怀疑。可见，一些英国作家对 美国文学的将来充满信心。故选D。