Question

　　A newly discovered story and a letter written by 20th century literary giant Ernest Hemingway will be auctioned in New York, in December.

　　The two－page letter and five －page story are based on an incident at a bullfighting arena(enclosed area). They were written in 1924 when the future Nobel prize winner was 25. This was just before the publication of his first important work, the short story collection “In Our Time”. The story, “My Life in the Bull Ring with Donald Ogden Stewart”, was inspired by an actual incident in 1924. Stewart, a popular US writer and close friend of Hemingway's, had faced a bull in Pamplona, Spain, the home of bullfighting.

　　“It's by no means a literary masterpiece, but I think it's more than youngsters' reading material,” said Patrick McGrath, an auction expert in books and manuscripts. “It's a clear attempt at writing a comic story, and it is interesting in that way, because it's a form Hemingway didn't try very often,” McGrath said.

　　The story and the letter are expected to bring between US 12,000 and US 18,000, McGrath said. The five－page story is about Stewart's effort to take an a bull during an amateur session during the famous annual running of the bulls. Hemingway sent the story to Stewart, asking him to submit the manuscript to the US magazine Vanity Fair for publication. But Stewart felt it was not good enough to pass on. He explained later in his autobiography that “humour was not (Hemingway's) dish.”

　　The work was apparently forgotten until last year when Stewart's son discovered the story and the letter among his father's papers. His father died in 1980.

1．When Hemingway wrote the five－page story, ________.

[　　]

A．he had won the Nobel prize

B．he had become world famous

C．he had not shown any talent in literature

D．he was friendly with Stewart

2．Patrick McGrath thinks “My Life in the Bull Ring with Donald Ogden Stewart”

[　　]

A．is a masterpiece

B．fits the young only

C．has a different style in the way that Hemingway usually wrote

D．was originally written for the youngsters

3．The phrase “take on” in paragraph 4 probably means ________.

[　　]

A．buy

B．deal with

C．ship

D．look on

4．The sentence “humour was not (Hemingway's ) dish” shows ________.

[　　]

A．the story was short of humors

B．Hemingway disliked dishes

C．Humor improved Hemingway's writing style

D．Hemingway was not good at humor in writing

Answer 1

答案：D;C;B;D
解析：

海明威是美国近代最出名的作家，最近他的一部小说和书信手稿被发现，并且即将在纽约拍卖，估计价值达12，000到18，000美元。 　　1．这是一道细节题。根据第二段中stewart，a popular US writer and close friend of Hemingway's可作出正确判断。 　　2．这是一道细节题。根据文中“It's a clear attempt at writing a comic story，and it is interesting in that way，because it's a form Herningway didn't try very often，”Mc Grath said可知，这个故事的写作方法“是一种海明威不经常尝试的一种手法”。 　　3．这是一道猜测词意题。前两段提到了“海明威的朋友斗牛”，由此可推测出take on表示“对付”。 　　4．这是一道句意理解题。由文中Stewart felt it was not good enough to pass on可知，stewart认为这部作品不太好，由此可推断出，“幽默不是海明威的拿手戏”。