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Arthur Miller (1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller's father had moved to the USA from Austria-Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”. However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller's most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
【小题1】Why did Arthur Miller's father move to the USA?
| A.He suffered from severe hunger in his home country. |
| B.He was attracted by the “Great American Dream.” |
| C.He hoped to make his son a dramatist. |
| D.His family business failed |
| A.He treats his employer badly. |
| B.He runs the Wagner Company. |
| C.He is a victim of the American system. |
| D.He is regarded as a hero by his colleagues. |
| A.achieved huge success |
| B.won the first Tony Award |
| C.was warmly welcomed by salesmen |
| D.was severely attacked by dramatists |
| A.Arthur Miller and his family. |
| B.The awards Arthur Miller won. |
| C.The hardship Arthur Miller experienced. |
| D.Arthur Miller and his best-known play. |
“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I was disappointed. “Don’t worry. One day your luck will change.”
I didn’t pay attention to her words. After finishing my college education, I decided to look for a job in a radio station. I wanted to host a sports programme. I went to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station. But I got turned down every time.
In one station, a kind lady said to me that I hadn’t got enough experience. “Get to a small station and work for some time,” she said.
When I went back home, my dad told me that a businessman had opened a store and needed someone to help him. But again, I didn’t get the job.
I felt really down. “Your luck will change,” Mum said to me. Later, I tried another radio station in Iowa. But the owner, a nice man, told me he had already had someone to work for him. As I left his office, I asked, “How can someone be a sports announcer (播音员) if he can’t get a job in a radio station?”
I was waiting for the lift when I heard the man call, “What did you mean? Do you know anything about football?” He let me sit in front of a microphone and asked me to try to imagine that I was giving my opinion on a football game, and finally I succeeded.
On my way home, Mum’s words came back to me, “One day your luck will change, Son.”
1.What was the writer’s ideal(理想的) job?
|
A.A sportsman. |
B.A shop assistant. |
|
C.A sports announcer. |
D.A businessman. |
2.Why didn’t the writer get the job in Chicago?
|
A.Because he was too young. |
|
B.Because he didn’t get a college education. |
|
C.Because he was not a good-looking person. |
|
D.Because he hadn’t got enough experience. |
3.The sentence “I got turned down every time” means “ ”.
|
A.I was refused every time |
B.I was successful every time |
|
C.I lost my way every time |
D.The door of every station was closed |
4.The writer got a job in the end.
|
A.in Chicago |
B.in his home town |
|
C.in a college |
D.in Iowa |
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One day in l965, when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle, a fourth-grade teacher approached me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. "Could he help in the library?" She asked. I said, "Send him along."
Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shift appeared. "Do you have a job for me?" he asked.
I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books. He picked up the idea immediately. Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them. He said, "Is it kind of a detective job?" I answered yes, and he became working.
He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced, "Time for break!" He argued for finishing the finding job; She made the case for fresh air. She won.
The next morning, he arrived early. "I want to finish these books," he said. At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis, it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.
After a few weeks I found a note on my desk, inviting me to dinner at the boy's home. At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced that the family would be moving to neighbouring school district. Her son's first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library. "Who will find the lost books?" he asked.
When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye. I missed him, but not for long. A few days later he came back and joyfully announced: "The librarian over there doesn't let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can’t, I'll walk!"
I should have had an inkling(感觉) such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed, however, was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age: Bill Gates, tycoon of Microsoft and America's richest man.
What was the author when the story happened?
A. A teacher. B. A librarian. C. A detective. D. A professor.
What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?
A. To rearrange the books according to the new system.
B. To put those overdue books back to the shelves.
C. To find out the books with wrong cards in them.
D. To put the cards back in the long-overdue books.
The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because _______.
A. he did not like his life in the new school
B. the transportation there was not convenient
C. he missed his old schoolmates and teachers
D. he was not allowed to work in the school library
What impressed the author most was that the boy _______.
A. had a thirst for learning B. had a strong will
C. was extremely quick at learning D. had a kind heart
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