59.
According to the author’s opinion, ________.
A. it is unimportant
to let the children develop in the way they want
B. all sensible
parents can train their children to succeed in
everything
C. parents should be
supportive of their children
D. unrealistic parents
should arrange private lessons for their children
B
Animals
have always played a part in the literature of the world. Many of the early
Greek myths told of a particular hero’s battle with imaginary animals such as
the Hydra, a nine-headed snake. Myths are very old and often began as stories
handed down from person to person.
In 400 B.C. animals were the central characters in some of the
first plays ever written. One play was called The Birds, another The Frogs. In
these early Greek plays the animals made fun of human weaknesses, particularly
politicians of the time.
Folk tales
were stories told by the common people at first by word of mouth. They usually
had a lesson of some sort. For example, an ancient African folk tale told about
a crocodile who was very greedy.
Another
type of story that came about many centuries ago is the fable. Aesop’s Fable(《伊索寓言》)
were put into book form in 1484. In all of these stories animals talk and act
like humans. Each fable has a lesson buried in the plot.
Poems were
also popular literary homes for a variety of animals. One of the first
collections of poems for children was the simple Mother Goose, first published
in the 18th century. No matter how old or wise you
become, will you ever forget the cow who jumped over the moon or the three
blind mice?
In the 19th
and 20th centuries novels have been written about animals. A novel is a
fictitious story, usually much longer than a short story. One of the first
animal novels was Wind in the Willows, written in 1908. Its main characters
were a rat, a mole, and a toad.