A

Thomas Hardy, probably the most searching and knowledgeable novelist of his time, was born on June 2£¬1840, in Dorsetshire, England. He died on January 11£¬1928. In his youth, Hardy read much and dreamt of becoming a poet, but he studied and practiced architecture as an assistant to a London architect, winning a prize for design. The fine descriptions of structure in his novels were probably somewhat due to his architectural training.

For five years Hardy worked hard to practice writing poetry, but when he was twenty­seven, he turned to fiction. His first novel finished by 1867, but according to the advice of George Meredith he decided not to publish it. After he abandoned his first novel, his another novel Desperate Remedies, appeared in 1871. During the next twenty­five years he published ten more novels and two collections of short stories.

Under the Greenwood Tree(1872) was never surpassed(³¬Ô½) in happy and delicate perfection of art. This and his next novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes(1873), began to show deep irony(·í´Ì) which is so obvious throughout Hardy’s writings.

Far from the Madding Crowd(1874) was his first popular success. It shows Hardy’s amazing power of describing nature as symbolic background for his characters, an organic part of the action of his story. This was the earliest of what he called his novels of character and environment, which included The Return of the Native, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, his masterpiece, and Jude the Obscure. Not until he was fifty­eight years old was his first collection of poems published, and he was sixty­four when the first part of his drama The Dynasts surprised the literary world.

1£®How did Thomas Hardy benefit from his architectural career?

A£®He could practice writing while working.

B£®He made a lot of money to support his writing.

C£®He found material for his novels and poems.

D£®He applied architectural knowledge in his novels.

2£®What is Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree considered to be?

A£®One of his masterworks.

B£®His first popular success.

C£®His best novel in perfection of art.

D£®One of his best collections of poems.

3£®Which of the following is one of his novels of character and environment?

A£®Desperate Remedies.               B£®A Pair of Blue Eyes.

C£®Tess of the d’Urbervilles.       D£®The Dynasts.

4£®What type of writing is this text?

A£®A novel.                          B£®A biography.

C£®A book review.                    D£®A news report.