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  3. We sometimes hear that essays are an old-fashioned form, that so-and-so is the "last essayist", but the facts of the marketplace

We sometimes hear that essays are an old-fashioned form, that so-and-so is the "last essayist", but the facts of the marketplace

admin2014-02-27  71
问题     We sometimes hear that essays are an old-fashioned form, that so-and-so is the "last essayist", but the facts of the marketplace argue quite otherwise. Essays of nearly any kind are so much easier than short stories for a writer to sell, so many more see print, it’s strange that though two fine anthologies(collections)remain that publish the year’s best stories, no comparable collection exists for essays. Such changes in the reading public’s taste aren’t always to the good, needless to say. The art of telling stories predated even cave painting, surely; and if we ever find ourselves living in caves again, it(with painting and drumming)will be the only art left, after movies, novels, photography, essays, biography, and all the rest have gone down the drain — the art to build from.
    Essays, however, hang somewhere on a line between two sturdy poles: this is what I think, and this is what I am. Autobiographies which aren’t novels are generally extended essays, indeed. A personal essay is like the human voice talking, its order being the mind’s natural flow, instead of a systematized outline of ideas. Though more changeable or informal than an article or treatise, somewhere it contains a point which is its real center, even if the point couldn’t be uttered in fewer words than the essayist has used. Essays don’t usually boil down to a summary, as articles do, and the style of the writer has a "nap" to it, a combination of personality and originality and energetic loose ends that stand up like the nap(绒毛)on a piece of wool and can’t be brushed flat. Essays belong to the animal kingdom, with a surface that generates sparks, like a coat of fur, compared with the flat, conventional cotton of the magazine article writer, who works in the vegetable kingdom, instead. But, essays, on the other hand, may have fewer "levels" than fiction, because we are not supposed to argue much about their meaning. In the old distinction between teaching and storytelling, the essayist, however cleverly he tries to conceal his intentions, is a bit of a teacher or reformer, and an essay is intended to convey the same point to each of us.
    An essayist doesn’t have to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he can shape or shave his memories, as long as the purpose is served of explaining a truthful point. A personal essay frequently is not autobiographical at all, but what it does keep in common with autobiography is that, through its tone and tumbling progression, it conveys the quality of the author’s mind. Nothing gets in the way. Because essays are directly concerned with the mind and the mind’s peculiarity, the very freedom the mind possesses is conferred on this branch of literature that does honor to it, and the fascination of the mind is the fascination of the essay.
The essayists’ main task seems to be______.
选项 A、the implied revelation and description of the truth
B、the free depiction and modification of their memories
C、the frank confession of what is concealed in their mind
D、the communication of their striking thoughts to readers
答案D
解析 这是一道细节题。文章最后一段指出：散文家不必叙述整个事实，只要其目的是阐述真实要点，他可以调整或者消除其记忆；由于散文直接关注思想或思想的特性，正是借助于这种文学形式，思想的自由才得以舒展，使得散文获得荣耀，因此，思想的魅力就是散文的魅力。这说明，散文主要是表达作者的观点。D说“向读者表达其鲜明的想法”，这与文章的意思符合。A和B与该段第一句话的意思不符：与C有关的信息是第二段的最后一句话，文中是说“无论他多么巧妙地隐藏自己的意图，散文家都有一点像老师”，说明C不对。
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考研英语一

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