2. 外语
  3. Read the following passage and choose the correct answer from A, B, C and D. At the time Jane Austin’s novels were published

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer from A, B, C and D. At the time Jane Austin’s novels were published

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问题     Read the following passage and choose the correct answer from A, B, C and D.
    At the time Jane Austin’s novels were published — between 1811 and 1818 — English literature was not part of any academic curriculum. In addition, fiction was under strenuous attack. Certain religious and political groups felt novels had the power to make so-called immoral characters so interesting that young readers would identify with them; these groups also considered novels to be of little practical use. Even Coleridge, certainly no literary reactionary, spoke for many when he asserted that "novel-reading occasions the destruction of the mind’s powers."
    These attitudes toward novels help explain why Austin received little attention from early nineteenth-century literary critics.(In any case, a novelist published anonymously, as Austin was, would not be likely to receive much critical attention.)The literary response that was accorded her, however, was often as incisive as twentieth-century criticism. In his attack in 1816 on novelistic portrayals "outside of ordinary experience", for example, Scott made an insightful remark about the merits of Austin’s fiction. "Her novels", wrote Scott, "present to the reader an accurate and exact picture of ordinary everyday people and places, reminiscent of seventeenth-century Flemish Painting." Scott did not use the word "realism", but he undoubtedly used a standard of realistic probability in judging novels, the critic Whately didn’t use the word realism either, but he expressed agreement with Scott’s evaluation, and went on to suggest the possibilities for moral instruction in what we have called Austin’s realistic method. "Her characters", wrote Whately, "are persuasive agents for moral truth since they are ordinary persons so clearly evoked that we feel an interest in their fate as if it were our own." "Moral instruction", explained Whately, "is more likely to be effective when conveyed through recognizably human and interesting characters than when imparted by a sermonizing narrator". Whitely especially praised Austin’s ability to create characters who "mingle goodness and villainy, weakness and virtue, as in life they are always mingled." Whitely concluded his remarks by comparing Austin’s art of characterization to Dickens’, stating his preference to Austin’s.
    Yet the response of nineteenth-century literary critics to Austin was not always so laudatory, and often anticipated the reservations of twentieth century critics. An example of such a response was Lewes’ complaint in 1859 that Austin’s range of subjects and characters was too narrow. Praising her verisimilitude, Lewes added that nonetheless her focus was too often upon only the unlofty and the commonplace.(Twentieth-century, Marxists, on the other hand, were to complain about what they saw as her exclusive emphasis on a lofty upper-middle class.)In any case, having been rescued by some literary critics from neglect and indeed gradually lionized by them, Austin steadily reached, by the mid-nineteenth century, the enviable pinnacle of being considered controversial.
The author mentions that English literature " was not part of any academic curriculum" in the early nineteenth century in order to ______.
选项 A、emphasize the need for Jane Austin to create ordinary, everyday characters in her novels
B、contrast nineteenth-century attitudes toward English literature with those toward classical literature
C、give one reason why Jane Austin’s novels received little critical attention in the early nineteenth century
D、give support to those religious and political groups that had attacked fiction
答案C
解析 本题是细节题。根据文章第2段第一句：“These attitudes toward novels help explain why Austin received little attention from early nineteen—century literary critics．”第一段所陈述的在1811年到1818年期间英国文学还没有在学院作为一门课程开设。这些原因导致了19世纪的批评家们对Jane Austin的小说不感兴趣。故正确答案为C。
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