首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
This is the life of someone who wrote little, spoke little, and about whom there are few memories. Yet if anyone’s life is worth
This is the life of someone who wrote little, spoke little, and about whom there are few memories. Yet if anyone’s life is worth
admin
2010-04-24
53
问题
This is the life of someone who wrote little, spoke little, and about whom there are few memories. Yet if anyone’s life is worthy of a biography it is surely Abram Petrovich Gannibal, an African slave adopted by Peter the Great, who studied mathematics and cryptography before training as a military engineer, spied for the tsar in Paris, became an expert in fortification, was sent to siberia, became the governor-general of Tallinn, and finally retired to an estate in northern Russia as the owner of slaves himself.
These days he is best known as the great grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, whose family liked to think their illustrious forebear was an Abyssinian prince, and a direct descendant of the legendary Carthaginian general whose name he boldly adopted (spelling it in the Russian way with a "g"). It was not until the 1990s that an enterprising scholar from Benin was able to challenge centuries of Russian racism and suggest that Gannibal in fact came from black Africa.
Having traveled to Cameroon and paddled up-river in a 30-foot wooden boot to interview the Sultan of Logone, the intrepid Hugh Barnes lends credence to this theory with a tantalizingly plausible interpretation for the mysterious word "Fummo" (Kotoko for "homeland") to be found underneath the elephant portrayed on the family crest. Mr. Barnes does far more than just "join up the dots" between Pushkin’s unfinished novel about his ancestor and its subject. The result is not merely the first detailed account in English of this remarkable life, but the fullest in any language. It is a fascinating read.
With this book, the fruit of research in an impressive list of obscure archives, Mr. Barnes not only joins the ranks of those journalists able to give academics a good run for their money, but also shows him-self to be a travel writer of distinction. The story of his quest to discover Gannihal’s identity in places as far-flung as Novoselengisk on the Chinese border, and Pskov at the other end of the Russian empire, is engagingly told. With so little biographical material to go on (even the fabled portrait of Gannibal turns out to be that of a white man when it is restored), the dots have inevitably to be joined up with a degree of speculation. Just occasionally it leads the author astray--the Winter Palace, for example, was painted first yellow and then crimson before finally acquiring the "icy turquoise facade", which Mr. Barnes claims greeted Gannibal when he received his dismissal from Catherine the Great in 1762.
While plenty of evidence is marshaled to show that Gannibal was the first black intellectual in Europe, his personality remains frustratingly elusive. Nevertheless, this biography of the Russian Othello does much to recast our understanding of 18th century Russian life.
What is the purpose of the passage?
选项
A、To give us a portrait of a legendary person--Abram Petrovich Gannibal.
B、To reveal the origin of Gannibal.
C、To indicate the connection of Pushkin and Gannibal.
D、To introduce Hugh Barnes’s research work and his book on Gannibal.
答案
D
解析
主旨大意题。文章以介绍俄国的Abram Petrovich Cannibal为引子,介绍了Hugh Barnes为验证Cannibal的身世做的调查研究,评价了他写的传记。选项B 和C 属于细节问题,也不是作者的意图:选项A 有很强的干扰性,但不是作者的主要目的,只是引子,实际上是Cannibal的目的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/HW2K777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
OxfordUniversityscientistswillexperimentonhundredsofpeopleinahidtounderstandhowthebrainworksduringstatesofc
OnJuly4,1776,asecretmeetingofinsurgentcolonistsinAmericapassedtheDeclarationofIndependence.WaragainsttheBrit
Thetaskofbeingacceptedandenrolledinauniversitybeginsearlyforsomestudents.Long【C1】______theygraduatefromhighs
Thetourists_______throughthefog,tryingtoreadwhatwasengravedonthegravestoneShakespearehadChoosenforhimself.
InMexico,PresidentVicenteFoxismakinganefforttocalmprotestsinthefarmingsectorthroughadialoguewiththegovernme
Whenyouthinkofthetremendoustechnologicalprogresswehavemade,it’samazinghowlittlewehavedevelopedinotherrespect
MysisterhasbeentoseveralAfricancountriesaswellasallofEuropethisyear.Bythetimeshe’sthirty,she______almostev
Theevolutionofsexratiohasproduced,inmostplantsandanimalswithseparatesexes,approximatelyequalnumbersofmalesan
Heisthemostbrilliantpianist______Ihaveevermet.
Onceourhensstartedlayingeggs,wehadsucha______ofeggsthatweweregivingmanyawaytoourneighbors.
随机试题
企业战略实施的要求是()。
房地产开发活动从物质形态上看是生产房地产商品的过程,从货币形态上看是通过房地产的租售获得一定量的货币收入。()
低压为0.4kV变电所中单台变压器的容量不宜大于()。
根据城市经济基础理论,城市经济分为()两大部类。
当发生多次索赔事件以后,适宜采用________计算索赔金额。()
背景材料:某公司承建一段环城高速公路沥青混凝土路面工程,路线长16km,路面结构形式为双幅,上中下层厚度分别为4cm、5cm、6cm,每幅宽18.5m,下面层试验段铺筑长度为150m,消耗沥青混合料399.6t。问题:试计算试验段摊
各级政府审计部门对()的预算执行和决算实行审计监督。
车辆购置税的纳税环节是()。
下列选项中符合法律规定的有()。
Somepsychologistsmaintainthatmentalactssuchasthinkingarenotperformedinthebrainalone,butthatone’smusclesalso
最新回复
(
0
)