2. 外语
  3. During the two years that passed between the death of his father and his establishment in London, Gibbon had made a preliminary

During the two years that passed between the death of his father and his establishment in London, Gibbon had made a preliminary

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问题    During the two years that passed between the death of his father and his establishment in London, Gibbon had made a preliminary examination of the ground that must be covered in the history of the Roman Empire which he proposed to write. As soon as he had a house to himself, he started the actual work of writing, and composed and three times rewrote the first chapter, twice patiently recasting the second and third, before he was "tolerably satisfied" with the effect he had achieved, and the flow of composition became, paragraph by paragraph, more regular and rapid. We are told that, while composing, he walked to and fro across the library, and that the whole paragraph was complete when he finally regained his chair and resorted to pen and ink. The necessary reference, which he added later, he had already jotted down on cards. A friend suspected that he was working too fast; but Gibbon reassured him; the whole works, he said, had undergone a long and elaborate process of correction and revision; his "diligence and accuracy, " he afterwards told the world, were confirmed by his conscience. Thus he awaited the day of final publication without undue anxiety. During February, 1775, the first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire appeared in the book-shops. His publishers had originally calculated on five hundred copies, but, with almost prophetic insight had increased this number to a thousand. The first edition to appear was immediately sold out, and two further editions were very soon exhausted. A great fit of fame seized on the modest author. His pride was immensely approved; but it would be idle to pretend that he was either ashamed or startled.
   Besides, he had still far to go. For the next eleven years, though he never retired from the world and remained an attentive, if somewhat impassive, observer of the various revolutions of society and politics, the record of Gibbon’s life is very largely the record of his work’s development, as the original scheme gradually expanded through half of dozen volumes. Than the Decline and Fall there is probably no book of equal size and scope more thoroughly filled with the characteristic quality of a single man’s intelligence. It is not that the historian makes arbitrary of unjustified attacks into the pages of his history; he has no reason to impose himself, for, in fact, he is always there — not as a figure rising inappropriately between the reader and his subject, but as an influence that colours every scene, moderates the verbal rhythm of each successive period, and links episode to episode in the same harmonious pattern.
On its first appearance the History______.
选项 A、was incomplete
B、was undersold
C、sold 3, 000 copies
D、greatly surprised the author
答案C
解析 本题细节定位于第一段第八、九句话“His publishers had originally calculated on five hundred copies，but，with almost prophetic insight had increased this number to a thousand．The first edition to appear was immediately sold out，and two further editions were very soon exhausted．”。由此可知，吉本的著作开始出版时，出版商最初计划印500本，但后来将数量增加到1000本。第一版一问世就立刻销售一空，而后增加的两次再版也很快售完。据此可以推知，吉本的著作一共售出3000本，因此选择C。
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