The Beginning of American Literature America has always been a land of beginnings. After Europeans "discovered" America in t

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问题                   The Beginning of American Literature
    America has always been a land of beginnings. After Europeans "discovered" America in the fifteenth century, the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life, an escape from poverty and persecution, a chance to start again. We can say that, as a nation, America begins with that hope. When, however, does American literature begin?
    American literature begins with American experiences. Long before the first colonists arrived, before Christopher Columbus, before the Northmen who "found" America about the year 1000, native Americans lived here. Each tribe’ s literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of linking with the land. Another kind of experience, one filled with fear and excitement, found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers sent home in Spain, French and English. In addition, the journals of the people who lived and died in the New England wilderness tell unforgettable tales of hard and sometimes heartbreaking experiences of those early years.
    Experience, then, is the key to early American literature. The New World provided a great variety of experiences, and these experiences demanded a wide variety of expressions by an even wider variety of early American writers. These writers included John Smith, who spent only two-and-a-half year on the American continent. They included Jonathan Edwards and William Byrd, who thought of themselves as British subjects, never suspecting a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own. American Indians, explorers, Puritan ministers, frontier wives, plantation owners—they are all the creators of the first American literature.
According to the last paragraph, which of the following statements is true about American literature?

选项 A、Some British writers started American literature.
B、Early-day American literature is a reflection of the boring life then.
C、Some British writers had doubts about the future of American literature.
D、Some British writers had great confidence in the future of American literature.

答案D

解析 由文章最后一段第四句话“They included Jonathan Edwards and William Byrd,who thought of themselves as British subjects,never suspecting a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own.”可知,这两位自认为是大英帝国臣民的英国作家对一场将会创造出一个拥有自己文学的美利坚合众国的革命从来没有任何怀疑。可见,一些英国作家对美国文学的将来充满信心。故选D。
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