A
I began writing poems fifteen years ago while I was in college. One day I was in the library, working on a term paper, when I came across a book of contemporary poetry. I don’t remember the title of the book or any of the titles of the poems except one: Frankenstein’s Daughter. The poem was wild, almost rude, and nothing like the rhyme-and-meter poetry I had read in high school. I had always thought that poetry was flowery writing about sunsets and walks on the beach, but that library book contained direct and sometimes shocking poetry about dogs, junked cars, rundown houses, and TVs. I checked the book out, curious to read more.
Soon afterward, I started filling a notebook with my own poems. At first I was scared, partly because my poetry teacher, to whom this book is written for, was a serious and strict man who could see the errors in my poems. Also, I realized the seriousness of my devotion. I gave up geography to study poetry, which a good many friends said offered no future. I ignored them because I liked working with words, using them to reconstruct the past, which has always been a source of poetry for me.
When I first studied poetry, I was single-minded. I woke to poetry and went to bed with poetry. I memorized poems, read English poets because I was told they would help shape my poems, and read classical Chinese poetry because I was told that it would add clarity to my work. But I was most taken by the Spanish and Latin American poets, particularly Pablo Neruda. My favorites of his were the odes—long, short-lined poems celebrating common things like tomatoes, socks and scissors. I felt joyful when I read these odes, and when I began to write my own poems, I tried to remain faithful to the common things of my childhood—dogs, alleys (小巷), my baseball mitts (手套) and the fruit of the valley, especially the orange. I wanted to give these things life, to write so well that my poems would express their beauty.
I also admired our own country’s poetry. I saw that our poets often wrote about places where they grew up or places that impressed them deeply. James Wright wrote about Ohio and West Virginia, Philip Levine about Detroit, Gary Snyder about the Sierra Nevadas and about Japan, where for years he studied Zen Buddhism (禅宗佛教). I decided to write about the San Joaquin Valley, where my hometown, Fresno, is located. Some of my poems are absolute observations and images of nature — the orange yards, the Kings River, the Sequoias (红杉). I fell in love with the valley, both its ugliness and its beauty, and quietly wrote poems about it to share with others.
【文章大意】本文是一篇记叙文。作者讲述了自己学习诗歌的经历以及自己所喜欢的一些诗人和诗歌。
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. The author’s experiences with poetry.
B. The author’s method of writing poetry.
C. The author’s appreciation of poetry.
D. The author’s interest in studying poetry.
【解析】选A。主旨大意题。本文是一篇记叙文, 作者详细介绍了自己学习诗歌的经历以及自己所喜欢的一些诗人和诗歌。故A项正确。
2. From the first paragraph, we can learn that ________.
A. Frankenstein’s Daughter was a flowery poetry
B. the author was able to memorize most poems he read
C. the author began to get in contact with poetry of different styles
D. the author was curious to read more of rhyme-and-meter poetry
【解析】选C。推理判断题。根据第一段“The poem was wild, almost rude, and nothing like the rhyme-and-meter poetry I had read in high school. ”可知作者在高中所学的诗歌形式与图书馆中所接触的这首诗歌差别很大, 属于完全不同的诗歌类型。说明作者开始接触不同类型的诗歌了, 故C项正确。
3. Which of the following would the author most probably write about in his poem?
A. Moving love stories in history.
B. Observations of classical poems.
C. True feelings of human friendship.
D. Appreciation of wild valley flowers.
【解析】选D。推理判断题。根据文章最后一句“I fell in love with the valley, both its ugliness and its beauty, and quietly wrote poems about it to share with others. ”可知作者非常喜欢这个山谷, 接下来要写的内容应该是与山谷相关的内容。故D项正确。
4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. The author’s friends all encouraged him to give up geography to poetry.
B. The author became devoted to poetry because of his teacher’s strictness.
C. The author loved to find sources of poetry from nature and from the past.
D. Spanish and Latin American poems influenced the author as much as Chinese ones.
【解析】选C。细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句“using them to reconstruct the past, which has always been a source of poetry for me. ”可知作者经常从过去的事情里寻找诗歌创作的源泉。再根据文章倒数第二句“Some of my poems are absolute observations and images of nature. ”可知大自然也是作者诗歌的源泉之一, 故C项正确。
【知识拓展】
佳词积累
1. flowery adj. 花香的;花味的
2. observation n. 观察;评论
长难句分析
I ignored them because I liked working with words, using them to reconstruct the past, which has always been a source of poetry for me.
分析: 本句是一个复合句。because引导的是原因状语从句, which引导的是非限制性定语从句。
翻译: 我忽视这些看低诗歌的朋友, 因为我喜欢和文字打交道, 用文字来重建过去, 过去是我诗歌的(主要)灵感来源。
