閱讀測驗 46-50
While the seven Harry Potter novels have enjoyed amazing success,
it is doubtful that their author, J. K. Rowling, will ever be awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Only one British woman has received such an
honor, eighty-nine-year-old Doris Lessing. Born in Persia (now Iran) in
1919 to British parents, Lessing moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in
white-ruled southern Africa when she was a child. She lived a
comfortable yet sheltered life in the racially divided colonial society. In
her early twenties, however, she met and began socializing with
intellectuals and other émigrés from Hitler's Europe, ultimately
developing a lifelong interest in leftist politics. In 1949, with a finished
manuscript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing, Lessing left Africa for
Europe to pursue writing full-time.
Lessing's approach to writing has evolved through three separate
periods, characterized by the themes expressed in her books. The first of
these, politics, lasted from 1949 to 1956, and the semi-autobiographical
Martha Quest is regarded as her best work from this time. The novel
centers on a white woman in Africa who develops a political conscience
and works to better the lives of the poor. The second, psychology, lasted
from 1956 to 1969. Her best-known work from this period was 1962’s
The Golden Notebook, the story of a woman writer and the independence
her career brought her. The book has been hailed as a classic feminist
novel, but Lessing insists that many readers failed to grasp its theme of
emotional healing. The third stage of Lessing’s writing career, from 1969
onwards, emphasizes spirituality and has been influenced by her
conversion to Sufism, a mystical form of Islam. She has chosen to explore
the implications of this philosophy from within a genre that few serious
British writers are willing to embrace. Shikatsa, published in 1979,
analyzes human history from the perspective of creatures from another
planet. Lessing admits that she enjoys the freedom to mix reality and
fantasy that science fiction offers.
First nominated for the Nobel Prize in the 1960s, Lessing was passed
over by the awarding committee many times before gaining the honor in
late 2007. In an interview months earlier, Lessing had announced that the 臺北捷運公司 104 年 1 月 24 日新進助理控制員、工程員(二)
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novel she was then working on would be her last, saying that it was
simply time to stop. Whether or not she actually ceases writing when she
finishes her current work, the significance of her contribution to English
literature will endure. Lessing’s name is not as recognizable to most
readers as Rowling's, nor have her works sold as many copies, but Doris
Lessing has finally received the highest validation for her writing.
【題組】50. What does the article imply about Lessing's importance as a writer?
(A) It will depend on her upcoming works. (B) It has not affected the sales
of her books. (C) It is somewhat exaggerated. (D) It will not be easily
forgotten.
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