寒假作业（7）Unit 4 Exploring poetry-2021-2022学年高二英语牛津译林版（2020）选择性必修第一册
（7）Unit 4 Exploring poetry
第一部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分50分）
第一节 （共15小题；每小题2.5分，满分37.5分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
A
Five American teenagers were officially named the 2018 National Student Poets on Thursday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The award is the highest honour for young poets in the United States and the students represent states from all over the country. The teenagers were first chosen in August from among thousands of award-winning young poets in the United States.
Virginia McEnery leads the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, which plays a part in choosing the national student poets. She says poetry is powerful because it is open to everyone. "It's so democratic, you don't need more than a pencil and piece of paper and everyone likes it." McEnery says she hopes the national student poet programme will support the winners not only as writers, but as activists.
Many of the student poets have already held literary leadership positions, McEnery said. "For many of them, they are working for their library or they're running the literary magazine for their school or one of them is actually in the scholastic awards programme for her state."
As national student poets, the five young people will give presentations, performances and training on poetry and literature. They will also improve the services of libraries and museums, and volunteer in their communities. In addition, each poet will receive an award of $5 ,000 and the opportunity to learn from poet and teacher Glenis Redmond. And, they will meet with Tracy K. Smith, the current poet laureate(桂冠诗人) for the United States.
McEenery says she has seen for herself how programmes to support students' creative expression can change young people's lives. "It's such a hard time to be a teenager, social movements are happening in real time as they are growing up. What better, smarter, wiser thing can a young person do than try to write about it?"
1.What does the underlined word "democratic" in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?
A.Special. B.Useful. C.Popular. D.Interesting.
2.Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
A.The award is the highest honour for young poets in the world.
B.The five young people will improve the services of library and museums.
C.The programmes to support students' creative expression changed young people's lives.
D.The teenagers were first selected from among many award-winning young poets in the USA.
3.What's McEnery's attitude towards being a poet?
A.Negative. B.Positive. C.Uncaring. D.Doubtful.
B
In the 19th century, one of America's greatest writers, Walt Whitman, helped people learn to value poetry. Whitman created a new kind of poetry.
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was 36 years old when he published his first book of poetry in 1855. He called it Leaves of Grass. It has only 12 poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short. Some are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme.
One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of Leaves of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's works. But most other poets and writers said nothing and even denounced it. Most readers also rejected Whitman's poems. The new form of his poetry surprised many people. Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new poetic voice.
Walt Whitman's poems praise the United States and its democracy. The poet expressed his love for America and its people in many ways. Experts today praise Leaves of Grass as a major literary work. In 1873, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in 1892. Some critics say Walt Whitman was a spokesman for democracy. Others say he was not a spokesman for anything. Instead, they simply call him a great poet.
1.What can we know about Whitman?
A.His poems have the same rhyme. B.He is the first great poet in the USA.
C.He helped people to create new poems. D.His poems show his love for his country.
2.Why was Leaves of Grass refused at first?
A.The poems are quite short. B.The form of poetry is special.
C.Whitman wasn't famous then. D.There are only 12 poems in it.
3.What does the underlined word "denounced" in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A.Accused. B.Downloaded. C.Published. D.Translated.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Walt Whitman—a Great Soldier B.Walt Whitman—an Unfortunate Poet
C.Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass D. The First and Greatest Poet in America
C
As William Shakespeare is to literature in English, so is the poet Du Fu to the Chinese literary tradition. "We have Dante, Shakespeare and Du Fu. These poets create the very values by which poetry is judged," said Harvard Professor Stephen Owen in Du Fu, China's Greatest Poet, a new BBC documentary (纪录片) broadcast on April 7.
Aimed at introducing the charm and beauty of traditional Chinese literature to viewers around the globe, the documentary invited famous British actor Ian McKellen, who played the wizard(巫师) Gandalf in the film series The Lord of the Rings, to read 15 of Du's poems that have been translated into English.
The one-hour film talks about the poet's life experiences in detail. Born in 712, Du lived under the government of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong (713-756), a time marked by extraordinary prosperity(繁荣), inclusiveness(包容) and cultural achievement. However, as the An Lushan Rebellion of 755 broke out in the country, Du, the former civil servant(文职人员) at the Tang court, had to take his family on the road as refugees(难民), and put up with starvation and suffering. Through ups and downs, the poet never stopped writing and about 1,500 poems have been kept over the ages.
"Chinese people really value the recording of history and Du is better than anyone at reflecting history in his poetry. That's because historical events are mirrored in his own life and spiritual journey," Zeng Xiangbo, a professor of ancient Chinese literature at Renmin University of China, told China Daily.
Even though he never held a high position in the government, Du still cared about common people. For example, in the poem My Cottage Unroofed by Autumn Gates, he wrote that "Could I