Diseasepovertyhatelove—CharlesDickens’storiesopenedhisreaderseyestothemostimportantthemesofhisage.TwohundredyearsonhisstoriesstillspeakvolumesacrosstheworldprovingthatDickens’legacy(遗产)wasfar

Question

Disease poverty hate love—Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on his stories still speak volumes across the world proving that Dickens’ legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “great literature”
February 7 marks the 200 ^th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A white Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas”—not the religious festival but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today. In the early 19 ^th century Christmas was barely worth mentioning according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day – unthinkable in the West nowadays when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.
Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel A Christmas Carol he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas but also painted a picture of glowing warmth –“ home enjoyments affections and hopes”.
In his biography of Dickens Peter Ackroyd wrote: “ Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickensian” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian (the period during British Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901) London.
He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy（官僚作风） in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009 when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about deprivation in some areas of Britain she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific” but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”

1. 1.
   What is the main idea of the article?
   1. A.
      An introduction to Charles Dickens’ classic novels
   2. B.
      Charles dickens’ impact on the world
   3. C.
      Charles Dickens’ amazing characters
   4. D.
      Why Charles Dickens is popular across the world
2. 2.
   Why is Dickens called “the man who invented Christmas”?
   1. A.
      Because he created the religious festival
   2. B.
      Because many of his novels have something to do with Christmas
   3. C.
      Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations
   4. D.
      Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas
3. 3.
   According to the article the phrase “red tape” refers to _______
   1. A.
      rules or procedures that are required to accomplish a task
   2. B.
      a situation in which poor members of society are hurt
   3. C.
      conflict between people in power and weaker people
   4. D.
      pointlessly time-consuming official procedures

Answer 1

BCD介绍了为什么在现在狄更斯的作品仍然受人欢迎，是因为他的作品里有一些有现代意义的东西。1.推理题。根据第一段Two hundred years on his stories still speak volumes across the world proving that Dickens’ legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “great literature”可知200年后狄更斯对当代社会仍然有很大的影响。2.推理题。根据第四段第一句Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come.可知正是狄更斯对圣诞节的描述让他被成为“the man who invented Christmas”3.根据横线后面的to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy（官僚作风）可知这个词是指那些没有意义的消耗了大量时间的办公室程序。