Theodore Dreiser is old — he is very, very old. I do not know how many years he has lived, perhaps forty, perhaps fifty, but he is very old. Something gray and bleak and hurtful, that has been in the world perhaps forever, is personified in him.
When Dreiser is gone, men shall write books. Many of them, in the books, shall write there will be so many of the qualities Dreiser lacks. The new, the younger man shall have a sense of humor, and everyone knows Dreiser has no sense of humor. More than that, American prose writers shall have grace, lightness of touch, a dream of beauty breaking through the husks of life.
Of those who follow him shall have many things that Dreiser does not have. That is a part of the wonder and beauty of Theodore Dreiser, the things that others shall have because of him,
Long ago, when Dreiser was an editor of the Delineator, he went one day, with a woman friend, to visit an orphan asylum. The woman once told me the story of t
A. Dreiser didn't know what to do with life.
B. Dreiser was old in spirit.
C. The tone in his prose was heavy.
D. Dreiser lacked a sense of humor.
Text 3 Much of the American anxiety about old age is a flight from the reality of death. One of the striking qualities of the American character is the unwillingness to face either the fact or meaning of death. In the more somber tradition of American literature -- from Hawthorne and Melville and Poe to Faulkner and Hemingway -- one finds a tragic depth that disguises the surface thinness of the ordinary American death attitudes. By an effort of the imagination, the great writers faced problems that the culture in action is reluctant to face -- the fact of death, its mystery, and its place in the back-and-forth shuttling of the eternal recurrence. The unblinking confrontation of death in Greek time, the elaborate theological patterns woven around it in the Middle Ages, the ritual celebration of it in the rich, peasant cultures of Latin and Slavic Europe and in primitive cultures; these are difficult to find in American life. Whether through fear of the emotional depths, or
A. In American life, people hardly mention the death.
B. In the Middle Ages, death was surrounded by respect.
C. In primitive cultures, death was faced with awe.
D. In Greek times, people .were afraid of facing death.
American are careful about how and when they meet one another’s eyes. In their normal conversation, each eye (61) lasts only about a second before one or both individuals (62) . When two Americans look (63) into each other’s eyes, emotions are heightened and the relationship becomes more (64) . (65) , they carefully avoid this, except in appropriate circumstances.
Proper street behavior in the United States (66) a nice balance of attention and (67) . You are supposed to look at a passer-by just enough to show that you (68) his presence. If you look too (69) , you appear arrogant or secretive; too much and you’re (70) . Usually what happens is that people eye each other (71) they are about eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes. In England the polite listener stares at the speaker (72) and blinks his eyes occasionally as a sign of interest. That (73)
A. However
B. Nevertheless
C. For
D. Therefore
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