Yesterday afternoon, colleague Teacher Wang shared with me the 2021 Beijing Xicheng Junior High School (Part 1) English midterm test questions, of which 12 single choice questions are not too difficult, the test center is basically fixed, for intermediate and above level students, it is effortless to get a full score.
What caught my attention was that the stems of questions 1 and 8 mentioned two world masterpieces: Mark Twain's The Adventures of tom sawyer, and Black Beauty.
In fact, the famous works in the above stem have little to do with the answers, and not knowing or understanding them does not affect the questions. I just want to use these two questions to remind everyone: middle school students must expand their reading scope, read more famous works, expand their horizons, enrich their knowledge reserves, enhance their spiritual realm, and enhance their aesthetic ability.
I remember that I recommended the "Teaching and Research of English Subjects in Middle and High Schools" public account in April 2020 promulgated by the Ministry of Education in April 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the "Ministry of Education Basic Education Curriculum Textbook Development Center Reading Guidance Catalog for Primary and Secondary School Students (2020 Edition)", I hope that everyone can record the collection, more importantly, use holidays or weekends to bury their heads in careful reading. (Please search for the following articles in the WeChat public account "Teaching and Research of Middle and High School English Subjects") ——
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In the following, I will introduce the outline of these two masterpieces and the author profiles.
I. Mark Twain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1. Mark Twain
Mark Twain (30 November 1835 – 21 April 1910), originally known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American writer and orator, "Mark Twain" was his pen name, originally a term used by Mississippi river sailors to indicate the depth of water measured on the waterway.
When he was 12 years old, his father died, so he had to stop school and work as a small worker in a factory. He worked as a navigator, miner, and journalist on the Mississippi River. Gradually, he wrote some interesting novels by hand and began his writing career. Representative works include the novel "Million Pound Sterling", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and so on.
Mark Twain was the founder of American critical realist literature, mark Twain wrote a large number of works in his lifetime, including novels, plays, essays, poetry and other aspects. In terms of content, his work criticizes irrational phenomena or the ugliness of human nature, expresses the writer's strong sense of justice and concern for ordinary people as a writer who has worked as a typestreaker and sailor; stylistically, experts and the general reader agree that humor and irony are characteristic of his writing. He experienced the development process of the United States from early capitalism to imperialism, and his ideas and creations were also manifested in the development stage from brisk laughter to spicy irony to pessimism and world-weariness, with spicy irony in the early stage and more exposed and fierce language in the later period.
In 2006, Mark Twain was named the 16th most influential person in the United States by Atlantic Monthly, an authoritative journal in the United States. (By the way, Mr. Zhang was a literary youth who liked Mark Twain very much.) ）
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The adventures of tom sawyer was published in 1876. Although it is a juvenile book set in a small town on the Mississippi River, it is loved by readers of any age. Many of the stories in the book about mischievous Tom and his partner Huckleberry Finn and Tom's girlfriend, Betsy Thatcher, many of which are the author's personal experiences, have many interesting plots that are in line with the psychology of children.
The novel takes place in an ordinary town on the Banks of the Mississippi River in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. The protagonist, Tom Sawyer, is naïve and lively, dares to explore, pursues freedom, can't stand the constraints of personality, boring and boring life, and fantasizes about doing a heroic career.
The era of the novel was written in the small town of St. Petersburg before the Civil War, but the town can be said to be a microcosm of american society at that time. Through the protagonist's adventure experience, the novel satirizes and criticizes the hypocritical and vulgar social customs, hypocritical religious rituals and stereotyped school education in the United States, and describes the free and lively hearts of children and young people in a cheerful tone. In April 2020, it was included in the "Catalogue of Reading Guidance for Primary and Secondary School Students (2020 Edition)" of the Textbook Development Center for Basic Education Curriculum of the Ministry of Education.
Another of Mark Twain's most important novels, adventures of huckleberry finn, began writing in 1876 and was published in 1884. The novel was highly praised by critics, well received by readers at home and abroad, and was constantly banned.
When I was young, I read his short story "Running for Governor" (published in 1870) and was deeply impressed by the author's profound writing skills. "Running for Governor" is about the whole process of "I" running for governor. Because "I" have become an obstacle to their success in the eyes of political opponents, they use all kinds of slanders, such as perjury, Montana thieves, grave diggers, alcoholics, dirty bribers, hateful bribe-givers, slander, trying to make "I" finally lose my reputation, and sure enough, "I" can't bear such harassment and automatically quit this boring game.
2. "Black Horse"
The author of "Black Beauty" is Anna Sewell. The book is a classic children's novel that sensationalized European literature in the second half of the nineteenth century.
1. Introduction to the content
The protagonist of the novel, "Black Horse", is a beautiful black horse, who has lived in a noble family since childhood, has been well trained, has a docile personality, is intelligent and witty, and is liked by his master. But the good times did not last long, the owner's family changed, and the black horse had to be sold. He was sold many times in a row and came into contact with all kinds of people: drunks who drank too much wine and took horses, taxi coachmen who smoked whips at every turn, barbarians who used animals as dead machines, and good families who regarded animals as friends. The black horse tasted the sweetness, sourness and bitterness of the human world, and finally had a good home.
2. Author Profile
Anna Sewell (1820–1878), Englishman. Born in 1820 in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, he died in 1878. She spent her childhood in London and the suburbs of London. Disabled as a teenager, she has been walking without crutches ever since, and she insists on driving a carriage of a dwarf horse. It took her 6 years to write when she was seriously ill, and the only book she wrote, which died shortly after its publication, and has sold more than 30 million copies since then.
As soon as it was published, this work caused a sensation in the European literary scene, and has enjoyed a worldwide reputation for many years, and is a representative and authoritative children's literature, awakening generations of readers to understand animals and treat animals well.
3. Social value
The book is a classic children's novel that sensationalized European literature in the second half of the nineteenth century.
In the black horse, we can see many human qualities: honesty and reliability, firm and brave, docile and friendly... Although the black horse has endured hardships, it has never changed these qualities. As the English poet Byron put it, "You have all the virtues of man, but you have no human flaws." This can't help but lead us to think: what qualities should we have as human beings? Isn't it precisely because we cruelly mistreat animals that we disregard the good qualities in animals? ”
Through its own eyes and in a beautiful language, the black horse tells a beautiful story, conveying to the reader the message that animals also have feelings and thoughts, and that humans should be kind to animals.
"Black Horse" has been adapted to the screen twice. The first was in 1971 directed by James Hill (a feature film) starring Mark Lester, Walter Slezak, peter lee lawrence, and the second was in 1994 directed by Carolyn Thompson and starring Sean Bing, Jim Carter, and others.
【Disclaimer】This article refers to the text of the relevant webpage of "Baidu".
2021-11-08 Beijing