SAMPLE 7

[文學類]

　　“I want to criticize the social system, and to show it at work, at its most intense.” Virginia Woolf’s provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics, since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the “poetic” novelist concerned with examining states of reverie and vision and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness. But Virginia Woolf was a realistic as well as a poetic novelist, a satirist and social critic as well as a visionary: literary critics’ cavalier dismissal of Woolf’s social vision will not withstand scrutiny.

　　In her novels, Woolf is deeply engaged by the questions of how individuals are shaped (or deformed) by their social environments, how historical forces impinge on people’s lives, how class, wealth, and gender help to determine people’s fates. Most of her novels are rooted in a realistically rendered social setting and in a precise historical time.

　　Woolf’s focus on society has not been generally recognized because of her intense antipathy to propaganda in art. The pictures of reformers in her novels are usually satiric or sharply critical. Even when Woolf is fundamentally sympathetic to their causes, she portrays people anxious to reform their society and possessed of a message or program as arrogant or dishonest, unaware of how their political ideas serve their own psychological needs. (Her Writer’s Diary notes: “the only honest people are the artists,” whereas “these social reformers and philanthropists… harbor… discreditable desires under the disguise of loving their kind…”) Woolf detested what she called “preaching” in fiction, too, and criticized novelist D. H. Lawrence (among others) for working by this method.

　　Woolf’s own social criticism is expressed in the language of observation rather than in direct commentary, since for her, fiction is a contemplative, not an active art. She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues; it is the reader’s work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view behind them. As a moralist, Woolf works by indirection, subtly undermining officially accepted mores, mocking, suggesting, calling into question, rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness: hers is the satirist’s art.

　　Woolf’s literary models were acute social observers like Chekhov and Chaucer. As she put it in The Common Reader, “It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote; and yet, as we read him, we are absorbing morality at every pore.” Like Chaucer, Woolf chose to understand as well as to judge, to know her society root and branch — a decision crucial in order to produce art rather than polemic.

　　1. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the text?

　　[A] Poetry and Satire as Influences on the Novels of Virginia Woolf.

　　[B] Virginia Woolf: Critic and Commentator on the Twentieth-Century Novel.

　　[C] Trends in Contemporary Reform Movements as a Key to Understanding Virginia Woolf’s Novels.

　　[D] Virginia Woolf’s Novels: Critical Reflections on the Individual and on Society.

　　2. In the first paragraph of the text, the author’s attitude toward the literary critics mentioned can best be described as

　　[A] disparaging.

　　[B] ironic.

　　[C] facetious.

　　[D] skeptical but resigned.

　　3. It can be inferred from the text that Woolf chose Chaucer as a literary example because she believed that

　　[A] Chaucer was the first English author to focus on society as a whole as well as on individual characters.

　　[B] Chaucer was an honest and forthright author, whereas novelists like D. H. Lawrence did not sincerely wish to change society.

　　[C] Chaucer was more concerned with understanding his society than with calling its accepted mores into question.

　　[D] Chaucer’s writing was greatly, if subtly, effective in influencing the moral attitudes of his readers.

　　4. It can be inferred from the text that the most probable reason Woolf realistically described the social setting in the majority of her novels was that she

　　[A] was aware that contemporary literary critics considered the novel to be the most realistic of literary genres.

　　[B] was interested in the effect of a person’s social milieu on his or her character and actions.

　　[C] needed to be as attentive to detail as possible in her novels in order to support the arguments she advanced in them.

　　[D] wanted to show that a painstaking fidelity in the representation of reality did not in any way hamper the artist.

　　5. Which of the following phrases best expresses the sense of the word “contemplative” as it is used in line 2, paragraph 4 of the text?

　　[A] Gradually elucidating the rational structures underlying accepted mores.

　　[B] Reflecting on issues in society without prejudice or emotional commitment.

　　[C] Avoiding the aggressive assertion of the author’s perspective to the exclusion of the reader’s judgment.

　　[D] Conveying a broad view of society as a whole rather than focusing on an isolated individual consciousness.

　　[答案與考點解析]

　　1. 【答案】D

　　【考點解析】這是一道中心主旨題。本文的中心主旨句在首段的尾句，結合每段的主題句，我們可以推斷出本文是在講“Virginia Woolf”的小說以及其小說對個人與社會之間的關系進行的相關闡述�？梢姳绢}的正確選項應該是反映上述內(nèi)容的選項D�？忌�在解題時應注意全文的中心主旨句以及每段的主題句之間的相互關系。

　　2. 【答案】A

　　【考點解析】本題是一道細節(jié)推導題。題干中的“literary critics”暗示本題的答案信息來源應該在首段的尾句，通過對本句的閱讀與理解可推斷出本文作者對“literary critics”的態(tài)度是否定的，故選項A應該是本題的正確選項。本題的選項D因為“resigned”(屈從的，順從的)一詞而不能成為本題的正確選項，因為原文中并沒有包含這方面的意思�？忌�在解題時一定要認真理解原文的每一個單詞。

　　3. 【答案】D

　　【考點解析】這是一道句間關系題。通過題干中的“Chaucer”一詞可迅速將本題的答案信息確定在尾段的首句。通過閱讀尾段的第一句和第二句，我們可以推斷出本題的正確選項應該是突出“morality”含義的選項D�？忌�在解題時一定要考慮到上下句之間的聯(lián)系。

　　4. 【答案】B

　　【考點解析】這是一道句間關系題。通過題干中的“realistically”和“social setting”可將本題的答案信息來源迅速確定在第二段的尾句，通過閱讀和理解第二段中僅有的兩個句子，我們可以推斷出本題的正確選項應該是突出“人的社會環(huán)境影響人的性格和行為”之含義的選項B。考生在解題時一定要重視上下句之間的相互聯(lián)系。

　　5. 【答案】C

　　【考點解析】本題是一道詞匯理解題。本題的題干以將本題的答案信息來源確定在第四段的第一句。如果考生不認識“contemplative”這個詞，可以通過這個詞前后的語意關系以及第四段第二句所表達的內(nèi)容進行推導。通過仔細閱讀第四段的第一、二句，我們可以推斷出本題的正確選項應該是C，因為該選項強調(diào)的是回避“direct commentary”(直接的評論)，不做“active art”(主動的藝術)，讓讀者自己去思考。考生在解題時應該注意原文中所表達的對立對比關系。

　　[參考譯文]

　　“我要批判社會體制，揭示出它在比較為緊要的關頭是如何運作的。”弗吉尼亞·伍爾芙在談及她寫作《達勒維夫人》的意圖時令人深思的言論，常常為批評家們所忽視，因為它著重突出了她文學興趣的一個方面，而這一方面與這位“詩意”小說家的一貫形象大相徑庭，她一貫所關注的是審視人們夢想與幻覺的種種狀態(tài)，并沿著個人意識的復雜路徑追尋。但弗吉尼亞·伍爾芙是一位“詩意”小說家也是一個現(xiàn)實主義者，是一個空想家也是一個諷刺作家和社會批評家，對于伍爾芙的社會空想，文學批評家們傲慢地忽視伍爾芙的社會批判的做法是經(jīng)不起推敲的。

　　伍爾芙在其小說中全力探討如下問題：社會環(huán)境是如何塑造個人的(或是使人墮落的)，歷史發(fā)展的推動力是如何沖擊人們生活的，階級、財產(chǎn)和性別是如何在決定人生命運中發(fā)揮作用的。她的大部分小說植根于現(xiàn)實主義營造的社會背景中，并發(fā)生在某一精確的歷史時期。

　　因為伍爾芙對藝術宣傳十分厭惡，所以她對社會的關注并未得到普遍認可。在她的小說中，改革者的形象通常是具有諷刺性的或是帶有尖銳的批判色彩。即使有時伍爾芙本質上對他們的事業(yè)懷有同情心，但她還是將急于改革社會的，懷揣救世咨文或是綱領的人塑造成傲慢自大而又不夠誠實的形象，并還沒有意識到其政治主張是如何為滿足個人的心理私欲而服務的。(她在《作家日記》中寫道：“唯有藝術家是誠實的人，”而“這些社會改革家和慈善家們……將可恥的欲望隱藏在熱愛人類的假面之后……”)伍爾芙還痛恨在小說中應用所謂的“說教”，對應用這一理論進行創(chuàng)作的小說家D. H.勞倫斯(及其他作家)進行了批評。

　　伍爾芙將自己的社會批判以觀察的語言而不是直接的評論來表現(xiàn)，因為對她而言，小說是一門沉思凝想的藝術而非一門積極干預生活的藝術。她對社會及社會性問題所表現(xiàn)出來的現(xiàn)象加以描述，并提供材料讓人們作出評論。讀者要做的才是將這些觀察所得的資料綜合起來，并體會出隱含其中的連貫的觀點。作為一名道德家，伍爾芙間接而巧妙地對那些公認的倫理道德進行攻擊，她嘲諷、暗示、質疑，而不是下論斷，鼓吹自己的觀點，或是充當見證：她的作品是諷刺作家的藝術。

　　伍爾芙的文學楷模是像契訶夫和喬叟那樣敏銳的社會觀察家。正如她在《普通讀者》中表述的，“完全可以說，還沒有因為喬叟說了什么或寫了什么而制定出一項法律或是建起一塊石碑;但當我們在閱讀他的作品時，卻會全身心地汲取其道德思想。”正如喬叟一樣，伍爾芙選擇去理解判斷，去徹底了解她所置身的社會——去創(chuàng)造藝術而不是爭論性文章，這才是至關重要的決定。