2021年考博英語閱讀理解模擬題（四七）

The inventor of Sherlock Holmes was the most commercially successful author of histime. Arthur Conan Doyle was a phenomenon: practising doctor, warcorrespondent, businessman, politician and a campaigner for legal and colonialreforms as well as a popular novelist.

Buthe considered his fiction undervalued. Though he was known worldwide as theauthor of the Holmes stories and even sometimes addressed as Mr SherlockHolmes, Doyle regarded himself as primarily a writer of uplifting historicalfiction, usually with a medieval background. At first he considered SherlockHolmes a pleasant diversion that filled a gap in his income. Eventually he cameto think of the detective as an irksome burden: “He keeps me from higherthings,” he wrote.

TheSherlock Holmes stories continue to exercise extraordinary power. The writingis never more than efficient but the setting remains perennial: thecomfortable, carpeted, fire-lit Baker Street sitting room shared by Holmes andWatson, the paradoxically womblike world of a Victorian bachelor setabove an anarchic underworld full of violence and immorality. Doyle's literary masterstrokewas dividing the story between Holmes and Watson. It was a device thewriter used frequently but never as effectively as here.

Doyle'strue theme was division: between order and anarchy, reason and emotion, thematerial and the spiritual. He himself was a man divided, as two newbiographical books make clear. The very picture of an upright Victoriangentleman, Doyle was not averse to fighting in the street when the moodtook him. And in his late 30s, at the height of his fame, he ran a doublelife, conducting a largely secret affair with the woman who eventually becamehis second wife, while his first was gradually succumbing to tuberculosis.

Muchof this is revealed in detail in Andrew Lycett's biography and in a selectionof Doyle's letters edited by the present executor of the Doyle estate. Thestory behind the publication of these two books might make a Doylesque thrillerin itself. Mr Lycett and the Doyle estate vied to gain control of newlydiscovered material, each trying to get to market first. Mr Lycett's book is aserious piece of work from an experienced professional biographer. If henever quite gets fully to grips with Doyle's elusive personality,the author is particularly good on the intellectual background to Doyle's work,both known and forgotten. The biography is hobbled by the Doyle estate'srefusal to permit quotation from numerous documents. But Mr Lycett makes thebest of what he has and fills the gaps with insight.

Theselected letters by contrast are strictly an enthusiast's book. The editors'comments are a bit haphazard and it is poorly presented. On the other hand, itdoes convey an almost physical presence of the author, with his strange mixtureof kindness and carelessness, overbearing self-confidence and depressiveself-doubt. Above all there is theimpression of a man driven by internal forces. Since boyhood Doyle had beenstruggling with the consequences of his rationalist rejection of Catholicismand his growing conviction that there must be some kind of reality beyond thescientific. This was a division that in the end he could not manage. By theclose of his life he was spending his diminishing energies defending not onlythe world of spiritualism but also the outermost fraudulent fringes ofsupernatural belief. It was a sorry ending.

1. Conan Doyle regarded Holmes as a burden because_____

[A] he considered his fiction was of high level but was generally undervalued.

[B] he wrote the Holmes stories at the beginning for fun but later merely for the large income.

[C] the Holmes stories hindered him from writing historical fiction.

[D] the Holmes stories earned him the international fame as well as pressure.

2. The word “averse” (Line 4, Paragraph 4) most probably means_____

[A] adverse.

[B] against.

[C] opposite.

[D] converse.

3. In Andrew Lycett’s biography, Doyle is most probably described as_____

[A] a reasonable gentleman.

[B] a man with doubtful life style.

[C] one with man divided psychological identities.

[D] a man of integrity and enthusiasm.

4. Doyle’s divided personality was a result of _____

[A] his own creation of the two opposite characters, Holmes and Watson.

[B] his paradoxical views on religion and science in boyhood.

[C] his confusion on reality and fiction all through his life driven by internal forces.

[D] his devotion to the world of spiritualism and his involvement in the secular society.

5. Doyle estate refused to permit Mr. Lycett to quotate from documents because_____

[A] He was concerned with the protection of Doyle’s privacy.

[B] Mr. Lycett was not the ideal biographer of Doyle.

[C] there was a kind of competition between the two parties in the publication of Doyle’s biography.

[D] He was unsatisfied with Mr. Lycett’s work which turns Doyle’s life into a thriller story.

[答案]

1. C

2. B

3. A

4. B

5. C

>>>查看2021考博英語閱讀理解模擬題匯總