因撰写了《红字》一书而享誉世界文学之林的美国作家Nathaniel Hawthorne,是在经历了失业的痛苦后,受到妻子Sophia的鼓励才得以从事写作事业的,从而写出了这部不朽的名篇The Scarlet Letter(《红字》)。

　　Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusted friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature(文学)the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse(海关), she surprised him with a sudden short cry of joy.

　　"Now,"she said proudly,"You can write your book!"

　　"Yes",replied the man, with low confidence,"and what shall we live on while I am writing it?"

　　To his great surprise, she opened a drawer(抽屈)and pulled out some money.

　　"Where on earth did you get that?"he cried suddenly and loudly.

　　"I have always known you were a man of genius(天才),"she told him,"I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece(famous

　　book). So every week, out of the money you

　　gave me for housekeeping(money for buying food and other things necessary for keeping a house), I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for a whole year."

　　From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter(《红字》).

　　1.The underlined words "a heartbroken man" in the sentence means_____ .

　　A.a man with a heart attack

　　B.a man with heart disease

　　C.a very sad man

　　D.a man whose heart was broken

　　2.Why was Nathaniel rather unhappy? Because he thought_____ .

　　A.he was out of work

　　B.he didn't succeed in what he was expected to do

　　C.he was short of encouragement and confidence

　　D.both A and B

　　3.The underlined word "last" here means_____ .

　　A.维持B.坚持

　　C.持续D.支持

　　4.The main idea of this reading is_____ .

　　A.a successful man must be followed by a loved and trusted wife

　　B.anyone who wants to succeed should

　　　be encouraged to have enough self-confidence

　　C.Nathaniel was a man of genius and wrote a masterpiece

　　D.Nathaniel married a girl with a lot of money and got on well with each other

　　Key:1.C 2.D 3.A 4.B

　　(文/中国人民武装警察部队武汉指挥学校肖峥山；英语通高中一年级版2003年第10期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)