2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 18

Unit 18

Fanny Kemble（1809-93）was the niece of two Shakespearean tragedians, Sarah Siddons and Siddons’s brother, John Philip Kemble. Her father and her French mother were also actors. In fact her whole extended family constituted the foremost theatrical dynasty of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Handsome and gifted, they crop up in letters and diaries throughout the period, and were generally regarded as a kind of royalty: a race apart.

The real competition for any biographer of Kemble is Kemble herself. As her friend Henry James noted: “in two hemispheres, she had seen everyone, had known everyone”. What’s more, she recorded it all in many volumes of vividly written memoirs, all swarming with people, criticism, social commentary, anecdote, scenery, political opinion and superb set-pieces: the digging of Brunel’s Thames tunnel, for instance.

Kemble’s memoirs, especially her “Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation”, are as important historically as they are engrossing. But what fascinates us now is the way that Fanny, clever and reckless as she was, broke the rules—or the way she appropriated and revised the role prescribed to her by gender politics. She never cared about such prescriptions. She spoke her mind and thought nothing of walking into a stream fully clothed if it was hot. It wasn’t until her marriage that her gender collided with the realities of power and money. Though she was never intended for the stage, the looming bankruptcy of her father obliged her to try her chances. Overnight, she became the toast of London. Money flowed, and yet more on a tour of America, where she met a seductive young man, Pierce Butler, heir to huge rice and cotton slave-plantations in Georgia. Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

At a stroke she lost everything. Butler, deeply illiberal, exerted his rights. He appropriated her earnings, censored her writing and when she woke to the horrors of slavery, forbade her public opposition to it. She wept, she ran away, she returned. The birth of children, in whom she had no legal rights, further enchained her.

The rest of Kemble’s life was sheer indomitability. The Butlers did divorce. She did lose the children. But on their majority, she recovered them. She made her own money again. Criss-crossing the Atlantic, she gave Shakespeare readings to packed audiences. Every summer, she climbed the Alps, startling the guides by singing loudly as she went. She met James in 1872 and he fell under her spell, fascinated by her proud idealism, her eccentric honesty and above all by her talk of “old London”. “She reanimated the old drawing rooms,” he wrote, “relighted the old lamps, retuned the old pianos.” When at last she died, he felt it, he said, “l(fā)ike the end of some reign or the fall of some empire”.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2003年真題Text 4。

1. What is implied in the first paragraph?

A) The Kemble family kept a huge amount of diaries and letters.

B) Fanny Kemble was a renowned actress of Shakespearean plays.

C) This passage mainly focuses on the life of Fanny Kemble.

D) The Kemble family was once a royal family separated from common people.

2. The author mentions Fanny’s memoirs in the second paragraph to show that _______.

A) Fanny was a prolific autobiographer of herself who can compete with all her biographers

B) Fanny wrote biographers for her family members and historical events

C) Fanny’s writings are both entertaining and of historical importance

D) Fanny was a better biographer than an actress

3. The author’s attitude towards Fanny Kemble is probably one of _______.

A) strong hatred

B) enthusiastic support

C) mild satire

D) objective

4. Fanny decided to marry Pierce Butler for the following reasons EXCEPT _______.

A) she did not enjoy her career as an actress

B) she longed for an ordinary life with an equal company

C) she was attracted by the handsome Pierce Butler

D) she forgot the existence of slavery in American plantations

5. The text intends to express the idea that _______.

A) Fanny Kemble had a life that is full of adversities and misfortunes

B) Fanny Kemble seldom enjoyed her life because of continuous financial restraints

C) Fanny Kemble held an optimistic attitude towards the ups and downs of her life

D) Fanny Kemble went through a dramatic life in which she remained in the dominant position

篇章剖析

本文通過主人公自己的傳記介紹了女演員范妮·肯布爾的一生。第一段介紹了范妮的家庭背景；第二段簡介范妮豐富的人生經(jīng)歷是其自傳的主要素材，暗示本文基于范妮的自傳對其進行介紹和回顧；第三段先對范妮的一生進行了總體評價，然后描述了她的早期生活、成名過程直至其結婚；第四段描述了范妮第一次婚姻的失敗和她經(jīng)歷的痛苦；第五段描述了范妮樂觀地度過了自己的下半生。

詞匯注釋

hemisphere /?hem?sf??/ n. 半球

memoir /?memwɑ?/ n. 回憶錄

swarm /sw??m/ v. 涌往，擠滿，密集

anecdote /??n?kd??t/ n. 軼事，奇聞

engross /?n?ɡr??s/ vt. 吸引，使全神貫注

fascinate /?f?s?ne?t/ vt. 使著迷，使神魂顛倒

appropriate /??pr??pr?e?t/ vt. 占用，挪用

prescribe /pr?s?kra?b/ v. 指示，規(guī)定

collide /k??la?d/ vi. 碰撞，抵觸

loom /lu?m/ v. 隱現(xiàn)，迫近

stroke /str??k/ n. 一次努力，打擊

illiberal /??l?b?r?l/ adj. 狹隘的，偏執(zhí)的

indomitability /??nd?m?t??b?l?ti/ n. 不屈不撓

startle /?stɑ?tl/ v. 震驚

eccentric /?k?sentr?k/ adj. 古怪的

難句突破

Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

主體句式：She married him.

結構分析：這個長句的主干被放到了最后，前面兩個分詞短語在一般情況下都放在主干句的后面，這里放在前面不是“頭重腳輕”的問題，而是強調“她嫁給他”的前提。

句子譯文：肯布爾想逃離膚淺的戲劇情感主義，想有個平等的知心人陪伴自己，于是她在一定程度上忘記了奴隸制，嫁給了他。

題目分析

1. C 推理題。文章第一段開門見山地介紹范妮·肯布爾的身份及其家族，可以推出這篇文章將主要介紹范妮·肯布爾。A、B、D選項都與原文有出入，可以排除。A選項錯在肯布爾家族沒有保留大量的日記和信件，而是那個時代的許多日記和信件提到了該家族。B選項錯在范妮·肯布爾本人并不是莎劇的演員。D選項錯在肯布爾家族并不是皇族。

2. A 細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第二段，范妮·肯布爾自己就是自己的傳記作家，她出版了好幾卷關于自己經(jīng)歷的各種材料，這些顯然都是她的其他傳記作家無法比擬和超越的。C選項雖然表述上也符合文章的意思，但是這一點并不是在第二段中表現(xiàn)出來的，而是在第三段。

3. B 情感態(tài)度題。文章第三段第二句稱范妮“clever and reckless”，之后又說她勇于沖破世俗制度和性別政治；最后一段中也是對范妮后半生不屈不撓精神的評價，可見全文中作者是在盛贊范妮。

4. D 細節(jié)題。文章第三段最后一句話說明了范妮出嫁的原因，其中提到了她“somewhat managing to forget the slaves”，這里的意思不是范妮真的忘了奴隸制的存在，而是她為了幸?；乇芰诉@個問題。從第四段中可以看出范妮是反對奴隸制的，她對這個制度感到震驚。

5. C 細節(jié)題。文章最后一段提到了范妮的后半生中她一直不屈不撓地生活，她積極地參加各類活動，到處旅游，而且最終得到了愛情，可見她對于生活起伏的態(tài)度還是非常樂觀的。A選項的表述是正確的，但是文章的主旨不僅僅是描述范妮生活的坎坷，而是她在坎坷中保持的那種積極精神。B選項的錯誤原因在于范妮并不總是缺錢，D選項的錯誤原因在于她在第一次婚姻中處于被主導的地位。

參考譯文

范妮·肯布爾（1809-1893）是兩位莎士比亞悲劇演員莎拉·席登斯和她哥哥約翰·菲利浦·肯布爾的侄女。她的父親和法國籍母親也是演員。事實上，龐大的肯布爾家族是18世紀末19世紀初戲劇時代的重要組成部分。那時，他們外表英俊，具有表演天賦，不斷出現(xiàn)在當時的信件和日記里。他們被視為皇親貴胄——高高在上的一族。

對于寫肯布爾傳記的作者們來說，真正的競爭來自肯布爾本人。就像她的朋友亨利·詹姆斯說的那樣：“在兩個半球，她見過所有人，知道所有人。”不僅如此，她還把這些生動的經(jīng)歷寫進了自己的回憶錄里，足足有好幾卷?；貞涗浀膬热莅ㄈ宋?、評論、社論、軼事、風景、政見和壯觀的場景等：比如布魯內爾的泰晤士隧道挖掘場景。

肯布爾的回憶錄，尤其是《喬治亞莊園的生活日記》，不僅引人入勝，而且具有重要歷史意義。但是，現(xiàn)在吸引我們的是聰明且勇往直前的肯布爾沖破世俗的方式，或者說她如何改變和推翻性別政治強加給她的角色?？喜紶枏膩矶疾辉诤踹@些所謂的規(guī)定。她怎么想就怎么說，如果天氣太熱的話，穿著衣服走到小溪里去也無所謂。直到結婚以后，她的性別才與權力和金錢這些現(xiàn)實發(fā)生抵觸。盡管她從沒想過登上這一舞臺，但是父親的破產迫使她不得不去試試運氣。一夜之間，她成為了倫敦街頭巷尾談的話題。金錢滾滾而來，而美國之行讓她得到了更多。在美國，她邂逅了極富魅力的年輕人皮爾斯·巴特勒——佐治亞盛產大米和棉花的大型奴隸莊園的繼承人?？喜紶栂胩与x膚淺的戲劇情感主義，想有個平等的知心人陪伴自己，于是她在一定程度上忘記了奴隸制，嫁給了他。

一時的沖動讓她失去了所有。巴特勒有著根深蒂固的傳統(tǒng)觀念，并濫用自己作為丈夫的權力。他拿走肯布爾的錢，審查她的作品，在她對奴隸制感到震驚時，禁止她公開表示反對。她哭了，離開了這個家，可又回來了。孩子的出生進一步束縛了她，但她卻沒有合法權利擁有孩子。

肯布爾徹底不屈不撓地度過了后半生。她最終與巴特勒離婚，也失去了孩子們，但她重新獲得了大部分孩子的撫養(yǎng)權。她又開始賺錢了：她不停往返于大西洋兩邊，給人山人海的觀眾們分發(fā)各種莎士比亞讀物。每年夏天，她都要去爬阿爾卑斯山，走到哪都大聲唱歌，甚至還嚇到了導游。在1872年，她遇到了詹姆斯。他為她的魅力所折服，為她高傲的理想主義、前所未見的誠實著迷，最重要的還是對她的“舊倫敦”的描述。他寫道：“她修復了舊畫室，重新點燃了古老的燈，給舊鋼琴重新調了音律?！碑斔ナ罆r，他說自己覺得“像是某種統(tǒng)治結束了，一個帝國覆滅了?！?