1) Kate Chopin is generally regarded as the pioneering writer of ______ in American literature.

When Chopin was sixteen, he attended the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, directing by composer Joseph Elsner.()

Frederic Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, on February 22, 1810, to a French father and Polish mother. His father, Nicholas Chopin, was a French tutor to many aristocratic Polish families, later accepting a position as a French teacher at the Warsaw Lyceum.

Although Chopin later attended the Lyceum where his father taught, his early training began at home. This included receiving piano lessons from his mother. By the age of six, Chopin was creating original pieces, showing innate prodigious musical ability. His parents arranged for the young Chopin to take piano instruction from Wojciech Zywny,

When Chopin was sixteen, he attended the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, directed by composer Joseph Eisner. Eisner, like Zywny, insisted on the traditional training associated with Classical music but allowed his students to investigate the more original imaginations of the Romantic style. as well.

As often happened with the young musicians of both the Classical and Romantic Periods, Chopin was sent to Vienna, the unquestioned center of music for that day. He gave piano concerts and then arranged to have his pieces published by a Viennese publishing house there. While Chopin was in Austria, Poland and Russia faced off in the apparent beginnings of war. He returned to Warsaw to get his things in preparation of a more permanent move. While there, his friends gave him a silver goblet filled with Polish soil. He kept it always, as he was never able to return to his beloved Poland.

French by heritage, and desirous of finding musical acceptance from a less traditional audience than that of Vienna, Chopin ventured to Paris. Interestingly, other young musicians had assembled in the city of fashion with the very same hope. Chopin joined Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Vincenzo Bellini, all proponents of the "new" Romantic style.

Although Chopin did play in the large concert halls on occasion, he felt most at home in private settings, enjoying the social milieu that accompanied concerts for the wealthy. He also enjoyed teaching, as this caused him less stress than performing. Chopin did not feel that his delicate technique and intricate melodies were as suited to the grandiose hall as they were to smaller environments and audiences.

News of the war in Poland inspired Chopin to write many sad musical pieces expressing his grief for "his" Poland. Among these was the famous "Revolutionary Etude." Plagued by poor health as well as his homesickness, Chopin found solace in summer visits to the country. Here, his most complex yet harmonic creations found their way to the brilliant composer’s hand. The "Fantasia in F Minor," the "Barcarolle," the "Polonaise Fantasia," "Ballade in A Flat Major," "Ballade in F Minor," and "Sonata in B Minor" were all products of the relaxed time Chopin enjoyed in the country.

As the war continued in Warsaw and then reached Paris, Chopin retired to Scotland with friends. Although he was far beyond the reach of the revolution, his melancholy attitude did not improve and he sank deeper into a depression. Likewise, his health did not rejuvenate either. A window in the fighting made it possible for Chopin to return to Paris as his health deteriorated further. Surrounded by those that he loved, Frederic Francois Chopin died at the age of 39. He was buried in Paris.

Chopin’s last request was that the Polish soil in the silver goblet be sprinkled over his grave.

Which of the following cities was believed to better accept music of Romantic style?

A．Paris.

B．Warsaw.

C．Vienna.

D．A city in Scotland.

The 60 Most-Recommended Novels and Short Stories

1. Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice (BR, 1813) / 2. Baldwin, James, Go Tell It on the Mountain (AM, 1953) / 3. Bellow, Saul, Seize the Day (AM, 1956) / 4. Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre (BR, 1847) / 5. Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights (BR, 1847) / 6. Camus, Albert, The Stranger (FR, 1942) / 7. Carroll, Lewis, Alice' s Adventures in Wonderland (BR, 1865) / 8. Cather, Willa, My Antonia (AM, 1918) / 9. Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quixote (SP, 1605, 1607) / 10. Chopin, Kate, The Awakening (AM, 1899) / 11. Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness (BR, i902 ) / 12. Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage (AM, 1895) / 13. Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe (BR, 1719) / 14. Dickens, Charles, Great Expectations (BR, 1860～61)/ 15. Dostoevski, Feodor, Crime and Punishment (RU, 1866) / 16. Eliot, George, The Mill on the Floss (BR, 1860) / 17. Ellison, Ralph, Invisible Man (AM, 1947) / 18. Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury (AM, 1929) / 19. Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones (Br, 1749) / 20. Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby (AM, 1925) / 21. Flaubert, Gustave, Madame Bovary (FR, 1857) / 22. Forster, E. M., A Passage to India (BR, 1924) / 23. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, One Hundred Years of Solitude (CO, 1967) / 24. Golding, William, Lord of the Flies (BR, 1954) / 25. Hardy, Thomas, Tess of the D' Urbervilles (BR, 1891) / 26. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter (AM, 1850) / 27. Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms (AM, 1929) / 28. Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God (AM, 1937) / 29. Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World (BR, 1932) / 30. James, Henry, The Turn of the Screw (AM, 1898) / 31. Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (IR, 1916) / 32. Kafka, Franz, The Trial (CZ, 1925) / 33. Lawrence, D. H., Sons and Lovers (BR, 1913) / 34. Lewis, Sinclair, Babbitt (AM, 1922) / 35. Malamud, Bernard, The Assistant (AM, 1957) / 36. Mann, Thomas, Death in Venice (GE, 1912) / 37. Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick (AM, 1851) / 38. Morrison, Toni, Sula (AM, 1973) / 39. O'Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (AM, 1955) / 40. Olsen, Tillie, Tell Me a Riddle (AM, 1956～60) / 41. Orwell, George, Animal Farm (BR, 1945) / 42. Paton, Alan, Cry, the Beloved Country (SA, 1948 ) / 43. Poe, Edgar Allan, Great Tales and Poems (AM, 1839-45) / 44. Salinger, J. D., The Catcher in the Rye (AM, 1951)/ 45. Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe (BR, 1820) / 46. Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein (BR, 1818) / 47. Stelnbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath (AM, 1939) / 48. Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver' s Travels (BR, 1726) / 49. Thackeray, William Makepeaee, Vanity Fair (BR, 1847～48) / 50. Tolstoy , Leo , War and Peace (RU, 1865~69) / 51. Turgenev, Ivan, Fathers and Sons (RU, 1862) / 52. Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (AM, 1886) / 53. Updike, John, Rabbit, Run (AM, 1961) / 54. Voltaire, Candide (FR, 1759) / 55. Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse Five (AM, 1969) / 56. Walker, Alice, The Color Purple (AM, 1982) / 57. Welty, Eudora, Thirteen Stories (AM, 1956) / 58.Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence (AM, 1920) /59. Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse (BR, 1927) /60. Wright, Richard, Native Son (AM, 1940)

Which of the following authors is NOT on the list?

A．E. M. Forster.

B．Toni Morrison.

C．J.B.Priestley.

D．Albert Camus.

A、She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1850.

B、She spent her childhood among women.

C、She focused her writing on love, marriage, women, and independence.

D、She was never married in her life.

Chopin felt most at ease when

A．he played in the large concert hall.

B．he was with social wealthy people.

C．he was with those who he loved.

D．he played in a non-public upper-class concert.

Irish dance: The Irish International Dance Company, one of the most dynamic dance troupes in the world, will tour China with its classic production "Spirit of the Dance--the New Millennium."

The dancers include such famous names as Patricia Murray, one of the Irish dancing champions, and first-rate ballerina Claire Holding.

Sponsored by China National Culture and Art Company Ltd. , the dancing troupe will give three performances at the Century Theatre.

Time: 7: 30pm, June 23--25

Place: Century Theatre, 40 Liangmaqiaolu, Chaoyang District

Telephone: 6551--8888

Piano solos: twenty Chinese and foreign piano music works will be played by three young, promising pianists from the China Central Conservatory of Music.

Programmes include: "Consolation No. 3 in D-flat major" by Liszt, "For Elise" by Beethoven, "Turkish March" by Mozart, "Waltz in C-sharp minor" and "A Minute Waltz" by Chopin, and "Hungarian Dance" by Brahms.

Time: 7: 30pm, June 16

Place: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixihuajie, Xicheng District

Telephone: 6605--5812

How many performances will the Irish dancing troupe give between June 23 and 25?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.

A、writer

B、painter

C、astronaut

D、traveler