A long, imaginary (虚构的) prose (散文) story (故事,新闻报道) about people is usually called a novel (长篇小说,新奇的).
It can be about any kind of man, woman, or child. It can be about kins, or Chicago newsboys, or convicts (罪犯), or housewives. The Frenchman, Victor Hugo, wrote his novel Les Miserables about a poor man who stole a loaf of bread to keep from starving (饿死). The American, Ernest Hemingway, wrote A Farewell to Arms about a young American with the Italian (意大利的,意大利人) Army in World War Ⅰ.
A novel can tell the story of any kind of action, over any period of time. The modern Irish (爱尔兰的) writer, James Joyce, covers less than twenty-four hours in Ulysses. Yet Joyce takes a thousand pages to tell all that happens from the time one man gets up in the morning until he goes to bed early the next morning. A German writer, Herman Hesse, uses only one hundred and fifty pages in his novel Demian to cover a boy's life from the age of ten until he becomes a young man.
A novel does not merely (仅仅) tell the things that people do. It also tells why they do them. The Red Badge of Courage, by the American, Stephen Crane, tells about a young soldier in the War between the States who runs away the first time he is in battle. The book shows why he acted as he did. It describes his mental suffering until he overcomes his fears.
Character, action, motive (动机,主题)-this, then, is the stuff (要素) of which novels are made. And herein (在这里) lies the reason for the novel's continuing popularity (普及,通俗性,名望), despite changes in style (风格,时尚,种类) and technique. People buy novels because they enjoy reading about other people. Alone among the literary (文学的) forms, the novel satisfies the human craving (渴望) to know and understand our fellow creatures.
60.The best title (标题,头衔) for this passage is .
The History of the Novel
A Young Soldier
The Nature of the Novel
Five Novels
61.According to the passage, a novel must be about .
what happens in a single day
kings
people
soldiers in battle
62.According to the passage, a novel should .
satisfy our desire to understand what motivates (促动) other people
experiment with new techniques
be between one hundred and fifty and a thousand pages in length
describe actions which are familiar to the reader (读者,读本)
63.The amount (总计,等于,数额) of time a novel must cover is .
not fixed twenty-four hours three years a lifetime
64.A novel about a boy's life is .
Demian
Les Miserables
A Farewell to Arms
Ulysses