第二篇
She once said:"When people ask me if writing has been a hard or easy road I always answer with the famous saying, "the end is nothing; the road is all. ' That is what I mean when I say writing has been a pleasure. I have never faced the type-writer(打字机) with the thought that one more task had to be done. "
Like most writers, Willa Cather did not write books for the money that they brought her, but rather for the pleasure that came in their writing. Her works were, like her, simple and full of the vigor( 活力 ) of her days in Nebraska, where she grew from childhood to young womanhood and where she developed a deep love for the treeless land of the Great Plains with its wild flowers, wheat fields and rivers.
"It' s a rather strange thing about the flat country," she wrote later. "It takes hold of you, or it leaves you perfectly cold. A great many people find it very dull; they like a church tower, an old factory, a waterfall, country all made to look like a German, Christmas card... But when I come to the open plains, something happens. I'm home. I breathe differently. "
60. Willa Cather wrote because she found writing .
[ A ] simple and lively
[ B ] interesting and enjoyable
[ C ] neither too hard nor too
easy
[ D ]opened up a road to, success
61. What did Cather mean by "the end is nothing ;the road is all"?
[ A ] Writing is the only path to successs.
[ B ] I feel happy when I finish writing a book.
[ C ] I enjoy writing whether it is hard or easy.
[ D ] Writing itself, not its result, is important.
62. What was the place like where Cather grew up?
[ A ] It was cold, plain and without a church.
[ B ] It was a colorful world of wild flowers.
[ C ] It was like a German Christmas card
[ D ] It was vast, open, flat and wild.
63. When she said "It takes hold of you, or it leaves you perfertly cold", Willa Gather meant .
[ A ] you either love the place or hate it
[ B ] you decide either to stay or to leave
[ C ] some find the place warm; others find it cold
[ D ] some find the place peaceful; others find it wild
64. What happens when Cather comes to the open plains?
[ A ] She breathes differently from others:
[ B ] She wants to make the place her home.
[ C ] She finds the place similar to her home.
[ D ] She feels completely comfortable.