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(2019·绍兴高级中学高三二模)Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than 20 books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America.
Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.
In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.
In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen”. “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Ms. Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.
Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called “Maud Martha”. “Maud Martha” received little notice when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today.
In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”．
By the end of the 1960s, Gwendolyn Brooks's poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues.
语篇解读：本文主要介绍了非裔美国女诗人Gwendolyn Brooks在诗歌文学上的成就和贡献。
1．What does the text mainly talk about?
A．The life of Gwendolyn Brooks's.
B．The poems of Gwendolyn Brooks's.
C．The understanding about black culture.
D．The struggle of black women.
解析：选B 主旨大意题。根据第一段和其余各段的段首可知，本文主要讲了非裔美国女诗人Gwendolyn Brooks在诗歌文学上的成就和贡献。
2．What can we learn about Gwendolyn Brooks's from the second paragraph?
A．She mainly wrote about struggles of black women.
B．She was good at using the language of poetry.
C．Her writing skills were a little worse than her ability.
D．Her poems were mainly about the African experience.
解析：选B 细节理解题。根据第二段中的“She was an expert at the language of poetry.”可知，Gwendolyn Brooks是诗歌语言的专家。
3．The author develops the passage mainly by ________.
A．providing examples B．using statistics
C．comparing opinions D．describing her experiences
解析：选A 写作手法题。文中第三至第六段分别列举了Gwendolyn Brooks的一些作品，如诗歌“Annie Allen”“Corners on the Curving Sky”和小说“Maud Martha”。故作者主要是用举例法来行文的。
4．In the next part, the author would most probably talk about ________.
A．The difficulties Gwendolyn Brooks's would meet
B．the poems related to political issues
C．the award Gwendolyn Brooks had gained
D．the racial inequality the black had to face
解析：选B 推理判断题。根据最后一段最后一句可知Gwendolyn Brooks的诗歌中涉及政治问题，故接下来最有可能讲的是与政治问题有关的诗歌，B项正确。
