Samanta Schweblin, one of the best young Spanish language novelists nominated (提名) by British literary magazine Granta, has visited Beijing to promote the first Chinese edition of a collection of her short stories. The collection, Birds in the Mouth, has been translated and published by Shanghaibased publisher Reader 99.
“Sometimes I hold the Chinese edition and choose a story at random and try to guess which one it is. But it is almost impossible for me; even the length is different.” says Schweblin. “When a book is translated into a Western language, I can at least understand some parts of my stories, and therefore suffer some doubt about the quality of the translation. But my Chinese edition is more like an act of faith.”
Born in Argentina in 1978, Schweblin says she is influenced by the literary traditions of the La Plata area, home to many famous LatinAmerican novelists.
Interested in writing stories of ordinary lives where suddenly something extraordinary happens, something new, strange or unknown, she thinks, “The stranger and the unknown are not always related to ghosts or aliens, but can be something related to the known world, something that actually could happen.”
Birds in the Mouth tells of a divorced father who worries about his 13yearold daughter and her mysterious appetites. It turns out that his daughter eats live birds.
The idea for this story came to Schweblin when she was browsing the Internet, “Click, click, click, a picture of a little girl who looks frightened with her hands covering her mouth came to my eyes. Little by little, I developed the story in my mind, and then wrote it down”， recalls Schweblin.
Although there are elements of violence and bloodiness in Schweblin's stories, she skillfully hides them, thinking the trick to writing a thrilling story is to stop the monster from appearing, while maintaining a frightening and mysterious atmosphere.
本文是一篇应用文。主要对英国文学杂志《格兰达》提名的最年轻的西班牙小说家之一Samanta Schweblin及其作品进行了简单的介绍。
1．Samanta Schweblin came to China to ________.
A．pay a visit to Beijing
B．translate her stories into Chinese
C．help to make her book more popular
D．publish her collection
答案：C
解析：细节理解题。根据第一段Samanta Schweblin, ...has visited Beijing to promote the first Chinese edition of a collection of her short stories.可知，Samanta Schweblin来北京是促销她的第一个中文版的短篇小说。所以Samanta来中国就是为了让她的书受欢迎。故选C项。
2．When mentioning her Chinese edition, Schweblin thinks ________.
A．she suffers some doubt about the quality of the translation
B．her Chinese edition is slightly different from the original one
C．she can understand some parts of her Chinese edition
D．she has a strong belief in her Chinese edition
答案：D
解析：细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句But my Chinese edition is more like an act of faith.可知，提及她的中文版的书时，她对自己的中文版本很有信心。故选D项。
3．From the passage we can tell, the author, ________.
A．has an appetite for writing something extraordinary
B．got the idea of her story Birds in the Mouth by design
C．tried to quit describing violent and bloody scenes in her story
D．thinks her writing style is mainly affected by some famous native novelists
答案：A
解析：推理判断题。第四段提到作者写的故事中关于平凡生活中突然发生了一些不寻常的事情，一些新的、奇怪的或未知的事情，她认为这与人们已知世界是有关的，有可能发生的；第五段与第六段中的女孩吃鸟的故事；第七段中说作者的故事有暴力与血腥的元素，她的故事有一种惊悚与神秘。由此可知作者喜欢写一些不同寻常的东西，分析选项可知A项(渴望写出一些不同寻常的东西)符合题意，故选A项。
4．We can probably read the passage in ________.
A．a textbook B．a newspaper
C．a report D．a science fiction
答案：B
解析：推理判断题。Samanta Schweblin是英国文学杂志《格兰达》提名的最年轻的西班牙小说家之一，本文中对她及其作品进行了简单的介绍。因此可推断出本文有可能在报纸上看到。故选B项。
