A
England has been the birthplace of most of the great Englishlanguage theatre written throughout history.Most of the plays in England that are truly famous have something in common.They usually come from a playwright (剧作家) with several famous plays.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is considered the most famous British playwright.Shakespeare has a large catalogue (目录) of tragedies，comedies and history plays，and each category is home to some of the most famous plays ever written.Hamlet，Macbeth，Romeo and Juliet，Othello and Julius Caesar are all tragedies and performed in theatres around the world every year.Famous comedies include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.In the history category，Richard Ⅲ and Henry Ⅴ are very famous.
Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw
Several hundred years after Shakespeare，English people began to enjoy the works of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.Wilde's plays are still popular now，and The Importance of Being Earnest is both performed and studied extremely frequently.A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband are among his other famous works.Shaw and Wilde were born within a few years of each other，but Shaw was a much more productive writer.His most famous plays include Pygmalion and Candida.Shaw's plays are loved so much that an entire theatre company is devoted to performing his works in NiagaraontheLake in southern Ontario.
Harold Pinter
The plays of Harold Pinter certainly have an international presence.His writing was so widely recognized for its importance that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.Pinter is especially known for his style of writing.Many of his plays such as Betrayal，The Dumb Waiter and his first play，The Room，are extremely well known.
本文主要介绍了英国几位著名的戏剧作家以及他们的作品。
21．The writer wrote this passage to ________.
A．advise us to spend more time enjoying plays
B．explain why England has so many wonderful plays
C．tell us about some famous British playwrights and their works
D．tell us the differences among some British playwrights
解析：主旨大意题。根据文章内容可知，作者写这篇文章是向读者介绍英国著名的戏剧作家莎士比亚、奥斯卡·王尔德、萧伯纳和哈罗德·品特以及他们的作品。故选C。
答案：C
22．What do the works in the underlined part in Paragraph 2 have in common?
A．They are all Shakespeare's early works.
B．They are all tragedies written by Shakespeare.
C．They are all Shakespeare's famous comedies.
D．They all belong to the history category of Shakespeare's plays.
解析：细节理解题。根据文中的“Hamlet，Macbeth，Romeo and Juliet，Othello and Julius Caesar are all tragedies and performed in theatres around the world every year.”可知，这些戏剧都是由莎士比亚写的悲剧。故选B。
答案：B
23．Which of the following plays were most probably written in the same period of time?
A．The Dumb Waiter and A Woman of No Importance.
B．Richard Ⅲ and A Woman of No Importance.
C．An Ideal Husband and Candida.
D．Candida and Betrayal.
解析：细节理解题。根据文章第三段“Shaw and Wilde were born within a few years of each other...”可知，An Ideal Husband和Candida这两部戏剧最有可能出自同一个时期。故选C。
答案：C
