GRE阅读考试真题及解析：黑人小说家

　　原文如下：

　　As it was published in 1935, Mules and Men, Zora Neale Hurston's landmark collection of folktales, may not have been the book that its author first had in mind. In this anthropological study, Hurston describes in detail the people who tell the stories, often even inserting herself into the storytelling scene. Evidently, however, Hurston had prepared another version, a manuscript that was recently discovered and published after having been forgotten since 1929. This version differs from Mules and Men in that it simply records stories, with no descriptive or interpretive information.

　　While we cannot know for certain why Hurston’s original manuscript went unpublished during her lifetime, it may have been because publishers wanted something more than a transcription of tales. Contemporary novelist and critic John Edgar Wideman has described Black literature as the history of a writing that sought to escape its frame, in other words, as the effort of Black writers to present the stories of Black people without having to have a mediating voice to explain the stories to a non-Black audience. In this, Hurston may have been ahead of her time.

　　第一题：

　　Select the sentence that suggests a possible reason why Hurston wrote the version of Mules and Men that was published in 1935.

　　第二题：

　　The passage suggests that Hurston may have done which of the following in preparing her original version?

　　A. Discussed her mode of presentation with her publisher before writing the first draft, in order to reduce the possibility of misunderstanding.

　　B. Shortened her presentation of the stories to the bare minimum in order to be able to present more folklore material.

　　C. Put it aside for several decades in order to maximize its potential audience when it was published.

　　D. Reluctantly agreed to reshape it in order to take out various elements with which her publisher had been dissatisfied.

　　E. Chose not to include editorial commentary, in order to present the stories on their own terms.

　　解析

　　第一题：第二段第一句 第二题： E

　　你做对了吗?

　　不论做对与否，怎样读文章，读出哪些要点就能很有把握地作对题目?

　　文章首段先引出问题，一个矛盾现象：H作家1935年出版的民间故事集与1929年的最初版本不同：最初版本没有解释、注释，而发表版本有。

　　文章二段试图提出解释：出版社提出注释要求。当代小说家、评论家W认为，黑人作家特色传统就是不拘一格，跳出传统框架。在这点上，H是超越领先时代的(原始版本没有注释解析)。

　　第一题，要求选择对于1935年发表版本的解释的句子。文章结构读清楚了，答案就出来啦，解释当然是在二段首句。

　　第二题，问H如何准备最初的版本。答案是E， 依据原文首段最后一句，说的最初版本的特征。