passage 5 美国文学的说教主义

★★★

①Although vastly popular during its time, much nineteenth-century women’s fiction in the United States went unread by the twentieth-century educated elite, who were taught to ignore it as didactic. ②However, American literature has a tradition of didacticism going back to its Puritan roots, shifting over time from sermons and poetic transcripts into novels, which proved to be perfect vehicles for conveying social values. ③In the nineteenth century, critics reviled Poe for neglecting to conclude his stories with pithy moral tags, while Longfellow was canonized for his didactic verse. ④Although rhetorical changes favoring the anti-didactic can be detected as nineteenth-century American transformed itself into a secular society, it was twentieth-century criticism, which placed aesthetic value above everything else, that had no place in its doctrine for the didacticism of others.

pithy 简练有力的

①事实或者是elite的观点 ↔ ② 事实/作者观点  

                                              ↓

                                             ③句内客观对比支持上句

                                              ↓                                         

                                             ④ 评论界的观点

文章大意：

很多19世纪女性的小说尽管在当时非常流行，但是20世纪的精英们是不读的，因为他们认为这玩意很说教。可是美国文学本身从清教徒时期就有说教的根源，文学形式从布道文本到小说，都是非常好的传播社会价值的媒介。19世纪那俩哥们就是很好的例子，一个没用（说教）被怼，一个用了（说教）被捧。尽管19世纪美国转型期也有反说教的声音，这种思想到了20世纪强调美学至上之后才大行其道。

关于didactic：

Around the 19th century the term didactic came to be used as a criticism for work that appears to be overburdened with instructive, factual, or otherwise educational information, to the detriment of the enjoyment of the reader.

---- from Wikipedia

1. Which of the following best describes the function of the highlighted sentence? 结构题

结构看关系，细节看信息

B

A. It explains why the fiction mentioned in the first sentence was not popular in the twentieth century. 无关，关注句间关系

B. It assists in drawing a contrast between nineteenth-century and twentieth-century critics. 符合，支持第二句对第一句的转折（20世纪这里不是“没有证据”，文章整体在对比时间背景下的不同，不能说当句没有就不选，结构题要看信息关系，细节题才是关注信息本身）

C. It provides an example of how twentieth–century readers were taught to ignore certain literature. 没有how的证据，且与第一句无关

D. It questions the usefulness of a particular distinction between Poe and Longfellow made by critics. 原句是顺承上句，不是反向功能，同时也没有usefulness的证据

E. It explains why Poe’s stories were more popular than Longfellow’s verseduring the nineteenth century. 没有证据

2. In the context in which it appears, “conveying” most nearly means

convey: 

to communicate or express something

convey a sense/an impression/an idea etc

A. carrying 携带，具有

B. transferring 转移，移交

C. granting 准许，授予

D. imparting: to give information, knowledge, wisdom etc to someone 传达，透露

E. projecting 投掷，发射；放映；预测

背景拓展：

Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. 

Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre（死亡主题）. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. 说白了就是第一个写书把自己写穷的。。不是个好榜样啊。。

Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized by some, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.