Disease, poverty, hate, love－Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most

Disease, poverty, hate, love－Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy（遗产） was far greater that just “great-literature”. February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A White Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas” － not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today. In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day－unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off. Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth－“home enjoyments, affections and hopes”. In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickens” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian London. He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy(官僚作风) in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about poverty in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”, but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”.
【小题1】The article is mainly about .A．a brief introduction to Charles Dickens’B．the characters in Charles Dickens’ storiesC．Charles Dickens’ impact（影响力) on the worldD．Charles Dickens’ achievements in literature【小题2】Why is Dickens’ called “the man who invented Christmas”?A．Because he created both religious and culture festival.B．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations.C．Because his novels have something to do with Christmas.D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas.【小题3】We can learn from the passage that .A．Charles Dickens’ novels reflect(反映) the true life at his ageB．Dickensian is widely used to describe the ChristmasC．Every person can take three days off for ChristmasD．The theme of Charles Dickens’ stories is about poverty【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?A．Dickens gave the modern world six things.B．Dickens is still popular today in Britain.C．Dickens invented ChristmasD．Agreements made by the underclass of societyC

(答案→)C 解析：【小题1】主旨大意题。本文主要讲的是狄更斯对整个世界的影响，故选C。【小题2】细节理解题。由not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today.可知答案为B。【小题3】细节理解题。由Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian London.可知选A。【小题4】推断判断题。由Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy（遗产） was far greater that just “great-literature”.所以B项为最佳选项。

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