2011八

10. [A] Causes of language learning difficulties.
    [B] Differences between mother tongue and a second language.
    [C] Theoretical conceptualization of second language learning.
    [D] Pedagogical implementation of second language teaching in the future.
    PART II READING COMPREHENSION（45MIN）
    SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
    In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For each multiple
    choice question, there are four suggested answers marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Choose the one that you think is
    the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
    PASSAGE ONE
    Whenever we could, Joan and I took refuge in the streets of Gibraltar. The Englishman’s home is his castle
    because he has no much choice. There is nowhere to sit in the streets of England, not even, after twilight, in the
    public gardens. The climate, very often, does not even permit him to walk outside. Naturally, he stays indoors and
    creates a cocoon of comfort. That was the way we lived in Leeds.
    These southern people, on the other hand, look outwards. The Gibraltarian home is, typically, a small and
    crowded apartment up several flights of dark and dirty stairs. In it, one, two or even three old people share a few
    ill-lit rooms with the young family. Once he has eaten, changed his clothes, embraced his wife, kissed his children
    and his parents, there is nothing to keep the southern man at home. He hurries out, taking even his breakfast coffee
    at his local bar. He comes home late for his afternoon meal after an appetitive hour at his café. He sleeps for an
    hour, dresses, goes out again and stays out until late at night. His wife does not miss him, for she is out, too — at
    the market in the morning and in the afternoon sitting with other mothers, baby-minding in the sun.
    The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. The parlour of our working-class
    houses would be an intolerable waste of space. Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown. There are
    no bookshelves, because there are no books. Talking and drinking, as well as eating, are done on hard chairs round
    the dining-table, between a sideboard decorated with the best glasses and an inevitable display cabinet full of
    family treasures, photographs and souvenirs. The elaborate chandelier over this table proclaims it as the hub of the
    household and of the family. “Hearth and home” makes very little sense in Gibraltar. One’s home is one’s town or
    village, and one’s hearth is the sunshine.
    Our northern towns are dormitories with cubicles, by comparison. When we congregate — in the churches it
    used to be, now in the cinema, say, impersonally, or at public meetings, formally — we are scarcely ever man to
    man. Only in our pubs can you find the truly gregarious and communal spirit surviving, and in England even the
    pubs are divided along class lines.
    Along this Mediterranean coast, home is only a refuge and a retreat. The people live together in the open air
    — in the street, market-place. Down here, there is a far stronger feeling of community than we had ever known. In
    crowded and circumscribed Gibraltar, with its complicated inter-marriages, its identity of interests, its surviving
    sense of siege, one can see and feel an integrated society.
    To live in a tiny town with all the organization of a state, with Viceroy (总督), Premier, Parliament, Press and
    Pentagon, all in miniature, all within arm’s reach, is an intensive course in civics. In such an environment, nothing
    can be hidden, for better or for worse. One’s successes are seen and recognized; one’s failures are immediately
    exposed. Social consciousness is at its strongest, with the result that there is a constant and firm pressure towards
    good social behaviour, towards courtesy and kindness. Gibraltar, with all its faults, is the friendliest and most
    tolerant of places. Straight from the cynical anonymity of a big city, we luxuriated in its happy personalism. We
    look back on it, like all its exiled sons and daughters, with true affection.
11. Which of the following best explains the differences in ways of living between the English and the
    Gibraltarians?
    [A] The family structure. [B] Religious belief.
    [C] The climate. [D] Eating habit.
    12.The italicized part in the third paragraph implies that ____________.
    [A] English working-class homes are similar to Gibraltarian ones
    [B] English working-class homes have spacious sitting-rooms
    [C] English working-class homes waste a lot of space
    [D] the English working-class parlour is intolerable in Gibraltar
12. We learn from the description of the Gibraltarian home that it is _________.
    [A] modern [B] luxurious [C] stark [D] simple
13. According to the passage people in Gibraltar tend to be well-behaved because of the following EXCEPT
    _______.
    [A] the entirety of the state structure [B] constant pressure from the state
    [C] the small size of the town [D] transparency of occurrences
    PASSAGE TWO
    For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the “paperless” office is a classic example of high-tech hubris
    (傲慢). Today’s office drone is drowning in more paper than ever before.
    But after decades of hype, American offices may finally be losing their paper obsession. The demand for paper
    used to outstrip the growth of the US economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in
    sales — despite a healthy economic scene.
    Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems.
    Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.
    “Old habits are hard to break,” says Merilyn Dunn, a communications supplies director. “There are some
    functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn’t work. Those functions are both its strength and its
    weakness.”
    In the early to mid-’90s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by 6to 7
    percent each year. The convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge in printing anything and
    everything at very little effort or cost.
    But now, the growth rate of paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year.
    Between 2004and 2005, Ms. Dunn says, plain white office paper will see less than a 4percent growth rate, despite
    the strong overall economy. A primary reason for the change, says Dunn, is that for the first time ever, some 47
    percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.
    “We’re finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace,” says John
    Maine, vice president of a pulp and paper economic consulting firm. “More information is being transmitted
    electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in electronic form
    without printing multiple backups.”
    In addition, Mr. Maine points to the lackluster employment market for white-collar workers — the primary
    driver of office paper consumption—for the shift in paper usage.
    The real paradigm shift may be in the way paper is used. Since the advent of advanced and reliable
    office-network systems, data storage has moved away from paper archives. The secretarial art of “filing” is
    disappearing from job descriptions. Much of today’s data may never leave its original digital format.
    The changing attitudes toward paper have finally caught the attention of paper companies, says Richard
    Harper, a researcher at Microsoft. “All of a sudden, the paper industry has started thinking, ‘We need to learn more
    about the behavioural aspects of paper use,’” he says. “They had never asked, they’d just assumed that 70million
    sheets would be bought per year as a literal function of economic growth.”
    To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example,
    Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper.
    Notations can be erased or saved digitally.
    Another idea, intelligent paper, comes from Anoto Group. It would allow notations made with a stylus on a
    page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.
    Even with such technological advances, the improved capabilities of digital storage continue to act against
    “paperlessness,” argues Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. In his prophetic and metaphorical 1989essay, “The
    Electronic Piñata ( 彩 罐 ),” he suggests that the increasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more
    paper.
    “The information industry today is like a huge electronic piñata, composed of a thin paper crust surrounding
    an electronic core,” Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust “is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core
    that produces the crust is far larger — and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but
    we hardly notice at all."
    In the same way that digital innovations have increased paper consumption, Saffo says, so has video
    conferencing — with its promise of fewer in-person meetings — boosting business travel.
    “That’s one of the great ironies of the information age,” Saffo says. “It’s just common sense that the more
    you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting. The best thing for the
    aviation industry was the Internet.”
14. What function does the second sentence in the first paragraph serve?
    [A] It further explains high-tech hubris. [B] It confirms the effect of high-tech hubris.
    [C] It offers a cause for high-tech hubris. [D] It offers a contrast to high-tech hubris.
15. Which of the following is NOT a reason for the slowdown in paper sales?
    [A] Workforce with better computer skills. [B] Slow growth of the U.S. economy.
    [C] Changing patterns in paper use. [D] Changing employment trends.
16. The two innovations by Xerox Corp. and Anoto Group feature ________.
    [A] integrated use of paper and digital form [B] a shift from paper to digital form
    [C] the use of computer screen [D] a new style of writing
17. What does the author mean by “irony of the information age”?
    [A] The dream of the “paperless” office will be realized.
    [B] People usually prefer to have face-to-face meetings.
    [C] More digital data use leads to greater paper use.
    [D] Some people are opposed to video-conferencing.
    PASSAGE THREE
    When George Orwell wrote in 1941that England was “the most class-ridden country under the sun”, he was
    only partly right. Societies have always had their hierarchies, with some group perched at the top. In the Indian
    state of Bihar the Ranveer Sena, an upper-caste private army, even killed to stay there.
    By that measure class in Britain hardly seems entrenched (根深蒂固的). But in another way Orwell was right,
    and continues to be. As a new YouGov poll shows, Britons are surprisingly alert to class — both their own and that
    of others. And they still think class is sticky. According to the poll, 48% of people aged 30or over say they expect
    to end up better off than their parents. But only 28% expect to end up in a different class. More than two-thirds
    think neither they nor their children will leave the class they were born into.
    What does this thing that people cannot escape consist of these days? And what do people look at when
    decoding which class someone belongs to? The most useful identifying markers, according to the poll, are
    occupation, address, accent and income, in that order. The fact that income comes fourth is revealing: though some
    of the habits and attitudes that class used to define are more widely spread than they were, class still indicates
    something less blunt than mere wealth.
    Occupation is the most trusted guide to class, but changes in the labour market have made that harder to read
    than when Orwell was writing. Manual workers have shrunk along with farming and heavy industry as a proportion
    of the workforce, while the number of people in white-collar jobs has surged. Despite this striking change, when
    they were asked to place themselves in a class, Brits in 2006huddled in much the same categories as they did when
    they were asked in 1949. So, jobs, which were once a fairly reliable guide to class, have become misleading.
    A survey conducted earlier this year by Expertian shows how this convergence on similar types of work has
    blurred class boundaries. Expertian asked people in a number of different jobs to place themselves in the working
    class or the middle class. Secretaries, waiters and journalists were significantly more likely to think themselves
    middle-class than accountants, computer programmers or civil servants. Many new white-collar jobs offer no more
    autonomy or better prospects than old blue-collar ones. Yet despite the muddle over what the markers of class are
    these days, 71% of those polled by YouGov still said they found it very or fairly easy to figure out which class
    others belong to.
    In addition to changes in the labour market, two other things have smudged the borders on the class map. First,
    since 1945Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of class and
    may have their own pyramids to scramble up. The flow of new arrivals has increased since the late 1990s,
    multiplying this effect.
    Second, barriers to fame have been lowered. Britain’s fast-growing ranks of celebrities — like David Beckham
    and his wife Victoria — form a kind of parallel aristocracy open to talent, or at least to those who are uninhibited
    enough to meet the requests of television producers. This too has made definitions more complicated.
    But many Brits, given the choice, still prefer to identify with the class they were born into rather than that
    which their jobs or income would suggest. This often entails pretending to be more humble than is actually the case:
    22% of white-collar workers told YouGov that they consider themselves working class. Likewise, the Expertian
    survey found that one in ten adults who call themselves working class are among the richest asset-owners, and that
    over half a million households which earn more than $191,000a year say they are working class. Pretending to be
    grander than income and occupation suggest is rarer, though it happens too.
    If class no longer describes a clear social, economic or even political status, is it worth paying any attention to?
    Possibly, yes. It is still in most cases closely correlated with educational attainment and career expectations.
18. “…class still indicates something less blunt than mere wealth” (Paragraph Three) means that ________.
    [A] class is still defined by its own habits and attitudes
    [B] class would refer to something more subtle than money
    [C] people from different classes may have the same habits or attitudes
    [D] income is unimportant in determining which class one belongs to
19. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
    [A] White-collar workers would place themselves in a different class.
    [B] People with different jobs may place themselves in the same class.
    [C] Occupation and class are no longer related with each other.
    [D] Changes in the workforce have made it difficult to define class.
20. Which of the following is NOT a cause to blur class distinction?
    [A] Notions of class by immigrants. [B] Changing trends of employment.
    [C] Fewer types of work. [D] Easy access to fame.
    PASSAGE FOUR
    The train was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply to
    prove that plains of Texas were pouring eastward. Vast flats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of mesquite and cactus,
    little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were sweeping into the east, sweeping over the
    horizon, a precipice.
    A newly married pair had boarded this coach at San Antonio. The man’s face was reddened from many days in
    the wind and sun, and a direct result of his new black clothes was that his brick-coloured hands were constantly
    performing in a most conscious fashion. From time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire. He sat with a
    hand on each knee, like a man waiting in a barber’s shop. The glances he devoted to other passengers were furtive
    and shy.
    The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small reservations
    of velvet here and there, and with steel buttons abounding. She continually twisted her head to regard her puff
    sleeves, very stiff, and high. They embarrassed her. It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected
    to cook, dutifully. The blushes caused by the careless scrutiny of some passengers as she had entered the car were
    strange to see upon this plain, under-class countenance, which was drawn in placid, almost emotionless lines.
    They were evidently very happy. “Ever been in a parlor-car before?” he asked, smiling with delight.
    “No,” she answered; “I never was. It’s fine, ain’t it?”
    “Great! And then after a while we’ll go forward to the dinner, and get a big lay-out. Fresh meal in the world.
    Charge a dollar.”
    “Oh, do they?” cried the bride. “Charge a dollar? Why, that’s too much — for us — ain’t it, Jack?”
    “Nor this trip, anyhow,” he answered bravely. “We’re going to go the whole thing.”
    Later he explained to her about the trains. “You see, it’s a thousand miles from one end of Texas to the other;
    and this runs right across it, and never stops but four times.” He had the pride of an owner. He pointed out to her the
    dazzling fittings of the coach; and in truth her eyes opened wider and she contemplated the sea-green figured velvet,
    the shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil. At one
    end a bronze figure sturdily held a support for a separated chamber, and at convenient places on the ceiling were
    frescos in olive and silver.
    To the minds of the pair, their surroundings reflected the glory of their marriage that morning in San Antonio;
    this was the environment of their new estate; and the man’s face in particular beamed with an elation that made him
    appear ridiculous to the Negro porter. This individual at times surveyed them from afar with an amused and
    superior grin. On other occasions he bullied them with skill in ways that did not make it exactly plain to them that
    they were being bullied. He subtly used all the manners of the most unconquerable kind of snobbery. He oppressed
    them. But of this oppression they had small knowledge, and they speedily forgot that infrequently a number of
    travelers covered them with stares of derisive enjoyment. Historically there was supposed to be something
    infinitely humorous in their situation.
    “We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42,” he said, looking tenderly into her eyes.
    “Oh, are we?” she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince ( 表 现 出 ) surprise at her husband’s
    statement was part of her wifely amiability. She took from a pocket a little silver watch; and as she held it before
    her, and stared at it with a frown of attention, the new husband’s face shone.
    “I bought it in San Anton’ from a friend of mine,” he told her gleefully.
    “It’s seventeen minutes past twelve,” she said, looking up at him with a kind of shy and clumsy coquetry (调
    情；卖俏). A passenger, noting this play, grew excessively sardonic, and winked at himself in one of the numerous
    mirrors.
    At last they went to the dining-car. Two rows of Negro waiters, in glowing white suits, surveyed their entrance
    with the interest, and also the equanimity (平 静 ), of men who had been forewarned. The pair fell to the lot of a
    waiter who happened to feel pleasure in steering them through their meal. He viewed them with the manner of a
    fatherly pilot, his countenance radiant with benevolence. The patronage, entwined with the ordinary deference, was
    not plain to them. And yet, as they returned to their coach, they showed in their faces a sense of escape.
21. The description of the couple’s clothes and behaviour at the beginning of the passage seems to indicate that they
    had a sense of __________.
    [A] secrecy [B] elation [C] superiority [D] awkwardness
22. Which of the following best describes the attitude of other people on the train towards the couple?
    [A] They regarded the couple as an object of fun.
    [B] They expressed indifference towards the couple.
    [C] They were very curious about the couple.
    [D] They showed friendliness towards the couple.
23. Which of the following contains a metaphor?
    [A] … like a man waiting in a barber’s shop. [B] … his countenance radiant with benevolence.
    [C] … sweeping over the horizon, a precipice. [D] … as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil.
    SECTION B SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
    In this section there are eight short-answer questions based on the passages in SECTION A. Answer each
    question in NO more than 10words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
    PASSAGE ONE
24. What is the stronger sense among the Gibraltarians?
    PASSAGE TWO
25. What is the author’s attitude towards “paperlessness”?
    PASSAGE THREE
26. Why does the author “…Orwell was right, and continues to be.” (Paragraph Two)?
27. What are the factors that have blurred class boundaries?
28. What does it imply when some successful white-collar workers choose to stay in the working class?
    PASSAGE FOUR
29. What can we learn about the interior of the coach?
30. What is the passengers and conductors’ attitude towards the couple?
31. What can we infer about the couple in the dining-car from the last paragraph?
    PART III LANGUAGE USAGE（15MIN）
    The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case,
    only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way:
    For a wrong word， underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank
    provided at the end of the line．
    For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “∧”sign and write the
    word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of
    the line．
    For an unnecessary word， cross the unnecessary word with a slash “／”and put the word in the
    blank provided at the end of the line．
    EXAMPLE
    When ∧ art museum wants a new exhibit， (1) an__________
    it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never__________
    them on the wall．When a natural history museum
    wants an exhibition, it must often build it． (3) exhibit__________
    Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET THREE as instructed.
    PART IV TRANSLATION（25MIN）
    Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER
    SHEET THREE.
    现代社会无论价值观的持有还是生活方式的选择都充满了矛盾。而最让现代人感到尴尬的是，面对重
    重矛盾，许多时候你却别无选择。匆忙与休闲是截然不同的两种生活方式。但在现实生活中，人们却在这
    两种生活方式间频繁穿梭，有时也说不清自己到底是“休闲着”还是“匆忙着”。譬如说，当我们正在旅游胜地
    享受假期，却忽然接到老板的电话，告诉我们客户或工作方面出了麻烦——现代便捷先进工具在此刻显示
    出了它狰狞、阴郁的面容——搞得人一下子兴趣全无，接下来的休闲只是徒有其表，因为心里已是火烧火
    燎了。
    PART V WRITING（45MIN）
    With the upgrading of a heated online debate sparked by an essay entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,
    published in the Wall Street Journal about the virtues of strict Chinese parenting, written by Amy Chua, a professor
    at Yale Law School, parenting and education will never be the same for both Chinese and Westerners. The
    following are opinions from both sides. Read the excerpts carefully and write your response in about 300words, in
    which you should:
32. summarize briefly the opinions from both sides;
33. give your comment.
    Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality.
    Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
    Chinese
    A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what
    these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and
    whether they could do it too.
    There are tons of studies showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when
    it comes to parenting. In one study of 50American mothers and 48Chinese mothers, almost 70% of the Western
    mothers said that “stressing academic success is not good for children” or “parents need to foster the idea that
    learning is fun”. By contrast, roughly none of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of
    the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be “the best” students, that “academic achievement
    reflects successful parenting” and that if children did not excel at school then there was “a problem” and parents
    “were not doing their jobs.” Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend
    approximately 10times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids
    are more likely to participate in sports teams.
    What Chinese parents advocate is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have
    to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This
    often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the children will resist; the things are always the hardest
    at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up.
    Westerners
    A recent manifesto by Chinese-American mother Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, chides
    American parents for shrinking from the pitiless discipline she argues is necessary to turn out great students.
    There has been wide criticism of Chua’s book in the U. S. “It is kind of extreme.” Jeffrey Seinfeld, a professor
    at New York University, told the Los Angles Times. “…standards of parenting need to be realistic and tailored to
    each child. Children need parents who can guide them, not force them to do things they are probably not interested
    in.”
    “In Asia, it’s about long hours— long hours in school, long hours after school. In Finland, the school day is
    shorter than it is the U. S. It’s a more appealing model,” says Andreas Schleicher, who directs the PISA program at
    the OECD.
    There’s less homework, too. “An hour a day is good enough to be a successful student,” says Katja Tuori, who
    is in charge of student counseling at Kallahti Comprehensive, which educates kids up to age 16. “These kids have a
    life.”
    Finland has a number of smart ideas about how to teach kids while letting them be kids. For instance, one
    teacher ideally stays with a class from first grade through sixth grade. The teacher has many years to learn the
    quirks of a particular group and tailor the teaching approach accordingly.
    Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
    ANSWER SHEET 1(TEM8)
    PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
    SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
    下列各题必须使用黑色字迹签字笔在答题区域内作答，超出红色矩形边框限定区域的答案无效。
    Classifications of Cultures
    According to Edward Hall, different cultures result in different ideas about the
    World. Hall is an anthropologist. He is interested in relations between cultures.
    I.High-context culture
    A. feature
    —context: more important than the message
    —meaning (1) ________ (1) __________
    i. e. more attention paid to (2) ________ than to the message itself (2) __________
    B. examples
    —personal space
    —preference for (3) ________ (3) __________
    —less respect for privacy/personal space
    —attention to (4) ________ (4) __________
    —concept of time
    —belief in (5) ________ interpretations of time (5) __________
    —no concern for (6) ________ (6) __________
    —no control over time
    II.(7) ________ (7) __________
    A. feature
    —message: separate from context
    —meaning (8) ________ (8) __________
    B. examples
    —personal space
    —desire/respect for (9) ________ (9) __________
    —less attention to body language
    —more concern for (10) ________ (10) __________
    —attitude toward time
    —concept of time: (11) ________ (11) __________
    —dislike of (12) ________ (12) __________
    —time seen as (13) ________ (13) __________
    III. Conclusion
    awareness of different cultural assumptions
    —(14) ________ (14) __________
    e. g. business, negotiation, etc.
    —(15) ________ in successful communication (15) __________

ANSWER SHEET 3(TEM8)
PART III LANGUAGE USAGE
下列各题必须使用黑色字迹签字笔在答题区域内作答，超出红色矩形边框限定区域的答案无效。
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I
grew I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty- (1) __________
four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the conscience that I was (2) __________
outraging my true nature and that soon or later I should have to settle down and (3) __________
write books.
I was the child of three, but there was a gap of five years on the either (4) __________
side , and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons
I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeing mannerisms which (5) __________
made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely child’s habit
of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginative persons, and I (6) __________
think from the very start my literal ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of (7) __________
being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a
power of facing in unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private (8) __________
world which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. (9) __________
Therefore, the volume of serious—i. e. seriously intended—writing which I (10) __________
produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a
dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of five, my mother taking it
down to dictation.