【小阅读^大脑袋】0705 NO.383

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.

In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”

“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”

Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.
BCA
答案解析：
1. Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
A. She had seven brothers.
B. She felt herself a nobody.
C. She was too shy to go to school.
D. She did not have any good teachers.
解析：B正确
对作者童年的描述哪项是正确的？
A错误，包括她自己家里有7个孩子，因此她有6个兄弟。
C．她没有因为太害羞而没有上学。
D．这在文中没有提及。文中提到的是后来到高中，大学她都有遇到很好的老师。
B．nobody的意思是小人物, 无足轻重的人，与文中的unimportant同义。

 

2. According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
A. Her early years in college.
B. Her training in the Workshop.
C. Her feeling of being different.
D. Her childhood experience.
解析：C正确
据Cisneros所说，什么对她的成功起到决定性的作用？
文中对应处：It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice.

3. What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
A. It is quite popular among students.
B. It is the only book ever written by Cisneros.
C. It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish.
D. It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine.
解析：A正确
关于芒果街上的小屋我们了解到什么？
可根据文中内容逐项排除。

参考译文：
1954年桑德拉•希斯内罗丝出生在芝加哥一个墨西哥裔美国人家庭。作为这个家7个孩子中唯一的一个女孩子,她经常觉得她好像有7个爸爸似的,因为她的父亲和6个兄弟试图要控制她。她很害羞，觉得自己无足轻重，所以她在书中逃避现实。尽管她爱读书,在小学里却因为太害羞而不敢参与到大家中，所以成绩平平。

到了高中，在一位老师的鼓励下，希斯内罗丝成绩得到提高，并为学校文学杂志工作。他父亲鼓励她上大学，因为他认为这是她找到丈夫的好途径。希斯内罗丝上了大学，但不是去找丈夫，而是遇到一位老师，帮助她参加了著名的爱荷华大学国际协作计划。然而即便在作家工作室中，她还是感到孤单——她是一个来自贫穷家庭的墨西哥裔美国人，处在一群富有家庭的学生中。正是这种与众不同的感觉帮助她找到了“创作之声”。

“直到我认为自己真的与他人不同时，我的写作找到了属于它的声音。我知道我是一个墨西哥女人，但是我不认为我生活中的种种不公与我的身份有任何关系，但是却处处因为这个碰壁！那个时候，我决定了我要写出我的同学们写不出的东西。”

29岁时，希斯内罗丝出版了她的第一本书，《芒果街上的小屋》。该书讲述的是一个墨西哥女孩在芝加哥拉美移民社区的成长经历，环境就像希斯内罗丝自己孩童时生活的一样。1985年这本书获奖，并被从高中到研究生的课堂使用。自此，希斯内罗丝出版了几本诗集，一本儿童读物和一些短篇小说集。

 

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词汇及短语：
retreat: vi. 撤退; 退却
imbalance: n.不平衡, 不均衡, 失调

 

Note:
爱荷华国际写作计划（International Writing Program，the University of Iowa，简称IWP，原名“作家写作坊”）现位于美国爱荷华大学。

关于作者：
桑德拉•希斯内罗丝（Sandra Cisneros），1954年出生于芝加哥，因诗歌和小说创作而赢得国际声誉。她曾获得过很多奖项，包括“兰南文学奖”（the Lannan Literary Award）和“美国图书奖”（the American Book Award），她还是“国家艺术捐助基金”（the National Endowment for the Arts）和"麦克阿瑟基金"（the MacArthur Foundation）的受资助作家。希斯内罗丝著作颇丰，包括短篇小说集《喊女溪及其他》（Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories），《芒果街上的小屋》（The House on Mango Street），诗集《浪荡女》（Loose Woman）、《不择手段》（My Wicked Wicked Ways），以及儿童读物《头发》（Hairs / Pelitos）。希斯内罗丝现居美国得克萨斯州的圣安东尼奥。

《芒果街上的小屋》是一本优美纯净的小书，一本“诗小说”。它由几十个短篇组成，一个短篇讲述一个人、一件事、一个梦想、几朵云，几棵树、几种感觉，语言清澈如流水，点缀着零落的韵脚和新奇的譬喻，如一首首长歌短调，各自成韵，又彼此钩连，汇聚出一个清晰世界，各样杂沓人生。所有的讲述都归于一个叙述中心：居住在芝加哥拉美移民社区芒果街上的女孩埃斯佩朗莎（埃斯佩朗莎，是西班牙语里的希望）。生就对弱的同情心和对美的感觉力，她用清澈的眼打量周围的世界，用美丽稚嫩的语言讲述成长，讲述沧桑，讲述生命的美好与不易，讲述年轻的热望和梦想，梦想着有一所自己的房子，梦想着在写作中追寻自我，获得自由和帮助别人的能力。
女主角埃斯佩朗莎(Esperanza)由墨西哥迁往美国芝加哥拉丁市区的芒果街，在这里她有了一个新的居所，但却仍然不是她理想的家。她开始结交新的朋友，和住在这个社区的不同的人接触。这些人这些事都对这个小女孩的成长有着不同程度的影响，或是改变了她对异性的看法、或是加强了她对未来的渴求等。随着年岁的增长，虽然她面对过不同的伤害，但这些事都使她变得成熟，有自己的想法，并且希望争取自己的生活及梦想。