novelist of his time, was born on June 2, 1840, in Dorsetshire, England.He died on January 11, 1928.In his youth, Hardy read much and dreamt of becoming a poet, but he studied and practiced architecture as an assistant to a London architect, winning a prize for design.The fine descriptions of structure in his novels were probably somewhat due to his architectural training.

　　For five years Hardy worked hard to practice writing poetry, but when he was twenty­seven, he turned to fiction.His first novel finished by 1867, but according to the advice of George Meredith he decided not to publish it.After he abandoned his first novel, his another novel Desperate Remedies, appeared in 1871.During the next twenty­five years he published ten more novels and two collections of short stories.

　　Under the Greenwood Tree(1872) was never surpassed(超越) in happy and delicate perfection of art.This and his next novel, A pair of Blue Eyes(1873), began to show deep irony(讽刺) which is so obvious throughout Hardy's writings.

　　Far from the Madding Crowd(1874) was his first popular success. It shows Hardy's amazing power of describing nature as symbolic background for his characters, an organic part of the action of his story. This was the earliest of what he called his novels of character and environment, which included The Return of the Native, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, his masterpiece, and Jude the Obscure. Not until he was fifty­eight years old was his first collection of poems published, and he was sixty­four when the first part of his drama The Dynasts surprised the literary world.

　　语篇导读　本文主要介绍了作家Thomas Hardy和他的一些作品。

　　5．How did Thomas Hardy benefit from his architectural career?

　　A．He could practice writing while working.

　　B．He made a lot of money to support his writing.

　　C．He found material for his novels and poems.

　　D．He applied architectural knowledge in his novels.

　　解析　D　细节理解题。根据第一段最后一句可知，在Thomas Hardy的小说中细腻的结构描述可能得益于他在建筑方面的训练，即他把建筑知识应用到了小说中，故选D项。

　　6．What is Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree considered to be?

　　A．One of his masterworks.

　　B．His first popular success.

　　C．His best novel in perfection of art.

　　D．One of his best collections of poems.

解析　C　细节理解题。根据第三段第一句可知，《Under the Greenwood Tree》在艺