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 than 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 mittee 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 e. 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.”
“Dickensian” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian (the period during British Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901) 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 bee 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 deprivation 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】What is the main idea of the article?A．An introduction to Charles Dickens’ classic novels.B．Charles dickens’ impact on the world.C．Charles Dickens’ amazing characters. D．Why Charles Dickens is popular across the world.【小题2】Why is Dickens called “the man who invented Christmas”?A．Because he created the religious festival.B．Because many of his novels have something to do with Christmas.C．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations.D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas.【小题3】According to the article, the phrase “red tape” refers to .A．rules or procedures that are required to acplish a taskB．a situation in which poor members of society are hurt.C．conflict between people in power and weaker peopleD．pointlessly time-consuming official proceduresB
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(答案→)B
解析：经过两百年，狄更斯的作品仍然给现代的人们带来深刻影响；并且也揭示了当时的社会现象。
【小题1】根据第一段中“his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “great literature””可知，他的作品到现在仍然是非常棒的。
【小题2】根据第五段中“...in his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “ Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas...”可知他的作品让圣诞节流行了起来，成为正式的节日。
【小题3】根据倒数第二段中“...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....”可知此处讲的是当权的人的官僚作风，即D没有意义的一些费事的程序。