Passage 1
There are many war novels but the novel I’m going to talk about today is unusual because it’s war seen through the eyes of a child. The “eyes” are those of J G Ballard, one of Britain’s most respected novelists.
Let’s begin with some information about Ballard. He was born in 1930, in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman, and he was only 11 years old when the city was occupied [占领] during World War II. Ballard and his family were placed in a prison camp[战俘集中营] and he said that his experiences there affected him so deeply that it was 40 years before he felt able to write about them. “Twenty years to forget and 20 years to remember.”
The result of Ballard’s experiences was a semi-autobiographical novel called Empire of the Sun [《太阳帝国》] , published in 1984. It quickly became a success and in 1987 it was made into a movie by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.
Let’s move on to the novel itself. Empire of the Sun tells the story of how a young boy, Jim Graham, survives the Japanese occupation[日据]. Interestingly, Jim is J G Ballard’s first name and his second name is Graham. Also, Jim is the same age as Ballard – 11 – when the occupation begins.
At the start of the story, Jim is living with his parents in a wealthy part of Shanghai. When the invasion[入侵，侵略；动词形式为invade] begins, many of Shanghai’s inhabitants[居民，居住者；同义词：resident, dweller, habitant; 动词形式为inhabit, 意为栖息、居住、占据] flee from[逃离] the city and Jim’s parents do the same. But the boy becomes separated from them and finds himself all alone. He goes back to their empty home and lives alone there.
Inevitably, he’s found and then he’s sent to a prison camp. It’s a terrible four years, but the boy somehow survives. He steals food, finds ways of getting in and out of the camp, and is befriended by [和......交朋友，对......以朋友相待] some Americans and a Japanese boy.
Is there a happy ending? Yes and no[指结局喜忧参半]. Jim sees many people die; his Japanese friend is killed by the Americans. But at the end of the war, he gets back to Shanghai and is reunited with [团聚] his parents.
Jim’s experiences are terrible, as a child who discovers the depths of human cruelty. But he learns also about the strength and courage that is possible, even in these circumstances.
Both the great power and the truth of the novel come from the fact that it’s based on the author’s own experiences. The general opinion of critics[评论家] is that Empire of the Sun is one of the best war novels ever written – so read it, it’s worth it.
Answers:
Passage 1
2. Example Answer:
The passage seems to be about a British writer who was born in China. He wrote a semi-autobiographical novel that was later made into a film. I think that as a boy, the writer was separated from his parents and sent to a prison camp. It sounds like a sad story.
3. Answers:
1 businessman; 11 years old
2 first name; his second name
3 the same age as
4 terrible four years; survives
5 his Japanese friend
6 strength; courage
4. Answers:
1 (b) 2 (d) 3 (a) 4 (d) 5 (b)
5. Example Answers:
1 A child is unlikely to be able to understand what is happening in the same way as adults, so the experience of war will be even more confusing and traumatizing for children than it is for adults. On the other hand, children are good at using their imagination to escape from unpleasant situations, so during lulls in fighting a child could “get away from” the war more easily than an adult, who would probably suffer from constant worry.
2 ·Surely it must be! You know what happened, so you just write what you know happened and perhaps add a few feelings and emotions.
· No, writing about personal experiences can be very difficult, exactly because they are personal. For many people it’s easier to write something objective like a report, because they know what they are supposed to write and how to write it. Personal experiences can be much harder to express in writing in a way that satisfies the writer.
3 · I suppose it’s not easy. War, from what I’ve read and imagined, is just awful, so it can’t be easy to write about it if you’ve actually experienced it, although I suppose someone could just write about it simply from imagination – but then it wouldn’t seem authentic, would it?
· It is easy to write about war because it is a large part of the common human experience and has been throughout history. War also lends itself well to simple descriptions of events such as movements of troops, bombardments, wounds and deaths.
