Question

If you’ve ever owned a chimney, you know that it can get pretty dirty. There’s a whole lot of soot(煙灰) that gets stuck on the inside. That stuff has to get cleaned, or you could have a serious fire risk. While nowadays we have easier ways of doing this dirty job, in the way back days somebody used to climb up the chimney and clean all that soot. And the thing is, not just anybody could do it.

You had to be really small to fit up in the chimney, so they used to give the task to kids – some as young as four or five years old. They worked for their boss known as a master-sweep. They were often covered in soot, and were very likely to get burned. They often developed what became known as soot wart, a form of cancer.

Are your unfairness bells ringing? William Blake’s certainly were. The physical dangers and widespread unfairness of the chimney-sweeping job really stuck in his throat, so much so that he wrote not one, but two poems called “The Chimney Sweeper”.

The first poem (the one we’re discussing here)was published in 1789 in a book called Songs of Innocence. These little poems took children and the joys of childhood innocence as their subject. As you’ve probably guessed by now, many of the poems in Songs of Innocence, like “The Chimney Sweeper”, are about the ways in which childhood innocence is destroyed by unkind old adults. For Blake, innocence is, in many ways, a total joke. It doesn’t exist, because it’s always taken away by the realistic world – chimney-sweeping, death, poverty, etc.

What does a five-year-old chimney sweeper in 18th-century England have to do with you? More than you might think. It is reported that 150 million kids are in child labor in developing countries. Many of them work long hours and face dangerous health risks. Like Blake’s chimney sweeper, these kids are not even given a chance at innocence because experience keeps getting in the way.

1.Which of the following can best describe the chimney-sweeping job?

A. Easy and interesting. B. Dirty and dangerous.

C. Pleasant and well-paid D. Challenging and creative.

2.Why did Blake write two poems called “The Chimney Sweeper”?

A. He was very interested in the job.

B. He had much experience in the job.

C. He considered the job very important.

D. He felt deeply sorry for the kid workers.

3.How did Blake look at the realistic world?

A. Thankfully B. Regretfully C. Doubtfully D. Negatively

4.In the last paragraph, the writer explains ________.

A. the realistic meaning of “The Chimney Sweeper”

B. the great influence of Blake’s Songs of Innocence

C. why child labor still exists in developing countries

D. why chimney-sweeping becomes unnecessary today

Answer 1