Poet Dean Young has dealt with impermanence (無常) a lot in his career, but it’s a particularly strong theme in Young’s latest collection, Fall Higher. The new collection was published in April, just days after the poet received a life-saving heart transplant (移植) after about a decade of living with a weakening heart condition.
Young, whose work is often frank and rich with twisted humor, tells NPR’s Renee Montagne that as he recovers from operation, he’s also slowly returning to his everyday writing habits.
“I’m getting back to it,” Young says, “not with the sort of concentration and sort of flame that I look forward to in the future, but I am blackening some pages.”
And on those blackened pages you’ll find poems like “How Grasp Green”, which carries themes of springtime and rebirth. It’s one of the first poems Young has written since his transplant.
It’s easy to spot clues (線索) to Young’s awful health situation in the lines of his poetry.
Fall Higher’s “Vintage” opens with “Because I will die soon, I fall asleep, during the lecture on the ongoing emergency.” And the poem “The Rhythms Pronounce Themselves Then Vanish”—published in The New Yorker in February—opens with the CT scan that revealed Young’s heart condition.
Hearts tend to come up a lot in poetry, and that’s especially true if Young’s work, which has clearly been influenced by the troubles of his own heart.
“A lot of times, it’s not just a metaphor (暗喻),” Young says. “For me, it’s an actual concern because I’ve been living with this disease for over 10 years. My father died of heart problems when he was 49, so it’s been a sort of shadowy concern for me my whole life.
But Young’s poems also deal with more abstract matters of the heart. He wrote Fall Higher’s, “Late Valentine” for his wife. “We’ve been married since late November and most of it has been spent in the hospital,” Young says of his marriage to poet Laurie Saurborn Young, who says “‘Late Valentine’ is very sweet.”
His work also touches on themes of randomness and fate—two factors that contributed to him getting a second chance in the form of transplanting a new heart from a 22-year-old student. “I just feel enormous gratitude,” he says of his donor (捐獻者). “He gave me a heart so I’m still alive … I’m sure I’m going to think about this person for the rest of my life.”
小題1:The poetry collection Fall Higher         .
A．was published in February
B．is Young’s latest collection of poetry
C．makes darkness as its main theme
D．was written after Young’s heart transplant
小題2:We can learn from the text that Young         .
A．was born with heart disease
B．received a heart transplant in February
C．married a female poet after he wrote “l(fā)ate Valentine”
D．wrote a poem for his wife in his collection
小題3:What does the write try to say in Paragraph 3?
A． The writer had less enthusiasm than before, but he still kept on writing.
B． The writer expected some bright future, but he was disappointed.
C． The writer devoted more time to poems, so he grasped a good chance.
D． The writer wrote poems with less enthusiasm, so he quitted fora while.
小題4:Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A． “How Grasp Green” is the first poem in FaU Higher
B． Young began all his poems with his illness.
C． Young’s fether died when Young was 49 years old.
D． Young’s health situation is mentioned in his poetry.
小題5:What is the text mainly about?
A．The meaning of Fdl Higher.
B．Dean Young and his heart problems.
C．Dean Young and his latest collection.
D．An analysis of Dean Young’s poems.
小題6:When talking about his present life, Young seems to be .
A．gratefulB． pessimisticC． guiltyD．considerate

小題1:B
小題2:D
小題3:A
小題4:D
小題5:C
小題6:A

試題分析：本文主要介紹了Dean Young和他最近的作品Fall Higher。
小題1:細節(jié)題。根據(jù)第一段1,2行it's a particularly strong theme in Young's latest collection, Fall Higher．說明Fall Higher是Young最近的作品。故選B
小題2:細節(jié)題。根據(jù)第十段He wrote Fall Higher's, "Late Valentine" for his wife．說明Young 在詩集中寫了一首詩給他的妻子，D正確。
小題3:推理題。根據(jù)本段Not with the sort of concentration and sort of flame that I look forward to in the future, but I am blackening some pages說明他還是要繼續(xù)寫作的，但是可能沒有以前那么有熱情了。故A正確。
小題4:推理題。根據(jù)第六段Young says "Rhythms" was written about the beginning of his illness．說明在這首詩歌里他提及了他的疾病，故D正確。
小題5:主旨大意題。本文主要介紹了Dean Young和他最近的作品Fall Higher。故C正確。
小題6:細節(jié)題：從文章最后一段的句子：“I just feel enormous gratitude,” he says of his donor (捐獻者). “He gave me a heart so I’m still alive … I’m sure I’m going to think about this person for the rest of my life.”可知Young對現(xiàn)在的生活是很感激的，選A
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A．methodB．materialC．toolD．skill
小題7:
A．followingB．graspingC．seizingD．imitating
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A．everythingB．somethingC．nothingD．a(chǎn)nything
小題9:
A．pretendB．stopC．preventD．delay
小題10:
A．observedB．noticedC．glaredD．proved
小題11:
A．suggestedB．protectedC．a(chǎn)llowedD．a(chǎn)dvised
小題12:
A．emptyB．clearC．largeD．false
小題13:
A．discoveryB．inventionC．magicD．idea
小題14:
A．droppedB．madeC．drankD．changed
小題15:
A．spaceB．timeC．roomD．schedule
小題16:
A．chancesB．pausesC．situationsD．conditions
小題17:
A．a(chǎn)ttentionB．focusC．energyD．devotion
小題18:
A．translatedB．expectedC．explainedD．solved
小題19:
A．speechesB．memoriesC．documentsD．lectures
小題20:
A．realizeB．understandC．a(chǎn)dmitD．a(chǎn)dmire

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine funny words, pictures, and social opinions.
Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937. It is called And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. A number of publishers refused to publish it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years, he wrote more than forty children’s books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.
By the middle 1940s, Dr Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful writers of children’s books. He liked helping children. In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said that many children’s books weren’t interesting. Dr Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.
In 1957, Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 225 words to write the book. This was about the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.
The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It talks. The book was an immediate success. It was an interesting story and was easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.
小題1:What’s the best title for this passage?
A．Some of Dr Seuss’ books for children.
B．What are Dr Seuss’s books mainly about?
C．Dr Seuss — a famous writer of children’s books.
D．Why are Dr Seuss’ books different?
小題2:What do we know about Dr Seuss’s first book for children?
A．It was Dr Seuss’ worst book.
B．It dealt with a very serious subject.
C．Neither children nor adults like it.
D．Many publishers didn’t accept his book at first.
小題3:How did Dr Seuss help children according to Paragraph 3?
A．By asking others to help them in magazines.
B．By writing interesting and simple books.
C．By changing his old books into simpler ones.
D．By giving them books for free.
小題4:Adults most probably think that Dr Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat is _________
A．interestingB．seriousC．difficultD．boring

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