Jack London had endured more hardships by the age of twenty-one than most people experience in a lifetime. His struggles developed in him sympathy for the working class and a lasting dislike of hard work and provided inspiration for his career as a writer.
London grew up in San Francisco in extreme poverty. At an early age, he left school and supported himself through a succession of un skilled jobs ----working as a paper boy, in bowling alleys, on ice wagons, and in canneries（罐頭食品廠） and mills. Despite working long hours at these jobs, London was able to read constantly, borrowing travel and adventure books from the library.
The books London read inspired him to travel, and his job experiences led him to become active in fighting for the fights of workers. He sailed to Japan on a journey aiming at catching seals and joined a cross-country protest march with a group of unemployed workers. After being arrested for vagrancy near Buffalo, New York, London decided to educate himself and reshape his life. He quickly completed high school and entered the University of California.
After only one term, however, the appeal of fortune and adventure proved uncontrollable. London gave up his studies and traveled to the Alaskan Yukon in 1897 in search of gold. Jack London was among the first of these miners. He may have searched for more than gold, however. London once commented, “ True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” Although he was unsuccessful as a miner, London’s experiences in Alaska taught him about the human desire for wealth and power and about humankind’s inability to control the forces of nature. While in Alaska, London also absorbed memories and stories that would make him known one hundred years later.
Once back in California, London became determined to earn a living as a writer. He rented a typewriter and worked up to fifteen hours a day, spinning his Alaskan adventures into short stories and novels.
According to legend, London’s piles of rejection slips from publishers grew to five feet in height!
Even so, London preserved. In 1903, he earned national fame when he published the popular novel
The Call of the Wild. He soon became the highest paid and most industrious writer in the country. During his career, he produced more than fifty books and earned more than a million dollars. Several of his novels, including
The Call of the Wild(1903),the Sea-Wolf(1904),the White Fang(1906),have become American classics. In fact, he was a creative writer whose fiction explored several regions and their cultures: the Yukon, California, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. He experimented with many literary forms, from traditional love stories and dystopias（反面烏托邦小說）to science fantasy. His noted journalism included war communication, boxing stories, and the life of Molokai lepers（麻風病患者）. He was among the most influential figures of his day, who understood how to create a public persona and use the media to market his self-created image of poor-boy-turned-success. London's great passion was agriculture, and he was well on the way of creating a new model for spreading through his Beauty Ranch when he died of kidney disease at age 40. He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which have been translated and continue to be read around the world. His best works describe a person’s struggle for survival against the powerful forces of nature. “
To Build a Fire”, for example, tells the story of a man’s fight to survive the harsh cold of the Alaskan winter.
小題1:_________made Jack London reconsider his life in the future.
| A．His job experience | B．The books he read |
| C．Being arrested | D．Long-hour work |
小題2:What is TRUE about Jack London?
| A．Jack London was poor all his life. |
| B．Jack London got enough money while in the search of gold. |
| C．The books Jack London read inspired him to travel and become active. |
| D．The experience of gold searching made Jack London determined to write novels about Alaska adventures. |
小題3:After the experience in Alaska, Jack London ________________.
| A．realized the nature of human beings. |
| B．knew people could control the nature finally. |
| C．regretted being there. |
| D．thought highly of himself. |
小題4:In paragraph 4, the sentence “True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” implies_______________________________.
| A．Jack London regarded Alaska a poor place as he never got any gold there. |
| B．people would have been ill at home if they had never been Alaska. |
| C．People searching for gold there still have chance to win. |
| D．Alaska was a poor but large region. |
小題5:Which one of following works doesn’t belong to Jack London according to the passage?
| A．love stories | B．poetry | C．journalism | D．essays |
小題6:What can we learn from Jack London’s final success?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．Knowledge is powerful. |
| D．All of above. |
