共用题干Man of Few Words
Everyone chases success,but not all of us want to be famous.
South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee is________(1)for keeping himself to
himself. When the 63-year-old was named the 2003 Nobel Prize winner for literature earlier
this month,reporters were warned that they would find him"particularly difficult to
________(2)".
Coetzee lives in Australia but spends part of the year teaching at the University of
Chicago.He seemed__________(3)by the news that he won the U. S.$1._________(1.)3 million prize.
"It came as a complete surprise.I wasn't even aware they were due to make the
announcement,"he said.
His________(4)of privacy led to doubts as to whether Coetzee will attend the
prize-giving in Stockholm,Sweden,on December 10._________(10.)
But despite being described as________(5)to track down,the critics agree that
his writing is easy to get to know.
Born in Cape Town,South Africa,to an English-speaking family,Coetzee_______(6)
his breakthrough in 1980 with the novel " Waiting for the Barbarians（野蛮人）".He
________(7)his place among the world's leading writers with two Booker prize victories,
Britain's highest honour for novels.He first_______(8)in 1983 for the"Life and Times
of Michael K",and his second title came in 1999 for"Disgrace".
A major theme in his work is South Africa's former apartheid（种族隔离）system,
which divided whites from blacks.________(9)with the problems of violence,crime
and racial division that still exist in the country,his books have enabled ordinary people to
understand apartheid_________(10)within.
"I have always been more interested in the past than the future,"he said in a rare
interview."The past_______(11)its shadow over the present.I hope I have made
one or two people think__________(12)about whether they want to forget the past
completely.”
In fact this purity in his writing seems to be______(13)in his personal life.
Coetzee is a vegetarian,a cyclist rather than a motorist and doesn't drink alcohol.
But what he has_______(14)to literature,culture and the people of South Africa
is far greater than the things he has given up."In looking at weakness and failure in life,"
the Nobel prize judging panel said, "Coetzee's work _________ (15) the divine（神圣的）
spark in man." _________(3) A:reported B:influenced C:distorted D:shocked