阅读理解

Shakespeare’s or Someone Else’s?

    Every once in a while you will read some article about a so-called scholar discovering material that is supposed to prove that William Shakespeare did not really write the works attributed to him. Many alternative authors have been suggested-most prominently, Christopher Marlowe and Francis Bacon. One proponent of Bacon as author of Shakespeare's plays actually looked for words like “fat and lard” and calculated how their places in the texts of the plays proved that Bacon authored them.

Any schoolboy can see the fallacy(谬误) of such an argument and yet many adult readers of newspaper articles, written by men who have never done any research on Shakespeare, are taken in by the arguments proposed against Shakespeare's authorship. It is true that we have no manuscripts(手稿) of the plays as they came from Shakespeare's hand. After all, he wrote the plays to be acted and the actors used the author's manuscripts.  However, almost half the plays appeared in print under the author's name during his lifetime-which ended in 1616. A few years later, in 1623, two of Shakespeare's name appeared on the title page. They even got Ben Johnson, Shakespeare's great rival playwright, to write a poetic introduction for the folio volume(对开本的书卷).

There are other arguments I might present to prove Shakespeare's authorship. My own argument is simply this, if Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him, it was someone else by the same name.

1. The first paragraph tells us that some so-called scholars________.

   A. have proved that Shakespeare's works were his own

   B. have already proved that Shakespeare's work were not his own

   C. try very hard to prove that Shakespeare's work were useless

   D. try to prove that Shakespeare's works were not his own

2. Some people suggested that certain writers other than Shakespeare himself were the authors of his plays. One of them did so by ________.

   A. discovering words such as “fat and lard” in Bacon's plays

   B. checking up every word in Shakespeare's words

   C. comparing the use of words in Shakespeare's works with others

   D. examining the whole text of Shakespeare's works

3. According to the message, Shakespeare________.

   A. died in 1616

   B. never had any manuscripts for his plays

   C. often wrote plays together with Ben Johnson

   D. published a great folio volume with 36 plays

4. In his final conclusion, the writer________.

   A. believe that someone else had written the plays for Shakespeare

   B. states that it is logical that Shakespeare's plays were written by Shakespeare

   C. does not think that Shakespeare could have written all the plays by himself

   D. believes that some of Shakespeare's friends had published their own works under the name of Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s or Someone Else’s?

    Every once in a while you will read some article about a so-called scholar discovering material that is supposed to prove that William Shakespeare did not really write the works attributed to him. Many alternative authors have been suggested-most prominently, Christopher Marlowe and Francis Bacon. One proponent of Bacon as author of Shakespeare's plays actually looked for words like “fat and lard” and calculated how their places in the texts of the plays proved that Bacon authored them.

Any schoolboy can see the fallacy(谬误) of such an argument and yet many adult readers of newspaper articles, written by men who have never done any research on Shakespeare, are taken in by the arguments proposed against Shakespeare's authorship. It is true that we have no manuscripts(手稿) of the plays as they came from Shakespeare's hand. After all, he wrote the plays to be acted and the actors used the author's manuscripts.  However, almost half the plays appeared in print under the author's name during his lifetime-which ended in 1616. A few years later, in 1623, two of Shakespeare's name appeared on the title page. They even got Ben Johnson, Shakespeare's great rival playwright, to write a poetic introduction for the folio volume(对开本的书卷).

There are other arguments I might present to prove Shakespeare's authorship. My own argument is simply this, if Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him, it was someone else by the same name.

1. The first paragraph tells us that some so-called scholars________.

   A. have proved that Shakespeare's works were his own

   B. have already proved that Shakespeare's work were not his own

   C. try very hard to prove that Shakespeare's work were useless

   D. try to prove that Shakespeare's works were not his own

2. Some people suggested that certain writers other than Shakespeare himself were the authors of his plays. One of them did so by ________.

   A. discovering words such as “fat and lard” in Bacon's plays

   B. checking up every word in Shakespeare's words

   C. comparing the use of words in Shakespeare's works with others

   D. examining the whole text of Shakespeare's works

3. According to the message, Shakespeare________.

   A. died in 1616

   B. never had any manuscripts for his plays

   C. often wrote plays together with Ben Johnson

   D. published a great folio volume with 36 plays

4. In his final conclusion, the writer________.

   A. believe that someone else had written the plays for Shakespeare

   B. states that it is logical that Shakespeare's plays were written by Shakespeare

   C. does not think that Shakespeare could have written all the plays by himself

   D. believes that some of Shakespeare's friends had published their own works under the name of Shakespeare