首页
登录
职称英语
Leacock was probably ’the first Canadian to qualify as a "pro-American Britis
Leacock was probably ’the first Canadian to qualify as a "pro-American Britis
游客
2023-12-18
72
管理
问题
Leacock was probably ’the first Canadian to qualify as a "pro-American British imperialist." A colleague, Prof. John Culliton, said of him, "Long before Winston Churchill, Leacock was saving the Empire every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3 p. m. in Room 20.’ He was also ahead of his time in prodding Americans and Britons toward greater friendship and understanding.
His feeling for both sides of the Atlantic came naturally. He was born on the Isle of Wight in 1869, and emigrated to Canada as a six-year-old. On his retirement from McGill, influential English friends urged him to return to live in the land of his birth. He refused, saying, "I’d hate to be so far away from the United States. It’s second nature, part of our lives, to Joe near them. Every Sunday morning we read the New York funny papers. All week we hear about politics in Alabama and Louisiana, and whether they caught the bandits who stole the vault of the National Bank--well, you know American news. There’s no other like it."
In the eight years of his retirement; Stephen produced the work he believed most likely to endure. It was far removed from the kind of wit which had made him famous. He described his history, Montreal: Seaport and City, as "the best job I’ve done." Unlike most historical works it bubbles with the author’s laughter. In his foreword, after thanking two former colleagues for checking the manuscript, he added that any errors which remained obviously must be theirs. "Acknowledging these debts," he concluded, "I also feel that I owe a good deal of this book to my own industry and effort."
Midway through World War II, I asked Stephen if he would write a foreword for a book I had written on the Canadian navy and its gallant role in convoy escort. He agreed. Some time later he handed me more than 20,000 words, in which he had told the whole fascinating background story of Canada’s lifelong relationship to the sea. His research was staggering to a reporter who had simply described events and engagements to which he had been an eyewitness.
"I got interested in the subject," he explained. "If you don’t like it, throw it away and I’ll write something shorter,"
Not a word was changed. To my joy, the book appeared under our joint bylines. Soon after, throat cancer took Stephen from the thousands of Old McGillers who loved him.
Leacock loved human beings for their little vanities and pretensions—and laughed at his own. The fictional town of Mariposa of his famous "Sunshine Sketches" is obviously Orillia, Ontario, where Leacock built a summer home and developed a farm, which, he said, "used to lose a few dollars a year, but by dint of hard work and modernization, I have contrived to turn that into a loss of thousands." The citizens of Orillia had little difficulty in self identification when the book reached town, but they soon realized that Leacock had ribbed his own idiosyncrasies more sharply than he had pinpointed theirs. Today’s Orillians speak of him with the awe given to any community’s adopted son, though it was he who adopted Mariposa-Orillia.
Stephen Leacock was so honestly simple that to many men he seemed to be a mass of complexities. To the world he remains the man of laughter. His greatest achievement, however, was that he taught thousands of young men and women who want to know. By example he proved one simple fact to all of us who attended his classes, certainly to that numerous crew who came to enjoy his friendship—that the right of outspoken dissent is the free man’s most precious heritage. Such men do not often pass this way. [br] Leacock can be described as all of the following EXCEPT ______.
选项
A、a historian
B、aloof
C、humorous
D、an immigrant
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3284005.html
相关试题推荐
T.S.EliotwasanAmerican-bornBritish______.A、novelistB、essayistC、poet,c
WhyImmersionTeachingWorksAsaCanadianimmersion
DuringtheBritishCivilWar,thesupportersofthekingwascalled______.A、Cav
WhatisthecharacterofBritishlaborforce?A、homogeneousB、creativeC、imaginar
BritishPrimeMinisterTonyBlairbelongsto______A、DemocraticPartyB、WhigPart
WestminsterPalaceistheseatof______A、BritishHousesofParliamentB、Theprim
British______isoneofthefourmajornewsagenciesinthewest.A、ReutersB、Pre
WhatisthefullnameofBBC?A、BritishBroadcastingCooperationB、BritishBroadc
In1964-1966,majorresourceofnaturalgaswerediscoveredintheBritishsecto
SomerecenthistorianshavearguedthatlifeintheBritishcoloniesinAmeri
随机试题
HowPsychologyCanHelpthePlanetStayCool[A]"I’mnotconvinc
假性延髓麻痹的临床症状中不包括A.伸舌偏向健侧 B.咽反射存在 C.舌肌震颤
A.(3,2,1) B.(1,2,1) C.(1,2,0) D.(3,2,
B左边五个图形均为相似图形组成的图形,所以选B。
A."人命至重,有贵千金,一方济之,德逾于此" B."一存仁心,……二通儒道,
将存货存放在很多地点,可能导致哪些风险?()A.商品途中毁损或遗失 B.存货在
A. B. C. D.
下列关于拔罐法的叙述中,正确的有( )。A.闪罐法用于治疗局部皮肤麻木 B.
(2019年真题)减慢药物体内排泄、延长药物半衰期,会让药物在血药浓度-时间曲线
女,25岁,妊娠37周,G1P0,因羊膜破裂入院待产。既往身体健康,无传染病及遗
最新回复
(
0
)