Narrator Listen to a lecture in the literature class.[img]2011q1/ct_etoefm_

[Professor]
    OK, eh...let me talk about William Faulkner. The centenary of the birth of William Faulkner, one of the great modem novelists, was celebrated in September, 1997. Faulkner wrote about the southern states of the United States of America where he grew up, and where his family had an important part to play in the history of that region. His work became a touchstone for insights into the troubled issues of southern American identity, race relations, and the family interrelationships of the old time southern gentry.
    Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. Despite his interest in writing, he left Oxford High School, Mississippi, without graduating. After World War , he entered the University of Mississippi as a special student, a right to study which was granted to war veterans, although Faulkner had only finished training with the Air Force in Canada, and not entered combat.
    Faulkner began to write poems, a verse play, short stories and finished his first novel Sartoris in 1928. His fiction was centred for 14 of the 19 novels published during his lifetime in a fictional region called Yoknapatawpha County. This name is said to stem from the Indian Chickasaw word meaning "split land".
    In December 1950, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he accepted it in Stockholm, his speech emphasized that he wished to continue writing, but in a positive way that affirmed the power of humanity to prevail over adverse circumstances. As he said in his speech, he still felt that, despite the threat of nuclear war then hanging over the world, the central concern of the writer should be "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself". He wanted the tensions and problems that he had cast the spotlight on in the southern states of America to be resolved by the life affirming attitudes and action of his characters. Like playwright Tennessee Williams, Faulkner was a major voice who spoke for the troubled heart of the southern states of America.
    His achievement is all the more remarkable because, as a schoolboy, he was not only a frequent truant but also reportedly failed to reach passing grades in English class. His collected short stories, novels, poems, allegorical stories and other writings form a legacy of literature which casts profound illumination on the special culture of the South, a culture which developed from a history and social circumstances that were often tumultuous and always unique.
    From the focus on a fictional county, and by remaining true to his view of a close knit but authentic society that reflected the greater world around him, Faulkner in the end fashioned a saga of the Deep South that is one of the major achievements of 20th century literature.
29. What is the main topic of the talk?
30. Which of the following statements about William Faulkner are true?
Narrator Listen again to a part of the lecture, then answer the question.
    Faulkner wrote about the southern states of the United States of America where he grew up, and where his family had an important part to play in the history of that region. His work became a touchstone for insights into the troubled issues of southern American identity, race relations, and the family interrelationships of the old time southern gentry.
31. Why did William Faulkner write about the southern states of America?
32. How many novels have been published during the lifetime of William Faulkner?
33. Which of the following statements about Tennessee Williams is true?
34. What was William Faulkner’s attitude toward the troubled issues of southern America?