Directions:In this section, you will hear
a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should
listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second
time, you are required to fill in the banks numbered from 36 to 43 with the
exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered 44 to 46 you are required
to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the
exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words.
Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you
have written.
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s
preeminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet. His
(36) works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long
(37) poems, and several other poems. His plays have been
(38) into every major living language, and are performed
more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare
produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were
mainly (39) and histories, genres he raised to the peak of
sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly
tragedies until about 1608, including (40) , King Lear, and
Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his
last phase, he wrote tragicomedies; also known as romances, and collaborated
with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying
quality and accuracy during his (41) In 1623, two of his
former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of
his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now (42)
as Shakespeare’s. Shakespeare was a (43)
.poet and playwright in his own day, (44) . The
Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare’s genius, and the Victorians
hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called
"Mariolatry". In the twentieth century, (45) . His plays
remain highly popular today and are (46)