阅读理解。
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in New York City. During his long life, he watched America
grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced
by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like
President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated common people.
As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter.
He was thirty- six years old when his first book of poetry was published. He called it Leaves of
Grass. It has only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any
set form. Some lines are short and some are long. The word at the end of each line do not have a
similar sound. They do not rhyme.
One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of Leaves
of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's work. But most other poets and writers said
nothing or denounced it.
The American Civil War began in 1861. During the war, Whitman worked without pay at army
hospitals. He helped care for the wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours.
He brought them food and wrote letters for them. After the Civil War, Whitman worked for
government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy.
To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was the natural form
of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy was meant to honor the rights of every
person and the equality of all people.
In 1873, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke . he spent the last few years of his life in Camden, New
Jersey and wrote more poems. Whitman was poor and weak during the last few years of his life.
He died in 1892.
1. Walt Whitman expressed his feelings by _____.
A. singing songs
B. celebrating great people
C. writing poems
D. praising common people
2. Leaves of Grass was published in _____.
A.1855
B.1819
C.1861
D.1873
3. The underlined sentence "But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it."
(in Paragraph3) is most likely to tell us that ___.
A .many great writers liked Whitman's poems very much
B. a lot of people agreed with Emerson.
C. many poets and writers thought ill of Whitman's poems
D. few poets and writers didn't like talking to Whitman
4. It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that Whitman was ____.
A. a brave soldier
B. a man of devotion
C. an honest official
D. a great politician
