阅读理解。
Thackeray was born into a comfortably secure upper-middle-class family, and brought up to expect the
leisured life of "gentleman". However, partly though bad luck and bad financial (财政的) advice, partly through
his own profligacy (荒废) in early youth-he was Cambridge and for some years afterwards a compulsive (上
瘾的) gambler-he had been left with nothing to depend on but his brains and energy. He dreamed of writing a
great novel; but he realized that while he dreamed and wasted time. Writers whom he considered to be nobodies,
such as Bulwer-Lytton,were writing best sellers.
Writing had not been his first choice of profession. To please his mother he spent some months, studying
law,but his earliest wish was to be a painter. He studied art in London and Paris before deciding that his talent
was too small for him to be anything but an amateur (业余的) painter, though he continued to draw
professionally, and illustrated (给…画插图) most of his own novels He then turned to journalism. In 1836,
while he was still struggling to make his way, he married penniless girl of eighteen, strongly against his mother's
will.
With considerable courage, Thackeray began to make a living for his growing family from various
contributions to any newspapers and magazines that would take his work often he did not know where the next
five pounds was coming from Isabella Thackeray gave birth to three daughters,the second of whom died as a
child, hut after the birth of the third, in 1840, she became incurably mad and had to be cared fat away from her
family for the rest of her long life-she outlived her husband by over thirty years.
This tragedy deeply affected Thackeray. It was, too, an extra financial load and for some years he was
forced to part with his daughters, who were brought up by his mother in France. While he struggled to make
a living in London, still chiefly by Journalism. His chances as a novelist seemed poor: his short novel Barry
Lynden, published serially in Fraser's Magazine in 1844 made so little impression oil the public that it was not
published in book form until twelve years later.
1. Thackeray was born into a family _____.
A. that had bad luck
B. that he could not rely on
C. that was quite rich
D. that expected him to be a writer
2. What did his mother want him to study?
A. Art
B. Law
C. Writer
D. Journalism
3. After he got married, Thackeray made a living by _____.
A. writing best sellers
B. drawing and illustrating his own novels
C. publishing a book which made him famous
D. writing for newspapers and magazines
4. After he got married, Thackeray made a living by _____.
A. writing best sellers
B. drawing and illustrating his own novels
C. publishing a book which made him famous
D. writing for newspapers and magazines
