Annie Ernaux:Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature

江蘇 陳麗霞

主題語境：人物 篇幅：346詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1French author Annie Ernaux,who has mined her own biography to explore life in France since the 1940s,was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

2Ernaux's books explore deeply personal experiences and feelings within a changing web of social and class relationships.Much of her material came out of her experiences being raised in a working-class family in the Normandy region of northwest France.

3Ernaux,82,was recognized for the courage of her writing.Anders Olsson,chairman of the Nobel literature committee,said Ernaux is an extremely honest writer who is not afraid to confront the hard truths.She writes about things that no one else writes about.

4Ernaux is just the 17th woman among the 119 Nobel literature laureates（獲獎者）and is the first French literature laureate since Patrick Modiano in 2014.Most of her books are very short,and record events in her life and the lives of those around her.Her work was often written in plain language,aiming for a very objective view of the events she is describing.

5Ernaux worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer.Her first book wasCleaned Outin 1974.Two more autobiographical novels followed—Do What They Say orElseandThe Frozen Woman—before she moved to more autobiographical books.

6The book that made her name,La Place,was published in 1983 and is about her relationship with her father.Her most critically acclaimed book isThe Years,published in 2008,which described herself and wider French society from the end of World War Ⅱto the 21st century.Unlike her previous books,inThe Years,Ernaux wrote in the third person.The book received numerous awards and honors,and Olsson said it has been called the first collective autobiography.A Girl's Story,from 2016,follows a young woman's coming of age in the 1950s.

7The Nobel literature prize has long faced criticism that it is too focused on European and North American writers,as well as too male-dominated.“We try first of all to broaden the scope of the Nobel Prize,but our focus must be on literary quality,”Olsson said.

Reading Check

Detail 1.What do Annie Ernaux's works mainly focus on?

A.Her own living experiences.

B.The deep exploration of life.

C.Social and class relationships.

D.People's different lives in France.

Detail 2.What can we know about Annie?

A.She cares about nothing in her life.

B.She only prefers to write short stories.

C.She is a French Nobel literature laureate.

D.She never uses formal language to write.

Detail 3.Which book makes Annie famous?

A.Cleaned Out.

B.La Place.

C.The Years.

D.A Girl's Story.

Inference 4.Where can we probably read the text?

A.In a textbook.

B.In a book review.

C.In a personal diary.

D.In a popular magazine.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Discover the useful structure in the text

Her work was often written in plain language,aiming for a very objective view of the events she is describing.她的作品通常用通俗易懂的語言寫，旨在客觀地描述事件。

【點石成金】本句中，aiming for a very objective view of the events she is describing 為現在分詞短語作伴隨狀語；she is describing 為修飾the events的定語從句，省略了關系代詞that或which。

Ⅱ.Fill in the blanks with the proper phrases.

1.I have some old photographs that have__________through the family.

2.When I was walking on the street,I__________one of my friends.

3.I heard that he had written a new book,but it hasn't__________up till now.

4.No one knew how it__________and everyone felt very worried.

5.There's a big concert today and you're most welcome to__________.

6.In order to promote the products,she__________a new idea at the meeting.