For many writers, writing stories or plays is a part-time job: to support themselves they take on other jobs, such as teaching. It is one sign of August Wilson’s success that for many years he has been able to make a living only by writing plays.
Wilson was born in Pittsburgh and dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He was a good reader, however, and continued his education by reading library books, learning about black nationalist movements of the time, and closely observing(观察) the lives of the poor people.
In the late 1960’s Wilson set up a theater company called Black Horizons and began to think of ways to describe African-American life on the stage. He had the idea of a cycle of plays, each of which was set in a different decade(十年) of the 20th century, showing how African-American life has developed.
The first successful play of this series was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom about black musicians in Chicago in the 1920s, who are not accepted by white society. Other plays in the series include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, about blacks in the 1910s who had moved north to Pittsburgh in search of a new identity; Fences, which focuses on a father–son conflict(冲突) in the1950s; and The Piano Lesson, about a 1930s family that was uncertain about whether to sell the family’s treasure. For the last two of these plays Wilson was awarded Pulitzer Prizes.
Wilson has written eight plays in his cycle, the most recent being King Hedley the Second, a play set in the 1980s. His plays are enjoyed by both the blacks and the whites and engage anyone who is interested in African-American experience.
小题1:Wilson won Pulitzer Prizes for ________.
A．The Piano Lesson & Fences
B． Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom & Fences
C．The Piano Lesson & King Hedley the Second
D．King Hedley the Second & Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 小题2: It is possible that in his series of the 20th –century plays, Wilson plans to write ________.
A．no more
B．two more
C．three more
D．four more小题3:The underlined word “engage” in the last paragraph means ________.
A．award
B．benefit
C．please
D．attract小题4:What’s the passage mainly about?
A．The life of August Wilson.
B．The growth of August Wilson.
C．A cycle of plays of August Wilson.
D．August Wilson’s theater company.
