THE BRONTE FAMILY
Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels of the 19th century. One of them is Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte.
The Bronte family had three girls and a boy. Charlotte was born in 1816, Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. The children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes. The girls were determined to earn money for Branwell's art education.
As children, the girls had all written many stories. Charlotte alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty, Anne and Emily found a publisher (出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte's book. ( It was not published until 1859. ) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her work. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.
Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of her book, and Anne died in 1849.
Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis (肺结核) as her sisters had.
小题1:What did the Bronte sisters want to do for Branwell Bronte?
A．Help him write stories.
B．Help him get trained in art.
C．Teach him how to draw well.
D．Teach him how to educate himself.小题2:We know from the text that
A．Jane Eyre was published in 1847
B．Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all
C．the Bronte sisters received good education
D．the father helped his daughters with their writing小题3:The underlined words "the other two" in Paragraph 4 refer to ________.
A．Shirley and Villette
B．The Professor and Agnes Grey
C．Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights
D．The Professor and Wuthering Heights小题4:What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?
A．Their novels interested few publishers.
B．None of them lived longer than 40 years.
C．Emily was the least successful of the three.
D．None of them had more than two books published.
