Doris Lessing was born in 1919 in Persia, moving as a child with her family to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she stayed in school only to the age of 14.
A year after moving to London, she published her first novel in 1950. The Grass is Singing examines unbridgeable racial conflict in colonial Africa through the eyes of a white farmer's wife and her black servant.
Her literary breakthrough came in 1962 with publication of The Golden Notebook, seen by many, though not necessarily Lessing, as a pioneering work of modern feminism（女权运动）. A disjointed study of the mind of the main character, Anna Wulf, the novel explores her thoughts about Africa, politics, relationships with men and sex, and Jungian analysis and dream interpretation.
Lessing's themes changed to psychology in her works from the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was interested in the Islamic mystic tradition of Sufism（苏菲教派）. Her turn toward science fiction with the Canopus series in the early 1980s was not warmly received by traditional critics, but she has continued to be popular with new readers and numerous literary awards, including the David Cohen British Literary Prize and the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature, both in 2001.
Following the announcement, the Horace Engdahl told VOA why he was personally so pleased with Lessing's selection.
“She is one of the truly great writers -- of novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction,” Engdahl said. “She is one of the few writers who have had the courage to uphold the principle of equality between the male and female experience, and she has given the impulse to numbers of other women writers. And she is really the mother of a school that is one of the most important in our contemporary literature.”
At 87, Doris Lessing is the oldest Nobel Literature winner since the first prizes were awarded in 1901.
小题1: What would be the best title of the passage?
A．Doris Lessing’s Great Writings.
B．Doris Lessing’s Concern about Africa.
C．A Great Writer of Novel and a Pioneer of Modern Feminism.
D．A Nobel Prize Winner for Literature.小题2:It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A．there are only two characters in The Grass is Singing
B．The Golden Notebook is regarded as Lessing’s masterpiece by herself
C．life in Africa in her early age lays solid foundation for her writing
D．Doris Lessing is strongly against traditional culture in Africa小题3:According to the fourth paragraph, _______.
A．Lessing began to believe in Christ in the 1970s
B．Lessing’s science fiction won readers
C．Lessing had won two literary medals for her writings
D．Lessing changed her themes to meet the needs of traditional critics小题4:The underlined word “impulse” in the 6th passage is closest in meaning to _______.
A．pressure
B．inspiration
C．energy
D．desire
