Arthur Miller(1915-2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists
of the 20th century. Miller"s father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary,drawn
like so many others by the" Great American Dream". However, he experienced severe
financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the
early l930s.
Millers" s most famous play, Death of a Salesman , is a powerful attack on the American
system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social
status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has
got into trouble with his worth. Willy is "burnt out" and in the cruel world of business there
is no room for sentiment: if he can"t do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the
Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at loss as to what
to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself
in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and
it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February
10,2005,the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first
person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize
winner.
Born in September, 1897, Irene Curie was the first of the Curies" two daughters. Along with nine
other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her
mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of S?vign? in
Paris.
Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics.
When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities (设备) to
help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in
military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognised in the form of a Military"s
Medal by the French government.
In 1918, Irene became her mother"s assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic
Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in
love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five
years later.
Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel
Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia
because of her work with radioactivity(辐射能). Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17,
1956.(www.yygrammar.com)
© 2017-2019 超级试练试题库,All Rights Reserved.