Английский язык. Часть II. Коныгина Г.И - 16 стр.

work on these pieces as late as the period 1809-1811, and that her niece and
nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as
1814.
   Among these works are a (3) ___ SATIRE novel in letters entitled Love and
Freindship (usually cited in Jane Austen's original spelling), in which she
mocked popular novels of sensibility, and The History of England (“by a par-
tial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian”), a manuscript of 34 pages accompa-
nied by 13 watercolour miniatures by her sister Cassandra. Austen's History
parodied popular (4) ___ HISTORY writing.
   Austen's Juvenilia are often boisterous and (5) ___ ANARCHY. Scholars
compare them to the work of the 18th century novelist Laurence Sterne. Three
volumes of Jane Austen’s collected young writings were published more than a
hundred years after her death.
   In 1793, Austen began and then abandoned a short play, later entitled Sir
Charles Grandison or the Happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts, which she returned to
and (6) ___ COMPLETION around 1800. This was a short parody of various
school textbook abridgments of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The
History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), by Samuel Richardson.
   Scholars speculate that at some point not long after writing Love and Freind-
ship [sic] in 1789, Austen (7) ___ DECISION to "write for profit, to make sto-
ries her central effort", that is, to become a (8) ___ PROFESSION writer.
Whenever she made that decision, beginning in about 1793, Austen began to
write longer, more (9) ___ SOPHISTICATION works. In one of her letters, Jane
informs her sister: "I write only for Fame" and remarks: "My mind is stored with
Ideas worth transmitting."
   During the period between 1793 and 1795, Austen wrote Lady Susan, a short
epistolary novel, usually described as her most (10) ___ AMBITION and so-
phisticated early work. It is unlike any of Austen's other works. One of Austen’s
(11) ___ BIOGRAPHY describes the (12) ___ HERO of the novella as a sexual
predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray, and abuse
her (13) ___ VICTIMIZE, whether lovers, friends or family. The biographer
writes: "Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as
any of the most outrageous of the Restoration dramatists who may have pro-
vided some of her (14) ___ INSPIRE. It stands alone in Austen's work as a study
of an adult woman whose (15) ___ INTELLIGENT and force of character are
greater than those of anyone she encounters."

Read the following questions (1-7) and choose the correct answer (a, b or c).

1.   Why did Jane Austen create her first literary works?
a)   because she wanted to surpass her sister Cassandra
b)   because she followed her natural inclination for writing
c)   because she wanted to avoid sharing housework
                                         16