The novelist, Harriet Beecher Stowe, born 200 years ago, was a poor housewife with six children, and she suffered from various illnesses. Driven by the hatred of slavery, she found time to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which became the most influential novel in American history and caused great change, both at home and abroad.
Today, however, the book has a different reputation, owing to the popular image of its character, Uncle Tom, whose name has become a saying for a cowardly（懦弱的）black man who betrays his race.
But this view is wrong: the original Uncle Tom was physically and morally strong, an inspiration for black people and other oppressed（被壓迫的）people worldwide. Indeed, that was why, in the mid-19th century, Southerners attacked Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a dangerously destructive book, while Northern reformers—especially black people—often praised it.
The book was influential overseas too. In Russia it inspired Vladimir Lenin, who recalled it as his favorite book in childhood. It was the first American novel to be translated and published in China, and it fueled anti-slavery movements in Cuba and Brazil.
The book’s progressive appeal was the character of Uncle Tom himself: a strong man who is notable because he does not betray his race; one reason he gives up escaping from his plantation（種植園）is that he doesn’t want to put his fellow slaves in danger. And he is finally killed because he refuses to tell his master where two runaway slaves are hiding.
Unfortunately, these themes were lost in many of the stage versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The play, seen by more people than those who read the book, remained popular up to the 1950s and still appears occasionally. But in the play, Stowe’s revolutionary themes were drowned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way; indeed; during the civil rights era it was those who most closely resembled Uncle Tom—Stowe’s Uncle Tom, not the embarrassed one of popular myth—that proved most effective in promoting progress. Both Stowe and Uncle Tom deserve our reconsideration and our respect.
小題1:Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin because she
.
| A．wanted to earn money to support her family |
| B．tried to set an example to her six children |
| C．hated slavery from the bottom of her heart |
| D．had similar life experiences to Uncle Tom |
小題2: Which of the following is TRUE about the influence of the book?
| A．It was the first American novel to be translated into Russian. |
| B．It was the most influential book for Vladimir Lenin in his life |
| C．It also gave rise to anti-slavery movements in faraway Africa. |
| D．It inspired black people and people who were suffering in the world. |
小題3:What can we learn about Uncle Tom in the book?
| A．he helps his fellow slaves to avoid getting into danger. |
| B．He is a black man who betrays his race. |
| C．He manages to escape from the plantation. |
| D．He kills himself instead of giving away the slaves. |
小題4:According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The themes of revolution and progress in the book were lost in the play |
| B．There are more people who have read the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, than those who have seen the stage version. |
| C．The play was very popular and it is still put on from time to time today. |
| D．It was Uncle Tom in the book that promoted the progress of mankind. |
