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Born in 1830 in rural Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson spent her entire life in the household of her parents. Between 1858 and 1862, it was later discovered, she wrote like a person possessed, often producing a poem a day. It was also during this period that her life was transformed into the myth of Amherst.

Withdrawing more and more, keeping to her room sometimes even refusing to see visitors who called, she began to dress only in white-a habit that added to her reputation as an eccentric.

In their determination to read Dickinson's life in terms of a traditional romantic plot biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life-her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce’s 1976 play, The BeIle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1950's transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion was not the result of a failed love affairs but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for self – sovereignty, carried on an argument with the Puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of "true womanhood."

1. What is the author's main purpose in the passage?

(A) To interpret Emily Dickinson’s eccentric behavior

(B) To promote the popular myth of Emily Dickinson

(D) To describe the religious climate in Emily Dickinson's time

2. According to the passage, the period from 1858 to 1862 was for Emily Dickinson a period of great

(A) tragedy (B) sociability

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as being one of Emily Dickinson' s eccentricities?

(A) Refusing to eat (B) Wearing only write

4. According to the passage, biographers of Emily Dickinson have traditionally

(A) criticized most of her poems (B) ignored her innocence and emotional fragility

5. Why does the author mention William Luce's play The Belle of Amherst?

(A) To give an example of the sentimentalized Emily Dickinson myth

(B) To show how popular Emily Dickinson's poems have become

(D) To illustrate the theatrical quality of Emily Dickinson's poems

6. The author implies that many people attribute Emily Dickinson's seclusion to

(A) physical illness (B) a failed love affair

7. The author suggests all of the following as reasons for Emily Dickinson's unusual behavior EXCEPT the

(A) struggle to create a new female identity

(B) desire to develop her genius undisturbed

(D) attempt to draw attention to her poetry

8. It can be inferred from the passage that Emily Dickinson lived in a society that was characterized by

(A) strong Puritan beliefs

(B) equality of men and women

(D) the appreciation of poetic creativity

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