The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject(研究对象). Too close a relation, and the writer

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问题     The biographer has to dance between two shaky positions with respect to the subject(研究对象). Too close a relation, and the writer may lose objectivity. Not close enough, and the writer may lack the sympathy necessary to any effort to portray a mind, a soul— the quality of life. Who should write the biography of a family, for example? Because of their closeness to the subject, family members may have special information, but by the same token, they may not have the distance that would allow them to be fair. Similarly, a king’s servant might not be the best one to write a biography of that king. But a foreigner might not have the knowledge and sympathy necessary to write the king’s biography—not for a readership from within the kingdom, at any rate.
    There is no ideal position for such a task. The biographer has to work with the position he or she has in the world, adjusting that position as necessary to deal with the subject. Every position has strengths and weaknesses: to thrive, a writer must try to become aware of these, evaluate them in terms of the subject, and select a position accordingly.
    When their subjects are heroes or famous figures, biographies often reveal a democratic motive: they attempt to show that their subjects are only human, no better than anyone else. Other biographies are meant to change us, to invite us to become better than we are. The biographies of Jesus(耶稣)found in the Bible are in this class.
    Biographers may claim that their account is the "authentic" one. In advancing this claim, they are helped if the biography is "authorized" by the subject; this presumably allows the biographer special access to private information. "Unauthorized" biographies also have their appeal, however, since they can suggest an independence of mind in the biographer. In book promotions, the "unauthorized" characterisation usually suggests the prospect of juicy gossip that the subject had hoped to suppress. A subject might have several biographies, even several "authentic" ones. We sense intuitively that no one is in a position to tell "the" story of a life, perhaps not even the subject, and this has been proved by the history of biography.
The author cites the biographies of Jesus in the Bible in order to show that______.

选项 A、the best biographies are meant to transform their readers
B、biographies are authentic accounts of their subjects’ lives
C、the best biographies are those of heroes and famous figures
D、biographies can serve different purposes

答案D

解析 本题问作者选择《圣经》中耶稣传记的目的何在。A项说:“最好的传记旨在改变读者。”由于文中并未提到传记的优劣标准,因此该项不合题意。C项说:“最好的传记是关于英雄和名人的传记。”这也牵涉到传记优劣的标准问题。B项说:“传记是被研究对象生活的真实写照。”这句话本身没有错,但不是作者想要说明的。第3段中指出:“当它们的研究对象是英雄或名人时,传记作品常常表现一个平民化的主题:它们试图表明这些英雄或名人只是人,只是一些普普通通的人。另一类传记旨在改变我们,想让我们变得比现在更好。《圣经》中耶稣传记就属于这一类。”这里举出两类传记作品,它们的目的不同。作者的真正用意是想说明D项所包含的内容,即“传记作品是为各种目的服务的”。故答案应为D项。
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