1．Charles Dickens （1812-1870），the great nineteenth century English novelist，was born near Portsmouth．His father ran heavily into debt and when he was twelve，he had to go and work in a factory for making boot polish．The only formal education he received was a two-year schooling at a school for poor children．In fact，he had to teach himself all he knew．He worked for a time as a junior clerk in a lawyer's office．After that，he worked as a reporter in the law courts，and later in Parliament，for London newspapers．
His career as a writer of fiction began in 1833with short stories and essays in periodicals（期刊），and in 1837his comic novel The Pickwick Papers made him the most popular author at his time in England．
He was a great observer of people and their places because he was attracted by life and conditions in mid-nineteenth century London．He wrote 19novels all his life and in many of them，Dickens gave a realistic picture of all classes of England society，showing deep sympathy for the poor and unfortunate，exposing the injustice and inhumanity of the middle class．Many of his novels like Oliver Twist，David Copperfield，Nicholas Nickleby，Great Expectations，A Tale of Two Cities and so on drew attention to the unsatisfactory social conditions that existed in England over a hundred years ago．Dickens criticized capitalist society from the point of view of bourgeois humanism．He wished to see improvement in the living conditions of the poor，but failed to find any effective means to achieve that end．
24．Dickens only received a little formal education becauseC．
A．he wanted to teach himself
B．he wanted to work and made a lot of money
C．he was too poor to afford any more formal education
D．he wanted some working experiences to be a novelist
25．According to the passage，which of the following about Dickens is true？C
A．He didn't go to school at all．
B．He only wrote about poor people and showed deep sympathy for them．
C．He began to write fictions when he was 21years old．
D．He found some effective ways to improve the living conditions of the poor．
26．It can be inferred from the passage thatA．
A．Dickens had a miserable（悲惨的；可怜的）childhood
B．His career as a writer of fiction began in 1837
C．Dickens wrote many novels but only some of them are popular
D．Dickens criticized capitalist society and helped to improve the living conditions of the poor．
