Herta Mueller, who has been awarded the Nobel prize for literature, is the 12th woman to win the award.

Mueller was born in 1953 in the German-speaking town of Nitzkydorf in Romania. Her parents were members of the German-speaking minority in Romania

Mueller studied German and Romanian literature at university and became involved with the Aktionsgruppe Banat, a group of German speaking writers who opposed Ceaucescu's dictatorship and sought freedom of speech. After university she worked as a translator but lost her job after refusing to cooperate with the secret police, the Securitate.

Mueller made her writing debut with the collection of short stories Niederungen in 1982. It was censored in Romania but was smuggled out of the country to be published in Germany two years later. That year she also published her first novel Druckender Tango. Her books focused on the tough daily life under Ceausescu's regime and the harsh treatment of Romanian Germans. Corruption, intolerance and repression are major themes in her writing.

She was criticised by the Romanian press but her books did well in Germany. Because Mueller had publicly criticised the dictatorship in Romania, she was banned from publishing in the country

It was when she emigrated in 1987 that she became known to wider literary world. She moved to Berlin with her husband the author Richard Wagner.

Communist-era leader Nicolae Ceausescu, was leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and killed in a revolution in 1989. Romania suffered extreme shortages of food, fuel, energy and medicines under his dictatorship. He used the feared secret police to control his people

Her 1996 novel The Land Of The Green Plums won the German Kleist and the Irish IMPAC award, the richest literary prize in the world. The book is about a group of friends who become targets of the secret police. Mueller wrote the book after the death of two of her friends, in which she suspected the secret police's involvement. The writer has said she felt it was her "duty" to write it "in memory of my Romanian friends who were killed under the Ceausescu regime".

She has written 19 books mostly in German but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish.

Mueller has also lectured at Universities in Europe and the US.

60. From the passage we can know that _______.

A. Mueller was born in Germany but grew up in Romania 

B. Mueller’s first novel Druckender Tango was published in 1984

C. Mueller worked as a writer after she left university

D. Mueller was awarded the Nobel Prize because she wrote 19 books

61. The underlined words the Aktionsgruppe Banat in paragraph 3 is probably            .

   A. an association   B. a school    C. a company    D. a press

62. When Mueller emigrated to Berlin, she was         years old.

A. 29    B. 36    C. 43     D. 34

63. Mueller wrote the novel The Land of Green Plums because         .

A. she wanted to win the Nobel Prize for literature

B. she wanted to win the German Kleist and the Irish IMPAC award

C. she wanted to disclose the secret police under the Ceausescu regime and be in memory of her friends

D. Romania suffered extreme shortages of food, fuel, energy and medicines under the Ceausescu’s regime