Many people seem to think that science fiction is typified by the Bug-eyed Monster, embodying every feature that most people find unpleasant. This is unfortunate because it degrades a worthwhile literary endeavor. Instead, the basic interest of science fiction lies in the relation between man and his technology and between man and the universe. Science fiction is a literature of change and a literature of the future, and the aspects of human life that it considers make it well worth reading and studying for no other literary form does quite the same things. What is science fiction? To begin, the following definition should be helpful: science fiction is a literary subgenre which postulates(以…为前提) a change (for human beings) from conditions as we know them and follows the implications of these changes to a conclusion.
The first point that science fiction is a literary subgenre is a very important one, but one which is often overlooked. Specifically, science fiction is either a short story or a novel. There are only a few dramas which could be called science fiction; the body of poetry that might be labeled science fiction is only slightly larger. To say that science fiction is a subgenre of prose fiction(小说) is to say that it has all the basic characteristics and serves the same basic functions in much the same way as prose fiction in general, that is, it shares a great deal with all other novels and short stories.
Everything that can be said about prose fiction, in general, applies to science fiction. Every piece of science fiction, whether short story or novel, must have a narrator, a story, a plot, characters, setting, and language. The themes of science fiction are concerned with interpreting man’s nature and experience around him. Themes in science fiction are constructed and presented in exactly the same ways that themes are dealt with in any other kind of fiction. They are the result to a particular combination of a narrator, story, plot, character, setting, and language. In short, the reasons for reading and enjoying science fiction, and the ways of studying and analyzing it, are basically the same as they would be for any other story or novel.
51.From the first paragraph, we can infer that science fiction has been most popular in the 20th century because ____.
A with the growth of literacy, the size of the reading public has increased
B competition from television has created a demand for more exciting fiction
C science fiction is easier to understand than other kinds of fiction
D the increased importance of technology has given science fiction an increased relevance
52.According to the definition in the passage, a fictional work that places human beings in a prehistoric world inhabited by dinosaurs____.
A cannot be called science fiction because it does not deal with the future
B cannot be called science fiction because it doesn’t deal with technology
C can be called science fiction because it deals with man’s relation with the world
D can be called science fiction because it places people in an environment different from the one we know
53. Science fiction is called a literary subgenre because____.
A it is not important enough to be a literary genre
B it cannot be made into a dramatic presentation
C it shares characteristics with other types of prose fiction
D it has its limits
54.One implication of the final sentence in the passage is that____.
A the reader should turn next to commentaries on general fiction
B there is no reason for any reader not to like science fiction
C the reader should compare other novels and stories to science fiction
D those who can appreciate prose fiction can appreciate science fiction
55.An appropriate title for this passage would be____.
A Man and the Universe
B Toward a Definition of Science Fiction
C A Type of Prose Fiction
D The Bug-Eyed Monster
