I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I hardly saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely. I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions（文学志向） were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated（孤独） and undervalued. I knew that I had a natural ability with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life.
However, the quantity of serious writing which I produced all through my childhood would not add up to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had “chair-like teeth” - a good enough expression. At eleven, when the war of 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a poem which was printed in the local（地方的） newspaper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished “nature poems”. I also, about twice, attempted a short story which was a failure. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all those years.
56.The underlined word“it” in paragraph 2 refers to ___________.
A.the quantity of serious writing                   B.the writer’s first poem
C.the writer’s childhood                               D.the tiger in the poem
57.From the text, we learn that as a little boy the writer ________.
A.had no playmates                                     B.showed his gift for writing
C.put out lots of poems and stories                D.got his first poem published in 1916
58.What can be inferred about the writer?
A.He was least favoured in his family.           B.He had much difficulty in talking with others.
C.He had an unhappy childhood for lack of care.
D.His loneliness resulted in his interest in writing.

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