57-year-old Mo Yan has become the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
“I grew up in an environment immersed with folk culture, which inevitably comes in to my novels when I pick up a pen to write. This has definitely affected, even decided, my works’ artistic style,” Mo told a group of reporters in his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong Province, shortly after he won the award. Gaomi county is where most of Mo’s stories happen. It’s a place that has inspired him throughout his 31-year writing career.
“I really didn’t see this coming,” Lu Jiande, director of the Institute of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told 21st Century. “I know Mo Yan pretty well and one thing a lot of people don’t know is how good he is with words.” “His calligraphy (文笔) is surprisingly beautiful. In his writing, he can make words live and breathe,” Lu said.
Mo created a cast of colorful characters and said that if there was a prototype（原型）, it would be the abandoned “black boy” who first appeared in the 1985 novel Red Transparent Radish, which bears imprints of the author’s childhood.
Mo dropped out of school during the Cultural Revolution when he was 12 and began to work, first in agriculture, later in a factory. At 20, he joined the People's Liberation Army and during this time he began to study literature and write. His first short story was published in a literary journal in 1981. His breakthrough came a few years later with the novel Red Transparent Radish. Many got to know of Mo through director Zhang Yimou’s film, Red Sorghum. It was adapted from his 1986 novel of the same name, bringing to life a visual landscape of red sorghum fields and a fiery setting sun.
Mo left the army in 1997 and gradually developed a writing style all of his own. History, family sagas, blood and violence are frequent elements in his most famous works, such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips or Sandalwood Penalty. On August 20, 2011, Mo’s full-length novel The Frog won the eighth Mao Dun Literature Prize.
Some critics point out that Mo’s works have a tendency toward vulgarity（粗俗、庸俗. In an interview with South China Morning Post, Professor Xiao Ying of Tsinghua University said the award was “outside of my expectations, as Mo Yan’s works are still short on the idealism of pursuing humanity, which marks previous Nobel literature prize winners”.
By saying, “I really didn’t see this coming”, Lu Jiande probably means that______.

A．He can’t believe Mo has an ability to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

B．He can’t expect Mo could win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

C．He can’t understand why Mo could win the Nobel Prize in Literature

D．He is doubtful about Mo’s great honor.

Which of Mo Yan’s works reflects his own life experience?

A．Red Transparent Radish	B．Red Sorghum
C．Big Breasts and Wide Hips	D．Sandalwood Penalty

According to the passage, which of the following is not right?

A．Mo’s living environment immersed with folk culture affected his works’ artistic style.

B．The Cultural Revolution is the main reason for Mo’s leaving school when he was young.

C．Mo enjoyed great popularity after his first short story was published in a literary journal.

D．It’s through director Zhang Yimou’s film that the public got to know Mo.

What’s Professor Xiao Ying’s attitude toward Mo’s works?

A．Supportive	B．Negative
C．Doubtful	D．Uninterested

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