Read Maupassant's "The Joke" and answer the following questions

Read the text below and complete questions 19 to 22.

Joke (French) Maupassant

What is more interesting and fun than joking in the world? Is there anything more fun than teasing others? ah! My whole life, I've made jokes. People also made fun of me, very funny jokes! Yes, I have made some outrageous jokes. Today I want to tell a joke that I experienced.

In autumn, I went hunting at a friend’s house. Of course, my friends are jokers. I don't want to meet other people. When I arrived, they greeted me like a prince. This aroused my suspicion. They shot into the air, they hugged me as if they were waiting to get great pleasure out of me. I said to myself: "Look out, they are planning something." At dinner the joy was high, too much. I thought: "Look, these people are so happy for no apparent reason. They must have some kind of joke in mind. It must be aimed at me. Be careful."

Throughout the evening people were Laugh, but laugh exaggeratedly. I smelled a joke in the air, like a leopard smelling its prey. I didn't miss a word, a tone, or a gesture. Everything seems questionable to me. The clock rang, it was bedtime and they sent me to the bedroom. They shouted goodnight at me. I went in, shut the door, and stood without taking a step, holding the candle in my hand. I heard laughter and whispers in the hallway. No doubt they were watching me. I examined the walls, the furniture, the ceiling, the floor with my eyes. I didn't find anything suspicious. I heard someone moving outside the door. Someone must have come and looked in through the keyhole. I suddenly thought: "Maybe my candle will suddenly go out and plunge me into darkness." So, I lit all the candles on the fireplace. Then I looked around again, but still found nothing. I walked around the room with long strides—nothing. I approached the window, the blinds were still open, I carefully closed them, then lowered the curtains and placed a chair in front of the window, so I didn't have to worry about anything coming from outside. So I sat down carefully. The armchair was solid, but time moved on and I finally admitted that I was being ridiculous. I decided to sleep, but the bed looked particularly suspicious to me. So I took what I thought was an excellent precaution. I gently grasped the edge of the mattress and slowly pulled it toward me. The mattress came, followed by the sheets and quilt. I dragged all these items to the center of the room, facing the door. In the middle of the room, I remade the bed, making it as far away from the suspicious bed as possible. Then, I blew out all the candles, came back in the dark, and got into bed. For an hour I remained awake, trembling at the slightest sound.

Everything seemed peaceful. I fell asleep. I slept for a long time and slept soundly, but suddenly I woke up because a heavy body fell on me. At the same time, a hot liquid was poured on my face, neck, and chest, which made me scream in pain. The huge mass that fell on me was motionless and weighed me down. I stretched out my hands, trying to discern the nature of the object. I touched a face and a nose. So, I used all my strength to punch this face. But I immediately received a slap in the face that made me jump out of the wet quilt and jump into the corridor in my pajamas because I saw the door to the corridor open. Ah, what a surprise! It's broad daylight. People heard the noise and rushed to find the male servant lying on my bed, looking very excited. It turned out that when he was bringing me morning tea, he bumped into my makeshift bed, fell on my stomach, and poured my breakfast on my face.

I feared a joke would be made, caused by the very precautions of closing the blinds and sleeping in the middle of the room. That day, people laughed enough!

19. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel based on the order of events. (4 points)

20. What two descriptive techniques are mainly used in the novel to depict the characters? Please give examples to analyze the benefits of this description. (4 points)

21. What kind of character is "I" in the novel? Please give a brief analysis. (4 points)

22. At the end of the novel, "I" thinks "it was precisely the precautions of closing the blinds and sleeping in the middle of the room that caused the joke." How did you learn about this? Please share your views in detail based on the content of the novel. (6 points)

Reference answer:

19. (1) A warm welcome when friends first meet; (2) High alertness at banquets and before going to bed; (3) Carefully resetting the bed to fall asleep; (4) A servant stumbles, has morning tea poured in his face and is beaten. (4 points, 1 point each)

20. (1) Psychological description. The novel uses the first person narrative perspective, expresses the psychological changes of the protagonist through inner monologue, and accurately and vividly depicts the characters. Sensitive and suspicious personality traits. (Examples omitted) (2 points) (2) Action (details) description. The novel uses continuous action description to promote the fate of the characters, and at the same time vividly depicts the characters' timid and cautious personality traits. (Examples omitted) (2 points)

21. (1) Have made fun of others, but are afraid of being joked about, (2) Sensitive and suspicious, (3) Timid and cautious, (4) In reality Little people who feel threatened by danger everywhere in their lives. (4 points, 1 point each)

22. (1) Judging from the plot foreshadowed in the novel, the emergence of this joke is indeed directly related to the measures of "closing the window" and "moving the bed". This writing conforms to the internal logic of the plot. (2 points) (2) The reason why "I" makes jokes has deep social reasons. People at that time generally had a morbid mentality of being empty and bored and always wanting to fool others. That society was full of trust crises. (2 points)

(3) The end of the novel is written in this way, which further expresses the degree of psychological distortion of "I" in such a sick society, and the sadness of being unable to awaken and extricate myself. The theme is expressed more profoundly. (2 points) (The analysis is reasonable)