Telling Tales about People
One of the most common types of nonfiction, and one that many people enjoy reading, is stories about peoples lives. These stories fall into three general categories: autobiography, memoir, and biography.
An autobiography is the story of a persons life written by himself or herself. Often it begins with the persons earliest recollections and ends in the present. Autobiography writers may not be entirely objective in the way they present themselves. However, they offer the reader a good look at the way they are and what makes them that way. People as diverse as Benjarmin Franklin and Helen Keller have written autobiographies. 1Other writers, such as James Joyce，have written thinly fictionalized accounts of their lives. These are not autobiographies，but they are very close to it.
Memoirs, strictly speaking, are autobiographical accounts that focus as much on the events of the times as on the life of the author. 2Memoir writers typically use these events as backdrops for their lives. They describe them in detail and discuss their importance. Recently，though，the term memoir seems to be becoming interchangeab1e with autobiography. A memoir nowadays may or may not deal with the outside world.
Biographies are factual accounts of someone elses life. In many senses，these may be the hardest of the three types to write. Autobiography writers know the events they write about because they lived them. But biography writers have to gather information from as many different sources as possible. Then they have to decide which facts to include. Their goal is to present a balanced picture of a person，not one that is overly positive or too critical. A fair well-presented biography may take years to research and write.
词汇：
backdrop n. 背景
interchangeable adj. 可转换的
注释：
1. People as diverse as Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller have written autobiographies. 就像本杰明?富兰克林和海伦?凯勒一样，各种各样的人们已经写了自传。
2. Memoirs，strictly speaking，are autobiographical accounts that focus as much on the events of the times as on the life of the author. 严格意义上来讲，回忆录是既注重作者本身的生活经历，也注重其所处的时代所发生的事件的自传性的描述。
练习：
1. This passage is mostly about _______.
A. the characteristics of autobiographies，memoirs，and biographies
B. famous autobiographies
C. why biography can be difficult to write
D. differences between autobiographies and memoirs
2. Helen Keller wrote________.
A. a memoir
B. an autobiography
C. a work of fiction
D. a biography
3. Autobiography writers are not always objective because they________.
A. feel they have to make up details to make their books sell
B. constantly compete with biography writers
C. want to present themselves in a good light
D. have trouble remembering the good times
4. The writer introduces each category in the passage by________.
A. defining it
B. giving an example
C. explaining why it is hard to write
D. telling when people first began writing it
5. Diverse means________.
A. able to swim in deep water
B. similar or alike
C. varied or different
D. enjoying poetry
答案与题解：
1. A 本题问的是：这篇文章主要是关于?文章第一句说到最普遍的非小说类文学作品类型之一就是一些来描述人们生活的故事，这些故事大致分为三类：自传
回忆录和传记。然后通篇对这三种类型进行了介绍，因此A是正确答案。
2. B 本题问的是：海伦?凯勒谢了什么?第二段第5句话写到：就像本明杰?富兰克林和 海伦?凯勒一样，各种各样的人们已经写了自传。因此B是正确答案。
3. C本题问的是：自传作者通常不太客观，因为他们?第二段提到：他们给读者提供了一个途径来了解自己比较好的行事风格，因此答案是C，他们想展示自己好的一面。
4. A本题问的是：本文的作者通过何种方式介绍每种类型的非小说文学作品?答案是A，通过给每个类型进行定义。
5. C本题问的是：diverse 的意思是?其汉语意思为多种多样的，因此C正确。