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Susan Sontag （1933-2004） was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything—to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review , she appeared as the symbol of American cultural life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture .
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords （格言）, but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In “Notes on Camp”, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. “Notes on Camp”, she wrote, “represents victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’.”
By conviction （信念） she was a sensualist （感觉论者）, but by nature she was a moralist （伦理学者）, and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor —published in 1978, after she suffered cancer—she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities （被压抑的个性）, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. “Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending...is the idea of seriousness, of tree seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.
1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means Sontag ______.
A. was a symbol of American cultural life
B. developed world literature, film and art
C. published many essays about world culture
D. kept pace with the newest development of world culture
2. She first won her name through ______.
A. her story of a Polish actress
B. her book Illness as Metaphor
C. publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review
D. her explanation of a set of difficult understandings
3. According to the passage, Susan Sontag ______.
A. was a sensualist as well as a moralist
B. looked down upon the pop culture
C. thought content was more important than form
D. blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed
4. As for Susan Sontag’s lifelong habit, she ______.
A. misunderstood the idea of seriousness
B. re-examined old positions
C. argued for an openness to pop culture
D. preferred morals to beauty
5. Susan Sontag’s lasting fame was made upon ______.
A. a tireless, all-purpose cultural view
B. her lifelong watchword: seriousness
C. publishing books on morals
D. enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing
noticeable adj . 引人注目的
figure n . 人物，尤其是著名人物
morally adv . 精神上
symbol n . 象征
seriousness n . 严肃，认真
lifelong adj . 终身的
barrier n . 障碍
argue for 赞成
pop culture 通俗文化
represent v . 描绘，表现
somehow adv . 不知何故
victim n . 受害者，牺牲品
When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American cultural life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art.
这个句子结构比较复杂。publishing和trying后面的句子做该句的状语，所以该句的主要成分是she appeared as... life。
（参考译文） 在30多岁的时候，她在诸如《党派评论》等重要的杂志上发表文章。她被看作美国文化生命的象征，努力追随着文化、电影、艺术方面的每一点新发展。