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George Orwell was a 20th century British author who is best known for writing the books Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. These two books together have sold more copies than any two books by any other writer in the same century. They are about how society is controlled and the effects which this has on individuals.
Born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903, he used the name George Orwell as a pen name for his books. He chose the name ‘Orwell’ because he loved the River Orwell in Suffolk, England, where he lived with his parents during his early years as a writer. He was educated at Eton, England’s most famous public school for boys from upper-class families, although his academic performance there was not very good. When he was 19, he took a job as a policeman in Burma, where his grandmother lived. He did well at this job and was admired by the local people for his sense of fairness. After falling ill, Orwell returned to England in his mid-twenties and became a writer.
His experiences as a policeman gave him ideas for his early work. In the beginning, he didn’t have much success as a writer of novels and short stories; he did much better as a journalist. In fact, during most of his career, he was well known in this role and far less recognised as an author. His essays and newspaper columns focused mainly on the living and working conditions of poor people.
In the 1930s, he went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. There, he saw how different people supporting the Republican army spent more time arguing with and lying about each other than fighting the enemy. While fighting in this war, he was wounded in the neck and had to return to England. Although Orwell never lost his sympathy for working-class people, his wartime experiences changed how he felt about their political leaders.
These new feelings were clearly shown when he wrote his two most famous books. The first one, Animal Farm, is about a group of animals, all with human characteristics and roles, on a farm which the animals have taken over from its human owner. A small group of pigs gain more and more power, and treat the other animals far worse than the human farmer did. His second famous book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, is about a man who works for an all-powerful government that controls every part of peoples lives. The main character, Winston Smith, is unhappy with the situation and struggles to change things that cant be changed.
These two books show us important things about society in a clear and thrilling way. Both are still taught in British and American schools, and they remain Orwell’s greatest gift to future generations.
1) George Orwell wrote more books than any other 20th century writer.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
2) As a student at Eton, he soon showed how clever he was.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
3) As a young man, Orwell left England and became a policeman.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
4) Orwell wanted to do more than journalism in his early writing career.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
5) People living in poor conditions often praised Orwell for his work.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
6) His time in Spain changed his feelings about working-class people.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
7) Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four five years after writing Animal Farm.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
8) Orwell wanted his books to be used in classrooms.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
1) — Not stated
2) — False
3) — True
4) — True
5) — Not stated
6) — False
7) — Not stated
8) — Not stated