英语知识竞赛题库-英美文学题

B 1. The Canterbury Tales was written in ________.

A. Old English

B. Middle English

C. Modern English

D. Current Modern English

B 2. Pilgrims travel to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury in ________.

A. March

B. April

C. May

D. June

C 3. ________ pilgrims plus Chaucer are assembled at the Tabard Inn in the southern part of London.

A. 25

B. 27

C. 29

D. 31

C 4. Chaucer was a master of the heroic couplet which consists of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter means____________.

A. the line has 6 feet, and an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.

B. the line has 6 feet, and a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.

C. the line has 5 feet, and an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.

D. the line has 5 feet, and a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.

B 5.The work that presented, for the first time in English literature, a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life is most likely___. A. William Langland’s Piers the Plowman B. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

C. John Gower’s Confessio Amantis

D. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

D 6．Shakespeare’s four great tragedies are _________

A. Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, King Lear, Timon of Athens

B. Twelfth Night, Cynbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest

C. Hamlet, Othello, King John, and Macbeth

D. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth

C 7. Romeo and Juliet belongs to Shakespeare’s ________.

A. romantic comedy

B. comedy

C. tragedy

D. historical plays

C 8. A sonnet is a poem of ________ lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to a certain definite patterns.

A. 8

B. 6

C. 14

D. 24

A 9. Which of the following plays does NOT belong to Shakespeare’s great comedies?

A. Henry V

B. The Merchant of Venice

C. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

D. The Winter’s Tale

C 10. Which of the following poetic forms is the principle form of Shakespeare’s drama?

A. lyric

B. sonnet

C. blank verse

D. quatrain

C 11. The sentence “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is the beginning line of one of Shakespeare’s ___. A. comedies B. tragedies

C. sonnets

D. histories

B 12. In “ Sonnet 18 ” ，Shakespeare has a profound meditation on the destructive power of _____ and the eternal__________ brought forth by poetry to the one he loves .

A. death/ life

B. time / beauty

C. death/ love

D. hate / love

C13. Which of the following statements best illustrate the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18?

A. The speaker eulogizes the power of nature.

B. The speaker satirizes human vanity.

C. The speaker praises the power of artistic creation.

D. The speaker meditates on man’s salvation

C 14. _____is considered to be the summit of Shakespeare’s art.

A. Romeo and Juliet

B. The Comedy of Errors

C. Hamlet

D. The Tempest

B 15. The story of Hamlet takes place in ________.

A. England

B. Denmark

C. Italy

D. Germany

C 16.The representatives of the enlightenment in English literature were the following writers but _____.

A.Joseph Addison

B. Richard Steele

C.William Blake

D.Alexander pope

A 17. Joseph Addison，Richard Steele and Alexander pope belonged to the school of _____.

A .classicism B. romanticism

C .realism D. modernism

B 18. The ___ was a progressive intellectual movement throughout western Europe in the 18th century .

A. Renaissance

B. Enlightenment

C. Religious Reformation

D. Chartist Movement

D 19. In addition to The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Defoe also wrote ______.

A. Tom Jones

B. Pamela

C. The Adventures of Roderick Random

D. Moll Flanders

C 20. Which of the following is not taken into consideration when Robinson Crusoe looks for a place to set up his tent: ______.

A. health and fresh water

B. shelter from the heat of the sun

C. a lot of trees

D. a view to the sea

C 21. Robinson Crusoe set foot upon the island in ______ of 1659.

A. spring

B. summer

C. autumn

D. winter

B 22. Which of the following is NOT true about Robinson Crusoe?

A. It is written in the autobiographical form.

B. It is a record of Defoe’s own experiences.

C. Robinson spends 28 years of isolated life on the island.

D. It is set in the middle of the 17th century

C 23.The representatives of the enlightenment in English literature were the following writers but _____.

A .Joseph Addison

B .Richard Steele

C .William Blake

D .Alexander pope

B 24. “The Lamb” is included in William Blake’s ________.

A. Poetical Sketche

B. The Songs of Innocence

C. The Songs of Experience

D. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

C 25.Robert Burns came from ________.

A. England

B. Wales

C. Scotland

D. Ireland

B 26. Authors and poems are correctly paired in all of the following except ________.

A. William Wordsworth—“The Solitary Reaper”

B. William Blake—“A Red, Red Rose”

C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge—“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

D. Robert Burns—“The Tree of Liberty”

D 27. “Auld Lang Syne” means ________.

A. old son

B. old acquaintance

C. long friendship

D. long ago

D 28. The Lake Poets include the following except ________.

A. Robert Southey

B. William Wordsworth

C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

D. William Blake

B 29. William Wordswoth is frequently referred to as ________.

A. a religious poet

B. a worshipper of nature

C. a modern poet

D. a worshipper of beauty

D 30. Lyrical Ballads (1798. was a collection of poems by ________.

A. James Thomson and William Collins

B. Thomas Gray and Robert Burns

C. Percy Bysshe Shelley and George Gordon Byron

D. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

D 31. Byron wrote the following except ________.

A. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

B. Manfred

C. Don Juan

D. The Revolt of Islam

C32. The description of “a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection” may be applied to ________.

A. an epic hero

B. an antihero

C. a Byronic hero

D. a modern hero

C 33. In “Ode to the West Wind”, the wild west wind is referred to as the wind of ________.

A. spring

B. summer

C. autumn

D. winter

D 34. John Keats wrote the following except ______.

A. Endymion

B. The Eve of Saint Agness

C. "Ode to a Nightingale"

D. "Ode to Duty"

B 35. Jane Austen’s first novel was ________.

A. Pride and Prejudice

B. Sense and Sensibility

C. Emma

D. Mansfield Park

D 36. The following characters are correctly paired according to the works in which they appear except ________.

A. Elizabeth—Pride and Prejudice

B. Mr. Knightley—Emma

C. Catherine—Northanger Abbey

D. Elinor—Mansfield Park

D 37. One of the important themes of Jane Austen’s novels is ________.

A. war

B. urban life

C. education

D. marriage

C 38. The phrase “a single man in possession of a good fortune” is applied to a single man with ________.

A. luck

B. status

C. wealth

D. health

D 39. In the 19th century English literature, a new literary trend ____ appeared. And it flourished in the forties and in the early fifties.

A. romanticism

B. naturalism

C. realism

D. critical realism

A 40. English critical realism found its expression chiefly in the form of ____ .

A. novel

B. drama

C. poetry

D. sonnet

B 41. The following are frequently referred to as the Victorian realist novelists except ______.

A. Charles Dicken

B. Jane Austen

C. George Eliot

D. Anthony Trollope

C 42. ____ is the greatest representative of English critical realism.

A. Jane Austen

B. Thackeray

C. Dickens

D. Charlotte

D 43 .Charles Dickens was impressive for his _____.

A. wide spread of critical realism

B. his spirit of democracy and humanism

C. his unforgettable figures with satire and simple and clear language

D. including A, B and C

D 44. Which of the following is Thackeray’s masterpiece?

A. The Virginians

B. The Books of Snobs

C. The Newcomes

D. Vanity Fair

C45. The story of ______ deals with the adventures of a retired old merchant.

A. A Tale of Two Cities

B. David Copperfield

C. Pickwick Papers

D. Oliver Twist

A46. ______ made Dickens famous overnight.

A. Sketches by Boz B .The Pickwick Papers

C. Oliver Twist

D. The Old Curiosity Shop

B 47. Which novel makes a fierce attack on the bourgeois system of education?

A. Oliver Twist

B. Hard Times

C. Great Expectations

D. A Tale of Two Cities

C 48. Which novel is a great satire upon the society and those people who dream to enter the higher society regardless of the social reality?

A. A Tale of Two Cities

B. David Copperfield

C. Great Expectation

D. Dombey and Son

B49._____ is often regarded as the semi-autobiography of the author Dickens in which the early life of the hero is largely based on the author’s early life.

A. The Curiosity Shop

B. David Copperfield

C. Oliver Twist

D. Great Expectations

C 50. In 1864, Dickens published his last complete novel _______.

A. The Old Curiosity Shop

B. The Pickwick Paper

C. Our Mutual Friend

D. Little Dorrit

D 51. Dickens’ third literary period shows intensifying ______.

A. optimism

B. excitement

C. irritation

D. pessimism

C 52. The two cities in A Tale of Two Cities refer to ______.

A. London and Berlin

B. London and New York

C. London and Paris

D. London and Tokyo

C 53. Dickens’ writing is an encyclopedic knowledge of _____.

A. Paris

B. New York

C. London

D. Portsmoth

A 54. Magwitch works hard in ______ to make Pip a gentleman.

A. Australia

B. Canada

C. Britain

D. The United States

B 55. “Art for art’s sake” expresses the prevailing literary philosophy of ________.

A. Alfred Lord Tennyson

B. Robert Browning

C. Oscar Wilde

D. George Bernard Shaw

D 56. Oscar Wilde was the author of the following works except ________.

A. The Picture of Dorian Gray

B. Salomé

C. Lady Windermere’s Fan

D. My Fair Lady

D 57. In The Importance of Being Earnest, ________.

A. Algernon is Cecily’s guardian

B. Jack is Gwendolen’s cousin

C. Algernon invents a younger brother called Ernest, and Jack invents a patient called Bunbury

D. Jack invents a younger brother called Ernest, and Algernon invents a patient called Bunbury

C 58. Both Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw came from ________.

A. England

B. Scotland

C. Ireland

D. Wales

C 59. ____is Oscar Wilde’s only novel.

A. Lady Windermere’s Fan

B. A Woman of No Importance

C. The Picture of Dorian Gray

D. The Importance of Being Earnest

C 60. James Joyce was born in ________.

A. Edinburgh

B. London

C. Dublin

D. Paris

D 61. Joyce’s short story “Araby” is characterized by the following except ________.

A. realistic description

B. symbolic details

C. epiphany

D. excitement of the plot

C 62. Both Virginia Woolf and Jame Joyce died in _________.

A. 1939

B. 1940

C. 1941

D. 1942

B 63. ____ is a great novel spending James Joyce 7 years of hard working to complete.

A. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

B. Ulysses

C. Finnegans Wake

D. Dubliners

D 64. ____ is a collection of short stories which reflect three aspects of life in politics, culture and religion.

A. A Portrait of the Artrist as a Young Man

B. Ulysses

C. Finnegans Wake

D. Dubliners

D 65. The modernist writers such as Richardson, Joyce and Woolf are mainly concerned with the _______.

A. external world

B. public life of an individual

C. social activities of human beings

D. inner life of an individual

A 66.Which of the following is Not written by D. H. Lawrence?

A. The Waste Land

B. The Rainbow

C. Lady Chatterley’s Lover

D. Women in Love

D 67. According to D. H. Lawrence, the ____is the most responsible for the alienation of the human relationships and the perversion of human personality.

A. pride of the aristocratic class

B. vanity of the middle class

C. man’s desire for power and money

D. capitalist mechanical civilization

A 68. ____ is D. H. Lawrence’s semi-autographical novel.

A. Sons and Lovers

B. Women in Love

C. Rainbow

D. Lady Chatterlay’s Lover

B 69. William Faulkner is the author of ______.

A. Far From the Madding Crowd

B. Sound and Fury

C. For Whom the Bell Tolls

D. Scarlet Letter

C 70. Robert Frost is a famous_______.

A. novelist

B. playwright

C. poet

D. literary critic

D 71. The Old Man and the Sea is one of the great works by ________.

A. Jack London

B. Charles Dickens

C. Samuel Coleridge

D. Earnest Hemingway

C 73. _______refers to some contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality.

A. Allegory

B. Conflict

C. Irony

D. Flashback

B 74. The great transcendental work by Henry David Thoreau is______.

A. Nature

B. Walden

C. Experience

D. Essays

A 75. Mark Twain shaped the world’s view of America and made a combination of _____and serious literature.

A. American folk humor

B. funny jokes

C. English folklore

D. American values

D 76. Who was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation after the Revolutionary War?

A. Fennimore Cooper

B. Nathaniel Hawthorn

C. Walt Whitman

D. Washington Irving

C 77. I Have a Dream is addressed by _____.

A. Abraham Lincoln

B. John F. Kennedy

C. Martin Luther King

D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

C 78. Which of the following is NOT a poem by Emily Dickinson?

A. This is my letter to the world

B. I heard a Fly buzz—when I died

C. This is just to say

D. Because I could not stop for death

B 79. Eugene O’Neil is an American ______.

A. novelist

B. playwright

C. poet

D. essayist

A 80. The period from 1865—1914 has been referred to as the _______in the literary history of the United States.

A. Age of Realism

B. Age of Classicalism

C. Age of Romanticism

D. Age of Renaissance

C 81. With “Collected Poems”, ______won the second Pulitzer Prize.

A. Ezra Pond

B. e. e. cummings

C. Robert Frost

D. William Cullen Bryant

B 82. Grass is a poem written by _______.

A. Walt Whitman

B. Carl Sandburg

C. Langston Hughes

D. Allen Ginsberg

B 83. Moby Dick is the most important work by ______.

A. Jack London

B. Herman Melville

C. Sinclair Lewis

D. Ralph Ellison

C 84. O. Henry earned his fame mainly for his ______.

A. novels

B. poems

C. short stories

D. dramas

B 85. ______ is NOT a novel of Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

A. Tender Is the Night

B. Anna Christie

C. The Beautiful and Dammed

D. The Great Gatsby

B 86. The American literature in modern period is divided into two parts by the event of ______.

A. the expatriate movement

B. the Great Depression

C. the First World War

D. the Second World War

C 87. Which of the following novels does NOT belong to Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire?

A. The Titan

B. The Financier

C. The “Genius”

D. The Stoic

D 88. The 1954 Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to ______for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.

A. William Faulkner

B. John Steinbeck

C. Saul Bellow

D. Earnest Hemingway

D 89. Sister Carrie is a masterpiece of _______work.

A. romantic

B. classic

C. neo-classic

D. naturalistic

A 90. The Octopus is written by ________.

A. Frank Norris

B. Sherwood Anderson

C. Willa Cather

D. Stephen Crane

C 91. James Baldwin’s most famous short story is _______.

A. A Rose for Emily

B. The Story of an Hour

C. Sonny’s Blues

D. A Clean, Well-lighted Place

C 92. ________wrote several novels with the name of “Rabbit”.

A. Arthur Miller

B. Thomas Pynchon

C. John Updike

D. Wallace Stevens

A 93. The Road Not Taken is a poem written by ______.

A. Robert Frost

B. Longfellow

C. Ezra Pond

D. Carl Sandburg

A 94. “God help them that help themselves” is found in ______’s work.

A. Franklin

B. Freneau

C. Jefferson

D. Paine

C 95. T. S. Eliot’s most famous long poem is ______.

A. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

B. A Boy’s Will

C. The Waste Land

D. The Golden Bough

A 96. Daisy Miller is a great work by _____.

A. Henry James

B. Mark Twain

C. Dreiser

D. Stowe

D 97. Hester is a character in ______.

A. Gone with the Wind

B. The Fall of the House of Usher

C. Babbitt

D. Scarlet Letter

C 98. Jack London’s ______is his patently autobiographical novel.

A. The Call of the Wild b. The Sea Wolf

C. Martin Eden d. The Iron Heel

B 99. The black man Jim is a character in Mark Twain’s _______.

A. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

B. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

C. Life on the Mississippi

D. The Prince and the Pauper

C 100. O Captain! My Captain! was written in memory of _______.

A. Walt Whitman

B. Benjamin Franklin

C. Abraham Lincoln

D. Martin Luther King