美国文学期末复习题

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美国文学复习题有答案

美国文学复习题有答案

美国文学复习题有答案
1. 谁是美国文学史上第一位重要的诗人?
答案:爱德华·泰勒(Edward Taylor)。

2. 19世纪美国文学中,哪位作家的作品以幽默和讽刺著称?
答案:马克·吐温(Mark Twain)。

3. 简述赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的《白鲸》中的主要冲突。

答案:《白鲸》中的主要冲突是船长亚哈对白鲸莫比·迪克的复仇。

4. 谁是“垮掉的一代”文学运动中最著名的诗人?
答案:艾伦·金斯伯格(Allen Ginsberg)。

5. 在菲茨杰拉德的《了不起的盖茨比》中,盖茨比的悲剧结局是什么?
答案:盖茨比被威尔逊误杀,因为他认为盖茨比是导致他妻子死亡
的罪魁祸首。

6. 描述艾米莉·狄金森的诗歌风格。

答案:艾米莉·狄金森的诗歌风格以简洁、使用短句和强烈个人情
感表达为特点。

7. 谁是20世纪美国文学中“南方文艺复兴”的代表人物?
答案:威廉·福克纳(William Faulkner)。

8. 在《杀死一只知更鸟》中,阿提克斯·芬奇律师为何受到小镇居民
的尊敬?
答案:阿提克斯·芬奇律师因坚持正义和平等,为一个被错误指控
的黑人辩护而受到尊敬。

9. 简述海明威的“冰山理论”。

答案:海明威的“冰山理论”是指在写作中只展示故事的表面部分,而将更深层的意义和情感留给读者去揣摩。

10. 在《愤怒的葡萄》中,约德一家的旅程象征着什么?
答案:约德一家的旅程象征着美国大萧条时期农民的苦难和对更
好生活的不懈追求。

美国文学期末考试复习必备(精)

美国文学期末考试复习必备(精)

美国文学期末考试复习必备(精)1. What’s Puritanism?A religious and political movement which appeals to the right of the individual to political & religious independence. It includes three parts: a code of values, a point of view & a philosophy of life2. What are the basic Puritan beliefs?1). Total Depravity 2). Unconditional Election 3). Limited Atonement 4). Irresistible Grace 5). Perseverance of the "saints"3. What are American Puritan values?Sobriety thrift, Self-reliance Diligence, Struggle, simple tastes4. What are the features of American literature in the Colonial Period?A. Humble origins: diaries, journals, histories, letters. Its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.B. in content: serving either god or colonial expansion or bothC. in form: imitating English literary traditions.D. in style: tight and logic structure, precise and compact expression, avoidance of rhetorical decoration, adoption of homely imagery and simplicity of diction.E. Symbolism formed in this period ------To the pious Puritan, the physical, phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God.F. Simple, fresh and direct styleG. the Puritanism formed in this period was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.5.What are the features of Washington Irving’s works?(1) Gentility, urbanity, pleasantness (2) Avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining (3) Enveloping stories in an atmosphere (4) Vivid and true characters (5) Humor – smiling while reading (6) Musical language6. What is theme of “Rip Van Winkle”?①it reveals conservative attitude of Irving. ②it might be an illustration of Irving’s argument that revolution upset the natural order of things.A. The story of man who has difficulties facing his advancing age;B.The contradictory impulses in America toward work-the puritan attitude as opposed to America desire for leisure;C .The theme of escape from one's responsibilities and even one's history;D .The loss of identity.7. What are the author’s attitude changes?It reveals conservative attitude of Irving and he is Unwilling to accept a modern democratic America and prefers the past & a dream-like world 8. What’s New England Transcendentalism?Transcendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of American literature in the 19th century. Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition(认知)in man of thecapacity of knowing truth intuitively(直觉地)”. Transcendentalists place emphasis on the importance of the Over-soul, the individual and Nature.9. What are its basic assumptions?The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational or sensical, became the means for a conscious union of the individual psyche with the world psyche also known as the Over soul, life-force, prime mover and God 10. What are Allan Poe’s poetics theories?The poetry should appeal only to the sense of beauty, not truth, and sets himself against realistic details in poetry. He makes good use of a number of poetic devices to create a mood appropriate to the theme of his poems.11. Why was Nathaniel Hawthorne a master of symbolism?He uses concrete objects as well as characters to serve as his symbols. He likes to uses masks, veils, shadows to give dramatic forms to the universal dilemmas of humanity12. What is the theme of Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter?It Condemned the Puritan philosophy of life.Sin, knowledge and human condition; the nature of evil; identity and society4. What is the symbolic me aning of the Scarlet Letter “A”?A.” Adultery", a token of shameB. a sign of Hester's "ability“C. "Angel" appearing in the skyD.”Adamic", since the sin is prehistoric and human E .the rising “America"13. What story is told in Moby-Dick?It is a thrilling adventure story which is the realistic about a whaling voyage within which is set a symbolic account of the conflict between man and his fate.14. What is the symbolic meaning of Moby-Dick?1) Mystery of the universe, 2) power of grant nature, 3) evil of the world 4) Its whiteness-paradoxical color: death and corruption, purity, innocence and youth.15. What are the popular themes of Emily Dickinson’s poetry? Death, love, friendship, nature, immortality.ment on the image of Huckleberry Finn?He is loyal, cheerful, fair-minded boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience, with the eventual victory of his moral conscience over his social awareness, Huck grows. Huck is not only a lovely boy in the novel, but also a portrait standing for the young America. Huck is not only a lovely boy in the novel, but also a portrait standing for the young America.17. What’s the social significance of him?Huck develops a different view of blacks through the story. It is not an instant change, but a gradual process. Huck himself undergoes a change; he stops accepting the social norms and instead follows his own beliefs. He acquires these beliefs after many adventures with the slave Jim. In thisway, Twain encourages people to be like Huck and not to accept the racism just because society accepts it.18. Why are naturalists inevitably pessimistic in their view?A. Naturalism was greatly influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theory and French literatureB. Naturalists accepted the more negative implications of Darwin's theory and used it to count for the behavior of those characters in literary works who are conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.C. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.19.What are the features of Frost’s poetry?1. Frost’s poetry mainly reflects life in rural New England2. His poems often shift dramatically from humorous tones to tragic ones3. Much of his poetry is concerned with how people interact with their environment4. Frost disliked free verse; He often wrote in the standard meter of blank verse20. What is the theme of “The Road Not taken” Individualism, Caution, Commitment, Accepting a ChallengeAnd “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”?The poem isprimarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life.21.What are the features of modernist literature?A. Its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions and techniques of expression.B. Its great concern with language and aspects of its medium.22. What is “Lost generation”?Literally, it is the generation of people born between 1883 and 1900.They were disillusioned by World War I and displeased with American social values, sexual and aesthetic conventions, and established morality. They first fled to cities such as Chicago & San Francisco; then to Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome. They were full of youthful idealism and pioneered new ways of writing; they were devoid of faith and alienated from civilization.23. What is a typical Hemingway Code Hero?The Code Hero believes in “Nada,” meaning nothing. There is also no after life.•The Code Hero is an individualist and free-willed. He believes in courage and honor and has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance.• A code hero never shows emotions.• A code hero does not commit to women.• A code hero shows qualities such as bravery, adventure, and love of travel.• A code hero dislikes darkness. It symbolizes death and is a source of fear. The rite of manhood for the code hero is facing death.24.What is the theme of the short story “A Clean Well-LightedPlace”?Nothing (or nada) through the old man's unsuccessful suicide and the middle-aged man's soliloquy.25.What is the theme of The Great Gatsby?A sensitive and symbolic treatment of the themes of contemporary life related with irony and pathos to the legend of the "America dream" What kind of person is Gatsby?He is a poor youth from the Midwest and at last became a self-made wealthy man. Gatsby is the last romantic heroes and he is a mysterious figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a mind that embodies America itself.26.What are Faulkner’s famous novels? What are the features of his novels? "The sound and the Fury", "As I Lay Dying", "Light in the August", "Absalom, Absalom!" 2) On history and the problem of race; on folk human of the south; on horror, violence and abnormal to arouse moral outrage.1.Discuss Twain’s art of fiction2.A. Mark Twain uses the Mississippi alley as his fictional kingdom,writing about the landscape and people, the customs and the dialects of one particular region, and is therefore known as a local colorist. B. He creates life-like characters, especially the unconventional Huckleberry Finn, who runs away from civilization and stands opposite to conventional village morality. C. He uses a simple, direct vernacular language, totally different from any precious literary language. It is the kind of colloquial belonging to the lower class, the living local American English.D. He has created a special humor to satirize and the decayed convention.2 1). The story takes place along the Mississippi River before the Civil War in the United States, around 1850. Along the river floats a small raft, with two people on it: One is an ignorant, uneducated black slave named Jim and the other is little uneducated outcast white boy, Huck Finn. The novel relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and, more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with Jim and helping him as best as he could, changes his mind, his prejudice, about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well.2.) (theme)1) The Theme of the novel may be best summed in a word “freedom”: Huck wants to escape from the bond of civilization and Jim wants to escape from the yoke of slavery. 2) The novel is a criticism of social injustice, hypocrisy, conservativeness and narrow-mindedness of the American small town society.3.Make a brief comment on Mark Twain’s achievements in this novel in 200-250 words.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, first published in 1876, is a child’s adventure story; it is also, however, the story of a young boy’s transition into a young man. In some ways, it is a bildungsroman, a novel whose principle subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a youthful main character. It is not a true bildungsroman, however, because Twain did not take Tom into full1. The hero of the novel through adventures with lively style to satirize the American hypocrisy of social custom, vulgar hypocrisy of religious rituals and inflexible stale school education2. "Tom Sawyer--with its strong deep local characteristics of humor and keen observation of the character, had become the greatest of the children's literature works, is a United States rural " golden era "4. 1)The Pequod-a symbol of doom(death);named after a Native American tribe in Massachusetts, did not survive the arrival of white men (extincted), is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones 2) Moby Dick-unknown and unknowable truths, inscrutable, mysterious, mirrors its environment, only the surface of the ocean is available for human observation and interpretation, the depths conceal unknown truths--A metaphor for the human relationship with the Christian God: God is unknown and cannot be pinned down (defined). to the pequod’screw, Moby Dick is a concept onto which they can display their anxiety about dangerous and frightening jobs, to Ahab Moby Dick is a manifestation of all that is wrong with the world, It is his destiny to get rid of this symbolic evil 3)Queequeg’s Coffin sy mbolizes life and death.5. Try to discuss the theme of “The Minister’s Black Veil”.A. Sin and EvilB. History and AntiquityC. Alienation - a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a combination of both.D. Puritan New England - used as a background and setting in many tales.E. Other themes include individual vs. society, self-fulfillment vs. frustration, hypocrisy vs. integrity, love vs. hate, and fate vs. free will, etc.。

美国文学期末复习题-

美国文学期末复习题-

美国⽂学期末复习题-1._ ___ had been an evident influence on Naturalism. It seemed to stress the animal impulse ofman, to suggest that man was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution.A. UnitarianismB. Origins of SpeciesC. Puritanism and InfluenceD. Capitalist Economy2.Who is called “the true father of our national literature” by the writer H. L. Mencken?A. Benjamin FranklinB. Mart TwainC. HemingwayD. William Faulkner3.In the first part of the 20th century, apart from Darwinism, which was still a big influence uponthe writers of this period, there were two thinkers _____ whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.A. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund FreudB. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund FreudC. the Swiss Car Jung and the American William JamesD. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud4.The American realists approached the harsh realities and pressures in the post-Civil warsociety by _____.A. a comprehensive picture of modern life in its various occupations, class stratifications andmannersB. a psychological exploration of man’s subconsciousnessC. a disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil WarD. both A and B5.By the turn of the century, with the publication of The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg andThe Mysterious Stranger, the change in Mark Twain from ______ to _____ could be felt.A. an optimist...an almost despairing pessimistB. an almost despairing pessimist...an optimistC. a local colorist...a naturalistD. a naturalist...a local colorist6.The Portrait of A Lady is generally considered to be Jame’s masterpiece, which ____.A. incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an Americangirl in a European cultural environmentB. tells a story about a young and innocent American confronting the complexity of theEuropean lifeC. is about a young American girl who gets “killed” by the winter in RomeD. tells about some Europeans who learn with difficulty to adapt themselves to the American life7.About Henry James’ literary criticism, which of the following is not right?A. It is both concerned with form and devoted to human values.B. He indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life in every possible form.C. He advocates the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him.D. He believes that the artist can’t feel the life, but he can understand human nature in their own way.8.The characters presented by the naturalist writers were _____.A. more often than not dominated by their environment and heredityB. usually idealized heroes or heroines of unspotted virtue and dazzling accomplishmentsC. in most cases examples of human experienceD. people who were simply all good or all bad9.After the Civil War America was transformed from ______ to ____.A. an agrarian community … an industrialized and commercialized societyB. an agrarian community … a society of freedom and equalityC. a poor and backward society … an industri alized and commercialized societyD. an industrialized and commercialized society … a highly developed society10.Which of the following is said of the American naturalism?A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories.B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.C. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh environment.D. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.11.Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain's style of language?A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read.B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration, repetition and anti-climax.D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers.12.Which of the following is not written by Henry James?A. The Portrait of A Lady and The EuropeansB. The Wings of the Dove and The AmbassadorsC. What Maisie Knows and The BostoniansD. The Genius and The Gilded Age13.By the end of the 19th century, the American realists sought to _____ and therefore rejected the portrayal of idealized characters and events in their writings.A. describe the wide range of American experienceB. show animal nature of human beingsC. present the subtleties of human personalityD. both A and C14.Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain?A. In his writings, he made a more extensive combination of American folk humor andserious literature than previous writers had ever done.B. His The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is usually considered a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys.C. His caustic and increasingly bleak view of human nature began to appear in his early books.D. As a sequel to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn marks the climax of his literary creativity.15.One of Henry James’s literary t echniques innovated to cater for his psychological emphasis is his________.A. technique of stream of consciousnessB. first person narrativeC. author’s participation in narratingD. narrative point of view16.The great American realist Henry James treated with great care _________ in the first period.A. ancient European civilization which is satirized severely in his writingsB. the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in AmericaC. the clashes between two different cultures, European and AmericanD. both B and C17.Henry James’s fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with _______.A. the love and marriage themeB. the theme of humor and satire on lifeC. the theme of revealing the miserable life of the poor and criticizing the capitalismD. the international theme18.After the Civil War America had been transformed from to .A. an agrarian community…a society of freedom and equalityB. an agrarian community…an industrialized and commercialized societyC. an industrialized and commercialized society…a highly developed societyD. a poor and backward society…an industrialized and commercialized society19.The three dominant figures in the period of Realism of America are William Dean Howells,Mark Twain and________.A. Henry JamesB. Tom JamesC. James JoyceD. Henry Joyce20.The use of ________ in his writings has made Mark Twain one of the major literary figures inthe 19th century American literature.A. point of viewB. stream-of-consciousnessC. interior monologueD. vernacular21._______ is generally considered to be Henry James’ masterpiece, which incarnates the clashbetween the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a European cultural environment.A. The Portrait of a LadyB. The Golden BowlC. Daisy MillerD. The Turn of the Screw22. For Melville, as well as for the reader and _________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.A. AhabB. IshmaelC. StubbD. Starbuck23. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more_____________.A. rationalB. humorousC. optimisticD. pessimistic24. Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire includes three novels. They are The Financier, The Titan and_____ .A. The GeniusB. The TycoonC. The StoicD. The Giant25. The impact o f Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another schoolof realism: American___________ .A. local colorismB. vernacularismC. modernismD. naturalism26. Robert Frost combined traditional verse forms -the sonnet, rhyming couplets, blank verse -with a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of _______farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.A. SouthernB. WesternC. New HampshireD. New England27. As an autobiographical play, O’Neill’s ___________(1956) has gained its status as a world classic and simultaneously marks the climax of his literary career and the coming of age of American drama.A. The Iceman ComethB. Long Day’s Journey Into NightC. The Hairy ApeD. Desire Under the Elms28. Apart from the dislocation of time and the modern stream-of-consciousness, the other narrative techniques Faulkner used to construct his stories include_________, symbolism and mythological and biblical allusions.A. impressionismB. expressionismC. multiple points of viewD. first person point of view29. Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by____________.A. short, clear sentencesB. abundance of local imagesC. ordinary American speechD. highly refined language30. One of the characteristics that have made Mark Twain a major literary figure in the 19th century America is his useof____________ .A. vernacularB. interior monologueC. point of viewD. photographic description31. It is on his____________ that Washington Irving’s fame mainly rested.A. childhood recollectionsB. sketches about his European toursC. early poetryD. tales about America32. At the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “____________________”.A. the English RenaissanceB. the Second RenaissanceC. the American RenaissanceD. the Salem Renaissance33. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ____________________.A. nature, man and the universeB. the relationship between man and womanC. the development of Romanticism in American literatureD. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism34. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is NOT right?A. It’s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.B. It’s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.C. It’s mainly about the moral, emotional a nd psychological effects of the sin upon the maincharacters and the people in general.D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.35. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered____________.A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.B. an adventurous exploration into man’s relationship with natureC. a simple whaling tale or sea adventureD. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty36. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called“____________________.”A. free verseB. blank verseC. alliterationD. end rhyming37. After the Civil War America was transformed from ______ to _________.A. an agrarian community … an industrialized and commercialized societyB. an agrarian community … a society of freedom and equalityC. a poor and backward society … an industrialized and commercialized societyD. an industr ialized and commercialized society … a highly developed society38. Which of the following is said of the American naturalism?A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories.B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.C. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh environment.D.Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes,their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.39. Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain’s style of language?A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read.B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration,repetitionand anti-climax.D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers.40. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of t he 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American ______.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. RealismD. Naturalism41. Which of the following is not written by Henry James?A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans.B. The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors.C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians.D.The Genius and The Gilded Age.42. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her generalSkepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed.A. man and manB. men and womenC. man and natureD. men and God43. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poems about nature?A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between man andnature.B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond between man andnature.C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings.D.Many of them showed her feeling of nature’s inscrutability and indifference to the life and interests of human beings.44. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an unconventional style which is now called free verse, that is _________.A. lyrical poetry with chanting refrainsB. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme schemeC. poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beatD. poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings45. In the first part of the 20th century,apart from Darwinism, there were two thinkers -______,whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.A. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund FreudB. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund FreudC. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William JamesD. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud46. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O’Neill plays?A. Most of his plays are concerned about the root, the truth of human desires and human frustrations.B. His tragic view of life is reflected in many of his works.C. His plays are concerned about the relationship between man and nature as well as man and woman.D. Both A and B.47. Most of O’Neill’s plays are concerned about the following except______.A.success and failure in man’s literary careerB. life and death, illusion and disillusion, dream and realityC. alienation and communication, self and society, desire and frustrationD. the basic issues of human existence and predicament48. Which of the following can be said about a typical modern literary work?A. It is a record of sequence and coherence of the history and the world.B. It is a juxtaposition of the past and present, of the history and the memory.C. It is a book of integrity drawn from diverse areas of experience.D. Its perspective is shifted from the internal to the external, from the private to the public.49. As to the great American poet Ezra Pound, which of the following is not right?A. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry is dense withpersonal, literary, and historical allusions.B. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement.C. From his analysis of the Chinese ideogram Pound learned to anchor his poetic language inconcrete, perceptual reality, and to organize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.D.For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he did in the wartime, hisliterary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced.50. In his poetry, Robert Frost made the colloquial ______ speech into a poetic expression.A. EnglandB. New EnglandC. PlymouthD. Boston51. Which of the following statements is right about Robert Frost’s poetry?A. He combined traditional verse forms with the difficult and highly ornamental language.B. He combined traditional verse forms with the pastoral language of the Southern area.C.He combined traditional verse forms with a simple spoken language-the speech of NewEngland farmers.D. He combined traditional verse forms with the experimental.52. Which of the following statements can be said about the works of Scott Fitzgerald, a spokesman of the “Roaring 20s”?A. Many of them portrayed the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unendingAmerican dream of fulfillment.B. They are symbolic of the psychological journey of the modern man and his helplessness in themodern world.C. They show the primitive struggle of individuals in the context of irresistible natural forces.D. They penetrate into the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.53. Which of the following is not written by Ernest Hemingway, one of the best-known American authors of the 20th century?A. The Sun Also Rises.B. The Old Man and the Sea.C. Mosses From the Old Manse.D. The Green Hills of Africa.54. Which of the following statements is right about the novel A Farewell to Arms?A. The aut hor favored the idea of nature as an expression of either god’s design or hisbeneficence.B. The author attempted to write the epitaph to a decade and to the whole generation in the1930s.C. The author emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally andsuggests that man is doomed to be entrapped.D. It tells a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with an Italiannurse.55. Which of the following is depicted as the mythical county in William Faulkne r’s novels?A. Cambridge.B. Oxford.C. Mississippi.D. Yoknapatawpha.56. To Faulkner, the primary duty of a writer was to explore and represent the infinite possibilities inherent in human life. Therefore a writer should ______.A. observe with no judgment whatsoever.B. reduce authorial intrusion to the lowest minimum.C. observe at a great distance and sometimes participate in the events.D. both A and B.57. Which of the following is right about American fiction from 1945 onwards?A. A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their ideals within the artisticfield.B. There appeared a significant group of Jewish-American writers whose works were setagainst the Jewish experience and tradition.C. Black fiction began to attract critical attention during the 1950s.D. American fiction in the 1950s and 1960s proves to be a harvest which derived from itspredecessors.58. Which of the following is not a work of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s?A. The House of the Seven Gables.B. The Blithedale Romance.C. The Marble Faun.D.White Jacket.59. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as ______________.A. commentatorsB. observersC. villainsD. saviors60. Besides sketches, tales and essays, Washington Irving also published a book on ______, which is also considered an important part of his creative writing.A. poetic theoryB. French artC. history of New YorkD. life of George Washington61. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, there are detailed descriptions of big parties. The purpose of such descriptions is so show _______.A. emptiness of lifeB. the corruption of the upper classC. contrast of the rich and the poorD. the happy days of the Jazz Age62. In American literature, escaping from the society and returning to nature is a common subject. The following titles are all related, in one way or another, to the subject except _________.A. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnB. Dreiser’s Sister CarrieC. Copper’s Leather-Stocking TalesD. Thoreau’s Walden63. Which of the following novels can be regarded as typically belonging to the school of literarymodernism?A.The Sound and the FuryB. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.C. Daisy Miller.D. The Gilded Age.64. Emily Dickinson wrote many short poems on various aspects of life. Which of the following is not a usual subject of her poetic expression?A. Religion.B. Life and death.C. Love and marriage.D. War and peace.65. In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled _______ at Harvard, which was hailed by Oliver Wendell Holmes as "Our intellectual Declaration of Independence."A. "Nature"B. "Self-Reliance"C. "Divinity School Address"D. "The American Scholar"66. Which of the following statements about writers in 1920s is true?A. Mark Twain published his last and most important novel.B. F. Scott Fitzgerald received the Nobel Prize.C. Freudian psychology influenced many modern writers.D. Most writers were politically radical.67. In American literature the first important writer who earned an international fameon both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is_______________.A. Washington IrvingB. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman68. The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his“blac k vision.”TheTerm “black vision” refers to______________.A. Hawthorne's observation that every man faces a black WallB. Hawthorne's belief that all men are by nature evilC. that Hawthorne employed a dream vision to tell his storyD. that Puritans of Hawthorne's time usually wore black clothes69. Theodore Dreiser was once criticized for his____________ in Style,but as a true artist his strength just lies in that his style is very serious and well calculated to achieve the thematic ends he sought.A. crudenessB. eleganceC. concisenessD. subtlety70. Almost all Faulkner’s heroes turned out to be tragic because_____________.A. all enjoyed living in the declining American SouthB. none of them was conditioned by the civilization and Social institutionsC. most of them were prisoners of the pastD. none were successful in their attempt to explain the inexplicable71. Yank, the protagonist of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Hairy Ape, talked to the gorilla and set it free because____.A. he was mad,mistaking a beast for a humanB. he was told by the white young lady that he was like a beast and he wanted tosee how closely he resembled the gorillaC. he was caged with the gorilla after he insulted an aristocratic strollerD. he could feel the kinship only with the beast72. In__________, Robert Frost compares life to a journey, and he is doubtful whether he will regret his choice or not when he is old, because the choice has made all the difference.A. “After Apple-Picking”B. “The Road NOt Taken”C. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”D. “Fire and Ice”73. Though Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were romantic poets in theme and technique, they differ from each other in a variety of ways. For one thing, whereasWhitman likes to keep his eye on human Society at large, Dickinson often addresses such issues as_______, immortality, religion, love and nature.A. progressB. freedomC. beautyD. death74. The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the_______in the American literary history.A. individual feelingB. survival of the fittestC. strong imaginationD. return to nature75. Generally speaking,all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human realitytend to be_____________.A. transcendentalistsB. optimistsC. pessimistsD. idealists76. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the literary scene, ______becamethe major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19thcentury.A. SentimentalismB. RomanticismC. RealismD. Naturalism77. American writers after World War I self-consciously acknowledged that they were(a)“_______,” devoid of faith and alienated from the Western civilization.A. Lost GenerationB. Beat GenerationC. Sons of LibertyD. Angry Young Men78. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely Characters in_______.A. The House of the Seven GablesB. The Scarlet LetterC. The Portrait of a LadyD. The pioneers79. In his realistic fiction, Henry James's primary concern is to present the_________.A. inner life of human beingsB. American Civil War and its effectsC. life on the Mississippi RiverD. Calvinistic view of original Sin80. Which of the following statements about E. Grierson, the protagonist in Faulkner'sStory “A Rose for Emily,” is NOT true?A. She has a distorted personality.B. She is physically deformed and paralyzed.C. She is the symbol of the old values of the South.D. She is the victim of the past glory.81. Which of the following is NOT the virtue that Franklin enumerated in his The Autobiography?A. TemperanceB. Humanity (Humility)C. FrugalityD. Immoderation82. American Romanticism stretches from the end of the ________ century through the outbreak of ______.A. 18th, the Civil WarB. 18th, the War of IndependenceC. 19th, WWID. 19th, WWII83. _________ believes that the chief aim of l iterary creation is beauty, and “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”A. Walt WhitmanB. Edgar Allen PoeC. Anne BradstreetD. Ralph Waldo Emerson84. In Emily Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death, ______________.A. death is personified as a devilB. death is described as the tragic end of a person’s lifeC. death is a stage of life and it leads people to the Heaven of immortalityD. death is described as a beautiful gi rl who couldn’t find her final destination85. Which is generally regarded as the manifesto and the Bible of American Transcendentalism?A. Thoreau’s WaldenB.Emerson’s NatureC. Poe’s Poetic PrincipleD. Thoreau’s Nature86. Henry David Thoreau’s work, ________, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of theNew England Transcendental Movement.A. WaldenB. The PioneersC. NatureD. "Song of Myself"87 embodiment of________, which are written in the founding documents of both theRevolutionary War and the American Civil War.A. the democratic idealsB. the romantic idealsC. the self-reliance spiritsD. the religious ideals88. ________is the author of the work “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.A. Washington IrvingB. James JoyceC. Walt WhitmanD. William Butler Yeats89. After "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer", Twain gives a lite rary independence to Tom’s buddy Huck in a bookcalled_________, and the book from which "all modern American literature comes".A. Life on the Mississippi RiverB. The Gilded AgeC. Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD. The Sun Also Rises90. The greatest work written by Theodore Dreiser is__________.A. Sister CarrieB. An American TragedyC. The FinancierD. The Titan91. We can perhaps summarize that Walt Whitman’s poems are characterize d by all the following features except that they are _______________.A. conversational and crudeB. lyrical and well-structuredC. simple and rather crudeD. free-flowing92. Who exerts the single most important influence on literary naturalism, of which Theodore Dreiser and Jack London are among the best representative writers?。

美国文学史期末考试复习资料全

美国文学史期末考试复习资料全

I.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items.(10 x 1’= 10’)1.In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ______was the dominant.2.The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken from Irving’s worknamed ______.3.Which of the following is not the characteristic of American Romanticism?4.The short story “Rip Van Winkle” reveals the ____ attitude of its author.5.Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by _____.6.Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in_____ and Thoreau.7.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?8.____ is considered Mark Twain’s greatest achievement.9._____ is not among those greatest figures in “Lost Generation”.10.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing b ecomesless serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.1-5,BBACD 6-10 BADCDII.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items.(10 x 1’= 10’)11.______ is the father of American Literature.12._____ is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the mainstream of life.13._____ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.14.Which of following is NOT a typical feature of Mark Twain’s language?15.From Thoreau’s jail experience, came his famous essay, _____ which stateshis belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of agovernment.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Sense16.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?17.Most of the poems in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” andthe ____ as well.18.What did Fitzgerald call the 1920s?19.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomesless serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.20.For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, Moby Dickis still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.1-5 D A B C C 6-10 A C C D C II. Identify Works as Described Below (1’×15 =15’):1.The novel has a sole black protagonist who tells his own story but whose namein unknown to us.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains2.The main conflict of the play is the protagonist’s false value of fineappearance and popularity with people and the cruel reality of the societyin which money is everything.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey intoNightd. Death of Salesman3.It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on theplaywright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries4.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accident and howthe society is responsible for the murder.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains5._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the SecondWorld War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead7.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma andtravel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.a.The Grapes of Wrathb. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March8.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, withsuch techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.a.Babbittb. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath9.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whosetitle is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and how shebecomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into a beggar and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. The novel is set on the Mississippi with the protagonist telling us the storyin the local dialect. It is a representative work of local colorism.a.Sister Carrieb.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnd.The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactionsin the Civil War.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of theuniversality and equality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a group of people on a whaling ship kill a great whalebut themselves are killed by the whale, with the conflict between man and his fate.a.The Octopusb. Moby-Dickc. The Rise of Silas Laphamd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a philosophical essay in 8 chapters plus an introduction mainlyconcerned with the four uses of nature.a. Waldenb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. The American Scholar1-5.cdaad 6-10.aacbb cbbI.C hoose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1’×15=15’):1.An English ship brought 102 people from Plymouth, England on September 16,1620 and arrived in the present Provincetown harbor on November 21 in the same year. This ship was named ____________.a. The Pilgrimsb. Mayflowerc. Americad. Titanic2._________ is father of American drama and in his dramatic career he wrote 49 plays.a. Tennessee Williamsb. Eugene O’Neillc. Arthur Millerd. Elmer Rice3._________ was the first American writer to write entirely American literature.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Washington Irvingc. Mark Twaind. Ernest Hemingway4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreau5._______was the greatest woman poet in American literature and she wrote about1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Pearl S. Buckb.Harriet Bicher Stowec. Emily Dickensond. Walter Whitman6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.William Dean Howells is concerned with the middle class life; ______ writes about the upper class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. Henry James8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingwayd.Theodore Dreiser9. His writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts. He is______.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. He wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County in thedeep south. He is ______.a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews aremajor characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Euge ne O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. He was the first black American to write a book about black life with greatimpact on the consciousness of the nation and his masterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans. Who is he?a.Richard Wrightb. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd. RalphEllison15. Hemingway wrote about American compatriots in Europe whereas ________ wroteabout the Jazz age, life in American society.a.William Carlos Williamsb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. F. ScottFitzgerald1-5 bbccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcadI.Choose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1×15 %):2.The American Civil War broke out in 1861 between the Northern states and theSouth states, which are known respectively as the ______and the______. a. N, S b. Revolutionaries, Reactionaries c. Union, Confederacy d. Slavery, Anti-Slavery2._____________was praised by the British as the “Tenth Muse in America”.a.Anne Bradstreetb. Edward Taylorc. Thomas Pained. Philip Freneau3.Mark Twain was a representative of ________ in American literature.a. transcendentalismb. naturalismc. local colorismd. imagism4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreau5.The greatest American poet and the first writer of free verse is ____________.a. Washington Irvingb.Ezra Poundc. Walt Whitmand. Emily Dickinson6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.Henry James is concerned with the upper class life; ______ writes about the middle class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. William Dean Howells8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingwayd.Theodore Dreiser9. ________’s writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. ______ wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County inthe deep south. .a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. MarkTwain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews aremajor characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literaturein 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. _______ was the first black American to write a book about black life withgreat impact on the consciousness of the nation and his masterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans.b.Richard Wright b. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd. Ralph Ellison15. ________ first used the “Jazz age” as the title of a collection of shortstoriesa. F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. ErnestHemingway1-5.caccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcbaII. Identify Works as Described Below (1×15 %):6.The play is about a stoker whose identity as a human being is not recognizedby his fellow human beings and who tries to find affinity with a monkey in the zoo and is finally killed by the animal.a. The Hairy Apeb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. Long Day’s Journey into Nightd. The Glass Menageries7.The protagonist in this play is a crippled girl named Amanda.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey intoNightd.The Glass Menageries8.The hero of this novel tells about his own story to us but his name is unknown.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on the Mountains4. It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on theplaywright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries5.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accident and howhe is finally arrested and tried and sentenced to death.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains6._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the SecondWorld War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead10.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma andtravel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.b.The Grapes of Wrath b. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March11.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, withsuch techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.b.Babbitt b. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath12.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whosetitle is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and elopeswith Hurstwood and how she becomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into beggary and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. It is a novel with 135 chapters plus an epilog; in it a group of people ona whaling ship kill a great whale but they themselves are killed by the whalein the end, except Ishmael the narrator who survives by adhering to a coffin.b.Sister Carrie b.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. Moby Dickd. The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactionsin the Civil War, in which wound is called the red badge which symbolizes courage.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of theuniversality and equality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a man falls economically and socially but who risesmorally because he gives up the opportunity to sell his factory to an English Syndicate, which would otherwise mean a ruin to that syndicate.a.The Octopusb. The Rise of Silas Laphamc. Moby-Dickd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a speech delivered at Harvard University. It is often hailed as the“declaration of intellectual independence” in America.a. The American Scholarb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. Walden 1-5.adcad 6-10.aacbb cbaII. Match the following (1×20%)A. Match Works with Their Authors1.Hugh Selwyn Mauberly2.Walden3. Autobiography4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer9. Long Day’s Journey into Night10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Mark Twain b . Ernest Hemingwayc. Eugene O’Neilld. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Benjamin Franklini.Henry David Thoreau j. Ezra Poundk.Thomas Jefferson l. T.S. EliotB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1.Hester Prynne2.Mrs. Touchett3.Frederick Henry4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 7.Bigger Thomas8.Yank 9.Happya.The Portrait of a Ladyb. The Scarlet Letterc. The Hairy Aped. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Deadh. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Sonj. Death of a Salesmank.Invisible Man l.Catch-22A. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edccbB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear. 1-5.badef 6-10.ghicjIII. Match the following (1’×20=20’)A. Match works with their authors1.Nature2.Rip Van Winkle3. Nature4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn9. Cantos10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Ezra Poundb. Ernest Hemingwayc. Mark Twaind. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Ralph Waldo Emersoni.Washington Irving j. Waldo Emersonk.T.S. Eliot l. Robert FrostB. Match characters with the works in which they appear.2.Captain Ahab and Starbuck 2.Isabel Archer3.Frederic Henry and Catherine4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 8.Bigger Thomas9.The Tyrones 10.Willy Lomana.The Portrait of a Ladyb. Moby-Dickc. Death of a Salesmand. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Dead h. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Son j. Long Day’s Journey into Nightk.Absalom, Absalom l. The Old Man and the SeaA. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edcabB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1-5.badef 6-10.edcabV. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a short essay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 2 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.1.To the best of your knowledge, analyze and make comments on Emerson’sNaturement on any American poet you like.3.Analyze and/or comment on any one of the American novels or plays you haveread.V. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics andwrite a short essay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should haveat least 2 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You maygive a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.)4.Make comments on an American novel we have discussed in this course.ment on an American poet.6.Describe how your knowledge of American literature is improved after takingthis course..IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)1.Why do people think Franklin is the embodiment of American dream?2.What is “Lost Generation”?V. Discussion. (1 x 20’ = 20’)State your own interpretations of Hemingway’s iceberg theory of writing?IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)3.Wha t is Hawthorne’s style? Explain the style with examples.4.At the end of the 19th century, there were three fighters for Realism. Whoare they? What are their differences?________True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.2. Thomas Jefferson was the only American to sign the 4 documents that created the US.3. All his literary life, Hawthorne seemed to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil.4. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about human psychology.5. Hurstwood is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.6. Faulkner’s region was the Deep North, with its bitter history of slavery, civil war and destruction.7. Placed in historical perspective, Howells is found lacking in qualities and depth. But anyhow he is a literary figure worthy of notice.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.10. Emily Dickinson expr esses her deep love in the poem “Annabel Lee”.1-5 F F T F F 6-10 F F T F FII. Decide whether the statements are True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.2. American Romantic writers avoided writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements.3. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.4. “Young Goodman Brown” wants to prove everyone possesses kindness in heart.5. Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Twain or Howells.6. The American realists sought to describe the wide range of American experience and to present the subtleties of human personality.7. Frost’s concern with nature reflected his deep moral uncertainties.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. Roger Chillingworth is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.10. After the Civil War, the Frontier was closing. Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. What had been expected to be a “Golden Age” turned to be a “Gilded” one.1-5 T F T F T 6-10 F T T F TIII. Please explain the follo wing terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. Free verse3. International novel:4.Romanticism 5. Naturalism 6. American Realism7.American Naturalism Modernism Imagism1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.Free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length andthat attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it usesthe cadences of natural speech.3.International novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities whorepresent certain characteristics of their own countries.4. Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world respondingto environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of whichthey have control and none of which they fully understand. The literarynaturalists have a major difference from the realists. They look at adifferent spot to find real life.III. Please explain the following terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. international novel3. the lostgenerationHemingway heroes4. free verse5.Americantranscendentalism1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.international novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities whorepresent certain characteristics of their own countries.3.the lost generation: reveals the huge destruction of the wars to the younggeneration. It describes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of“expatriates”. They were lost in disillusionment.4.free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length andthat attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it usesthe cadences of natural speech.5.transcendentalism: It stressed the power of intuition, believing that peoplecould learn things both from the outside world by means of the five sensesand from the inner world by intuition. It took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. It emphasized the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. Transcendentalists envisioned religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”.。

美国文学期末复习题

美国文学期末复习题

期末考试题型复习I.Multiple Choice(30‘)II.Find the relevant match in column B for each in column A(10’): Writers:( ) 1. Toni Morrison( ) 2. Joseph Heller( ) 3. Eugene Glastone O’Neill( ) 4. Archibald MacLeish( ) 5. Emily Dickinson( ) 6. Benjamin Franklin( ) 7. Ralph Waldo Emerson( ) 8. F·Scott Fitzgerald( ) 9. William Faulkner( ) 10. Wallace StevensWorks:a.The Hairy Apeb.I’m Nobody!c. We Bombed in New Havend. English Traitse. The Sound and the Furyf. The Autobiographyg. Tender is the Nighth. Anecdote of the Jari. Song of Solomonj.J.B.Writers:( ) 1. Edgar Allan Poe( ) 2. Walt Whiteman( ) 3. F·Scott Fitzgerald( ) 4. William Carlos Williams( ) 5. Toni Morrison( ) 6. Ralph Waldo Ellison( ) 7. Langston Hughes( ) 8. Ezra Pound( ) 9. Stephen Crane( ) 10. Nathaniel HawthorneWorks:a.O Captain! My Captain!b.The Bluest Eyec. In a Station of the Metrod. The House of the Seven Gablese.The Fall of the House of Usherf. The Red Wheelbarrowg. The Open Boath. Dreamsi. The Great Gatsbyj.Shadow and ActWriters: ( ) 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson( ) 2. Robert Frost( ) 3. Saul Bellow( ) 4. Joseph Heller( ) 5. Ralph Waldo Ellison( ) 6. Ezra Pound( ) 7. Ernest Hemingway( ) 8. Emily Dickinson( ) 9. Katherine Anne Porter( ) 10. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Works:a.Self-Relianceb.Invisible Manc. Pale Horse, Pale Riderd. The Sun Also Risese. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eveningf. Success is Counted Sweetestg. Song of Myselfh. Catch-22i. Looking for Mr. Greenj.CantosWriters: ( ) 1. Benjamin Franklin( ) 2. Toni Morrison( ) 3. William Faulkner( ) 4. Archibald MacLeish( ) 5. Nathaniel Hawthorne( ) 6. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow( ) 7. Stephen Crane( ) 8. Katherine Anne Porter( ) 9. William Carlos Williams( ) 10. Saul BellowWorks:a.Ars Poeticab.Maggie: A Girl of the Streetsc. Twice-told Talesd. Belovede. A Psalm of Lifef. Barn Burningg. Poor Richard’s Almanach. Patersoni. Anderson the Rain Kingj. The Flowering JudasIII.Define the listed literary terms(15’)American Puritanism:Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. In content it means scrupulous moral rigor, especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences, that is strictness,sternness and austerity in conduct and religion With time passing it became a dominant factor in American life, one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American Literature. To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, rather than a set of tenets.Actually it is a code of values, a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds, also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level-headed mon sense.;Aerican Romanticism;is one of the most important periodds in the history of American literature. I was a rebellion againstr the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and men sense. They emphazed individualism, placing the individual against the group. The afirmed the inner life of the sels,and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild ,the remote, thw mysterious and the stange. They stressed the element “Americaness”in their works. It started with the pulication of Washington Irving’The stretch Book and ened with Walt Whiteman’s Leaves of Grass. It is also called “American Renaissance”American Romantists include such literary figures as Washinton Irving,Emerson,Thoreau,Hawthrone,Mellville Whiteman and some others.;Local Colorism:Is concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town The style of writing derived from the presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular locality and its inhabitants. Simply it means The use of regional detail in a literary or artistic work. The name is given especially to a kind of American literature that in its most characteristic form made its appearance just after the Civil War and for nearly three decades was the single most popular form of American literature. Following in the footsteps of the pre-war "sectional humorists," local colorists were interested in realistically depicting life in different sections of the United States in order to promote understanding and unification. Fiction writers like Sarah Orne Jewett, Bret Harte, O. Henry, and Mark Twain have been identified within this tradition.;Naturalism;accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to account for the behavior of those charaters in the literary works wh were regarded as more or less plex bination of inheritted attibutes, their habits condition by social and economic forces. American Naturalism is evoled from realism hen the author’s tone in writing bees less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophicalapproach to reality, or to human existence. Dreiser is a leading figure of this schoolThe Lost Generation:is a term used by Gertude Stern to describe the post –WWI generarton of American writers::man and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructivness of the war. Ful of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of the life, drank excessivly, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literture to date. The three best-known representatives of Lost Generation are F.Sccot Fitzgerald,Ernest hemingway and John Dos Passos.Amrican Dream refers to the ream of materral success, in which one, regardless of social status, acquires wealth and gains succes by working hard and good luck. In literature, the theme of American dream recurs. In The Great Gatsby,Gatsby came from the west to the east with the dream of material success.By bootlegging and other illegal means he filfilled his dream but ended up being killed.The novel telles the shattering of Ameracan Dream rather than its success.Impreessionism:is a style of painting that gives the impression made by the sublect on the artist without much attentin to details. Writers accfepted the same conviction that personal attitude and moods of the writer were legitimate element in dipicting charaters or setting or action.Briefly ,it ia a style of literature characterixed by the creartion of general impresion and moods rather than realitic moods.IV.Question and Answers(20’)You will be given two poems, and asked to tell from which poem does the stanza e,who is the author,what does some specific word in the pome mean,and how will you appreciate the poem.Pay attention to the following poems:1.Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro2.Walt Whiteman’s O Captain, My Captain3.Robert Frost’s The Road Not TakenStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening4.Emily Dickson”s I’m NobodyI hear a Fly Buzz When I Died5.Adgar Allen Poe To HelenV.Give brief answers to the following questions.(25’)1.Make a short summary about Washington Irving”s masterpiece “Rip Van Winkle”and ment on the theme of it.2.Why are natuaralits inevitably pessimistic in their views?What are thenatrualists’ writing style? Please explain by examples.3.Mark Twain presented the 19th century America in his own unique way. Discuss Twain’s are of fiction:the settin, the language, and the characters, based on his novel The Advenrures of Huckleberry Finn.4.What are the similarities and differences between the three literary giants,Howells,Mark Twain, Henry James ,n terms of their literary orientations?5.。

美国文学复习题(有答案版)

美国文学复习题(有答案版)

美国文学复习提纲第一部分连线题(1*10=10’)1. Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence2. Walt Whitman O’ Captain, My Captain3. Mark Twain Jumping Frog4. Robert Frost Mending Wall5. Ezra Pound In a Station of the Metro6. Carl Sandburg Chicago7. Saul Bellow The Adventure of Augie March8. Ernest Hemingway Men without Women9. John Steinbeck The Grape of Wrath10. Jack London The Call of the Wild11. Sinclair Lewis Babbit12. Flannery O’ Connor A Good Man Is Hard to Find13. O. Henry The Last Leaf14. Jerome David Salinger The Catcher in the Rye15. William Falkner The Sound and the Fury第二部分单项选择(1.5*20=30’)1. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that shebecame known as the “________” who appeared in America.A. Tenth MuseB. Ninth MuseC. Best MuseD. First Muse2. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment. ________was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution3. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Age of Reason4. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the Europeanmovement called the ________.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement5. Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual municationwith ________.A. natureB. transcendentalist ideasC. human beingsD. celestial beings6. ________tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritanmunity are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways.A. Twice-Told TalesB. The Scarlet LetterC. The House of the Seven GablesD. The Marble Faun7. Washington Irving’s social conservation and literary for the past is revealed, to someextent, in his famous story, ________.A. The Legend of Sleepy HollowB. Rip Van WinkleC. The Custom-houseD. The Birthmark8. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a return to nature inAmerican literature is particularly evident in ________.A. Cooper’s Leatherstocking TalesB. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet LetterC. Whitman’s Leaves of GrassD. Irving’s Rip Van Winkle9. As a philosophical and literary movement, ________ flourished in New England from1830s to the Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism10.Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes__________.A. poemsB.literary critic theoriesC.short storiesD.dramas11. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, “A” may stand for ________.A. AdulteryB. AngelC. AmiableD. All the above12. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as ________.A. the Naturalist PeriodB. the Modern PeriodC. the Romantic PeriodD. the Realistic Period13. In the following works, which signs the beginning of the American literature?A. The Sketch BookB. Leaves of GrassC. Leatherstocking TalesD. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn14. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except ________.A. war and peaceB. love and marriageC. life and deathD. religion15. Emily Dickinson’s poetic idiom is noted for the following except ________.A. brevityB. directnessC. plainest wordsD. obscure16. The publication of ________ established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesmanof New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-Soul17. The Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States refers to the periodfrom ________ to ________.A. 1861...1914 B. 1863...1918C. 1865...1914D. 1865 (1918)18. ________ is considered to be Theodore Dreiser’s greatest work.A. An American TragedyB. Sister CarrieC. The FinancierD. The Titan19. ________ is a novella about a young American girl who gets “killed” by the winter inRome, and it brought Henry James international fame for the first time.A. The AmericanB. The EuropeansC. Daisy MillerD. The Portrait of a Lady20. ________ is described by Mark twain as a boy with “a sound heart and a deformedconscience”.A. Tom SawyerB. Huckleberry FinnC. JimD. Tony21. Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a ________ language.A. grandB. pompousC. simpleD. vernacular22. The book from which “all modern American literature es” refers to ________.A. The Great GatsbyB. The Sun Also RisesC. The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD. Moby-Dick23. In which of the following works Hemingway presents his philosophy about life anddeath through the depiction of the bull-fight as a kind of microcosmic tragedy?A. Death in the AfternoonB. The Snows of KilimanjaroC. To Have and Have NotD. The Green Hills of Africa24. ________ is Hemingway’s first true novel in which he depicts a vivid portrait of “TheLost Generation”.A. The Sun Also RisesB. A Farewell to ArmsC. In Our TimeD. For Whom the Bell Tolls25. Robert Frost bined traditional verse forms—the sonnet, rhyming couplets, blankverse—with a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of ________ farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.A. SouthernB. WesternC. New HampshireD. New England26. ________, one of the most important poets in his time, is a leading spokesman of the“Imagist Movement”.A. J. D. SalingerB. Ezra PoundC. Richard WrightD. Ralph Ellison27. “Tender Is the Night” is a ________ by Fitzgerald.A. short storyB. novellaC. poemD. novel28. ________ is said to be a “historical novel” by Faulkner.A. Go Down, MosesB. Light in AugustC. The Sound and the FuryD. Absalom29. ________ stems from the ambiguity of the speaker’s choice between safety and theunknown.A. Mending the wall B Home BurialC. The Road not TakenD. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening30. Hemingway’s writing style, together with his theme and the hero, is greatly andpermanently influenced by his experiences ________.A. in his childhoodB. in the warC. in AmericaD. in Africa31. The following writers were awarded Nobel Prize for literature except ________.A. William FaulknerB. F. Scott FitzgeraldC. John SteinbeckD. Ernest Hemingway32. ________ is not considered to be one of the masters in the field of American fiction inthe modernistic period.A. F. Scott FitzgeraldB. Ernest HemingwayC. Arthur MillerD. William Faulkner33. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both…” Inthe above two lines of Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken”, the poet, by implication, was referring to ________.A. one’s course of lifeB. a marriage decisionC. a middle-age crisisD. a travel experience34. Most of the writers in the modern period were able to probe into the inner world ofhuman reality on the base of ________.A. William James’“stream of consciousness”B. Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious” and “archetypal symbol”C. Sigmund Freud’s “interpretation of dreams”D. All of the above35. Writers of the second postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were____________.A. a Lost GenerationB. a Beat GenerationC. a Jazz GenerationD. none of the above36. In 1862, President Lincoln exclaimed: “So you are the little woman who wrote thebook that started this great war!” The book refers to ________.A. Uncle Tom’s CabinB. BelovedC.Pride and PrejudiceD.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn37.In Leaves of Grass, _______ is all that concerned Whitman.A. individualismB. freedomC. democracyD. all the above38. It is not surprising to find in _______’s fiction a world of jungle, where “kill or to bekilled” was the law.A. Mark TwainB. Emily DickinsonC. Theodore DreiserD. Henry James39. Which one of the following statements is NOT true of William Faulkner?A. He is master of stream-of-consciousness narrative.B. His writing is often plex and difficult to understand.C. He often depicts slum life in New York and Chicago.D. He represents a new group of Southern writers40. The setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter is in ________.A. England during World War IB. Paris during the French RevolutionC. Puritan AmericaD. America after the Revolutionary War第三部分判断对错(1*15=15’)(T)1. The Calvinist doctrine of “original sin”exerted great influence upon Hawthorne.(T)2. To Hawthorne sin will get punished, one way or another.(T)3. Roger Chillingworth, the scholar, the embodiment of pure intellect, mitted the “Unpardonable Sin”.(F)4. Emily Dickinson didn’t like using capital letters where small ones are needed. (T)5. Walt Whitman used parallelism and refrain in his poems.(T)6. Walt Whitman was regarded as the Zenith in American romantic poetry. (T)7. Dickinson was original. She never imitates others.(T)8. Allan Poe defined poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty.(F)9. O. Henry seldom wrote about poor people.(T)10. According to Poe, art serves for pleasure. The chief aim of poetry is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader.(T)11. According to Dickinson, death means immortality.(F)12. According to Poe, truth is beauty, beauty truth.(T)13. According to Henry James, the aim of the novel is to reflect life reality. (T)14. James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life whereas Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society.(F)15. American writers, especially novelists were rather experimental after theWorld Wars.(T)16. O. Henry’s short stories are famous for their surprising endings.(T)17. Allen Ginsberg was the representative of the Beat Generation.(T)18. Allan Poe exerted great influence upon many southern American writers, especially William Faulkner.(F)19. Emily Dickinson was regarded as the forerunner of symbolism.(F)20. Mark Twain never touched upon the problem of slavery system in his novels.(F)21. Allan Poe was regarded as the forerunner of American Imagism.(T)22. Mark Twain was the father of American language.(T)23. Allan Poe advocated “pure” poetry.(F)24. Mark Twain’s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of localism in American fiction and partly through his themes.(T)25. Toni Morrison is one of the most famous contemporary women writers. (T)26. O. Henry was the pen name of William Sidney Porter.(T)27. Thomas Jefferson was the major writer of The Declaration of Independence (T)28. Henry James discovered the trick of making his characters reveal themselves with minimal intervention of the author.(T)29. N. Hawthorne was a symbolic writer in some sense.(T)30. Whitman’s poetry suggests rather than tells.第四部分术语解释(4*5=20’)1. TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and nature. Other concepts that acpanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant.2. NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects.3. American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4. The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group ofAmerican Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of WWI to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during WWI. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to move into settled life.5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in ever act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will.7. Hemingway Heroes (Code Hero)“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness.8. Jazz Age“The Jazz Age” describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between WWI and WWII, particularly in North America; with the rise of the Great Depression, the values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism.第五部分选读分析25’Text1.From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from[he original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. Drowsy and dreamy influence seems to hang over the land,and topervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson.Questions:(1) Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken?(2) What is the title of this short story?(3) Give a definition of “short story”.Answer:(1) Washington Irving(2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(3) A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction—characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view and style.Text 2.Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever e back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.Questions:(1) Please examine the poetic form (rhyme and meter) (2’)(2) Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does the speaker take? (3’)(3) How do you understand the word “sigh”? (4’)(4) What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind? (2’)(5) What is the theme of this poem? (2’)Answer:(1) It is written in iambic tetrameter and rhymed abaab.(2) Similarities: both of the roads are beautiful;Differences: one is quiet and grassy, less-traveled, the other is trodden by many people and flatHe took the less-traveled road.(3) The word “sigh”is a tricky word. Because sigh can be interpreted into nostalgic relief or regret. If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker feels glad with the road he took. If it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be signing in regret. Hence, sigh is ambiguous here for the speaker is not showing whether his choice is right or wrong.(4) The real road, the life road and the road in career.(5) Choices is inevitable but you never know what you choice will mean until you have lived it. This is also the theme of the poem.Text 3.Tell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream!For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.Life is real-life is earnest-And the grave is not its goal;Dust thou art, to dust returnest,Was not spoken of the soul.Questions:(1). Who is the writer of the lines?(2). What is the title of the whole poem from which the two stanzas are taken?(3). Summarize the poet’s advice for living.Answers:(1). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(2). A Psalm of Life(3). His optimism which has characterized much of his poetry, also endeared many critics to him. He seemed to have persevered despite tragedy. This poem is the cry of his heart, “rallying from depression”, ready to affirm life, to regroup from losses, to push on despite momentary defeat.Text 4.Because I could not stop for Death —He kindly stopped for me —The Carriage held but just Ourselves —And Immortality.We slowly drove — He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility —We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess — in the Ring —We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain —We passed the Setting Sun —Or rather — He passed Us —The Dews drew quivering and Chill —For only Gossamer, my Gown —My Tippet — only Tulle —We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground —The Roof was scarcely visible —The Cornice — in the Ground —Since then —’tis Centuries — and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses’ HeadsWere toward Eternity —Questions:(1)Who wrote this poem? In the poem, what is he/she watching and recording? (3%)(2)What is death pared to in the poem? (2%)(3) What does the poet think of eternity? (2%)(4) What is the attitude of the poet towards death? (2%)Answer:(1) Emily Dickinson. She is watching and recording her own funeral.(2) Death is pared to a polite gentleman or polite wooer.(3) The speaker is not quite sure whether there will be eternity after death since she just surmises that “the Horses’ Heads were toward Eternity —”.(4) She treats death light-heartedly for she believes that death is a necessary step towards eternity or immortality.。

大学课程《美国文学史》期末试卷及参考答案

大学课程《美国文学史》期末试卷及参考答案

大学课程《美国文学史》期末试卷1.Darwinism2.Lost generation3.Imagism4.Free VerseⅡ. Matching (本大题共10小题,每小题1分,共10分) 1. John Steinbeck 2. T.S. Eliot 3. Carl Sandburg 4. F. Scott Fitzgerald 5. Harriet Beecher Stowe 6. O ’ Henry 7. Thomas Paine 8. Ernest Hemingway 9. Ralph Waldo Emerson 10. Nathaniel Hawthorne a. A Farewell to Arms b. Common Sense c. Uncle Tom’s Cabind. The Cop and the Antheme. The Grapes of Wrathf. Fogg. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock h. Naturei. The Great Gatsby j. The Scarlet Letter.Ⅲ. Multiple choice.(本大题共 35 小题,每小题 1 分,共 35 分)1.In the early nineteenth century American moral values were essentially Puritan. Nothi ng has left a deeper imprint on the character of the people as a whole than did_______. A.Puritanism B Romanticism C Rationalism D Sentimentalism2. Franklin wrote and published his famous__________, an annul collection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard‘s AlmanackC. Common SenseD. The Genera l Magazine3. In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. _______was the dominant spirit.A. Humanism B Rationalism C Revolution D Evolution 4.________ usually was regarded as the first American writer.A.William BradfordB. Anne BradstreetC.Emily DickinsonD. Captain John Smith 5..Which is not Irving‘s works in the following.A. The Sketch BookB. Tales of a Traveller C .A History of New York D To A Waterfowl 6. Choose Freneau‘s poem from the following.A. The RavenB. To a WaterfowlC. To HellenD. The wild Honey Suckle7. In 1817, the stately poem called Thanatopsis introduced the best poet___to appear in America up to that time.A. Edward TaylorB. Philip FreneauC. William Cullen BryantD. Edgar Allan Poe pared with his contemporaries, _________was no doubt the best in exploring the wildness and frontier in fiction.A. Washington IrvingB. James Fenimore CooperC. William Cullen Bryant D Philip Freaneau9. Washington Irving‘s ‘Rip Van Winkle‘ is famous for_________. A.Rip‘s escape into a mysterious valleyB.The story‘s German legendary source materialC. Rip‘s seeking for happinessD. Rip‘s 20-years sleep 10. Choose Poe‘s work from the followingA. The Day of DoomB.The Last of the MohicansC. The Indian Burying Ground D The Fall of the House of Usher 11.Choose Irving‘s work from the following .A. The Sketch BookB. ThanatopsisC. The SpyD.The British Prison Ship 12._______ is the most commonly used in English poetry, in which an unstressed syllabl e comes first followed by a stressed.A. the trochaic footB. an anapestic footC. a quatrainD. a iambic foot 13. The Indian Burying Ground by___________ is the earliest poem which romanticizes the Indian as a child of nature.A. Washington IrvingB. Adgar Alan PoeC.Philip FreneauD.Nathaniel Hawthorne 14._______ is a poetic device used to increase the musical quality and link the lines and stanzas of a poem.A. meterB. repetitionC. rhymeD.foot15.Poetry is aimed at conveying and enriching human experience which is formed throu gh sense impressions. _____ is the representation of sense experience through language. A . meter B. image C. theme D. assonance16. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ______ was the dominant.院系: 专业班级: 姓名: 学号:装 订 线A. humanismB. rationalismC. romanticismD. evolution17. The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken from Irving’s work named ______.A. The Leatherstocking TalesB. The Sketch BookC. The AutobiographyD. The History of New York18. Which of the following is not the characteristic of American Romanticism?A. RationalismB. inner selfC. personal feelingsD. individualism19.The short story “Rip Van Winkle” reveals the ____ attitude of its author.A. optimisticB. pessimisticC. conservativeD. ironic20. Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in___and ThoreauA. JeffersonB. EmersonC. FreneauD. Mark Twain21. Which is r egarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?A. The American ScholarB. English TraitsC. OversoulD. Self-reliance22. ______ is the father of American Literature.A. Benjamin FranklinB. Philip FreneauC. PaineD. Washington Irving23. _____ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.A. ThoreauB. EmersonC. HawthorneD. Whitman24. Most of the poems in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the ____ as well.A. natureB. self-relianceC. selfD. life25. For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.A. AhabB. StubbC. IshmaelD. Starbuck26. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of the universality and equality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd. Chicago27. The novel is about how a group of people on a whaling ship kill a great whale but themselves are killed by the whale, with the conflict between man and his fate.a.The Octopusb. Moby-Dickc. The Rise of Silas Laphamd. Leaves of Grass28. An English ship brought 102 people from Plymouth, England on September 16, 1620 and arrived in the present Provincetown harbor on November 21 in the same year. This ship was named ____________.a. The Pilgrimsb. Mayflowerc. Americad. Titanic29._______was the greatest woman poet in American literature and she wrote about 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Pearl S. Buckb. Harriet Bicher Stowec. Emily Dickensond. Walter Whitman30. ._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe31. In American literature, the eighteen century was the age of the Enlightenment. ——was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution 32.——Which statement about Franklin is not true?A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer.B. He was a scientist.C. He was a master of diplomacy.D. He was a Puritan.33.Who is regarded as the first American prose epic.A. NatureB. The Scarlet LetterC. WaldenD. Moby-Dick34.The Romanic Period of American literature started with the publication of Washington Irving's ——and ended with Whiteman's Leaves of Grass.A. The Sketch BookB. Tales of a TravelerC. The AlhambraD.A history of New York35.The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to asA. the Naturalist PeriodB. the Modern PeriodC. the Romantic PeriodD. the Realistic PeriodIV. Identification of Fragments(本大题共有7个诗歌或小说选段,请选5个选段并回答其后的问题,答题时请先注明选段, 再回答问题。

美国文学期末复习题

美国文学期末复习题

2013-2014-1 美国文学史及选读期末复习材料. . . .ⅠMultiple choices1. Which is not connected with Thomas Paine?A. Common SenseB. The American CrisisC. The Rights of ManD. The Autobiography2. “These are the times that try men’s souls”, these words were once read to Washington’s troops and did much to spur excitement to further action with hope and confidence. Who is the author of these words?A.Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas PaineC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington3. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the ______.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement4. In American literature, the Enlighteners were favorable to______.A. the colonial orderB. religious obscurantismC. the Puritan traditionD. the secular literature5. The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the Continental Congress adopted ______ in 1776.A. Declaration of IndependenceB. the Sugar ActC. the Stamp ActD. the Mayflower Compact6. ______ usually was regarded as the first American writer.. . . . A. William Bradford B. Anne BradstreetC. Emily DickinsonD. Captain John Smith7. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the “______” who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. Best MuseD. First Muse8. Who was considered as the “poet of American Revolution ”?A. Anne BradstreetB. Edward TaylorC. Michael WigglesworthD. Philip Freneau9. In 1817, the stately poem called Thanatopsis introduced the best poet ______ to appear in America up to that time.A. Edward TaylorB. Philip FreneauC. William Cullen BryantD. Edgar Allen Poe10. The finest example of Nathaniel Hawthorne ’s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ______.A. The Scarlet LetterB. Young Goodman BrownC. The Marble FaunD. The Ambitious Guest11. “The universe is composed of Nature and the soul … Spirit is present everywhere ”. This is the voice of the book Nature written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England ______.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. NaturalismD. Symbolism12. Which is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism?A. NatureB. WaldenC. On BeautyD. Self-Reliance13. Mark Twain created, in _________, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the great books of world literature.. . . . A. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn B. The Adventure of Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted HadleyburgD. The Gilded Age14. _________ marks the climax of Mark Twain ’s literary creativity.A . The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn B. The Gilded AgeC. Life on the MississippiD. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer15. Choose the novel which is not written by Henry James.A. The AmbassadorsB. The Wings of the DoveC. The BostoniansD. The Mysterious Stranger16. Generally speaking, all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human reality tend to be _________.A. transcendentalistsB. idealistsC. pessimistsD. impressionists17. Ezra Pound ’s long poem _________ contained more than one hundred poems loosely connected.A. The Waste LandB. The CantosC. Don JuanD. Queen Mab18. T. S. Eliot ’s first major poem _________(1917), has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.A. The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockB. The Waste LandC. Four QuartetsD. Preludes19. Ernest Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love with a nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel _________.A. The Old Man and the SeaB. For Whom the Bell TollsC. The Sun Also RisesD. A Farewell to Arms20. In William Faulkner ’s The Sound and the Fury , he used a technique called _________, in which the whole story was told through the thoughts of one character.A. stream of consciousnessB. imagism. . . . C. symbolism D. naturalism21. Led by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and ______, there arose a kind of teachings of transcendentalism in the early nineteenth century.A. Herman MelvilleB. Henry David ThoreauC. Mark TwainD. Theodore Dreiser22. A New ______ had appeared in England in the last years of the eighteenth century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the nineteenth century.A. realismB. critical realismC. romanticismD. naturalism23. From Henry David Thoreau ’s jail experience, came his famous essay, ______ which states Thoreau ’s belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Sense24. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his _________.A. international themeB. waste-land imageryC. local colorD. symbolism25. Herman Melville ’s ______ is an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry.A. The Old Man and the SeaB. Moby DickC. White Jacket C . Billy Budd26. The ship “______” carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Pequod27. From 1733 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous ______, an annual collection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard ’s Almanac. . . . C. Common Sense D. The General Magazine28. In American literature, the eighteen-century was the age of the Enlightenment. ______ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution29. ______ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.A. Henry David ThoreauB. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman30. Edgar Allen Poe ’s first collection of short stories is ______.A. Tales of a TravelerB. Leatherstocking TalesC. Canterbury TalesD. Tales of the Grotesque of Arabesque31. ______ was a romanticized account of Herman Melville ’s stay among the Polynesians. The success of the book soon made Melville well known as the “man who lived among cannibals ”.A. Moby DickB. TypeeC. OmooD. Billy Budd32. Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence ”?A. The American ScholarB. English TraitsC. The Conduct of LifeD. Representative Men33. The three dominant figures of the realistic period in American literature are _________.A. Theodore Dreiser, Emily Dickinson and William Dean HowellsB. Mark Twain, Henry James and William Dean HowellsC. Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser and William Dean HowellsD. Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson and William Dean Howells34. American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was _________.A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane Austen. . . . C. Emily Dickinson D. Harriet Beecher35. In 1900, London published his first collection of short stories, named _________.A. The Son of the WolfB. The Sea WolfC. The Law of LifeD. White Fang36. In Henry James ’ Daisy Miler , the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment of _________.A. the force of conventionB. the free spirit of the New WorldC. the decline of aristocracyD. the corruption of the newly rich37. “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.” This is the shortest poem written by _________.A. T.S. EliotB. Robert FrostC. Ezra PoundD.E.E.Cumings38. The Fitzgerald lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than F. Scot Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as _________.A. The Roaring TwentiesB. The Jazz AgeC. The Dollar DecadeD. all of the above39. In 1954, _________ was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “mastery of the art of modern narration ”.A. T.S EliotB. Ernest HemingwayC. John SteinbeckD. William Faukner40. William Faukner ’s novel _________ describes the decay and downfall of an old southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, told from four different points of view.A. The Sound and the FuryB. StartorisC. The UnvanquishedD. The Town41. “The Lure of the Spirit: The Flesh in Pursuit ” is the title of one chapter in Dreiser ’s novel _________.A. An American DreamB. Sister Carrie. . . . C. Dreiser Looks at Russia D. Jannie Gerhardt42. The main theme of _________ The Art of Fiction reveals his literary credo that representation of life should be the main object of the novel.A. Henry James ’B. William Dean Howells ’C. Mark Twain ’sD. O. Henry ’s43. With William Dean Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, _________became the major trend in the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism44. While embracing the socialism of Marx, London also believed in the triumph of the strongest individuals. This contradiction is most vividly projected in the patently autobiographical novel _________.A. The Call of the WildB. The Sea WolfC. Martin EdenD. The Iron Heel45_________ is a novella about a young American girl who gets “killed ” by the winter in Rome, and it brought Henry James international fame for the first time.A. The AmericanB. The EuropeansC. Daisy MillerD. The Portait of a LadyAnswers: 1-5 DBCDA 6-10 DBDCA 11-15 BAAAD 16-20 CBADA21-25 BCCCB 26-30 CBBBD 31-35 BABCA 36-40 BCDBA 41-45 BACCCⅡ Filling the following blanks with proper answers1. Captain John Smith became the first American writer.2. The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people.3. The first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay colony was John Cotton, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England.”. . . . 4. Anne Bradstreet published The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America , and she was nicknamed the tenth Muse.5. Poor Richard ’s Almanac is an annual collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin.6. Thomas Paine ’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence ”.7. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.8. Philip Freneau developed a natural, simple, and concrete diction, best illustrated in such nature lyrics as “The Wild Honey Suckle ” and “The Indian Burying Ground ”.9. Philip Freneau has been called the “Father of American Poetry ”.10. In Washington Irving ’s Sketch Book appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.11. Cooper ’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the Leatherstocking tales .12. “To a Waterfowl ” is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant ’s wok.13. “Thanatopsis ”, William Cullen Bryant ’s best-known poem, consists of four stanzas in iambic tetrameter abab. The title means “view of death ”.14. Edgar Allan Poe is considered “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories ”.15. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance.16. In Walden , Thoreau thought it better for a man to work one day a week and rest six, and the rest of the time could be devoted to thought.17. Hawthorne ’s stories touch the deepest roots of man ’s moral nature.18. Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.. . . . 19. After his death, Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet ’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.20. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom ’s Cabin , had become an American institution and the most famous literary woman in the world.21. William Dean Howells found his subject matter in the experiences of the American middle class.22. William Dean Howells called for the treatment of the “smiling aspects of life ” as being the more “American.”23. The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment.24. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called free verse.25. O ·Henry ’s stories are usually short and interesting; Famous for their surprising end.26. Henry James is famous for his international theme of the traditionless American confronting the complexity of European life.27. Jack London believed in the inevitable triumph of the strongest individuals.28. Dreiser ’s greatest and most successful novel, An American Tragedy, is about a young man who acts as if the only way he can be truly fulfilled is by acquiring wealth —through marriage if necessary.29. Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation,” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.30. Wallace Stevens ’ work is primarily motivated by the belief that “ideas of order ”.31. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises , Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called “a lost generation.”Ⅲ Decide whether the statements are true or false (T/F).. . . . 1. John Winthrop ’s reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as the first distinct American literature written in English.2. In 1612, William Bradford published in England a book called A Map of Virginia ; With a description of the country.3. Philip Freneau was neoclassical by training and taste yet romantic in essential spirit.4. Ralph Waldo Emerson was recognized as the leader of transcendentalist movement, but he always applied the term “Transcendentalist ” to himself or to his beliefs and ideas.5. To Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, the telling of a tale was a way of inquiring into the meaning of life.6. Walt Whitman was attacked in his lifetime for his offensive subject matter of sexuality and for his conventional style.7. Tom Sawyer walked out of Twain ’s pages directly from his fresh memory of his boyhood in the west.8. Hurstwood is a character in Theodore Dreiser ’s Sister Carrie .9. In the decade of the 1910s, American literature achieved a new diversity and reached its greatest heights.10. Edwin Arlington Robinson began his career as a novalist in bleakness and poverty.11.The greatest of America ’s realists, such as Henry James and Mark Twain, moved well beyond a superficial portrayal of nineteenth-century America.12.Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Mark Twain or William Dean Howells.13.Sister Carrie is generally regarded as Theodore Dreiser ’s masterpiece.14.Generally speaking, Jack London was much more interested in ideas than Stephen Crane and less sentimental than Frank Norris.15.Ralph Waldo Emerson ’s prose style was sometimes as highly individual as his poetry.. . . . 16. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.17. Georgia, Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York, New England, all were named after French monarchs and lands.18. Benjamin Franklin was a prose stylist whose writing reflected the neoclassic ideals of clarity, restraint, simplicity and balance.19. The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Edgar Allan Poe ’s poems.20. The Scarlet Letter is set in the seventeenth century. It is an elaboration of a fact which the author took out of the life of the Puritan past.21. Walt Whitman was so great that he won respect and love during his lifetime for his Leaves of Grass .22. Many of O. Henry ’s stories contain a lot of slang and colloquial expressions, just like his own speech.23. Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Mark Twain or William Dean Howells.24. Robert Frost rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, and chose “the old-fashioned way to be new ” instead.25. John Steinbeck ’s theme was usually that simple human virtues such as kindness and fair treatment were far superior to official hard-heartedness, or the dehumanizing cruelty of exploiters for their own commercial advantage.26. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.27. Washington Irving was the first great belletrist, writing always for pleasure, and to produce pleasure.28. James Fennimore Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga.29. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable.30. “Young Goodman Brown”seems to prove everyone possesses some evil secrets. . . .1-5 FFTFT 6-10FTTFF 11-15 TFFTT 16-20 FFTFT 21-25FFFTT 26-30 TTTTTⅣAnswer the following questions briefly.1. These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly—This dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.Questions:(1)Which book is this passage taken from?(2)Who is the author of this book?(3)Whom is the author praising? Whom is the author criticizing?(4)What do you think of the language?Answers:(1) The American Crisis.(2) Thomas Paine(3) Paine is praising those who stand “it”, it referring to “the service of their country”. In the meantime, Paine is criticizing those who shrink from the service of their country in this crisis.(4) The language is plain, impressive and forceful. Paine himself once said that his purpose as a writer was to use plain language to make those who can scarcely read understand and to fit the powers of. . . . thinking and the turn of language to the subject, so as to bring out a clear conclusion that shall hit the point in question and nothing else.2. It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White Whale was now widly heightened by circumstance of the Town-Ho ’s story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his mates …Nevertheless, so potent and influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequod ’s main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.Questions:(1)From which novel is this paragraph taken?(2) What is the name of the novelist?(3) Who is Ahab?(4) What is Pequod?(5) What is the theme of the novel?Answers:(1) Moby Dick. . . . (2) Herman Melville(3) The captain of the whaling ship(4) The name of the whaling ship(5) The rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.3. When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human temper. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens then perverts the simpler human perceptions.Questions:(1) From which novel is this paragraph taken?(2) Who is the author of this novel?(3) How do you understand “the cosmopolitan standard of virtue ”?(4) Is there any naturalist tendency in this passage?Answers:(1)Sister Carrie. . . . (2) Theodore Dreiser(3) “The cosmopolitan standard of virtue ” is something that makes a person become low in virtue and become worse.(4) Yes.4. Briefly discuss the novel The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the greatest novels in American literature. It fully explores the disillusionment and despair of the lost generation through the personal tragedy of a young man whose “incorruptible Dream ” is easily smashed into pieces by the crude reality. The protagonist, Gatsby, is a mythical figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a state of mind that embodies American itself. His failure magnifies the end of the American Dream. The style of the story is explicit and chilly. Fitzgerald ’s accurate dialogues, his careful observation of mannerism and the colorful images provide the reader with a vivid and profound scene of the reality.5. What are the three main principles that Ezra Pound endorsed?(1) Directly treat poetic subjects.(2) Eliminate merely ornamental or superfluous words.(3) Rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of metronome.6. Tell the differences between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman(1) Emily Dickinson expresses the inner life of individuals, while Walt Whitman keeps his eyes on the society at large.. . . . (2) Emily Dickinson is “regional ”, while Walt Whitman is “national ” in his outlook.(3) Formally, Emily Dickinson uses concise, simple dictions and syntax, while Walt Whitman uses endless, all-inclusive catalogs.Ⅴ Essay Writing (这个部分给大家的答案只是罗列了回答的要点,要将其连缀成文,如果简单按复习题给的答案罗列,只得一半分数)1. Write a short essay about the novel The Grapes of Wrath Writer: John Steinbeck----won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962; spoke for the oppressed and suffered Background information: (1) Oklahoma used to be a major agricultural state. In the 1930s, a draught ruined this place. People had to leave here to seek a way out. Many of them went to California in hope of finding jobs there to support their family. (2)The Great Depression.Meaning of title: (1) Hope to despair; (2) Wrath of people; (3) Indications of revolution.Theme: (1) Embodying the mass misery of farmers; (2) Praising the spirit of love and unity; (3) Advocating fight and struggle for better life.Structure: (1) Its structure is dictated by the bible; (2) There are two blocks of material: a. the westward trek of the Joads; b. the depressed Oklahomans, and the general picture of the Great Depression. Symbols: (1) dust---evil forces; (2) grapes---hope →rage2. Write a short essay about the novel A Farewell to ArmsWriter: Hemingway---- (1) in 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize; (2) Main works: The Sun also Rises,A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The old Man and the Sea. (3) His major contribution: a. Code hero---grace under pressure; b. Iceberg Theory--- economy of expression; (4) the lost generation Background information: World War Ⅱ. . . . Theme: shows the filth, meaningless, calamity of war; the death, the nothingness of life; the disillusionment with future, hope and love, happiness. The universe is indifferent. There is no God to watch over man.Characters: Henry--- initially detached from life----though well-disciplined and friendly, he feels as if he has nothing to do with the war. After falling in love with Catherine he became a code hero in some way. Catherine---code hero: unfaltering devotion to Henry, brave, considerate, optimisticSymbols: rain---sadness, desperation, depression. It is raining outside almost every time something bad occurs. mud---nature's hostility to man.3. Write a short essay about the novel The Adventures of Tom SawyerAuthor: Mark Twain —the first truly American writer, a local colorist; he used short, concrete and colloquial language; his sentences are simple, and even ungrammatical; good at writing children ’s adventures; masterpieces including: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom SawyerAbout the novel: The first famous novel about growing up and showing the contradictions between adults ’ world and teenagers ’ world, a story of his seeking for freedom, fame, fortune, love, manhood; reveals the American values such as hero complex and American dream; records the rising Age of American Bourgeois system; bears the irony and satire toward the religion and rigid, didactic children education, which curbed the imagination of children and their innate nature for freedom and adventures and molded them into a stereotype of lifeless man.4. Comment briefly on Theodore Dreiser ’s theme and writing style?Theme: Dreiser ’s works are mainly concerned with the tragic nature of the human condition by depicting the coarse, vulgar, cruel, and terrible aspects of life like sex and crime.. . . . Style: In terms of style, Dreiser has sometimes been censured for his clumsy syntax, deficient characterization, and inept and dull prose. Yet his accumulated detail, carefully selected and faithfully recorded, is a technique of power. Like the other naturalists, he refused to judge —to consider people as good or evil. He clothes his concepts symbolically in the details of reality. It is his journalistic method that has made him one of America ’s foremost novelists.。

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美国文学期末复习题2013-2014-1 美国文学史及选读期末复习材料I Multiple choices1. Which is not connected with Thomas Paine?A. Common SenseB. The American CrisisC. The Rights of ManD. The Autobiography2. “These are the times that try men's souls”, these words were once read to Washington's troops and did much to spur excitement to further action with hope and confidence. Who is the author of these words?A.Benjamin FranklinB.Thomas PaineC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington3. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called theA. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment Movement Modernist MovementD.4. In American literature, the Enlighteners were favorable to .A. the colonial orderB. religious obscurantismC. the Puritan traditionD.the secular literature5. The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the Continental Congress adopted _____________ in 1776.A. Declaration of IndependenceB.the Sugar ActC. the Stamp ActD.the Mayflower Compact6. ____ usually was regarded as the first Americanwriter.A. William BradfordB. Anne BradstreetC. Emily DickinsonD. Captain John Smith7. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the “”who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. Best MuseD. First Muse8. Who was considered as the “poet of American Revolution”?A. Anne BradstreetB. Edward TaylorC. Michael WigglesworthD. Philip Freneau9. In 1817, the stately poem called Thanatopsis introduced the best poet _____ to appear in Americaup to that time.A. Edward TaylorB. Philip FreneauC. William Cullen BryantD. Edgar Allen Poe10. The finest example of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in _____ A. The Scarlet Letter B. Young Goodman BrownC. The Marble FaunD. The Ambitious Guest11. The universe is composed of Nature and the soul Spirit is present everywhere”. This is the voice of the book Nature written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. NaturalismD. Symbolism12. Which is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism?A. NatureB. WaldenC. On BeautyD. Self-Reliance13. Mark Twain created, in _______ , a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the great books of world literature.A. The Adventure of Huckleberry FinnB. The Adventure of Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted HadleyburgD. The Gilded Age14. ________ marks the climax of Mark Twain 'sliterary creativity.A . The Adventureof Huckleberry Finn B. The Gilded AgeC. Life on the MississippiD. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer15. Choose the novel which is not written by Henry James.A. The AmbassadorsB. The Wings of the DoveC. The BostoniansD. The Mysterious Stranger16. Generally speaking, all those writers with anaturalistic approach to human reality tend to beA. transcendentalistsB. idealistsC. pessimistsD. impressionists17. Ezra Pound 's long poem ________ contained more than one hundred poems loosely connected.A. The Waste LandB. The CantosC. Don JuanD. Queen Mab18. T. S. Eliot 's first major poem _______ (1917), has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.A. The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockB. The Waste LandC. Four QuartetsD. Preludes19. Ernest Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love with a nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel . A. The Old Man and the Sea B. For Whom the Bell TollsC. The Sun Also RisesD. A Farewell to Arms20. In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, he useda technique called ____________ , in which the whole story was told through the thoughts of one character.A. stream of consciousness C. symbolism naturalismB. imagismD.21. Led by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emersonand , there arose a kind of teachings of transcendentalism in the early nineteenth century.A. H erman Melville David Thoreau C. Mark Twain Theodore DreiserB. HenryD.22. A New _____ had appeared in England in the last years of the eighteenth century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the nineteenth century.A. realismB. critical realismC. romanticismD. naturalism23. From Henry David Thoreau 's jail experience, came his famous essay, _________ which statesThoreau's belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Senseth24. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his ________________ .A. international themeB. waste-land imageryC. local colorD. symbolism25. Herman Melville '__s ____ is an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy religion, etc. in addition toa detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry.A. The Old Man and the SeaB. Moby DickC. White Jacket C. Billy Budd26. The ship “_______ ”carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Pequod27. From 1733 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous _____ , an annual collection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard 's AlmanacC. Common SenseD. The General Magazine28. In American literature, the eighteen-century was the age of the Enlightenment. ______ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution29. ____ was the most leading spirit of theTranscendental Club.A. Henry David ThoreauB. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman30. Edgar Allen Poe 's first collection of short stories isA. Tales of a TravelerTalesC. Canterbury Tales Grotesque ofArabesque31. _____ was a romanticized account of Herman Melville 's stay among the Polynesians.The successof the book soon made Melville well known as the “man who lived among cannibal ”s.A. Moby DickB. TypeeC. OmooD. Billy Budd B. LeatherstockingD. Tales of the32. Which is regarded as the“Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?A. The American ScholarB. English TraitsC. The Conduct of LifeD. Representative Men33. The three dominant figures of the realistic period in American literature are ________ .A. Theodore Dreiser, Emily Dickinson and William Dean HowellsB. Mark Twain, Henry James and William Dean HowellsC. Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser and William Dean HowellsD. Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson and William Dean Howells34. American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was ________ .A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane AustenC. Emily DickinsonD. Harriet Beecher35. In 1900, London published his first collection of short stories, named ____________ .A. The Son of the WolfB. The Sea WolfC. The Law of LifeD. White Fang36. In Henry James'Daisy Miler, the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment ofA. the force of conventionB. the free spirit of the New WorldC. the decline of aristocracyD. the corruption of the newly rich37. “ Theapparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.” This is the shortest poem written by .A. T.S. EliotB. Robert FrostC. Ezra PoundD.E.E.Cumings38. The Fitzgerald lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than F. Scot Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as ________ .A. The Roaring TwentiesB. The Jazz AgeC. The Dollar DecadeD. all of the above39. In 1954, ________ was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.A. T.S EliotB. Ernest HemingwayC. John SteinbeckD. William Faukner40. William Faukner' snovel _________ describes the decay and downfall of an old southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, told from four different points of view.A. The Sound and the FuryB. StartorisC. The UnvanquishedD. The Town41. “The Lure of the Spirit: The Flesh in Pursuit ” si the title of one chapter in Dreise'rs novel _______ .A. An American DreamB. Sister CarrieC. Dreiser Looks at RussiaD. Jannie Gerhardt42. The main theme of _________ The Art of Fiction reveals his literary credo that representation of life should be the main object of the novel.A. Henry James'B. William Dean Howells'C. Mark Twain 'sD. O. Henry 's43. With William Dean Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, _____________ became the major trend in the seventiesand eighties of the nineteenth century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism44. While embracing the socialism of Marx, London also believed in the triumph of the strongest individuals. This contradiction is most vividly projected in the patently autobiographical novel ________ .A. The Call of the WildB. The Sea WolfC. Martin EdenD. The Iron Heel45 ________ is a novella about a young American girlwho gets“killed”by the winter in Rome, and it broughtHenry James international fame for the first time.A. The AmericanB. The EuropeansC. Daisy MillerD. The Portait of a LadyAnswers: 1-5 DBCDA 6-10 DBDCA 11-15 BAAAD 16-20 CBADA21-25 BCCCB 26-30 CBBBD 31-35 BABCA36-40 BCDBA 41-45 BACCCn Filling the following blanks with proper answers 1. Captain John Smith became the first American writer. 2. The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people.3. The first major intellectual spokesman of theMassachusetts Bay colony was John Cotton, sometimes called the Patriarch of New England ”4. Anne Bradstreet published The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, andtenth Muse. 5. Poor Richard ' Almanac is proverbs written by Benjamin Frankli n.6. Thomas Paine ' famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a Declaration for Independence.7. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration ofIndependencewith John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingsto n.8. Philip Freneau developed a natural, simple, andconcrete diction, best illustrated in such nature lyrics as “ The Wild Honey Suckle ” and The Indian Burying Ground ”.9. Philip Freneau has been called the Father of American she was nicknamed the an annual collection ofPoetry”.10. In Washington Irving ' Sketch Book appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.11. Cooper' enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the Leatherstocking tales12. To a Waterfowl”is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant' wok.13. Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant' best-known poem, consistsof four stanzas in iambic tetrameter abab. The title means view of death”.14. Edgar Allan Poe is considered “father of American detective stories and Ameican gothic stories. ”15. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance.16. In Walden Thoreau thought it better for a man to work one day a week and rest six, and the rest of the time could be devoted to thought.17. Hawthorne' stories touch the deepest roots of man' moral nature.18. Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seeminglysupernatural white whale.19. After his death, Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet' Corner _of Westminster Abbe y.20. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom' Cabin, had become an American institution and the most famous literary woman in the world.21. William Dean Howells found his subject matter in the experiences of the American middle class.22. William Dean Howells called for the treatment of the smiling aspects of life” as being the moreAmerica n.23. The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment.24. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called free verse.25. O • Henry"s stories are usually short and interesting; Famous for their surprising end.26. Henry James is famous for his international theme of the traditionless American confronting the complexity of European life.27. Jack London believed in the inevitable triumph of the strongest individuals.28. Dreiser' greatest and most successfulnovel, AnAmerican Tragedy, is about a young man who acts as if the only way he can be truly fulfilled is by acquiring wealth—through marriage if necessary.29. Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a Lost Generation,” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilizatio n.30. Wallace Stevens work is primarily motivated by the belief that ideas of orde”.31. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called a lost generation”川Decide whether the statements are true or false (T/F).1. John Winthrop ' reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as the first distinct American literature written in English.2. In 1612, William Bradford published in England a book calledA Map of Virginia; With a description of the country.3. Philip Freneau was neoclassical by training and taste yet romantic in essential spirit.4. Ralph Waldo Emerson was recognizedas the leader of transcendentalistmovement, but he always applied theterm “Transcendentalis”t to himself or to his beliefs and ideas.5. To Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, the telling of a tale was a way of inquiring into the meaning of life.6. Walt Whitman was attacked in his lifetime for his offensive subject matter of sexuality and for his conventional style.7. Tom Sawyer walked out of Twain 's pages directly from his fresh memory of his boyhood in the west.8. Hurstwood is a character in Theodore Dreise'rs Sister Carrie.9. In the decade of the 1910s, American literature achieveda new diversity and reached its greatest heights.10. Edwin Arlington Robinson began his career as a novalist in bleakness and poverty.11. T he greatest of America's realists, such as Henry James and Mark Twain, moved well beyond a superficial portrayal of nineteenth-century America.12. H enry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Mark Twain or William Dean Howells.13.Sister Carrie is generally regarded as TheodoreDreiser's masterpiece.14. G enerally speaking, Jack London was much more interested in ideas than Stephen Crane and lesssentimental than Frank Norris.15. R alph Waldo Emerson's prose style was sometimes as highly individual as his poetry.16. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.17. Georgia, Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York, New England, all were named after French monarchs and lands.18. Benjamin Franklin was a prose stylist whose writing reflected the neoclassic ideals of clarity, restraint, simplicity and balance.19. The Fall of the House of Usheris one of Edgar Allan Poe's poems.20. The Scarlet Letteris set in the seventeenth century. It is an elaboration of a fact which the author took out of the life of the Puritan past.21. Walt Whitman was so great that he won respect and love during his lifetime for hisLeaves of Gras.s22. Many of O. Henry 's stories contain a lot of slang and colloquial expressions, just like his own speech.23. Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Mark Twain or William Dean Howells.24. Robert Frost rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, and chose “the old-fashioned way to be new”instead.25. John Steinbeck's theme was usually that simple human virtues such as kindness and fair treatment were far superior to official hard-heartedness, or the dehumanizing cruelty of exploiters for their own commercial advantage.26. Transcendentalistsspoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.27. Washington Irving was the first great belletrist, writing always for pleasure, and to produce pleasure. 28. James Fennimore Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga.29. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable.30. “Young Goodman Brown”seemsto prove everyone possesses some evil secrets1-5 FFTFT 6-10FTTFF 11-15 TFFTT 16-20 FFTFT 21-25FFFTT 26-30 TTTTTIV Answer the following questions briefl y1. These are the times that try men's souls: The summersoldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country; but he that standsit now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly—This dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.Questions:(1) Which book is this passage taken from?(2) Who is the author of this book?(3) Whom is the author praising? Whom is the author criticizing?(4) What do you think of the language?Answers:(1) The American Crisis.(2) Thomas Paine(3) Paine is praising those who stand“it”, it referring to “the service of their country”. In the meantime, Paine is criticizing those who shrink from the service of their country in this crisis.(4) The language is plain, impressive and forceful. Painehimself once said that his purpose as a writer was to use plain language to make those who can scarcely read understand and to fit the powers of thinking and the turn of language to the subject, so as to bring out a clear conclusion that shall hit the point in question and nothing else.2. It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians.In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White Whale was now widly heightened by circumstance of the Town-Ho's story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his mates…Nevertheless, so potent and influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governedin this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequod's main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record. Questions:(1) From which novel is this paragraph taken?(2) What is the name of the novelist?(3) Who is Ahab?(4) What is Pequod?(5) What is the theme of the novel?Answers:(1) Moby Dick(2) Herman Melville(3) The captain of the whaling ship(4) The name of the whaling ship(5) The rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastnessof the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.3. When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediatebalance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human temper. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expressionpossible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasivelight in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appealto the astonishedsensesin equivocal terms. Without a counselorat hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoodsmay not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens then perverts the simpler human perceptions.Questions:(1) From which novel is this paragraph taken?(2) Who is the author of this novel?(3) How do you understand “the cosmopolitan standard of virtue”?(4) Is there any naturalist tendency in this passage? Answers:(1) Sister Carrie(2) Theodore Dreiser(3) “The cosmopolitan standard of virtue”is something that makes a person becomelow in virtue and become worse.(4) Yes.4. Briefly discuss the noveTlhe Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the greatest novels in American literature. It fully explores the disillusionment and despair of the lost generation through the personal tragedy of a young man whose “incorruptible Dream”is easily smashed into pieces by the crude reality. The protagonist, Gatsby, is a mythical figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a state of mind that embodies American itself. His failure magnifies the end of the American Dream. The style of the story is explicit and chilly. Fitzgerald's accurate dialogues, his careful observation of mannerism and the colorful images provide the reader with a vivid and profound scene of the reality.5. What are the three main principles that Ezra Pound endorsed?(1) Directly treat poetic subjects.(2) Eliminate merely ornamental or superfluous words.(3) Rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of metronome.6. Tell the differences between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman⑴ Emily Dickinson expresses the inner life of individuals, while Walt Whitman keeps his eyes on the society at large.(2) Emily Dickinson is regional", while Walt Whitman is national” in his outlook.(3) Formally, Emily Dickinson uses concise, simple dictions and syntax, while Walt Whitman uses endless, all-inclusive catalogs.V Essay Writing (这个部分给大家的答案只是罗列了回答的要点,要将其连缀成文,如果简单按复习题给的答案罗列,只得一半分数)1. Write a short essayabout the novel The Grapes ofWrathWriter: John Steinbeck----won Nobel Prize forLiterature in 1962; spoke for the oppressed and suffered Background information: (1) Oklahoma used to be a major agricultural state .In the 1930s, a draught ruined this place. People had to leave here to seek a way out. Many of them went to California in hope of finding jobs there to support their famil y. (2)The Great Depressio n. Meaning of title: (1) Hope to despair; (2) Wrath of people; (3) Indications of revolutio n.Theme: (1) Embodying the mass misery of farmers; (2) Praising the spirit of love and unity; (3) Advocating fight and struggle for better life.Structure: (1) Its structure is dictated by the bible; (2) There are two blocks of material: a. the westward trek of the Joads; b. the depressed Oklahomans, and the general picture of the Great Depression.Symbols: ⑴ dust---evil forces; (2) grapes---hop e rage2. Write a short essay about the novel A Farewell to Arms Writer: Hemingway --- (1) in 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize; (2) Main works: The Sun also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The old Manand the Sea. (3) His major contribution: a. Code hero---grace under pressure; b. Iceberg Theory--- economy of expression; (4) the lost generation Background information: World War n Theme: shows the filth, meaningless,calamity of war; the death, the nothingnessof life; the disillusionment with future, hope and love, happiness.The universe is indifferent. There is no God to watch over man. Characters: Henry--- initially detached fromlife --- though well-disciplined and friendly, he feels as if he has nothing to do with the war. After falling in love with Catherine he became a code hero in some way. Catherine---code hero: unfaltering devotion to Henry, brave, considerate, optimisticSymbols: rain---sadness, desperation, depression. It is raining outside almost every time something bad occurs. mud---nature's hostility to man.3. Write a short essay about the noveTl he Adventures of Tom SawyerAuthor: Mark Twain —the first truly American writer, a local colorist; he used short, concrete and colloquial language; his sentences are simple, and even ungrammatical; good at writing children's adventures;masterpiecesincluding: The Adventuresof Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer About the novel: The first famous novel about growing up and showing the contradictions between adults ' world and teenagersw'orld, a story of his seeking for freedom, fame, fortune, love, manhood; reveals the American values such as hero complex and American dream; records the rising Age of American Bourgeois system; bears the irony and satire toward the religion and rigid, didactic children education, which curbed theimagination of children and their innate nature for freedom and adventures and molded them into a stereotype of lifeless man.4. Comment briefly on Theodore Dreiser's theme and writing style?Theme: Dreiser's works are mainly concerned with the tragic nature of the human condition by depicting the coarse, vulgar, cruel, and terrible aspects of life like sex and crime.Style: In terms of style, Dreiser has sometimes been censured for his clumsy syntax, deficient characterization, and inept and dull prose. Yet his accumulated detail, carefully selected and faithfully recorded, is a technique ofpower. Like the other naturalists, he refused to judge—to consider people as good or evil. He clothes his concepts symbolically in the details of reality. It is his journalistic method that has made him one of America's foremost novelists.。

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