英美文学选读试题及答案

英美文学选读试题Ⅰ.Multiple Choice (40 points in all, 1 for each)Select from the four choices [A],[B],[C],[D] of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement and write the letter on the answer sheet.1.Romance,which uses narrative verse or prose to tell stories of ___ adventures or other heroic deeds, is a popular literary form in the medieval period.A.ChristianB.knightlyC.GreekD.primitive2.Among the great Middle English poets, Geoffrey Chaucer is known for his production of ___.A.Piers PlowmanB.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightC.Confessio AmantisD.The Canterbury Tales3.Which of the following historical events does not directly help to stimulate the rising of the Renaisssance Movement?A.The rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture.B.The new discoveries in geography and astrology.C.The Glorious revolution.D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion.4.Which of the following statements best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?A.The speaker eulogizes the power of Nature.B.The speaker satirizes human vanity.C.The speaker praises the power of artistic creation.D.The speaker meditates on man's salvation.5.“And we wil l sit upon the rocks,/Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,/By shallow rivers to whose falls/Melodious birds sing madrigals.”The above lines are probably taken from __.A.Spenser's The Faerie QueeneB.John Donne's “The Sun Rising”C.Shakespeare's “Sonnet 18”D.Marlowe's “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”6.“Bassanio:Antonio,I am married to a wifeWhich is as dear to me as life itself;But life itself, My wife, and all the world.Are not with me esteem'd above thy life;I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all,Here to the devil, to deliver you.Portia:Your wife would give you little thanks for that,If she were by to hear you make the offer.”The above is a quotation taken from Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice.The quoted part can be regarded as a good example to illustrate ____.A.dramatic ironyB.personificationC.allegoryD.symbolism7.The ture subject of John Donne's poem,“The Sun Rising,” is to ___.A.attack the sun as an unruly servantB.give compliments to the mistress and her power of beautyC.criticize the sun's intrusion into the lover's private lifeD. lecture the sun on where true royalty and riches lie8.Of all the 18thcentury novelists Henry Fielding was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “___ in prose,”the first to give the modern novel its structure and style.A.tragic epicic epicC.romanceD.lyric epic9.The Houyhnhnms depicted by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels are ___.A.horses that are endowed with reasonB.pigmies that are endowed with admirable qualitiesC.giants that are superior in wisdomD.hairy,wild, low and despicable creatures, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in some other ways.10.Here are four lines from a literary work:“Others for language all their care express,/And value books,as women men, for dress.”The work is ___.A.Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”B.John Milton's Paradise LostC.Alexander Pope's Essay on CriticismD.Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream11.The phrase “to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and to seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils” may well sum up the implied meaning of ___.A.Gulliver's TravelsB.The Rape of the LockC.Robinson CrusoeD.The pilgrim's Progress12.William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, advocated all the following EXCEPT ___.A.the use of everyday language spoken by the common peopleB.the expression of the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelingsC.the use of humble and rustic life as subject matterD.the use of elegant wording and inflated figures of speech13.Which of the following is taken from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”?A.“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”B.“They are both gone up to the church to pary.”C.“Earth has not anything to show more fair.”D.“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”.14.“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind!” is an epigrammatic line by __.A.J.KeatsB.W.BlakeC.W.WordsworthD.P.B.Shelley15.“Ode o na Grecian Urn”shows the contrast between the ___ of art and the ___ of human passion.A.glory …uglinessB.permanence…transienceC.transience…sordidnessD.glory…permanence16.In the statement“—oh,God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?” the term“soul” apparently refers to ___.A.Heathcliff himselfB.CatherineC.one's spiritual lifeD.one's ghost17.The typical feature of Robet Browning's poetry is the ___.A.bitter satirerger-than-life caricaturetinized dictionD.dramatic monologue18.The Victorian Age was largely an age of ____,eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.A.poetryB.dramaC.proseD.epic prose19.___is the first important governess(家庭女教师) novel in the English literary history.A.Jane EyreB.EmmaC.Wuthering HeightsD.Middlemarch20.The major concern of ______ fiction lies in the tracing of the psychological development of his characters and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist industrialization on human nature.wrence'sB.J.Galsworthy'sC.W.Thackeray’sD.T.Hardy’s21.___is considered to be the best-known English dramatist since Shakespeare, and his representative works are playsinspired by social criticism.A.Richard SheridanB.Oliver GoldsmithC.Oscar WildeD.Bernard Shaw22.Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of Modernism?A.To elevate the individual and inner being over the social being.B.To put the stress on traditional values.C.To portray the distorted and alienated relationships between man and his environment.D.To advocate a conscious break with the past.23.The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the ___ in the American literary histrory.A.individual feelingsB.idea of survival of the fittestC.strong imaginationD.return to nature24.Henry David Thoreau's work,__,has always been regarded as a masterpiece of New England Transcendentalism.A.WaldenB.The pioneersC.NatureD.Song of Myself25.The famous 20-years sleep in “Rip Van Winkle”helps to construct the story in such a way that we are gr eatly affected by Irving's ___.A.concern with the passage of timeB.expression of transient beautyC.satire on laziness and corruptibility of human beingsD.idea about supernatural manipulation of man's life26.Walt whitman was a pioneering figure of American poetry. His innovation first of all lies in his use of __,poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.A.blank verseB.heroic coupletC.free verseD.iambic pentameter27.The literary characters of the American type in early 19th century are generally characterized by all the following features EXCEPT that they ___.A.speak local dialectsB.are polite and elegant gentlemenC.are simple and crude farmersD.are noble savages( red and white) untainted by society28.Hester Pryme, Dimmsdale,Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely the names of the characters in ___.A.The Scarlet LetterB.The House of the Seven GablestC.The Portrait of a LadyD.The pioneers29.“This is my letter to the World” is a poetic expression of Emily Dickinson's __ about her communication with the outside world.A.indifferenceB.angerC.anxietyD.sorrow30.With Howells,James,and Mark Twain active on the literary scene, __ became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19thcentury.A.sentimentalismB.romanticismC.realismD.naturalism31.After The adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain gives a literary independence to Tom's buddy Huck in a book entitled ___.A.Life on the MississippiB.The Gilded AgeC.The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court32.However,___,the keynote of Daisy Miller's character,turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures.A.experienceB.sophisticationC.worldlinessD.innocence33.Generally speaking,all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human reality tend to be ___.A.transcendentalistsB.idealistsC.pessimistsD.impressionists34.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 and immortality.B.Life and death.C.Love and marriage.D.War and peace.35.In “After Apple-Picking,”Robert Frost wrote:“For I have had too much/Of applepicking:I am overtired/Of the great harvest I myself desired.”From these lines we can conclude that the speaker is ___.A.happy about the harvestB.still very much interested in apple-pickingC.expecting a greater harvestD.indifferent to what he once desired36.Chinese poetry and philosophy have exerted great influence over ____.A.Ezra PoundB.Ralph Waldo EmersonC.Robert FrostD.Emily Dickinson37.The Hemingway Code heroes are best remembered for their __.A.indestructible spirtieB.pessimistic view of lifeC.war experiencesD.masculinity38.IN The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape,O'Neill adopted the expressionist techniques to portray the ___ of human beings in a hostile universe.A.helpless situationB.uncertaintyC.profound religious faithD.courage and perseverance39.In Hemingway's “Indian Cmap”,Nick's night trip to the Indian village and his experience inside the hut can be taken as ____.A.an essential lesson about Indian tribesB.a confrontation with evil and sinC.an initiation to the harshness of lifeD.a learning process in human relationship40.which of the following statements about Emily Grierson, the protagonist in Faulkner's story “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.PART TWOⅡ.Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 for each)Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English.Write your answer in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.41.“Her eyes met his and he looked away.He neither believed nor disbelieved her,but he knew that he had made a mistake in asking;he never had known,never would know,what she was thinking.The sight of her inscrutable face,the thought of all the hundreds of evenings he had seen her sitting there like that,soft and passive,but so unreadable, unknown, enraged him beyond measure.”Questions:A.Identify the writer and the work.B.What does the phrase “inscrutable face” mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?42.“And when I am formulated,sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.Then how should beginTo spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways.”Questions:A.Identify the poem and the poet.B.What does the phrase “butt-ends” mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?43.“God knows,…I'm not myself—I'm somebody else—…and I'm changed,and I can't tell what's my name,or who I am.”Questions:A.Identify the work and the author.B.The speaker says he is changed.Do you think he is changed, or the social environment has changed?C.What idea does the quoted sentence express?44.“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:A.Idenfity the poem and the poet.B.What does the phrase “ages and ages hence” mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?Ⅲ.Questions and Answers(24 points in all, 6 for each)Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.45.As a rule,an allegory is story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a surface meaning,and an implied meaning.List two works as examples of allegory.What is an allegory usually concerned with by its implied meaning?46.Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought.Who are the two?And what ideas they expressed inspire the romantic writers?47.The white whale,Moby Dick,is the most important symbol in Melville's novel.What symbolic meaning can you draw from it?48.Nature is a philosophic work, in which Emerson gives an explicit discussion on his idea of the Qversoul.What is your understanding of Emersonian “Oversoul”?Ⅳ.Topic Discussion(20 points in all, 10 for each)Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.49.How is Romanticism different from Neoclassicism?Provide brief evidence from the literary works you know best.50.Summerize the story of Mark twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in about 100 words,and comment on the theme of the novel.Ⅱ.Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 for each)41.A.John Galasworthy:The Man of Property.B.A face does not show any emotion or reaction so that it is impossible to know how that person is feeling or what he is thinking about.C.it presents the inner mind of Soames in face of his wife's coldness.He can never know what is on his wife's mind because the makeup of his and her mentality is different. His wife Irene, whose mind is romantically inclined, is disgusted with her husband's possessiveness. Being unable to read his wife's mind is as good as saying that he really can't regard her as his property- this is the very reason why he is enraged beyond measure.42.A.T.S.Eliot:“The Love Song of J.Alfred Pruforck.”B.The ends of cigarettes,meaning trivial things here.C.Here,Prufrock's inability to do anything against the society he is in is made strikingly clear by using a sharpcomparison .Prufrock imagines himself as a kind of insect pinned on the wall and struggling in vain to get free.This image vividly shows Prufrock's current predicament.43.A.Washington Irving:“Rip Van Winkle”.B.The social environment is changed.C.When Rip is back home after a period of 20 years,he finds thta everything has changed.All those old values are gone,and he can hardly feel at home in a changed society.One of the functions that Rip serves in the story is to provide a measuring stick for change. It is through him that Irving drives home the theme that a desire for change,improvement,and progress could subvert stable society.44.A.Robert Frost:“The Road Not Taken”.B.Many many years later.C.The speaker is telling his experience of making the choice of the roads.But he is conscious of the fact that his choice will have made all the diffe rence in his life.He seems to be giving a suggestion to the reader.“Make good choice of your life.”Ⅲ.Questions and Answers (24 points in all,6 for each)45.A.Buyan's pilgrim's Progress and Spenser's The Faerie Queene.B.It is usually concerned with moral ,religious,political,symbolic or mythical ideas.46.A.The French philosopher,Jean Jacques Rousseau and the German writer Johna Wolfgan von Goethe.B.It is Rousseau who established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit;his famous announcement was “I felt before I thought.”Goethe and his compatriots extolled the romantic spirit.47.A.To Ahab,the whale is either an evil creature itself or the agent of an evil force that controls the universe,or perhaps both.B.To Ishmale,the whale is an astonishing force,an immense power,which defies rational explanation due to a sense of mystery it carries. It is beautiful,but malignant at the same time. It also represents the tremendous organic vitality of the universe,for it has a life force that surges onward irresistibly, impervious to the desires or wills of men.C.As to the reader, the whale can be viewed as a symbol of the physical limits that life imposes upon man. It may also be regarded as a symbol of nature, or an instrument of God's vengeance upon evil man. In general,the multiplicity and ambivalence of the symbolic meaning of the whale is such that it becomes a source of intense speculation, an object or profound curiosity for the reader.48.A.The Oversoul is believed to be an all-pervading power for goodness,omnipresent and omnipotent from which all things come and of which all are a part. It exists in nature and man alike and constitutes the chief element of the universe.B.According to Emerson,it is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings, and a religion regarded as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal Over-soul of which it is a part.C.He holds that intuition is a more certain way of knowing than reason and that the mind could intuitively perceive the existence of the Oversoul and of certain absolutes.Ⅳ.Topic Discussion (20 points in all, 10 for each)49.a.Neoclassicists upheld that artistic ideals should be order,logic,restrained emoticon and accuracy,and that literature,should be judged in terms of its service to humanity,and thus,literary expressions should be of proportion,unity,harmony and grace.Pope's An Essay on Criticism advocates grace,wit (usually though satire/humour),and simplicity in language(and the poem itself is a demonstration of those ideals,too);Fielding's Tom Jones helped establish the form of novel;Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' displays elegance in style,unified structure,serious tone and moral instructions.b.Romanticists tended to see the individual as the very center of all experience,including art,and thus,literary work should be “spontaneous overflow of strong feelings,”and no matter how fragmentary those experiences were (Wordsworth's “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” or “The Solitary Reaper,) or Coleridge's “Keble Khan”),the value of the work lied in the accuracy of presenting those unique feelings and particular attitudes.c.In a word, Neoclassicism emphasized rationality and form but Romanticism attached great importance to the individual's mind (emotion, imagination, temporary experience…)50.A.Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a Sequa to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.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 about the age of thirteen, called Huckleberry Finn or 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 he could, changes his mind ,his prejudice, about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friends as well.During their journey, they experience a series of advent ures:coming across two frauds, the “Duke” and the “King”,witnessing the lynching and murder of a harmless drunkard, being lost in a fog and finally Tom's coming to rescue.B. The theme of the novel may be best summed in a word “freedom”: Huck wants to esca pe from the bond of civilization and Jim wants to escape from the yoke of slavery. Mark Twain uses the raft's journey down the Mississippi River to express his thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilizati。