美国文学题库

美国文学题库II. Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement.1. 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. Starbuck2. 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. pessimistic3. Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire includes three novels. They are The Financier, The Titan and_____ .A. The GeniusB. The TycoonC. The StoicD. The Giant4. The impact of 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 school of realism: American___________ .A. local colorismB. vernacularismC. modernismD. naturalism5. 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 England6. 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 Elms7. 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 view8. Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by____________.A. short, clear sentencesB. abundance of local imagesC. ordinary American speechD. highly refined language9. One of the characteristics that have made Mark Twain a major literary figure in the 19th century America is his use of____________ .A. vernacularB. interior monologueC. point of viewD. photographic description10. It is on his____________ that Washington Irving’s fame mainly rested.A. childhood recollectionsB. sketches about his European toursC. early poetryD. tales about America11. 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 Renaissance12. 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 Unitarianism13. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statementsis 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 and psychological effectsof the sin upon the main characters and the people in general.D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.14. 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 beauty15. 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 rhyming16. 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 industrialized and commercialized society … a highly developed society17. 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 tochanging harsh environment.D.Their characters were conceived more or less complexcombinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned bysocial and economic forces.18. 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.19. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American ______.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. RealismD. Naturalism20. 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.21. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, inwhich her general Skepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed.A. man and manB. men and womenC. man and natureD. men and God22. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poems about nature?A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about therelationship between man and nature.B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythicalbond between man and nature.C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings.D. Many of them showed her feeling of nature’s inscrutability andindifference to the life and interests of human beings.23. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote hispoetry 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 feelings24. In the first part of the 20th century，apart from Darwinism, there weretwo 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 Freud25. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O’Neill plays?A. Most of his plays are concerned about the root, the truth ofhuman 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 andnature as well as man and woman.D. Both A and B.26. 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 predicament27. 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.28. As to the great American poet Ezra Pound, which of the following is not right?A. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed andhis poetry is dense with personal, 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 toanchor his poetic language in concrete, perceptual reality, and toorganize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.D. For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he didin the wartime, his literary achievement and influence aresomewhat reduced.29. In his poetry, Robert Frost made the colloquial ______ speech into a poetic expression.A. EnglandB. New EnglandC. PlymouthD. Boston30. 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 spokenlanguage-the speech of New England farmers.D. He combined traditional verse forms with the experimental.31. 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 worshipof riches and the unending American dream of fulfillment.B. They are symbolic of the psychological journey of the modernman and his helplessness in the modern 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.32. 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.33. Which of the following statements is right about the novel A Farewell to Arms?A. The author favored the idea of nature as an expression of eithergod’s design or his beneficence.B. The author attempted to write the epitaph to a decade and to thewhole generation in the 1930s.C.The author emphasizes his belief that man is trapped bothphysically and mentally and suggests that man is doomed to beentrapped.D. It tells a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded Americansoldier with an Italian nurse.34. Which of the following is depicted as the mythical county in William Faulkner’s novels?A. Cambridge.B. Oxford.C. Mississippi.D. Yoknapatawpha.35. 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.36. Which of the following is right about American fiction from 1945 onwards?A. A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about theirideals within the artistic field.B. There appeared a significant group of Jewish-American writerswhose works were set against the Jewish experience andtradition.C. Black fiction began to attract critical attention during the 1950s.D. American fiction in the 1950s and 1960s proves to be a harvestwhich derived from its predecessors.37. 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.38. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as ______________.A. commentatorsB. observersC. villainsD. saviors39. Besides sketches, tales and essays, Washington Irving also publisheda 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 Washington40. 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 theupper classC. contrast of the rich and the poorD. the happy days of the Jazz Age41. 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 Walden42. Which of the following novels can be regarded as typically belongingto the school of literary modernism?A. The Sound and the FuryB. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.C. Daisy Miller.D. The Gilded Age.43. 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.44. 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"45. 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.46. 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 Whitman47. The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his“black 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 clothes48. Theodore Dreiser was once criticized for his____________ in Style，but as a true artist hisstrength just lies in that his style is very serious and well calculatedto achieve thethematic ends he sought.A. crudenessB. eleganceC. concisenessD. subtlety49. 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 inexplicable50. Yank, the protagonist of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Hairy Ape, talked to the gorillaand 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 beast51. In__________, Robert Frost compares life to a journey, and he isdoubtful whether hewill regret his choice or not when he is old, because the choice has made all thedifference.A. “After Apple-Picking”B. “The Road NOt Taken”C. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”D. “Fire and Ice”52. Though Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were romantic poets in theme andtechnique, 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 oftenaddresses such issues as_______, immortality, religion, love and nature.A. progressB. freedomC. beautyD. death53. 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 nature54. Generally speaking，all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human realitytend to be_____________.A. transcendentalistsB. optimistsC. pessimistsD. idealists55. 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. Naturalism56. 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 Men57. 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 pioneers58. 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 Sin59. 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.60. Which of the following is NOT the virtue that Franklin enumerated in his The Autobiography?A. TemperanceB. Humanity (Humility)C. FrugalityD. Immoderation61. 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, WWII62. _________ believes that the chief aim of literary 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 Emerson63. 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. de ath is described as a beautiful girl who couldn’t find her final destination64. Which is generally regarded as the manifesto and the Bible of American Transcendentalism?A. Thoreau’s WaldenB.Emerson’s NatureC. Poe’s Poetic Princip leD. Thoreau’s Nature65. Henry David Thoreau’s work, ________, has always been regarded asa masterpiece of the New England Transcendental Movement.A. WaldenB. The PioneersC. NatureD. "Song of Myself"66. ‘Leaves of Grass’ commands great attention because of its uniquelypoetic embodiment of________, which are written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War.A.the democratic idealsB. the romantic idealsC. the self-reliance spiritsD. the religious ideals67. ________is the author of the work “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.A. Washington IrvingB. James JoyceC. Walt WhitmanD. William Butler Yeats68. After "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer", Twain gives a literary independence to Tom’s buddy Huck in a book called_________, 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 Rises69. The greatest work written by Theodore Dreiser is__________.A. Sister CarrieB.An American TragedyC. The FinancierD. The Titan70. We can perhaps summarize that Walt Whitman’s poems arecharacterized by all the following features except that they are _______________.A. conversational and crudeB. lyrical and well-structuredC. simple and rather crudeD. free-flowing71. Who exerts the single most important influence on literary naturalism, of which Theodore Dreiser and Jack London are among the best representative writers?A. FreudB. Darwin.C. W.D. Howells. D. Emerson72. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his ____.A. international themeB. waste-land imageryC. local colorD. symbolism73. At the beginning of Faulkner’s A Rose For Emi ly, there is a detailed description of Emily’s old house. The purpose of such description is to imply that the person living in it ____________.A. is a wealth ladyB. has good tasteC. is a prisoner of the pastD. is a conservative aristocrat74. Most of Herman Melville’s novels are based on sea voyages and seaadventures. Which of the following is not the case?A. Typee.B. Moby-Dick.C. Omoo.D. The Confidence-Man75. In Henry James’ Daisy Miller, 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 rich76. "Two roads diverged in a yellow woodAnd sorry I could not travel both ..."In the above two lines of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, the poet, by implication, was referring to _______.A. a travel experienceB. a marriage decisionC. a middle-age crisisD. one’s course of life77. The Transcendentalists believe that, first, nature is ennobling, and second, the individual is ____________.A. insignificantB. vicious by natureC. divineD. forward-looking78. The Publication of ______established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-Soul79. In Robert F rost’s famous poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", there are four lines like these: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep,/ And miles to go before I sleep”. The second sleep refers to______.A. dieB. calm downC. fall into sleepD. stop walkingExplain the following literary terms.1. Stream-of-ConsciousnessStream of Consciousness is a narrative method to describing the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the characters, but not using objective description or conventional dialogue. Authors represent the thought, emotions without logical sequence or syntax and make the characters tell the inner movement of consciousness and the thoughts.2. American TranscendentalismNew England Transcendentalism was, in essence, romantic idealism on Puritan soil. It was a system of thought that originated from three sources. First William Ellery Channing (1780---1842) was an American Unitarian clergyman. His Unitarianism represented a thoughtful revolt against orthodox Puritanism. Unitarianism believed God as one being, rejecting the doctrine of trinity, stressing the tolerance of difference in religious opinion, and giving each congregation the free control of its own affairsand its independent authority. It laid the foundation for the central doctrines of transcendentalism. Secondly, the idealistic philosophy from France and Germany exerted enormous impact on American intellectuals. Thirdly, oriental mysticism as revealed in Hindu and Chinese classics reached America in English translations. As a result, New England Transcendentalism blended native American tradition with foreign influences.3. American Realism Realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner. This is the theory that authors try to use and guide them in their writing. It stresses truthful treatment of material. It is anti-romantic, anti-sentimental, and without abstract interest in nature, death, etc. Mark Twain laughed at people who were caught up in the world of illusions, who were not mature enough to see real situations. This is one example of the truthful treatment of material.4. American RomanticismRomanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. It was a movement of conscious rebellion against being too objective. The romantic spirit was one of subjectivity of inward feelings that one could trust one’s subj ective responses. Romantics placed a high premium upon the creative function of imagination, and saw art as a formulation of intuitive and imaginative perceptions that tend to speak a nobler truththan that of fact.5. Multiple points of view The employment of several narrators or narrative points of views to tell a story, thus making the structure of the book somewhat radioactive. For example, The Sound and the Fury uses four different narrative voices to piece together the story and thus challenges the reader by presenting a fragmented plot told from multiple points of view.6. Hemingway Code Hero It refers to some protagonists in Hemingway's works. In the general situation of Hemingway's novels, life is full of tension and battles; the world is in chaos and man is always fighting desperately a losing battle. Those who survive and perhaps emerge victorious in the process of seeking to master the code with a set of principles such as honor, courage, endurance, wisdom, discipline and dignity are known as "the Hemingway code". To behave well in the lonely, losing battle with life is to show "grace under pressure" and constitutes in itself a kind of victory, a theme clearly established in The Old Man and The Sea. Though life is but a losing battle, it is a struggle man can dominate in such a way that loss becomes dignity; man can be physical1y destroyed but never defeated spiritually. Obviously, Hemingway's limited fictional world implies a much broader thematic pattern and serious philosophica1 concern. Hemingway Code Heroes plainly embody Hemingway's own values and view of life.7. Imagism A literary movement that began in London and later spread to the US at the beginning of the 20th century. It underwent three major phases in its development, and T. E. Hulme, Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell lead the movement respectively. It advocated “the use of one dominant image”. According to Ezra Pound, a n image is “that which presents an intelle ctual and emotional complex in an instant of time” and the three principles that he established were: a. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective; b. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.8. Harlem Renaissance The first flowering of African-American literature. It came about during the 1920s and early 1930s in the Harlem district of New York. The first important literary movement of African-American writers, it brought the long neglected African-American literature to the attention of the whole world. Though short-lived, it produced such outstanding writers as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Rudolph Fisher, Wallace Thurman, Arna Bontemps, Eric Waldron, and James W. Johnson.。