美国文学期末复习资料题

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 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 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 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-Reliance.- 13. 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 ’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. imagismC. symbolismD. 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. Pequod.- 27. 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 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 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 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. Startoris.- C. The Unvanquished D. 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 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 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 therest 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 WilliamDean 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 secrets1-5 FFTFT 6-10FTTFF 11-15 TFFTT 16-20 FFTFT 21-25FFFTT 26-30 TTTTTⅣ Answer 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 cautiousinterpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognizedfor 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 WrathWriter: 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 Californiain 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 generationBackground information: World War ⅡTheme: 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..-。

合集下载

美国文学史与及选读期末复习题

1.Captain John Smith became the first American writer.2.The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people.3.is an annual collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin.4.Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”.5.Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.6.has been called the “Father of American Poetry”.7.In Washington I rving’sappeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.8.Cooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the9.is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant’s wok.is considered “father of American detective stories and American gothicstories”.10.Emerson believed above all inmind, and self-reliance.11.Hawthorne’s stories touch thedeepest roots of man’s12.Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.13.After his death, Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.14.Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, had become an American institution and the most famous literary woman in the world.15.The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their16.The poetic style Walt WhitmanHenry James is famous for his international theme of the traditionless American confronting the complexity of European life.17.Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation,”devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.18.With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein h ad called “a lost generation.”Terms1.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson andothers in New England in the middle 1800’s,which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.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. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie.The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the timeperiod which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein herself. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life5. 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. Romanticism7. 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 every 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 Go d’s will.8.Hemingway Heroes / Code HeroSuch 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 The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage” It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity.Give brief answers to the followingquestions.1.What are the characteristics of the Colonial Literature?In a real sense, there were no literal works in the early colonial period. They were just personal literature in the form of diaries, travel books, letters, journals, sermons, histories and prose.(1) In content, they wrote about the voyage to the new land, about adopting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealingwith Indian, and especially about religion.(2) In form, English traditions were imitated.ment briefly on Emily Dickinson’s themes?(1)By far the largest portion of Dickinson’s poetry concerns death and immortality, theme which lie at the centre of Dickinson’s world. (2)Dickinson’s nature poems are also great in number and rich in matter. Natural phenomena, changes of seasons, heavenly bodies, animals, birds and insects, flowers of variouskinds, and many other subjects related to nature find her way into her poetry.(3)Dickinson also wrote some poems about love. Like her death and nature poems, her love poems were original.(4)Besides deaths and immortality, nature and love, Dickinson’s poems are concerned about ethics, with respect to which, she emphasizes free will and human responsibility.4 Henry James is a great realistic writer. Name two of his major works. Do you know anything about his narrative “point of view”? What isit for? How does James employ it in his works? Briefly discuss this question.(1) Henry James’s major works include Daisy Miller and The Portrait of A Lady, etc.(2) One of Henry James literary techniques is his narrative “point of view.” As the author, James avoids the authorial omniscience as much as possible and makes his characters reveal themselves with his minimal intervention. So it is often the case that in his novels we usually learn the main story byreading through one or several minds and share their perspectives. This narrative method proves to be successful in bringing out his themes.5. 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 usesconcise, simple dictions and syntax, while Walt Whitman uses endless, all-inclusive catalogs.8. Briefly discuss the Jazz Age“The Jazz Age” describes the period the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between World War I and World War II, 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,highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term “The Jazz Age”. It can also be known as “The Roaring Twenties” and “The Dollar Decade.”。

美国文学期末复习题

文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. 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 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 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 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 FinnB. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. C. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg D. 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. imagismC. symbolismD. 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 AlmanacC. Common SenseD. The General Magazine文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持.28. In American literature, the eighteen-century was the age of the Enlightenment. ______ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution 29. ______ 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 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 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.38. 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文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. C. Dreiser Looks at Russia D. Jannie Gerhardt42. The main theme of _________ The Art of Fiction reveals his literary credo that representationof 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.文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. 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 institutionand 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.文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. 16. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.17. Georgia, Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York, New England, all were named after Frenchmonarchs 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 secrets1-5 FFTFT 6-10FTTFF 11-15 TFFTT 16-20 FFTFT 21-25FFFTT 26-30 TTTTTⅣ Answer 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文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. 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文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. (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 WrathWriter: John Steinbeck----won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962; spoke for the oppressed and sufferedBackground 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 generationBackground information: World War ⅡTheme: 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.文档来源为:从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑.欢迎下载支持. 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 becamea 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.。

美国文学期末考试练习题

美国文学练习题I. Multiple Choice1. The Puritan values did not include______.A. wastefulnessB. thriftC. pietyD. hard work2. The 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment, when ______was the dominantspirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RomanticismD. Realism3. _____was the most leading spirit of the Transcendentalism.A. FranklinB. HawthorneC. PaineD. Emerson4. Moby Dick was written by_____A. Mark TwainB. ThoreauC. MelvilleD. Whitman4. 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 JacketD. Billy Budd5. “The Scarlet Letter” is characterized by its______.A. symbolismB. rationalismC. PlatonismD. classicism6. Huckleberry Finn is the masterpiece of________.A. Henry JamesB. Jack LondonC. Mark TwainD. Stephen Crane7. Which of the following novels is NOT written by Henry James?A. The Golden BowlB. The Portrait of a LadyC. Sister CarrieD. Daisy Miller8._____ is the founder of “Imagist” movement.A. Ezra PoundB. HemingwayC. Robert FrostD. Steinbeck9. Mark Twain’s works are characterized by _____.A. NaturalismB. TranscendentalismC. Local ColorismD. Imagism10. ________ is said to be the “father of American poetry”.A. T. S. EliotB. E. D. RobinsonC. Philip FreneauD. Theodore Dreiser11. The author of The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America is _______.A. Edward TaylorB. John CottonC. Roger WilliamsD. Anne Bradstreet12. Hawthorne is regarded as a _______.A. naturalistB. classicistC. realistD. romanticist13. Imagination plays the most important part in ________.A. realismB. romanticismC. naturalismD. classicism14. ______ is considered to be the masterpiece of John Steinbeck.A. Mending WallB. Dry SeptemberC. A Farewell to ArmsD. The Grapes of Wrath15. Uncle Tom in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a(n) ______ .A. Negro slaveB. salesmanC. industrialistD. officer16. The Great Gatsby is the masterpiece of _____ .A. WhitmanB. FitzgeraldC. DickinsonD. Hemingway17. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written by______.A. H.B. Stowe B. John SteinbeckC. HawthorneD. Mark Twain18. ______ does not belong to the lost generation.A. Theodore DreiserB. T. S. EliotC. FaulknerD. Hemingway19. ______ was well known for his story “Rip Van Winkle.”A. William Cullen BryantB. Washington IrvingC. Edgar Allan PoeD. Philip Freneau20. Farewell to Arms is the master pieced produced by______A. FaulknerB. MelvilleC. HemingwayD. Longfellow21. It was ______ who wrote the formal Declaration of Independence.A. Thomas JeffersonB. Benjamin FranklinC. George WashingtonD. Washington Irving22. The masterpiece of Hawthorne is _________.A. The Scarlet LetterB. Sister CarrieC. Richard CoryD. A Psalm of Life23. Eugene O’Neill is a _______.A. novelistB. poetC. puritanD. dramatist24. Hemingway’s style of writing is characterized by______.A. high-sounding wordsB. simple dictionC. complicated sentencesD. mix metaphor25. T. S. Eliot is not only a poet but also a ______.A. criticB. statesmanC. churchmanD. novelists26. Long Day’s Journey Into Night was written by _____.A. T. S. EliotB. Eugene O’NeillC. Stephen CraneD. Saul Bellow27. Theodore Dreiser showed the_____ tendency in his novels.A. PuritanismB. classicismC. romanticismD. naturalism28. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading figure of________.A. TranscendentalismB. RomanticismC. RationalismD. Naturalism29. The Sound and the Fury was the masterpiece of ______.A. Robert Lee FrostB. T. S. EliotC. William FaulknerD. John Steinbeck30. Emily Dickinson is an American________.A. dramatistB. novelistC. female poetD. male poet31. What Whitman is famous for his_________.A. Leaves of GrassB. Mending WallC. Richard CoryD. The Burial of the Dead32. The jazz age refers to the decade of _______.A. 1950’sB.1980’sC.1920’sD.1820’s33. “Rip Van Winkle” was written by_______.A. Philip FreneauB. Allan PoeC. Washington IrvingD. Thomas Jefferson34. “Song of Myself” is a ______written by Whitman.A. novelB. poemC. dramaD. essay35. The author of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is _____.A. Beecher StoweB. Jack LondonC. Mark TwainD. O. Henry36. Mark Twain belongs to the literary school of_____.A. transcendentalismB. realismC. romanticismD. naturalism37. It was ____ who wrote the poem “The Road Not Taken.”A. Walt WhitmanB. Philip FreneauC. Robert FrostD. T. S. Eliot38. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes lessserious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more _______.A. rationalB. humorousC. optimisticD. pessimistic38. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and theinfluence 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. naturalism39. ____________were idealists, believing the church should be restored to complete“purity” and dreaming that they would build the new land to an Eden on earth.A. CalvinistsB. PuritansC. RomanticistsD. Transcendentalists40. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl are Characters in _______.A. The House of the Seven GablesB. The Scarlet LetterC. The Portrait of a LadyD. The Pioneers41. 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 Men42. In addition to his novels, _______ wrote about 120 short stories and sketches.Among them are Young Goodman Brown and The Minister’s Black Veil.A. Henry David ThoreauB. Nathaniel HawthorneC. Ralph Waldo EmersonD. Herman Melville43. 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 England44. The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the _____in the American literary history.A. individual feelingsB. idea of survival of the fittestC. strong imaginationD. return to nature45. Cooper’s story of the “frontier saga” is made up of 5 famous novels that comprisethe ________, in which the main character is Natty Bumppo.A. Leather Stocking TalesB. The Deer SlayerC. Sea AdventureD. The Romantic46. From Henry David Thoreau’s jail experience came his famous essay, ______ whichstates Thoreau’s belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Sense47. Which of the following writers does NOT belong to the romantic group in Americanliterature?A. Ralph Waldo EmersonB. Henry David ThoreauC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman48. Emerson based his religion on an intuitive belief in an ultimate unity, which hecalled ________.A. the SpiritB. the Over-lordC. the OversoulD. the Self49. ______ is a versatile man and one of his fellow Americans commented that “Hisshadow lies heavier than any other man’s on this young nation.”A. Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas PaineC. Thomas JeffersonD. Philip Freneau50. Benjamin Franklin’s best writing is found in his ________.A. Poor Richard’s AlmanacB. AutobiographyC. Declaration of IndependenceD. American Crisis51. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they areendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words are from ______.A. American CrisisB. U.S. ConstitutionC. Declaration of IndependenceD. Amendment to Constitution52. The American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written by ______while the tune was borrowed from an English drinking song.A. Francis Scott KeyB. Francis BaconC. Walter ScottD. Jack London53. The desire for an escape form society and a return to nature became a permanentconvention of American literature, evident in ____.A. James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking TalesB. Henry David Thoreau’s WaldenC. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry FinnD. All of the above54. Writers of _______ thought to arouse in their readers a turbulent sense of the remote,the supernatural, and the terrifying by describing castles and landscapes illuminated by moonlight and haunted by specters.A. Gothic terror novelsB. naturalistic novelsC. realistic novelsD. modern novels55. Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as father of all except ______.A. detective storyB. modern short storyC. psychoanalytic criticismD. fantasy story56. All of the following Poe’s works except ______ are horror stories.A. The Fall of the House of UsherB. The Tell-Tale HeartC. The Black CatD. Murders in the Rue Morgue57. All of the following Poe’s works except ______ are detective stories.A. Murders in the Rue MorgueB. The Fall of the House of UsherC. The Purloined LetterD. The Gold Bug58. The words “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much as his chamber as from society” are from ______.A. NatureB. WaldenC. Self-RelianceD. American Scholars59. The book of _______ was a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuitof a seemingly supernatural while whale.A. Moby DickB. White FangC. Billy BudD. Mardi60. Captain Ahab is a character in the novel of _______.A. Moby DickB. White FangC. Billy BudD. Mardi61. _______ first appeared in the United Stated in the literature of local color.A. RomanticismB. RealismC. SentimentalismD. Modernism62. ________ is a metaphysical theory that holds that all phenomena can be explainedmechanistically in terms of natural (as opposed to supernatural) causes and laws.A. RomanticismB. NaturalismC. SentimentalismD. Modernism63. All except ______ are representatives of realism.A. Henry JamesB. William Dean HowellsC. Mark TwainD. Herman Melville64. ________ was one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists.A. Henry JamesB. William Dean HowellsC. Mark TwainD. Herman Melville65. _______ was the founder of American realism and the most prominent critic of theentire realistic period.A. Henry JamesB. William Dean HowellsC. Mark TwainD. Herman Melville66. ________ was an early psychological realist. He is often called one of the fathersof the psychological novel.A. Henry JamesB. William Dean HowellsC. Mark TwainD. Herman Melville67. ______ is the forerunner of the 20th century “steam-of-consciousness” novels andthe founder of psychological realism.A. Henry JamesB. William Dean HowellsC. Mark TwainD. Herman Melville68. Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of short stories written by ______.A. O. HenryB. Allan PoeC. Sherwood AndersonD. Anne Porter69. William Sidney Porter is the pen name of ______.A. O. HenryB. Mark TwainC. Henry JamesD. Theodore Dreiser70. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is the pen name of _______.A. O. HenryB. Mark TwainC. Henry JamesD. Theodore Dreiser71. All except _______ are short stories by O. Henry.A. The Gift of the MagiB. The Cop and the AnthemC. The Tell-tale HeartD. The Unfinished Room72. ______ has been called the “greatest of all American urban novels”, the protagonistof which is Caroline Meeber.A. Sister CarrieB. Vanity FairC. The GeniusD. Jennie Gerhardt73. Which of the following is NOT the works of Jack London?A. The Iron HeelB. The Sea-wolfC. The Wings of the DoveD. Marti Eden74. Allen Ginsberg is a representative writer of _________.A. The Lost GenerationB. The Beat GenerationC. Black HumorD. The Theatre of the Absurd75. A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by ________.A. Eugene O’NeillB. Tennessee WilliamsC. Edward AlbeeD. Arthur Miller76. Willy Lowman is a character in the play of _______.A. The CrucibleB. Death of a SalesmanC. Cat on a Hot Tin RoofD. The Hairy Ape77. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?is a play written by _________.A. Eugene O’NeillB. Tennessee WilliamsC. Edward AlbeeD. Arthur Miller78. Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway are characters in _______.A. The Great GatsbyB. Tender Is the NightC. This Side of ParadiseD. The Last Tycoon79. The heroes of _______ often exhibit an ideal described as “grace under pressure.”A. Ernest HemingwayB. John SteinbeckC. William FaulknerD. F. Scott Fitzgerald80. Santiago is a character in Hemingway’s _______.A. The Sun Also RisesB. A Farewell to ArmsC. For Whom the Bell TollsD. The Old Man and the Sea81. All of the following are the features of Puritans EXCEPT _____.A. wanting to make pure their religious beliefs and practicesB. looking upon themselves as a chosen peopleC. tolerating others’ beliefs and sought for a happy and an easy lifeD. wishing to restore simplicity to church serves and emphasized the image of awrathful God82. ______ represents the most leading spirit of American Transcendentalism.A. EmersonB. FranklinC. Mark TwainD. Whitman83. 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 JacketD. Billy Budd84. The Portrait of a Lady is one of best novels of_________.A. Henry JamesB. John SteinbeckC. William FaulknerD. Walt Whitman85. “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.” is atypical _____ poem by Ezra Pound.A. romanticB. lyricC. imagistD. narrativeII. MatchingGroup 11.Poor Richard’s Almanac A. Philip Freneau2.The Wild Honey Suckle B. Benjamin Franklin3.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow C. Edgar Allan Poe4.Annabel Lee D. Washington IrvingGroup 21.The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County A. Henry James2.The Four Million B. Jack London3.An American Tragedy C. O. Henry4.The Call of the Wild D. Mark TwainGroup 31.The Glass Menagerie A. Tennessee Williams2.The Emperor Jones B. Arthur Miller3.Death of a Salesman C. Edward Albee4.The Zoo Story D. Eugene O’NeillGroup 41.The Road Not Taken A. T. S. Eliot2.The Waste Land B. Ezra Pound3. A Pact C. Emily Dickenson4.I Died for Beauty—But Was Scarce D. Robert Frost III. Term Explanation1.American Enlightenment2.Transcendentalism3.New England literary renaissance4.Realism5.Modernism6.Local colorism7.Lost Generation8.Jazz Age9.Imagism10.Harlem Renaissance11.Beat generation12.Code heroIV Answer the following questions in English.1. Whose novel (or which novel) do you enjoy most? Why?2. What is the style of Hemingway’s novel?3. What do you know about modern American literature?4. What is the theme of The Great Gatsby?5. What are the symbols in The Great Gatsby?6. Which American writer do you like best? Why?7. What are the features of Emily Dickinson’s poems?8. What is your comment on Edgar Allan Poe?9. What is naturalism in literary creation?10. What is Puritanism? What role does it play in the colonial America? V. Comment on excerpts from the following works.1. Because I could not stop for Death2. The Wild Honey Suckle3. Annabel Lee4. The Road Not Taken5. The Fall of the House of Usher6. Moby Dick7. The Great Gatsby8. A Farewell to Arms。

美国文学题库整理版

美国文学史及选读期末复习重点考试题型：1.名词解释（20分）5个*4=20分2.选择题（20分）3.连线题（10分）4.判断题（10分）5.片段赏析（20分）一个10分2个一个小说一个诗歌6.论述题（20分）一个10分2个一个小说一个诗歌The Outline of American LiteratureThe Realistic Period 1865-1914Realists:Henry James and his psychological realismWilliam Dean Howells and his moral realismLocal Colorism/Regionalism: Mark TwainNaturalists:Stephen Crane /DreiserThe Modern Period 1914-1945Modern Poetry:Imagism:Ezra PoundW.C.WilliamsLyrical Poet：Robert FrostCarl SandburgWallace StevensModern Novelists:Representatives of the Lost Generation:(Jazz Age)F.Scott Fitzgerald/Ernest Hemingway/T.S.EliotEpitome of the Southern Renaissance:William FaulknerThe Leftist Novelists:John Dos Passos/John SteinbeckThe Jewish American Novelists in this period:Eugene O·NeillPart I Term Definition1.American Naturalism:美国自然主义1.Naturalism is a more deliberate kind of realism and this term describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity（客观）and detachment（冷静）to its study of human beings.2.Naturalism is a literary movement that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.3.Although naturalist literaturedescribed the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world throughsocial reform.4.It accepted the interpretation Dreiser is a leadingKey words：Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory;environment and heredity; objectivity and detachment Theodore Dreiser; Sister Carrie, Stephen Crane, etc.2.American Realism:美国现实主义1.时间：In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. 内战将浪漫主义结束，开启现实主义。

美国文学史期末考试复习资料

美国⽂学史期末考试复习资料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 work named______.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 ecomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.1-5，BBACD 6-10 BADCDI.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items. (10 x 1’=10’)11.______ is the father of American Literature.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 states his belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.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” and the ____ as well.18.What did Fitzgerald call the 1920s?19.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.20.For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.1-5 D A B C C 6-10 A C C D CII. Identify Works as Described Below (1’×15 =15’):1.The novel has a sole black protagonist who tells his own story but whose name in 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 fine appearance and popularity with people and the cruel reality of the society in which money is everything.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey into Nightd. Death of Salesman3.It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on the playwright 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 how the 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 Second World 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 and travel 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, with such 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 whose title 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 she becomes 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 story in 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 reactions in 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 the universality 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 whale butthemselves 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 mainly concerned with thefour uses of nature.a. Waldenb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. The American Scholar1-5.cdaad 6-10.aacbb /doc/2ac563ad77a20029bd64783e0912a21614797f92.html cbbI.Choose 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 andarrived 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 about 1,700 shortlyric 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 the deep 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 are majora. 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 great impact on theconsciousness 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. Ralph Ellison15. Hemingway wrote about American compatriots in Europe whereas ________ wrote aboutthe Jazz age, life in American society.a.William Carlos Williamsb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. F. Scott Fitzgerald 1-5 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 the Southstates, which are known respectively as the ______and the______.a. N, Sb. Revolutionaries, Reactionariesc. Union, Confederacyd. Slavery, Anti-Slavery2._____________was praised by the British as the “Tenth Muse in America”.b. 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.b. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. ______ wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County in the deepsouth. .a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews are majorcharacters.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. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. _______ was the first black American to write a book about black life with great impact onthe 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 short storiesa. F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeck1-5.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 recognized by 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 into Nightd.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 the playwright 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 how he 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 Second World 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 and travel toCalifornia to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.b.T he 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, with suchtechniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.b.B abbitt b. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath12.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whose title is takenfrom 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 elopes with Hurstwoodand 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 on a whaling ship killa great whale but they themselves are killed by the whale in the end, except Ishmael thenarrator 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 reactions in 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 the universality andequality 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 rises morallybecause 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 ofintellectual independence” in America.a. The American Scholarb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. Walden1-5.adcad 6-10.aacbb /doc/2ac563ad77a20029bd64783e0912a21614797f92.html 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 Manl.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.ghicj III. 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 Rye i. 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’s Nature/doc/2ac563ad77a20029bd64783e0912a21614797f92.html ment on any American poet you like.3.Analyze and/or comment on any one of the American novels or plays you have read.V. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a shortessay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 2 paragraphs; you arenot simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are requiredto indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of yourown.)4.Make comments on an American novel we have discussed in this course./doc/2ac563ad77a20029bd64783e0912a21614797f92.html ment on an American poet.6.Describe how your knowledge of American literature is improved after taking thiscourse..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. Who are 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 literaryfigure 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 recognizeas 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 subtletiesof 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 Realism 7.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 and that attempts toavoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech.3.International novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities who representcertain characteristics of their own countries.4.Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding toenvironmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they havecontrol and none of which they fully understand. The literary naturalists have a majordifference from the realists. They look at a different spot to find real life.III. Please explain the following terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. international novel3. the lost generation4. free verse5.American transcendentalism Hemingway heroes1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.international novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities who represent certain characteristics of their own countries.3.the lost generation: reveals the huge destruction of the wars to the young generation. 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 and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech.5.transcendentalism: It stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and 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

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.。

美国文学期末重点复习资料

美国文学一．术语解释1，Transcendentalism(超验主义):简略版：It started in 1830s in US; which emphasis on spirit or oversoul and stressing importance of the individual; regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God. It took idea from the romantic literatures of Europe, from Neo-Platonism and so on. Emerson was its representative.深层次版：American Transcendentalism: the emergence of the Transcendentalists as an identifiable movement took place during the late 1820s and 1830s, but the roots of their religious philosophy extended much farther back into American religious history. Transcendentalism and evangelical Protestantism followed separate evolutionary branches from American Puritanism, taking as their common ancestor the Calvinism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.美国超验主义：美国超验主义出现的19世纪20年代末期到三十年代，但是它的根源在宗教史上要远得多。

美国文学期末复习资料

美国文学期末复习资料 . 美国文学期末复习选择题 Unit 2 1) To Montresor, the fatal weakness of Fortunato is his _______ for his connoisseurship in wine. A) knowledge B) arrogance C) faith D) seeming ignorance 2) Montresor wants to take revenge on Fortunato during the carnival because _______ . A) almost all the people would habitually celebrate the festival, excessively drinking and dancing in delight and giving less attention to other activities beyond celebration. B) Fortunato would be too busy as a wine connoisseur during the festival so that he might not see through the tricky plan of Montresor to put an end to his life. C) he would work together with Fortunato during the festival so as to have chance to kill him. D) he chooses the time at random instead of a deliberate scheme. 3) In the story Amontillado is known as the good wine whose _______ , as Montresor deceptively claims, has strong appeal to Fortunato. A) taste and smell B) reputation and taste C) reputation and quantity D) recommendations by Italian virtuosos 4) Who is Luchresi ? A) a boy in the bar B) a arrogant neighbor C) a wine connoisseur D) a Sherry producer 5) As Montresor and Fortunato walk further into the catacomb, the latter keeps coughing because A) the nitre hanging like moss upon the vaults increases to strongly provoke him. B) he pretends so in order to encourage himself. C) he takes Nemo me impune lacessit. D) the nitre distills the rheum of intoxication. 6) Before taking his last breath, Fortunato still seems unable to perceive the intention of Montresor, mistaking what Montresor does to him as a very good joke, indeed —an excellent jest. Why does he react so slowly? A) Fortunato has drunk too much to see his coming death. 文档Word B) Poe intends to use Fortunato's slow comprehension as a foil to the blackness of Montresor 's well-planned revenge. C) Fortunato wants to get Montresor's mercy by fooling him this way so that he may free himself from the threshold of death. D) It is only Montresor's illusion because Fortunato has been dead when the former builds up the eleven tiers of the stone wall. 7) Where does the story take place? A) It is only a psychological experience without the setting in reality. B) Poe never intends to give any information about the setting. C) It couldn't be identified. D) Italy as the setting of the story is only hinted in such as the names of characters and those of wines. 8) Montresor and Fortunato mean wealth and reasure in the Italian language, symbolically mirroring _______ . A) their identical parentage B) something hidden as their mutual weakness C) their mutual love of gold D) their mutual mania for material possession 9) As it is suggestive of the Italian culture where the story is set, the word Palazzo means _______ . A) a fancy restaurant serving good wines B) a large, splendid residence or building such as a palace or museum for public activities C) a dreamy place as paradise D) a place as storage of wine 10) The story end with a Latin quotation In pace requiescat, by which Poe hints that _______ . A) Montresor thinks he will die soon B) Montresor seems to be sorry for the death of Fortunato C) Montresor's hatred for Fortunato is still so strong that he couldn't get it over even when he murdered the latter half a century ago D) Montresor eventually regrets for what has done to Fortunato and implores God to give peace to the latter 参考答案BACCA BDBBC Unit 4 The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston because this town as one of the largest 1) The story of communities of European immigrants of the time could stand in many ways for ________. A) the Puritan culture; B) the Continental culture; C) the typical culture of the native Indians; D) the trend of immigration. 2) Generally speaking, the Puritan culture is characterized by ________. 文档Word A) its moral rigor and its hostility to social pleasures and indulgences. B) a stress on education and simplicity of life. C) a stress on human creation and free will. D) its concern for the afterlife of man. 3) Antinomian refers to a person who believes ________. A) that all the laws are harmful to human freedom. B) that Puritanism is the key to all social problems. C) that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral, and that salvation is attained solely through faith and the gift of divine grace. D) that moral power is the strongest and most useful for man's self-perfection and social development. 4) Why do people call Hester Prynne “Madam Hester”or “Mistress Prynne”, respectively? A) It reflects their habitual use of the English language. B) It makes no difference. C) It hints their social status. D) It shows their different attitudes toward her. 5) Why doesn't Hawthorne explicitly tell his audience the weaver of the scarlet letter upon

美国文学复习资料题(有标准答案版)

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’ Conno r 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. ________ wasthe 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 communicationwith ________.A. natureB. transcendentalist ideasC. human beingsD. celestial beings6. ________tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritancommunity 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 spokesman ofNew 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...1918 C. 1865...1914 D. 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. T om 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 comes” 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 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 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 complex 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, committed 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 Howellsconcerned 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 the World 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 accompanied 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 to pervade 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 histribe, 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 come 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 compared 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 compared 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.。

美国文学期末复习

一、填空1.The central movement in American literature in the period between the end of the Civil War in1865 and the dawn of the 20th century was the development of realism.2.Howell’s straightforward definition of realism is ―nothing more and nothing less than thetruthful treatment of material.‖3.Howells, James and Twain showed obvious differences in their writings. Howells was noted forhis presentation of middle-class American life. Jame s’ topics were taken mainly from the upper class of the society. As for Mark Twain, his interest lay in people of the lower class.4.Mark Twain is the pen-name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.5.Hemingway praised the adventures of Huckleberry fin as one from which ―all modern Americanliterature comes.‖6.Mark Twain wrote in a humorous and colloquial style.7.Mark Twain is remembered as a great literary artist and a social critic as well.8.The early years of the career of Henry James produced a number of novels, among which themost important are The American, Daisy Miller, The portrait of a lady. In those novels he deals with his major fictional theme, ―the international theme‖, the meeting of America and Europe.Americans often appears to stand for morality and Europeans for manners.9.Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. He believed that reality existedin the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is aware.10.Naturalism 的代表作家Stephen Crane, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser11.Literary Naturalism depends upon a biological model, seeing man as victim of heredity and hisimmediate environment. It is essentially mechanistic in its view of matter and deterministic in its attitude toward human will.12.Determinism, survival, violence, sex and disease became the major themes of naturalism. 记三个就OK13.The American tragedy reveals a last stage in Dreiser’s thinking: social consciousness. Muchmore then in Sister Carrie, he sees his characters as victims of society.14.the most important literary development was the modernistic trend in which a new group ofwriters called the ―Lost Generation‖ rebelled for ideals and values.15.Of several descriptions of the culture of the twenties, two—Gertrude Stein’s ―lost generation‖and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ―Jazz Age‖ have proved most durable.16.Novelists like Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, e ecummings, and Ezra Pound are generally regarded as writers of the lost generation. 必考（记三个人名就好）17.Three Imagist poetic principles: direct treatment, economy of expression and rhyme.18.An image is a literal and concrete representation of a sensory experience of an object.19.―In a station of the metro‖ is a good example of an imagist poem. ―the apparition of these facesin the crowd; petals on a wet black bough‖20.the influence of Chinese poetry on eminent Imagist poets like Pound, Amy Lowell is especiallynoteworthy.21.Pound’s major work of poetry is the Cantos, his epic of fifty years’making. It contains 117poems and is a formidable piece of high modernist poetry.22.The waste land is a vision of the western world at the end of the First World War. It shows itsspiritual crisis at the time and also Eliot’s wish for the regeneration for the human race.23.Hemingway’s public image is one of a tough guy. He liked sports and bullfight, big-gamehunting and deep-sea fishing. He regards the world as ―all a nothing‖ or ―all nada‖ They try hard to find their way, to win the battle, and to show grace and dignity under pressure.24.The creation of Hemingway is guided by his ―iceberg‖ principle.25.The sound and the fury is Faulkner’s response to the old south myth and the new southernsituation.26.Faulkner is first and foremost a southern regionalist who spent his entire life chronicling hisown region. The major theme of Faulkner’s important works is the decadence of Southern character and society following the civil war.名词解释1.the law of jungleThe British philosopher Herbert Spencer employs Darwin’s doctrine of Natural selection and the survival of the fittest to human society. Spencer held that human beings, like animals, were forced to act as they did because of the appetites and urges formed by heredity and environment.The stronger and more intelligent would win.2.the international themeIt is the major fictional theme of Henry James which is about the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence, and its moral and psychological complications.3.realismIt is a literary movement in America between the end of the civil war and the dawn of the 20th century. It is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. The realistic writers truthfully depicted life around them, identified their characters with their surroundings, and sometimes achieved psychological penetration.4.naturalismIt is a literary movement that originates in France. It sees man as victim of heredity and his immediate environment. It is essentially mechanistic in its view of matter and deterministic in its attitude toward human will.5.the lost generationThe term is coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of youth who are disillusioned by the First World War. They witness the economic growth after the war, in sharp contrast with the spiritual emptiness. They are cut off from the tradition and feel lost about their future.6.ImagismIt is a literary movement that flourishes in American poetry in the first years of the 20th century.The three imagist poetic principles are direct treatment, economy of expression and that no unnecessary words may be included in order to make meter or a rhyme.7.the Jazz AgeIt is a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald to describe the extravagant but meaningless life in America between the 1920s and 1930s. It was a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faith in man shaken.8.iceberg principleIt is the guiding writing principle of Earnest Hemingway. He holds that like an iceberg, a story should be ―seven eighths under water for every part that shows.‖ It gives implications to the highly suggestive and connotative simplicity of Hemingway’s writing style.9.tough guyIt is the public image of Hemingway. He is a man of action, not of thoughts, who shows grace and dignity under pressure.三identify 2’*10 应该每个都会考到，有的可能要出现两次The adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark TwainDaisy Miller –Henry JamesTo build a fire—Jack LondonSister Carrie –Theodore DreiserHugh Selwyn Mauberley –Ezra PoundThe love song of J. Alfred Prufrock – T. S. EliotBig Two-hearted river—Earnest HemingwayA rose for Emily—William Faulkner四comment on character1. Huckleberry FinnHe is the hero of the adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain.六、简答A rose for Emily1. Emily, as the last member of the glorious aristocratic family, died. Her death is a mark of the end of the traditional southern culture. In addition, she is a ―fallen‖woman because she has a relationship with a northerner and a laborer which is prohibited.Because she was born in an aristocratic family, she didn’t have the freedom to choose her own marriage. Her father thought no young man was good enough for her. As a result, after her father’s death, she had to lead a lonely life on her own.2. The old mayor remitted Emily’s taxes, in the pretext that her father had made contribution to the town. He was considerate of the lady who lived alone. However, the new generation called Emily to pay the tax.The young generation is money-oriented. They lose their sense of morality and propriety.3. On the one hand, Faulkner loves the land of his nativity. On the other hand, he is aware of the defects of the southern civilization and foresees its decline.Big two-hearted river1.the burnt-over country, and the black grasshoppers living in the burnt-over land.2.He is physically totally engaged in the physical activities and do them step by step like rituals.The purpose of his journey is to heal the wound caused by war.3.yes. He is a man of action, not of thoughts. He is skillful in doing physical activities and seldomthinks.4.He language is simple and prefers to use repeated words and expressions.P291.they are too wise and intelligent to take action. as a result, they are timid and useless.They could talk about Michelangelo, but don’t dare to confess their love.2.He portrays them as measuring out their life with coffee spoons. They idle away theirextravagant life, which is in fact, empty and meaningless. They have no courage to change the world nor take action.P171.the modern world is full of disillusionment. The traditional western culture is dead.As the poet says, ―he strove to resuscitate the dead art of poetry, to maintain the sublime in theold sense.‖上册P 2141. The forces refer to the forces of nature and society. Men should go with these forces, ratherthan against them. Men are not able to defeat the environment and society.3. The motives are her selfish desire for her own benefits and desires.P1971.man is powerless in the face of nature. He could live only within certain narrow limits ofheat and cold.2.the dog is the fittest, because it has the instincts to be aware of the danger. In addition, it isborn with the thick fur to survive in the coldness. All these are gotten from heredity.3.the author has a pessimistic opinion about human civilization. Although the animal instinctsare less educated, they are wiser than human beings. The dog knows the cold, he knows it is not a good time for travel. However, the man did not know cold, possibly all the generations of his ancestors had been ignorant of cold.P1601.Daisy Miller, who represents the American culture has a dispute with Mrs. Walker, whorepresents the European culture. When Daisy has a walk with two young men, Mrs. Walker tries to persuade her to get into the carriage, because this behavior is against the European conventions. However, Daisy refuses to get on and continues her walking with the two men. 5.It symbolizes the western tradition and conventions.P1331.At the very beginning, Huck tries to make joke of Jim, and treats him as a person lower thanhimself. However, after their journey together, he finds that Jim is his best friend, and treats him equally as a man rather than a slave.2.On the one hand, his common sense and deformed conscience call on him to tell the owner ofJim. On the other hand, his sound heart tells him to save Jim and keep him free. He writes a letter to Miss Watson. After severe mental conflicts, he tears up the letter, and decides to save Jim.。

1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。

美国文学期末复习资料题

美国文学史与及选读期末复习题

美国文学期末复习题

美国文学期末考试练习题

美国文学题库 整理版

美国文学史期末考试复习资料

美国文学期末复习题

美国文学期末重点复习资料

美国文学期末复习资料

美国文学复习资料题(有标准答案版)

美国文学期末复习

美国文学题库整理版