美国文学复习题(有答案版).doc

美国文学复习提纲第一部分 连线题（1*10=10）1. Thomas JeffersonThe Declaration of Independence 2. Walt WhitmanO Captain, My Captain3. Mark TwainJumping Frog 4. 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 SteinbeckThe Grape of Wrath10. Jack LondonThe Call of the Wild11. Sinclair Lewis Babbit12. Flannery O ConnorA Good Man Is Hard to Find 13. O. Henry The Last Leaf14. Jerome David SalingerThe Catcher in the Rye15. William FalknerThe 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 she became known as the “_” who appeared in America.A. Tenth MuseB. Ninth MuseC. Best MuseD. First Muse2. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment. _ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution3. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Age of Reason4. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement 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 communication with _. A. natureB. transcendentalist ideasC. human beingsD. celestial beings6. _tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritan community 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 Irvings social conservation and literary for the past is revealed, to some extent, 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 in American literature is particularly evident in _. A. Coopers Leatherstocking TalesB. Hawthornes The Scarlet LetterC. Whitmans Leaves of GrassD. Irvings Rip Van Winkle 9. As a philosophical and literary movement, _ flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism10.EdgarAllanPoemainlywrites_.A. poems B.literarycritictheoriesC.shortstoriesD.dramas11. In Hawthornes 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 Period C. the Romantic Period D. the Realistic Period13. In the following works, which signs the beginning of the American literature?A. The Sketch BookB. Leaves of GrassC. Leatherstocking Tales D. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn14. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except _. A. war and peaceB. love and marriageC. life and death D. religion15. Emily Dickinsons poetic idiom is noted for the following except _.A. brevityB. directnessC. plainest wordsD. obscure16. The publication of _ established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. Nature B. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-Soul17. The Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States refers to the period from _ to _.A. 18611914B. 18631918C. 18651914D. 1865191818. _ is considered to be Theodore Dreisers 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 in Rome, and it brought Henry James international fame for the first time. A. The American B. The EuropeansC. Daisy MillerD. The Portrait of a Lady20. _ is described by Mark twain as a boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”.A. Tom SawyerB. Huckleberry FinnC. JimD. Tony21. Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a _ language. A. grandB. pompousC. simpleD. vernacular22. The book from which “all modern American literature comes” refers to _.A. The Great GatsbyB. The Sun Also RisesC. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn D. Moby-Dick23. In which of the following works Hemingway presents his philosophy about life and death 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 Hemingways first true novel in which he depicts a vivid portrait of “The Lost Generation”.A. The Sun Also RisesB. A Farewell to ArmsC. In Our TimeD. For Whom the Bell Tolls25. Robert Frost combined traditional verse formsthe sonnet, rhyming couplets, blank versewith a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of _ farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.A. SouthernB. Western C. New HampshireD. New England 26. _, one of the most important poets in his time, is a leading spokesman of the “Imagist Movement”.A. J. D. SalingerB. Ezra PoundC. Richard Wright D. 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 speakers choice between safety and the unknown.A. Mending the wallB Home BurialC. The Road not TakenD. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening30. Hemingways writing style, together with his theme and the hero, is greatly and permanently 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 in the 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” In the above two lines of Robert Frosts “The Road not Taken”, the poet, by implication, was referring to _. A. ones 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 of human reality on the base of _. A. William James “stream of consciousness”B. Carl Jungs “collective unconscious” and “archetypal symbol”C. Sigmund Freuds “interpretation of dreams”D. All of the above35. Writers of the second postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were _. A. a Lost Generation B. a Beat GenerationC. a Jazz GenerationD. none of the above36. In 1862, President Lincoln exclaimed: “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!” The book refers to _.A. Uncle Toms CabinB. BelovedC.Pride and Prejudice D. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn37. In Leaves of Grass, _ is all that concerned Whitman.A. individualismB. freedom C. democracyD. all the above38. It is not surprising to find in _s fiction a world of jungle, where “kill or to be killed” was the law.A. Mark Twain B. Emily Dickinson C. Theodore Dreiser D. Henry James 39. 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 I B. Paris during the French RevolutionC. Puritan America D. 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 didnt like using capital letters where small ones are needed.(T)5. Walt Whitman used parallelism and refrain in his poems. (T)6. Walt Whitman was regarded as the Zenith in American romantic poetry.(T)7. Dickinson was original. She never imitates others.(T)8. Allan Poe defined poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty.(F)9. O. Henry seldom wrote about poor people.(T)10. According to Poe, art serves for pleasure. The chief aim of poetry is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader.(T)11. According to Dickinson, death means immortality.(F)12. According to Poe, truth is beauty, beauty truth. (T)13. According to Henry James, the aim of the novel is to reflect life reality.(T)14. James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life whereas Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. (F)15. American writers, especially novelists were rather experimental after the World Wars.(T)16. O. Henrys 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 Twains 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. Whitmans 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 1800s, 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 of American 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 Gods 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 Gods will.7. Hemingway Heroes (Code Hero)“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingways 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 Fitzgeralds 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 25Text1. From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants fromhe 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 his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Questions:(1) Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken?(2) What is the title of this short story?(3) Give a definition of “short story”.Answer:(1) Washington Irving(2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(3) A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fictioncharacterization, 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 II 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 speakers 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 poets 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