陶洁版 美国文学选读_第三版_课后习题答案

美国文学选读 第三版 课后习题答案 陶洁 部分 Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin Questions 1 Why did Franklin write his Autobiography Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it 2 What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed His brother was passionate and had often beaten him The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life After a brush with the law Franklin left his brother 3 How did he arrive in Philadephia First he set out in a boat for Amboy the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington the next day he reached Burlington on foot in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia he arrived there about eight or nine o clock on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf 4 What features do you find in the style of the above selection It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity directness and concision 言简意赅 The narrative is lucid 易懂的 the structure is simple the imagery is homely 朴素的 Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe 1 Who is the narrator What wrong does he want to redress Montresor Fortunato one of wine experts insulted him so he wanted to murder him 2 What is the pretext he uses to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he believes to be a cask of Amontillado a rare and valuable sherry wine Fortunato is anxious to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado so he goes to the vault with Montresor 3 What happens to Fortunato in the end He was walled up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar 4 Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Montresor and Fortunato as contrasts Poe uses color imagery to characterize them Montresor face is covered in a black silk mask In contrast Fortunato dresses the motley colored costume of the court fool who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor s masked motives The color schemes here represent the irony of Fortunato s death sentence Through the acts words and thoughts of Fortunato we know He is greedy he was lured into the dark and somber vaults just because a cask of Amontillado This is also due to his bad habit of bibulosity 酗酒 He lost himself on hearing the wine At the same time he was cheated by his enemy which reflected his ignorance When he heard the pretended compliment from Montresor he became very boastful and arrogant He was easily confused by the superficial phenomena and failed to watch out for others He couldn t tolerate that others were stronger than him For example Montresor always stimulated him with Luchresi who was good at connoisseur 鉴赏 in wine Under the impulse of vanity he fell into Montresor s terrible trap In fact he was careless and foolish and didn t find that the danger was approaching him He looked down upon Montresor and others He didn t realize his foolishness until the death was coming Talking from the appearance Monstresor was a well educated and kind businessman He enjoyed the honor and respect in the city But in fact he was an evil and awful person His inner feelings were so cruel that they even made people tremble Under his rich appearance was the dirty soul and despicable character We couldn t see any glorious virtues in his mind Instead his heart was cold and dark It was the revenge that threw Montresor into the deep evil valley unit 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne 1 Why is the prison the setting of Chapter 1 No matter how optimistic the founders of new colonies may be they are quick to establish a prison and a cemetery in their Utopia for they know that misbehavior evil and death are unavoidable This belief fits into the larger Puritan doctrine which puts heavy emphasis on the idea of original sin the notion that all people are born sinners because of the initial transgressions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he is therefore using the prison building to represent the crime and the punishment which are aspect of civilized life What is the implication of the description of the roses The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man s activities The narrator suggests that roses offer a reminder of Nature s kindness to the condemned for his tale he says it will provide either a sweet moral blossom or else some relief in the face of unrelenting sorrow and gloom 2 Describe the appearance of Hester Prynne and the attitude of the people towards her The second paragraph on page 30 The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women all maintaining severe looks of disapproval Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne and they soon vow that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges One woman the ugliest of the group goes so far as to advocate death for Hester 3 What has happened to Hester As a young woman Hester married an elderly scholar Chillingworth who sent her ahead to America to live While waiting for him she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale after which she gave birth to Pearl The scarlet letter is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate It seems to declare that she is proud rather than ashamed of her sin In reality however Hester simply accepts the sin and its symbol as part of herself just as she accepts her child And although she can hardly believe her present realities she takes them as they are rather than resisting them or trying to atone for them How does this tell us about her character Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent capable It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure Unit5 Herman Melville 1 What are the stories Ismael tells about Moby Dick Ishmael compares the legend of Moby Dick to his experience of the whale He notes that sperm whale attacks have increased recently and that superstitious sailors have come to regard these attacks as having an intelligent even supernatural origin In particular wild rumors about Moby Dick circulate among whalemen suggesting that he can be in more than one place at the same time and that he is immortal Ishmael remarks that even the wildest of rumors usually contains some truth Whales for instance have been known to travel with remarkable speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific thus it is possible for a whale to be caught in the Pacific with the harpoons of a Greenland ship in it Moby Dick who has defied capture numerous times exhibits an intelligent malignity 狠毒 in his attacks on men 2 Why does Ahab react so violently against the white whale First he lost one of his legs because of the white whale Second He considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in the world and he pursues the White Whale because he believes it his inescapable fate to destroy this evil Ishmael suggests that Ahab is crazy and call him a raving lunatic Do you agree with him Why or why not Ishmael describes Ahab as mad in his narration and it does indeed seem mad to try to fight the forces of nature or God 3 What narrative features can you find in the selected chapter In the selected charpter Melville employed the technique of multiple view of his narrative to portray Moby Dick to achieve the effect of ambiguity and let readers judge the meaning Unit 6 Henry David Thoreau 1 Where indeed did Thoreau live both at a physical level and at a spiritual level He lived in a cabin on Walden Pond which belonged to Emerson s property 2 Had Thoreau ever bought a farm Why did he enjoy the act of buying No he hadn t He avoided purchasing a farm because it would inevitably tie him down financially and complicate his life Thoreau didn t see the acquisition of wealth as the goal for human existence he saw the goal of life to be an exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us He regarded the places as an existence free of obligations and full of leisure 3 Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods Why Yes it is Because The Fourth of July is known as Independence Day the birthday ot the United States Here Thoreau uses the day to express his beginning of regeneration at Walden It also means a symbol of his conquest of being 4 How could you answer the question Thoreau asked at the end of this selection Unit 7 19th Century American Poets 1 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1 I Shot an Arrow 1 Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song The arrow flies too swiftly and too far away to be seen by the speaker whereas the song is naturally invisible 2 In what circumstances did he find them again He finds them unexpectedly years later from the trunk of a tree and the heart of a friend 3 What do arrow and song stand for in this poem The images of arrow and song here may stand for friendship 2 A Psalm of Life 1 What kind of person is the speaker of this poem The speaker is a man of action always optimistic and cheerful trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life 2 According to the poem how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death We should work harder and live happier 3 Interpret the metaphor of Footprints on the sand of time line 28 The metaphor refers to human deeds in real life 2 Walt Whitman 1 One s Self I Sing 1 What is the significance of singing about one s self It is an exaltation of the individual spirit which is typical of American people 2 What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person 3 What does Whitman mean by the term of the Modern Man He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride totally different from the traditional one that is full of bias 3 O Captain My Captain 1 Why is the word Captain capitalized throughout the poem In this poem the word Captain specially refers to Abraham Lincoln president of the United States 2 What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem Life is a journey 3 Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring while the speaker remains so sad They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor 3 Emily Dickinson 1 To Make a Prairie 1 What things are needed to make a prairie In what sense can one really do it Some grass and insects and small animals People can make a prairie with their imagination 2 How can revery alone create a prairie The prairie stays in one s mind 2 Success Is Counted Sweetest 1 Why is success counted sweetest by those who ne er succeed Those who have tasted the bitterness of failure would have a keener desire for success 2 Who are the purple host The so called successful people in the world 3 Who is he in the last stanza Anyone who is pursuing his success 3 I m Nobody 1 Who are the pair of us and they in this poem The pair of us refers to the speaker in the poem and the reader and they refers to the public especially those in power 2 What does an admiring bog really mean line 28 It Implies the vain and empty common people who are always admiring and pursuing the celebrities 3 What is the theme of this poem The real admirable life is a secluded and common one 4 Do you want to be nobody or somebody Explain your reasons Different persons would have different answers to this question Personally I prefer to be nobody Unit 8 Mark Twain 1 Why do you think Mr Wheeler is so eager to tell these stories From Mr Wheeler s behaviors and contents of his narration we can know he is so eager to tell these stories First when I asked him to tell me something about W Smiley he backed me into a corner and blockaded me with his chair and then sat down and reeled off the narrative And during the process of telling his stories he never paid any attention to others response to his story and just went on telling what amused him At last when the listener felt boring and wanted to leave Mr Wheeler even didn t notice it and still asked him to sit there listening to him 2 Does his audience share his enthusiasm in telling the stories No the audience does not show any interest in Mr Wheeler stories In fact the narrator was very feverish about his stories but in the eyes of the listener the stories were very boring and had nothing to do with his preoccupation As an educated man the listener couldn t understand the way of laborers for joy and he would never bother himself to understand it So after the long time of Mr Wheeler solo narration and when the audience got a chance he fled away 3 Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor Why How do you interpret their interactions The narrator and his listener never noticed or suspected the presence of humor During the intercourse the narrator went vigorously on his monotonous narrative wihout a little smiling talking about the animals and the things like while the listener felt rather puzzled or bothered by his stories It seemed to be kind of coarse things So the two different scenes go on separately without a intersection And their interaction was a complete failure according toour common sense about communication But it in this sense produced the effect of humor which can be tasted by our readers due to the skills adopted by Mark Twain Unit 14 F Scott Fitzgerald 1 Do you think Gatsby deserves to be called the great Why 1 I think it is too complicated to simply say Gatsby deserves to be great or not For one thing Gatsby was ambitious hardworking generous and passionate He was so extremely loyal to his love and Daisy that he could do anything to get Daisy back he did shady business to earn money and social position he threw luxurious parties just to draw Daisy s attention he could take the blame for a death that he did not cause 2 In this respect he is much greater than his contemporaries For another thing Gatsby never realized that Daisy wasn t the girl he loved anymore Gatsby was so innocent that he staked everything on his dreams not realizing that his dreams are unworthy of him He wasn t sober enough to be great 2 Does the green light Gatsby believed in exist in reality Why or why not 1 I think the green light does not exist in reality Because the green light which situated at the end of Daisy s East Egg dock and barely visible from West Egg lawn represents Gatsby s unattainable dream Although the color itself can be seen as hope and bright future Gatsby s quest for Daisy back is doomed to be impossible Daisy lived in a material world without being real where poor ghosts breathing dream like air 2 After five years when Gatsby met Daisy again the miracle Daisy had lost her original glory Therefore there is no delaying that Gatsby s dream would not come true In the novel the green light not only represents that innocent Gatsby looked forward to the future but also means his longing for the history his happy past with Daisy The distinction between ideal and reality was huge As if American dream between golden past and golden future always suffered from the realistic betrayal and crush 3 What does Gatsby s Schedule reveal about him and how does it relate to the American Dream 1 The schedule is a reflection of Gatsby s determination and ambition It reveals that he is hard on himself in pursuit of his goal to be an upper class man 2 On one hand we can know that he is persistent in pursuing his American Dream to attain wealth and happiness through his struggle On the other hand he is too idealistic and naive 3 He tries his best to make money and learns everything required to be an upper class man so that he can get access to his beloved girl Money is important but there are other barriers difficult to penetrate The girl he loves is as vulgar and superficial as others in her circle she is unable to meets Gatsby s romantic fantasy So his dream is destined to shatter which indicates the disillusion of American Dream 4 When you read the line He the man with owl eyed glasses took off his glasses and wiped them again outside and in what images does it create in your mind given the novel s numerous references to the strikingly strange scene of the spectacled eyes 1 From this line superficially owl eyes is a person with thick and blurry glasses who can not see clearly all the things in the world However we know he is actually an owl wise observer and sees more clearly than anyone else in the novel Owl Eyes except Nick is the only friend to appear at the rain soaked burial of Gatsby when others are unwilling to come He feels sympathy for Gatsby s tragedy 2 After reading this line I cannot help thinking of the Dr Eckleburg billboard with its huge yellow spectacles in this novel In many rainy days Dr Eckleburg s eyes are also dimmed and seem blind But in fact this is a pair of all seeing eyes The Owl Eyed Man is similar to Dr Eckleburg sadly looking at the people s life and idealism of this time Both of them symbolize an uninvolved spectator god They watch all the activities of the humans Owl eyes is the avatar of the sightless Dr Eckleburg Unit 16 Ernest Hemingway 1 How do you interpret the irony of the title after reading the story 1 The title A Clean Well Lighted Place refers to the caf in the text The caf was very clean and well lighted From the literary meaning we may feel this place was very warm and comfortable was a place where people need warmth wanted to go So the old man who was rich but deaf and lonely came here to find warmth and avoided nada It was the only place he could go and could find some comfort 2 However the younger waiter was very selfish As his wife was waiting him on the bed he wanted to go home early Therefore he refused to offer the old man another cup of wine by the excuse that the business was finished In fact there was still an hour from closing time The younger thought an hour was more important to him than to the old man The old man needed to leave the only place where he could get far away from nada nothing This caf should be warm but the younger waiter forced the lonely and deaf to leave without any sympathy This is the irony of the title 2 Do you think youth and confidence can help one withstand the metaphorical dark Why or why not 1 I don t think so In our opinion the metaphorical dark means nada nothing in one s inner heart In the article the younger waiter had both youth and confidence however he never made full use of them As we can see he didn t understand the old man s suicide and excessive drinking and failed to see his tomorrow through the old man s present situation 2 What s more he had no idea that youth is not permanent which cannot guarantee love and work From above there is no denying that he didn t realize his nada Therefore his youth and confidence never contributed to withstanding his metaphorical dark 3 I think that nowadays youth and confidence do can help to withstand the metaphorical dark for one can bravely face the reality and overcome the nada with youth and confidence But they only serve as two main factors In fact we need some other factors such as courage dignity and so on if we want to withstand the metaphorical dark successfully 3 The older waiter said to the younger waiter We are of two different kinds In what way do you think they are different 1 I think they are different from each other in the following four aspects In the beginning they are in different ages The older waiter was in his middle age while the other was much younger 2 Then they have different attitudes towards the old man From the article we know the older waiter had suffered a lot He had maintained a clean and well lighted place in his heart and he could understand the old man and show sympathy to him However the young man was very selfish He wanted to g