Exercises for American Literature
PartⅠ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1.__A___ reports of exploration in Jamestown have been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written in English.(P2)
A. John Smith’s
B. Washington Irving’s
C. Franklin’s
D. Jefferson’s
2. Which statement is NOT true about the 17th century American literary life? (C)
A. The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of the early settlements.
B. The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies who followed John Smith
made their greatest contribution to American literature.
C. There were more urban audience for books and newspapers.
D. Literature developed slowly especially in the South.
3. ___A__ was the first American writer.(P3)
A. John Smith
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Philip Freneau
D. Anne Bradstreet
4. John Smith’s __A___ (1624) contains his most famous tale of how the Indian Princess Pocahontas saved him from the wrath of her father Powhatan.(P4)
A. The General History of Virginia
B. The history of New England
C. A Map of Virginia
D. The history of Plymouth Plantation
5. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the __A___ values that dominated much of the earliest American writing.(P5)
A. Puritanic
B. Transcendental
C. romantic
D. realistic
6. __B___ , the Puritan clergyman who wrote more than 450 works in his life, was an example of the Puritan ideal of hard work.(P5)
A. John Smith
B. Cotton Mather
C. Anne Bradstreet
D. John Cotton
7. The Puritans wished to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of __A___ to theology. (P8)
A. the Bible
B. the government
C. the Church of England
D. God 8．The first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was ___A__ , sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”.(P9)
A. John Cotton
B. John Smith
C. Philip Freneau
D. Cotton Mather
9.The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America is the first published collection of poems of ___B__ .(P12)
A. Edward Taylor
B. Anne Bradstreet
C. Walt Whitman
D. Philip
Freneau
10.The first major center of thought in America was __D___ .
A. Boston
B. Philadelphia
C. Now York
D. the State of Virginia
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. Theocracy:It is a state system in which the state and church are combined into one，with the idea that God would govern through the church. It was the major form of government in colonial America.
2. The Puritan Movement : It refers to the people who believed in Puritanism. In England they wanted to “purify” the Church of England and was prosecuted Puritanism is the religious beliefs of the puritans, who had intended to “purify” or simplify the religious ritua l of the Church of England. They believed in the original sin and the harsh Day of Doom, although some good people----the chosen people or “the Elect”----may be saved.
PartⅡ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1.American Enlightenment can be described as the following except that __D___ .
A.it dealt a decisive blow to the puritan traditions.(P16)
B.it brought to life secular education and literature
C.its representatives took the task of disseminating knowledge among the
people
D.it exerted little influence on the War of Independence
2.The following statements are true to Benjamin Franklin except __A___ .
A. a priest
B. a scientist
C. a diplomat
D. a humanist
3.Benjamin Franklin shaped his writing after __A___ .(P17)
A. the Spectator Paper
B. French writers
C. John Milton
D. Walt Scott
4.Poor Richard’s Almanac written by Benjamin Franklin is __D___ .(P18)
A. a novel
B. a collection of short stories
C. a collection of poems
D. an annual collection of proverbs
5.“His shadow lies heavier than any other man’s on this young nation” refers to
__A__ .(P20)
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Thomas Paine
D. Noah Webster
6.Thomas Paine boldly advocate d a “Declaration for Independence” in his famous
pamphlet __A___ .(P28)
A. Common Sense
B. The Case of the Officers of the Excise
C. The American Crisis
D. Rights of Man
7.Thomas Paine’s chief contribution was a series of sixteen pamphlet s entitled
__D___ .(P29)
A. Common Sense
B. The Case of the Officers of the Excise
C. Rights of Man
D. The American Crisis
8.Which of the following is true about Thomas Jefferson? ___D__ .(P34-36)
A.He contributed a lot to the foundation of University of Virginia.
B.He served for two terms as president.
C.He drafted the Declaration of Independence.
D.All of the above.
9.__B___ has been called the “Father of American Poetry”.
A. Anne Bradstreet
B. Philip Freneau
C. Thomas Paine
D. Edward
Taylor
10.As a poet and political journalist, Philip Freneau is __D___ .(P42)
A. a satirist and a sentimentalist
B. a humanitarian
C. a poet of reason and a deistic optimist
D. All of the above
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. the Age of Reason：i t refers to the literary period roughly from 1776 to 1823 in American literature. The Enlightenment is the dominant literary movement in this period. The reason is a key notion for writers of the Enlightenment like Franklin.
2. the Enlightenment：It was a movement supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism. The representatives of the Enlightenment set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas. They also actively participated in the War for Independence.
Part Ⅲ
I. Multiple choice:
1. A new Romanticism, appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century,
came to America in __A___ .(55)
A. the early 19th century
B. the mid 19th century
C. the last years of 19th century
D. the last years of the 18th century
2.__A___ became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on
both sides of the Atlantic.
A. Washington Irving’s Sketch Book.
B. Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies
C. James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales
D. Henry Thoreau’s Walden
3.Which of the following is NOT regarded as one of the general characteristics shared by
romantics? __C___ .
A.Moral enthusiasm
B.Faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception
C.The practice of a hard and disciplined life
D.The presumption that man’s society was a source of corruption
4.Transcendentalists took some of their ideas from __D___ .(P56)
A. German idealistic philosophy
B. the Romantic literatures of Europe
C. neo-Platonism and Oriental mysticism
D. All of the above.
5.The first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature
appeared in Washington Irving’s __A___ .(60)
A. The sketch Book
B. A History of New York
C. Tales of a Traveler
D. Alhambra
6.__A___ was the first important American novelist who began his literary career
on a dare.(P104)
A. James Fenimore Cooper
B. Washington Irving
C. Edgar Allan Poe
D. Nathaniel Hawthorne
7.__B___ is one of James Fenimore Cooper’s best sea romances.(P105)
A. The Spy
B. The Pilot
C. The Deerslayer
D. The Pioneers
8.Cooper launched two kinds of great popular stories, the sea adventure tale and
__A___ .(同上)
A. the frontier saga
B. the detective stories
C. the love stories
D. gothic
novels
9.Which of the following novels does NOT belong to Leatherstocking Tales?
__C___ .（同上）
A. The Deerslayer
B. The Pathfinder
C. The Pilot
D. The Pioneers
10.The last of the Mohicans in The last of the Mohicans refers to __C__ .
A. Uncas
B. Chingachgook
C. Hawkeye
D. Natty Bumppo
11.In 1817, __B___ written by William Cullen Bryant introduced the best poet in
America up to that time.(P119)
A. “To a Waterfowl”
B. “Thanatopsis”
C. “The Raven”
D. “To Helen”
12.Which poem by William Cullen Bryant expressed both the poet’s grateful view
and his sense of a divine power guiding and protecting everything in nature?
__A___ .(P127)
A. “To a Waterfowl”
B. “Thanatopsis”
C. “The Raven”
D. “To Helen”
13.Edgar Allan Poe deserved the following except __A___ .
A. a playwright
B. a poet and an editor
C. a literary critic
D. a writer of
fiction
14.Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece’
And the grandeau that was Rome.
The above lines are selected from Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem _B____ .(P129)
A. “The Raven”
B. “To Helen”
C. “Ligia”
D. “Annabel Lee”
15.The American Scholar and The Divinity School Address are two speeches that
made __B___ famous.(P162)
A. Walt Whitman
B. Ralph Waldo Emerson
C. Henry David Thoreau
D. Herman Melville
16.Thoreau once wrote the reason that he went to live in a hut at Walden is that
_C____ .(175)
A.he wanted to live the life of a hermit
B.he didn’t want to be arrested for failure to pay the taxes
C.he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life
D.he didn’t like the people around him
17.The story of The Scarlet Letter is set in _ C___ in the days of the Massachusetts
Colony.(P199)
A. the ancient Europe
B. the 19th century Europe
C. the Puritan Boston
D. the 19th century Boston
18.Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote all of the following except __A___ .
A. Typee
B. The House of Seven Gables
C. The Marble Faun
D. Young Goodman Brown
19.When Herman Melville’s Moby Dick first appeared, which of the following is
NOT true about what happened to this great work? __D__ .(P218)
A.It seemed to be a complete failure at the time.
B.Critics in general also failed to see the qualities of this book.
C.Hawthorne was one of the few who recognized it as a work of genius.
D.It was a great hit at that time and was welcomed by the readers.
20.Which of the following works established Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetic
reputation? __C___ .(P253)
A. Voices of the Night
B. Poems on Slavery
C. Song of Hiawatha
D. Ballads and Other Poems
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. Romanticism: It is a type of writing that began in Europe in the early 19th century. It was adopted by many American writers of the time. Romantic writing emphasizes emotions and feelings instead of reason and logic. It also focuses on the life of common people and encourages an appreciation of nation instead of society. Transcendentalism grew out of the Romantic .(The term ,Romanticism, is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. )
2. Transcendentalism：It is a literary movement flourishing in New England from the 1830s to the American Civil War. It stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.( It is the summit of American Romanticism. The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. They also stressed the importance of the individual. And they offered fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. It inspired a whole new generation of famous authors as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson. And it inspired one of America’s most prolific literary periods in its history.)
3. Symbolism：Symbolism is a literary device with which the author deliberately makes concrete objects evolve into some abstractions, usually moralistic or philosophical. Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of strongly symbolic stories which touches the deepe st roots of man’s moral nature.
Part Ⅳ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1.The end of __D___ marked the beginning of what Mark Twain called The Gilded Age.
A. The American War of Independence
B. World War One
C. World War Two
D. The Civil War
2. “A Psalm of Life” is a famous poem written by __C___.
A. Edgar Allan Poe
B. Walt Whitman
C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
D. Emily Dickinson
3. By the 1870s __B___ had waned.
A. Puritanism
B. the New England Renaissance
C. Realism
D. Classicism
4. By the end of the Civil War, A___ became the nation’s literary center.
A. New York
B. Boston
C. Jamestown
D. Los Angeles
5. ___C__ had originated in France, a literary doctrine that called for reality and truth in the depiction of ordinary life.
A. Puritanism
B. New England Renaissance
C. Realism
D. Classicism
6. Local color began to decline __B___ .
A. after 1920
B. by the turn of 19th century
C. after 1910
D. in the 1870s
7. The arbiter of 19th century literary realism in America was ____A_ .
A. William Dean Howells
B. Mark Twain
C. Bret Harte
D. Hamlin Garland
8. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called _A____, that is, poetry without fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.
A. free verse
B. blank verse
C. lyrics
D. sonnet
9. “Song of myself” is a famous poem written by ____B_ .
A. Emily Dickinson
B. Walt Whitman
C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
D. Edgar Allan Poe
10. __A___ was the first book of Mark Twain.
A. Jumping frog
B. Innocents Abroad
C. Roughing It
D. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
11. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is the masterpiece of ___C__ .
A. Henry James
B. William Dean Howells
C. Mark Twain
D. Nathaniel Hawthorne
12. In “The Cop and the Anthem” the main reason for Soapy to deliberately commit
one crime after another is that ____C_ .
A. he hates the wealthy people
B. he just wants to revenge himself
C. winter is coming and Soapy has no refuge except the prison
D. he just does that for no reasons
13. The Gift of the Magi is one of the best stories by ___A__ .
A. O. Henry
B. Mark Twain
C. Harriet Beecher Stowe
D. Jack London
14. Jack wrote the following except ____A_ .
A. The Four Million
B. The People of the Abyss
C. The Iron Heel
D. The Call of the wild
15. Which of the following novels is written by Jack London? ____D_ .
A. The Portrait of a Lady
B. The wings of the Dove
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. The Sea Wolf
16. Theodore Dreiser’s masterpiece of Naturalism is ___A__ .
A. An American Tragedy
B. The Financier
C. The Titan
D. The Stoi c Ⅱ.Complete the following statements:
1. Realism first appeared in the United States in the literature of (local color ).
2. James probed deeply at the individual (psychology )of his characters.
American naturalist writers attempted to achieve extreme(objectivity) and frankness.
3. The naturalists emphasized that the world was (amoral ).
4. Darwinism seemed to stress the(animality)of man, to suggest that he was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution.
5. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about man and (nature).
6. Many of Dickinson’s poems were based on single( image)or symbols.
7. O. Henry imitated (De Maupassant ) as a model.
8. Jack London was influenced by the teaching of Marx, Nietzsche and (Darwinism)
9.Dreiser’s( trilogy of desire)consists of The Financier, The Titan and The Stoic.
10.Dreiser’s greatest and most successful novel was( An American Tragedy).
Ⅲ.Define the literary terms listed below:
1. The Gilded Age In the realistic period of American literature, the industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring people. Transcendentalism an the spirit of the frontiersman were gone together with the American dream. This is referred to as The Gilded Age.
2. International Theme Conflicts between New and Old world, traditionless, innocent, honest American and complex, sophisticated, snobbish, arrogant, vain Europeans, American freshness of impulse, moral integrity, candor of heart, complexity deviousness of the European mentality.
3. Realism It refers to the literary tendency which appeared after the civil war. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the reality of life. It aimed at interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color.
4. Naturalism It is a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. It evolved from realism when the aut hor’s tone in writing become less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.
Part Ⅴ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1. Writer of the first postwar era self=consciously acknowledged that they were ___A__ .
A. a Lost Generation
B. a Beat Generation
C. a Jazz Generation
D. None of the above
2. During the 1920s William Faulkner published one of the influential American
novels of the age, ____A_ .
A. The Sound and the Fury
B. An American Tragedy
C. Winesburg, Ohio
D. The Waste Land
3. After __C___ a group of new American dramatists emerged, and the American
theater ceased to be dependent on the dramatic traditions of Europe.
A. the War of Independence
B. the Civil War
C. World WarⅠ
D. World WarⅡ
4. __C___ came as a burst of literary achievement in the 1920s by Negro
playwrights, poets and novelists who prepared the way for the emergence of numerous black writers after mid-century.
A. The Lost Generation
B. The Beat Generation
C. The Harlem Renaissance
D. The New American Theater
5. “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bo ugh.”
These lines were written by ___A__ .
A. Ezra Pound
B. T. S. Eliot
C. Robert Frost
D. Carl Sandberg
6. Edwin Arlington Robinson was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for __A___ .
A. three times
B. twice
C. once
D. four times
7. The central image of Frost’s “Design” is __C___ .
A. a fly
B. a moth
C. a spider
D. a bird
8. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the writing style of Carl
Sandburg ? __D___ .
A. He avoided regular stanza pattern and traditional blank verse
B. He wrote an utterly free verse
C. He developed Whitman’s long line but moderated its rhetorical impact and
intensity
D. His poems are often difficult to understand and rich in allusions
9. T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature in ___A__ .
A. 1948
B. 1949
C. 1950
D. 1951
10. T. S. Eliot deserves the following titles except _D____ .
A. a great poet
B. a dramatist
C. a literary critic
D. a great novelist
11. In 1954 ___C__ was awarded a Nobel Prize for his mastery of the art of modern
narration.
A. John Steinbeck
B. William Faulkner
C. Ernest Hemingway
D. T. S. Eliot
12. The central theme of Faulkner’s works focuses on _B__ .
A. the county of Yoknapatawpha
B. the universal theme of the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself
C. the Americans
D. Oxford
13. __A___ received the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature.
A. William Faulkner
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. T. S.
Eliot
14. “A Rose for Emily” is a famous short story written by __A___ .
A. William Faulkner
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. Sherwood Anderson
15. Which of the following works of Hemingway is NOT about the war? __A___ .
A. Death in the Afternoon
B. A Farewell to Arms
C. The Sun Also Rises
D. For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ⅱ.Complete the following statements:
1.The First World War stands as a great dividing line between the 19th century and
contemporary America.
2. The Lost Generation writers weredevoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.
3. In the 1920s the most prominent American playwright was.Eugene O’neil
4. In “A Pact”, the poet makes a pack with Walt Whitman
5. Robinson was interested in the Arthurian legends.
6. The later works of Stevens became increasingly meditative and philosophical
7. The first of Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot is Burnt Norton
8. The Waste Land introduces a poetic form---- the orchestration of related themes
in successive movement.
9. In his best novels, Fitzgerald had revealed the stridency of an age of glittering
innocence
10. Ernest hemingway was the spokesman for the “Lost Generation”.
11. For Whom the Bell Tolls was set in Spain during the Civil War
12. A farewell to Arms portrayed a farewell both to war and love
13. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of
modern narration.
14. John Steinbeck was the foremost novelist of the American Depression in the
1930s.
15. Faulkner’s Snopse Trilogy consists of The Hamlet, The Town and The Mansion
Ⅲ.Define the literary terms listed below:
1.Avant-garde in literature, it refers to the innovative writers who is ahead of the time both in themes and in style. In 20th century American literature, writers like Faulkner an E.E. Cummings can be called avant-garde writers.
2. The Lost Generation Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a lost generation, disillusioned by the war, and devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization. Hemingway was regarded as the spokesman for the lost generation.
3. The New American Theater After the First World War a group of new America dramatists emerged, and the American theater ceased to be wholly dependent on the dramatic traditions of Europe. Experimental playwrights, hostile to outworn and timid theatrical convention, created works of tragedy, stark realism, and social protest. Plots, dialogues, staging, and acting differed radically from the bland dramatic farce of an earlier day.
4. Stream of Consciousness It presents unspoken materials directly from the psyche of the characters, or makes the characters tell their own inner thoughts in monologues. The events seem to be trivial, insignificant, but below the surface of them, the natural flow of mental reflections, the shifting moods and impulses in the characters’ inner world are richly presented in a frank and penetrating way.
美国文学史及选读试卷 Ⅰ.Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternatives. Choose the one that would best complete the statement. (60points in all, 2 for each) 1. Which of following can be said of the common features which are shared by the English and American Romanticists ? A. An increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions. B. An increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. C. An increasing emphasis on the desire to return to nature. D. both A and B. 2. Which of the following statements about the Romantic period in the history of American literature is NOT true? （） A. In most of the American writings of this period there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. B. The writers of this period placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and displayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. C. There was a strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man. D. Most heroes and heroines in the writings of this period exhibited extremes of reason and nationality. 3.______ is unanimously agreed to be the summit of the American Romanticism in the history of American literature. A. New England Transcendentalism B. England Transcendentalism C. the Harlem Renaissance D. New Transcendentalism 4.Hawthorn e’s unique gift was for the creation of ______ which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. A. symbolic stories B. romantic stories
美国文学试题库 注：试题库内容仅作为学习参考使用，并不代表考试内容。任何一道题均可能变化为其它形式的试题。 1. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more_____________. A. rational B. humorous C. optimistic D. pessimistic 2.The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American___________ . A. local colorism B. vernacularism C. modernism D. naturalism 3. ____________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. Calvinists B. Puritans C. Romanticists D. Transcendentalists 4. All of the following are the features of Puritans EXCEPT _____. A. wanting to make pure their religious beliefs and practices
仅作参考，最主要还是要自己消化，整理 Chapter 1 Colonial Period 1. Puritanism: American puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. 2. Influence (1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature. (2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. (3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chi efly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. (4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. II. Overview of the literature 1. types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of colonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor III. Benjamin Franklin 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Richard’s Almanac (2) Autobiography 3. contribution (1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. (2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”. (3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”. Chapter 2 American Romanticism Section 1 Early Romantic Period I. American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative – foreign influence 2. features (1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with Am erican Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature 1. several names attached to Irving (1) first American writer (2) the messenger sent from the new world to the old world (3) father of American literature 2. life 3. works (1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.) (3) The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (5) The Alhambra 4. Literary career: two parts (1) 1809~1832
1.Captain John Smith became the first American writer. 2.The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. 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.
has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 7.In Washington I rving’s appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature. 8.Cooper’s enduring fame rests on his William Cullen Bryant’s wok. is considered “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”. 10.Emerson believed above all in
美国文学选读第三版课后习题答案洁(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
美国文学史及作品选读模拟试题一 ) '×15=15I.Multiple Choice (1'______was the first colony in American history. C1. D.Georgia C. Virginia A. Massachusetts B. New Jersey War. the before Revolutionary only good American author 2. _B_____ was the
One “His shadow lies heavier than any other man's on of his fellow Americans said, this young nation.”D.Thomas Paine B. Benjamin Franklin C. Thomas Jefferson A. John Smith 3. Romantics put emphasis on the following EXCEPT __A____. D. individualism C. intuition B. imagination A. common sense The Raven was written in 1844 by __B______ 4. B. Edgar Allan Poe A. Philip Freneau D. Emily Dickinson C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 5. The ship __C____ 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. D. Titanic C. Mayflower B. Armada A. Sunflower D____ is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in 6. Melville's novel __ pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale. Moby Dick D. C. White Jacket A. Typee B. Omoo 7. As a philosophical and literary movement, __D____ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. D.Transcendentalism C.Sentimentalism B.Rationalism A.Modernism 8. The theme of original sin is fully reflected in ___A______. B. Sister Carrie A. The Scarlet Letter The Old Man and Sea D. C. The Great Gatsby 9. In all his novels Theodore Dreiser sets himself to project the ___B___ American values. For example, in Sister Carrie, there is not one character whose status is not determined economically. 页1 第 A. Puritan B. materialistic C. psychological D. religious 10. Realism was a reaction against____B__ or a move away from the bias towards
Washington Irving Bracebridge Hall 布雷斯布里奇田庄 (1822) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tales of a Traveller 旅客谈 (1824) Christopher Columbus (1828) c. writing characteristics (1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse, to entertain instead of teaching or instruction (2) vivid and true character portrayal (3) finished (refined) and musical language, thus regarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith ” d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自the sketch book 见闻札记 ) 1. the story:setting,character, plot 2. theme:conflicts and praise conflict betw. Ichabod and Brom conflict betw. the village and the outside world James Fenimore Cooper The Spy (1821): a historical novel The Pilot (1824): a sea novel Leatherstocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841): frontier novels The Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France) e. writing features: strong points: we can see a variety of incidents and tensions, complicated plot and structure and a beautiful description of nature. Weak points: characterization is weak. There is unsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female). He is not free from syntactical awkwardness, heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irving excels Cooper is weak.” Dialect is not authentic. Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House Usher Feature: i. brevity (15 pages) ii. Single effect iii. originality in theme To Helen It was inspired by the beauty of the mother of a schoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia. The poem is famous for a number of things: 1. its rhyme scheme: ababb 2. its varied line lengths 3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea 4. its oft-quoted lines: "To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur that was Rome." theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancient Greek and Roman civilizations The Raven 乌鸦 theme: the lament over the death of a beautiful woman tone: melancholy Transcendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists) Their journal is “The Dial ” . Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson) b. features (1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit. (2) stress the importance of individual. (3) fresh conception of nature. c. significance (1) inspired a whole generation of writers such as Whitman, Melville and Dickinson. (2) dresses man ’s subjective initiative as opposed to materialism. (3) liberated people from Calvin ’s original sin d. limitation (1) shallow: cut off from real life or reality; initiated by the rich, they were limited in a certain circle. So, in some degree, they have been cut off from social life and can ’t understand the sufferings of the common people. (2) inward contradiction: gain knowledge by intuition, shows its idealistic aspect. R.W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo) Nature (1836): the Bible of New England transcendentalism The American Scholar (1837): "America's Declaration of Intellectual The Divinity School Address 神学院致辞 (1838) Essays (1841/1847) Representative Men (1850) English Traits (1856)
美国文学史及选读试题 I. Multiple Choice 10’ 1. Who is different from others according to the division of writing period? A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper 2. The American Romantic Period lasted roughly from ____ to ____. A. 1798-1832 B. 1810-1860 C. 1860-1864 D. 1776-1783 3. How many syllables are there in this first line of Raven? (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,”) A. 11 B. 12 C. 13 D. 16 4. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing? A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution 5. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to ____. A. typography B. journalism C. revolution D. the development of paper-making industry 6. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”? A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer
《美国文学》期末考试试卷（B卷） 1.Poor Richard’s Almanac ( ) 2.The House of the Seven Gables ( ) 3.“Raven”( ) 4.My Antonia ( ) 5.Babbitt ( ) 6.A Streetcar Named Desire ( ) 7.Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ( ) 8.A Farewell to Arms ( ) 9.The Call of the Wild ( ) 10.Long Day's Journey into Night ( ) https://www.doczj.com/doc/1a12865457.html,mon Sense ( ) 12. “Rip Van Winkle”( ) 13. Walden( ) 14. The Song of Hiawatha( ) 15. Uncle Tom’s Cabin( ) 16.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn( ) 17.Sister Carrie( ) 18.The Waste Land( ) 19. A Farewell to Arms( ) 20.The Great Gatsby( ) 1.defined poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty. 2.While working for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopted the pseudonym , the way of a boatman taking soundings, and meaning two fathoms. 3.Ezra Pound initiated a campaign for , which emphasized the direct treatment of an object or situation. He also advocated the language of common speech, but always the exact word. 4.Fitzgerald summarized the experiences and attitudes of the 1920s decade in his masterpiece novel _________. 5.is the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters. 6.The first of American literature was not written by an American, but by ___________________, a British captain, who thus became the first American writer. 7._________________ has been considered the “Father of modern American Poetry.\
美国文学自测题及参考答案I Directions: In this part of the test, there are 9 items and 10 blanks. Fill in the best answer on the Answer Sheet according to the knowledge you have learned. 1.The first American literature was neither ____ nor really ____. 2.Of the immigrants who came to America in the first three quarters of the seventeenth century, the overwhelming majority was _____. 3.The English immigrants who settled on America’s northern seacoast were called _____, so named after those who wished to “purify” the Church of England. 4.Washington Irving, the Father of American literature, developed the _____ as a genre in American literature. 5.Franklin’s best writing is found in his masterpiece _____. 6.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was _____. 7.In the early 19th century, “Rip Van Winkle”had established _____’s reputation at home and abroad, and designated the beginning of American Romanticism. 8._____ has sometimes been considered the father of the modern short story. 9.In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece _____, the story of a triangular love affair in colonial America. Directions: In this part of the test, there are twenty items. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. 1. The Colonial Period of American literature stretched roughly from
1.C aptain John Smith became the first American writer. 2.T he puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin. 4.T homas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”.
5.T homas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 7.I n Washington Irving’s appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.
8.C ooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant’s wok. “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”.
美国文学选择题及答案 1. William Faulkner is the author of ______. a. Far From the Madding Crowd b. Sound and Fury c. For Whom the Bell Tolls d. Scarlet Letter 2. Robert Frost is a famous_______. a. novelist b. playwright c. poet d. literary critic 3. The Old Man and the Sea is one of the great works by ________. a. Jack London b. Charles Dickens c. Samuel Coleridge d. Earnest Hemingway 4. _______refers to some contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. a. Allegory b. Conflict c. Irony d. Flashback 5. The great transcendental work by Henry David Thoreau is______. a. Nature b. Walden c. Experience d. Essays 6. Mark Twain shaped the world’s view of America and made a combination of _____and serious literature. a. American folk humor b. funny jokes c. English folklore d. American values 7. Who was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation after the Revolutionary War? a. Fennimore Cooper. b. Nathaniel Hawthorn. c. Walt Whitman. d. Washington Irving. 8. I Have a Dream is addressed by _____. a. Abraham Lincoln b. John F. Kennedy c. Martin Luther King d. Ralph Waldo Emerson 9. Which of the following is NOT a poem by Emily Dickinson? a. This is my letter to the world b. I heard a Fly buzz—when I died c. This is just to say d. Because I could not stop for death 10. Eugene O’Neil is an American ______. a. novelist b. playwright c. poet d. essayist 11. The period from 1865—1914 has been referred to as the _______in the literary history of the United States. a. Age of Realism b. Age of Classicalism c. Age of Romanticism d. Age of Renaissance 12. With “Collected Poems”, ______won the second Pulitzer Prize. a. Ezra Pond b. e. e. cummings c. Robert Frost d. William Cullen Bryant 13. Grass is a poem written by _______.
2012-2013学年第二学期 《美国文学》期末考试试卷（A卷） 专业：英语年级：2010级考试方式：闭卷学分：2 考试时间：110分钟 I．Multiple Choices(每小题 1分，共20分) Directions: Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question. II．Explain the Following Literary Terms Briefly (每小题7分，共14分) Directions: Please write down the answers on the Answer Sheet. Local Colorism Transcendentalism III．Identification of Fragments (每小题7分，共21分) Directions: Please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly comment on it in English. Please write down the answers on the Answer Sheet. 23. “…That?s right.? He said; …I?m no good now. I was all right. I had money. I?m going to quit this,? and, with death in his heart, he started down toward the Bowery. People had turned on the gas before and died; why shouldn?t he? He remembered a lodging house where there were little, close rooms, with gas-jet in them, almost pre-arranged, he thought, for what he wanted to do, which rented for fifteen cents. Then he remembered that he had no fifteen cents.” 25. “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why that would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. 24. “…Mr. Gatz, I thought you might want to take the body West.?