1.The Colonial Period of American literature stretched roughly from the settlement of America
in the early 17th century through the end of ________ century.
A.the 18th
B.the 19th
C.the 20th
D.the 21th
2.Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ______.
A.American Enlightenment
B. Sugar Act
C. Chartist movement
D. Romanticist
3.The main form of the early American Literature is _______.
A. poetry
B. drama
C. novel
D. essay
4.The first American writer is______.
A. John Smith
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Philip Freneau
D. Thomas Paine
5.________ is perhaps the most outstanding writer of the Post-Revolutionary period.
A. John Smith
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Philip Freneau
D. Thomas Paine
6._______ is perhaps the most of Benjamin Franklin‘s quoted of all his writings.
A. Poor Richard’s Almanac
B. Rights of Man
C. The Autobiography
D. Common Sense
7.______ is considered as the ―Father of American Poetry‖.
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. Thomas Paine
C. John Smith
D. Philip Freneau
8._______ is Thomas Paine‘s famous pamphlet.
A.. The Age of Reason
B. Agrarian Justice
C. The American Crisis
D. Common Sense
9.______ descriptions of America laid a foundation for the American literature.
A. John Smith‘s
B. John Johnson‘s
C. John Nowel‘s
D. John Webster‘s
10.______ was appropriately born into an age of the Revolution of Independence.
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. John Smith
C. John Webster
D. Thomas Paine
11.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the_______.
A. revolutionism
B. reason
C. individualism
D. rationalism
12.In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment and
_______ was the dominant spirit.
A. Humanism
B. Rationalism
C. Revolution
D. Evolution
13.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of
_______.
A. Thomas Hood
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Thomas Jefferson
D. George Washington
14.Which is not connected with Thomas Paine?
A. Common Sense
B. The American Crisis
C. Pennsylvania Magazine
D. The Autobiography
15.Which poem is not written by Philip Freneau?
A. The British Prison Ship
B. The Wild Honey Suckle
C. The Indian Burying Ground
D. The Day of Doom
16.Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?
A. The American Crisis
B. The Federalist
C. Declaration of Independence
D. The Waste Land
17.From 1732 to 1758, Franklin wrote and published his famous __________, an annual
collection of proverbs.
A. Autobiography
B. Poor Richard’s Almanac
C. Common Sense
D. The General Magazine
18.________ is often regarded as one of America‘s earliest naturalist poets. Sometimes called
―the American Worthsworth,‖ he looked nature and the American landscape for evidence of the divine and for poetic inspiration.
A. William Cullen Bryant
B. Edgar Allen Poe
C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
D. Walt Whitman
19.Which of the following works is regarded as the Declaration of Intellectual Independence‖?
A. The American Scholar
B. English Traits
C. The Conduct of Life
D. Representative Men
20.American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was
________.
A. Anne Bradstreet
B. Jane Austen
C. Katherie Anne Porter
D. Emily Dickinson
21.In the middle of the 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called
―______‖.
A. the English Renaissance
B. the American Renaissance
C. the Second Renaissance
D. the Salem Renaissance
22.______ 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
23.About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is right?
A. It's a love story and a story of sin.
B. It's not a highly symbolic story though the author is a master of symbolism.
C. It's mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main
characters and the people in general.
D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
24.Moby-Dick is usually considered ______.
A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe
B. a spiritual exploration into man's deep reality and psychology
C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure
D. both A and B
25.Dickinson's poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But many
of her little lyrics concern ______.
A. the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and nature
B. the lower-class working people who live a life of poverty and sordidness
C. the middle-class people who live in confusion and in void of faith
D. the upper-class people who live in comfort and idleness
26.As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an
unconventional style which is now called ______, that is ______.
A. hymn…poetry with chanting refrains
B. blank verse…poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beat
C. free verse…poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme
D. ode…poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings
27.One of the features of Emily Dickinson's poetry is that ______.
A. they are long and whimsical in imagery
B. they are short and often based on one single image
C. they are very musical and colorful
D. they are very political and situational
28.Born of one common cultural heritage, the American Romanticists shared some common
features…______, with the English 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
29.As a philosophical and literary movement, transcendentalism flourished in New England from
the 1830s to the Civil War, whose most important representatives are ______.
A. Emerson and Thoreau
B. Emerson and Whitman
C. Hawthorne and Melville
D. Edgar Poe and James Cooper
30.Hawthorne‘s unique gift was for the creation of ______ which touch the deepest roots of
man‘s moral nature.
A. symbolic stories
B. romantic stories
C. gothic stories
D. humorous stories
31.Which of the following is not written by Herman Melville?______
A. Typee and Omoo
B. Mardi and White Jacket
C. Moby-Dick and Pierre
D. The Bostonians and Billy Budd
32.The novel Moby Dick shows the rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against ______.
A. the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and the awesome forces
B. the gliding great demon of the seas of life
C. the white whale
D. the savage harpooners and the motley crew
33.In her life, Emily Dickinson makes enchanting poetry out of ______.
A. a happy and active life
B. adventurous experiences
C. a single household and an inactive life
D. a hard and suffering life
34.The Romantic Period in American literature started from the publication of Washington
Irving's ______ and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
A. The Sketch Book
B. Tales of a Traveller
C. A History of New York
D. The Scarlet Letter
35.As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of
Transcendentalism are generally concerning ______.
A. nature, man and the universe
B. the relationship between man and woman
C. the development of Romanticism in American literature
D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism
36.About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is not right?
A. It's very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.
B. It's a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.
C. It's mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main
characters and the people in general.
D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
37.Which of the following statements is NOT a typical feature of Emily Dickinson‘s poetry?
A. Dickinson‘s poetry is unique and conventional in its own way.
B. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines.
C. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern.
D. Her poems tend to be very impersonal and meditative.
38.The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered______.
A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.
B. an adventurous exploration into man's relationship with nature
C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure
D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty
39.In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is
called ―______‖.
A. free verse
B. blank verse
C. alliteration
D. end rhyming
40.More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general
Skepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed.
A. man and man
B. men and women
C. man and nature
D. man and God
41.Washington Irving‘s ______ became the first work by an American writer to win financial
success on both sides of the Atlantic in the first half of the 19th century.
A. The Sketch Book
B. Charles the Second
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. Moby Dick
42.Despite strong foreign influences, American romantic writings are typically American which
can be revealed in the following __________.
A. a desire for an escape from civilized society and a return to the ennobling nature
B. th e American national experience of ―pioneering into the west‖
C. American type of characters speaking local dialects appeared in the fiction
D. all of the above
43.In the well-known story ―Rip Van Winkle‖Rip falls into sleep for 20 years, during which
__________ takes place.
A. the Revolutionary War
B. the Civil War
C. the War for Independence
D. World War I
44.According to Emerson, which of the following is said about nature?
A. Nature is emblematic of the material world, alive with God‘s overwhelming presence.
B. Nature exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind.
C. Without nature man can improve himself and become spiritually whole.
D. Both A and B.
45.Which of the following statements is said about most of the poems in Whitman‘s Leaves of
Grass?
A. They identify his ego with the conservative America.
B. They celebrate the self and ignore sexuality.
C. They sing of the ―en-masse‖ and the self as well.
D. They reject the pursuit of love and happiness of individuals.
46.The subjects of Emily D ickinson‘s poems are mainly about the following except__________.
A. religion
B. death and immortality
C. love and nature
D. man and morality
47.All of the following can be said of Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s works except _________.
A. man‘s moral natur e
B. the dark side of the human character
C. the impact of nature on human spirit
D. sin and deliverance
48.Which of the following statements about American Romantic literature is right?
A. Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe are the forerunners of the literary movement of New
England Transcendentalism in the 19th century.
B. The forest Young Goodman Brown goes to during his night journey is literally a place
where the evil beings rustle about.
C. For Emerson and his disciples, material economy is good for spiritual.
D. Rip Van Winkle feels happy and fortunate to be with his family again after he comes back
from the woods.
49.In his famous poem Song of Myself, Walt Whitman sets forth two principal beliefs: the belief
in the singularity and equality of all beings in value, and the theory of ______, which is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things.
A. nationality
B. universality
C. nature
D. community
50.Moby Dick is a mixture of fantasy and ________based upon the South Pacific whaling
industry.
A. romanticism
B. realism
C. naturalism
D. surrealism
51.In the poem ―I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—‖ Emily Dickinson gives a tense description
of the greatest rending of the moment of ________.
A. love
B. immortality
C. death
D. nature
52.Which of the following is not right about the characteristics of Emily Dickinson‘s poetic
writing?
A. Her poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way.
B. Her poems have no titles and a particular stress pattern.
C. Her poems are usually rather long and rarely less than 20 lines.
D. Her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness.
53.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.
54.The New England Transcendentalism was from the very beginning a local phenomenon
restricted only to those people living in New England, who carried out the movement as a reaction against the cold, rigid rationalism of _________ in Boston.
A. Classicism
B. Calvinism
C. Unitarianism
D. Puritanism
55.In the following statements, _________ is NOT true about Washington Irving‘s famous story
―Rip Van Winkle‖ .
A. The story is not only well-known for Rip‘s 20-year sleep but also considered a model of
perfect English in American literature.
B. The story is set against the background of the inevitably changing America.
C. The social conservatism and literary preference for the past are revealed, to some extent,
in the story.
D. Irving describes Rip‘s response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both
the narrator and Irving agree on the preferability of the present to the past.
56.As one of Hawthorne‘s most profound tales, Young Goodman Brown is written in the manner
of its concern with_________.
A. guilt and evil
B. good and bad
C. moral and corruption
D. destruction and hope
57.Which of the following is NOT among the artistic features of Whitman‘s writing?
A. Free verse.
B. The use of the poetic ―I‖.
C. Allegory.
D. Musicality and rhythm.
58.More than five hundred poems Emily Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general
_________ about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.
A. denial
B. eulogy
C. skepticism
D. happiness
59.Ralph W. Emerson‘s first little book _________ established him as the most eloquent
spokesman of Transcendentalism.
A. Essays
B. Nature
C. The American Scholar
D. The Over-Soul
60.Romantics put emphasis on the following EXCEPT ______.
A. common sense
B. imagination
C. intuition
D. individualism
61.Which of the following statements concerning the basic tenets of American Transcendentalism
is NOT correct?
A. Individualism is elevated by the Transcendentalists.
B. Intuition is less important than experience.
C. Nature is only another side of God.
D. Transcendentalists have a new and delightful thrill in nature.
62.Melville‘s novel ______ is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a
seemingly supernatural white whale.
A. Typee
B. Omoo
C. White Jacket
D. Moby Dick
63.Hester Prynne is the heroine in Hawthorne‘s novel ______.
A. Moses from an Old Manse
B. Twice-Told Tales
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. The Blithedale Romance
64.As a philosophical and literary movement, ______ flourished in New England from the 1830s
to the Civil War.
A. Modernism
B. Rationalism
C. Sentimentalism
D. Transcendentalism
65.Irving was best known for his famous short stories such as ______.
A. Rip Van Winkle
B. Legend of the Alhambra
C. Life of Goldsmith
D. Life of Washington
66.We can summarize that Walt Whitman‘s poems are characterized by all the following features
EXCEPT that they are ______.
A. conventional and casual
B. lyrical and well structured
C. simple and rather crude
D. free-flowing
67.―This is my letter to the World‖ is a poetic expression of Emily Dickinson‘s ______ about her
communication with the outside world.
A. indifference
B. anger
C. anxiety
D. sorrow
68._____ has become so important that most people consider it an unofficial manifesto for the
―Transcendental Club‖.
A. Nature
B. The American Scholar
C. Walden
D. Civil Disobedience
69._____ is a symbol of microcosm of the world we are living in.
A. The Pequod
B. Moby Dick
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. Nature
70._____ held a ―black‖ vision of life and human beings.
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. Edgar Allan Poe
D. James Fenimore Cooper
71.Moby Dick, the big white whale, is possible read as symbolic of all the following
EXCEPT_____.
A. malignancy
B. beauty
C. adultery
D. God
72.According to Emerson, man‘s capacity is _____.
A. ambiguous
B. limited
C. infinite
D. subsidiary to God
73._____ is regarded as an encyclopedia of everything: philosophy, religion, history, etc.
A. Nature
B. Walden
C. Moby Dick
D. The Scarlet Letter
74.Whitman‘s poems are characterized by all the following features EXCEPT______.
A. a strict poetic form
B. a simple and conversational language
C. a free and natural rhythmic pattern
D. an easy flow of feelings
75._____ is now recognized not only as a great poetess on her own right but as a poetess of
considerable influence upon American poetry of the present century.
A. Emily Dickinson
B. Emily Brontё
C. Anne Bradstreet
D. George Eliot
76.According to Emerson, which of the following is said about nature?
A. Nature is emblematic of the material world, alive with God‘s overwhelming presence.
B. Nature exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind.
C. Without nature man can improve himself and become spiritually whole.
D. Both A and B.
77.Henry David Thoreau‘s work, ________, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of the
New England Transcendental Movement.
A. Walden
B. The Pioneers
C. Nature
D. "Song of Myself"
78.―Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind‖is a famous quote from ______‘s
writings.
A. Walt Whitman
B. Henry David Thoreau
C. Herman Melville
D. Ralph Waldo Emerson
79.?Leaves of Grass‘ commands great attention because of its uniquely poetic embod iment
of________, which are written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War.
A. the democratic ideals
B. the romantic ideals
C. the self-reliance spirits
D. the religious ideals
80.According to Whitman, the genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort was to
behave as a supreme_________.
A. democrat
B. individualist
C. romanticist
D. leader
81.The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as ___________.
A. The Naturalist Period
B. The Modern Period
C. The Romantic Period
D. The Realistic Period
82.Washington Irving‘s ―Rip Van Winkle‖ is famous for_________.
A. Rip‘s escape into a mysterious
B. The story‘s German legendary source material
C. Rip‘s seekin g for happiness
D. Rip‘s 20-years sleep
83.Which of the following statement is not true about Washington Irving?
A. Washington Irving is regarded as Father of the American short stories.
B. Irving‘s relationship with the Old World in terms of his liter ary imagination can hardly be
ignored considering his success both abroad and at home.
C. Irving‘s taste was essentially progressive or radical.
D. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who ―perfected the best classic
style that American literature ever produced‖.
84.The publication of ______established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New
England Transcendentalism.
A. Nature
B. Self-Reliance
C. The American Scholar
D. The Over-Sou l
85.All the following novels are in Cooper‘s Leatherstocking Tales except ________.
A. The Pioneers
B. The Prairie
C. The Deerslayer
D. The Spy
86.In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled _______at Harvard, which was hailed
by Oliver Wendell Holmeasas: Our Intellectual Declaration of Independence".
A. ―Self-Reliance‖
B. ―Divinity School Address”
C. ―The American Scholar‖
D. ―Nature‖
87._____is the most ambivalent (有争议的) writers in the American literary history.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne
B. Walt Whitman
C. Ralph Waldo Emerson
D. Mark Twain
88.________is the writer of ―There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent,
perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity‖.
A. Washington Irving
B. Ralph Waldo Emerson
C. Nathaniel Hawthorne
D. Walt Whitman
89.All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne except_______.
A. The House of the Seven Gables
B. White Jacket
C. The Marble Faun
D. The Blithedale Romance
90.Walt Whitman is radically innovative in the form of his poetry. What he prefers for his new
subject is__________.
A. free verse
B. blank verse
C. lyric poem
D. heroic couplet
91.Which of the following features cannot characterize poems by Walt Whitman?
A. Lyrical and well-structured.
B. Free-flowing.
C. Simple and rather crude.
D. Conversational and casual.
92.―The horizon‘s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud. These
became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go
f orth every day.‖ The two lines are taken from____________.
A. ―There Was a Child Went Forth‖ by Walt Whitman
B. ―In a Station of the Metro‖ by Ezra Pound
C. ―Cavalry Crossing a Ford‖ by Walt Whitman
D. ―Ulysses‖ by Joyce
93.―Moby Dick‖ is regarded as the first American_________.
A. Prose epic
B. Comic epic
C. Dramatic fiction
D. Poetic fiction
94.The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all EXCEPT________.
A. mystery of the universe
B. sin of the whale
C. power of the great Nature
D. evil of the world
95.The Transcendentalists believe that, first, nature is ennobling, and second, the individual
is____, therefore, self-reliant.
A. insignificant
B. vicious by nature
C. divine
D. forward-looking
88.Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in _______ and Thoreau.
A. Jefferson
B. Emerso n
C. Freneau
D. Over-soul
89.Transcendentalists recognized _______ as the ―highest power of the soul‖.
A. intuition
B. logic
C. data of the senses
D. thinking
90.The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention
of American literature, evident in _______.
A.James Fenimore Cooper‘s Leatherstocking Tales
B.Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden
C.Mark Twain‘s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
D.All of the above
91.Herma n Melville‘s _______ is not only an adventure story, but also a significant philosophical
work on spiritual exploration.
A. Moby Dick
B. The Egg
C. Nature
D. The Over-Soul
92.In the 19th century America, Romanticism had certain general characteristics. Choose such
characteristics from the following items.
A. moral enthusiasm
B. faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception
C. adoration for the natural world
D. all of the above
93.Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s first book _______ is th e fundamental document of his philosophy,
and expresses his constant, deeply felt love for love for the natural scenes.
A. Walden
B. Nature
C. Daisy Miller
D. Leaterstocking Tales
94.From the following, choose the characteristics of Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s p oetry.
A. being highly individual
B. lack of form and polish
C. striking images
D. all of the above
95.Which essay is not written by Ralph Waldo Emerson?
A. ―Of Studies‖
B. ―Self-Reliance‖
C. ―The American Scholar‖
D. ―The Divinity School Address‖
96.Which is the character who appears in the novel Moby Dick?
A. Hester Prynne
B. Mr. Hooper
C. Ahab
D. Pearl
97. The Spy was written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1821. It is a novel about ________.
A. American Civil War
B. American Revolution
C. American West Expansion
D. The First World War
98. The Raven was written in 1844 by ________
A. Philip Freneau
B. Edgar Allan Poe
C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
D. Emily Dickinson
99. The Minister’s Black Veil was written by ________.
A. Edgar Allan Poe
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. Henry David Thoreau
D. Ralph Waldo Emerson
100. A new _____ had appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the 19th century.
A. Realism
B. Critical realism
C. Romanticism
D. Naturalism
101. Washington Irving got his idea for his most famous story, ―Rip Van Winkle‖, from a ________.
A. Greek legend
B. German legend
C. French legend
D. English legend
102. ―Rip Van Winkle‖is found in Irving‘s longer work, ________.
A. The Sketch Book
B. History of New York
C. Tales of a Traveler
D. The Precaution
1.Who is called ―the true father of our national literature‖ by the writer H. L. Mencken?
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. Mart Twain
C. Hemingway
D. William Faulkner
2.In the first part of the 20th century, apart from Darwinism, which was still a big influence
upon the writers of this period, there were two thinkers _____ whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.
A. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund Freud
B. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud
C. the Swiss Car Jung and the American William James
D. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud
3.The American realists approached the harsh realities and pressures in the post-Civil war
society by _____.
A. a comprehensive picture of modern life in its various occupations, class stratifications and
manners
B. a psychological exploration of man‘s subconsciousness
C. a disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War
D. both A and B
4.By the turn of the century, with the publication of The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and
The Mysterious Stranger, the change in Mark Twain from ______ to _____ could be felt.
A. an optimist...an almost despairing pessimist
B. an almost despairing pessimist...an optimist
C. a local colorist...a naturalist
D. a naturalist...a local colorist
5.About the titular heroine in the novel Daisy Miller, which of the following is not right?
A. She has become a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World.
B. She comes from the new world but remains traditional and conservative.
C. Her innocence turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality in the new world.
D. The author‘s sympathy for her, a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome was
easily felt.
6.About Henry James‘ literary criticism, which of the following is not right?
A. It is both concerned with form and devoted to human values.
B. He indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life in every possible form.
C. He advocates the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him.
D. He believes that the artist can‘t feel the life, but he can understand h uman nature in their
own way.
7.The characters presented by the naturalist writers were _____.
A. more often than not dominated by their environment and heredity
B. usually idealized heroes or heroines of unspotted virtue and dazzling accomplishments
C. in most cases examples of human experience
D. people who were simply all good or all bad
8.Which of the following is said of the American naturalism?
A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories.
B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.
C. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh
environment.
D. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes,
their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.
9.Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain's style of language?
A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read.
B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.
C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration, repetition
and anti-climax.
D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers.
10.Which of the following is not written by Henry James?
A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans
B. The Wings of the Dov e and The Ambassadors
C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians
D. The Genius and The Gilded Age
11.The great American realist Henry James treated with great care _________ in the first period.
A. ancient European civilization which is satirized severely in his writings
B. the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America
C. the clashes between two different cultures, European and American
D. both B and C
12.Theodore Dreiser, one of the great American naturalist writers, emphasized determinism in
his works and therefore created characters who _________ .
A. were always haunted by their past memories and could not reconcile themselves with the
realities
B. could never get rid of the control of their environment and heredity
C. were punished for the sins of their ancestors and could never get their salvation
D. without any exception ended up in tragic deaths
13.Which of the following statements can be said about the novel Sister Carrie?
A. Its heroine is a country girl, who strives to gain her material rise in big cities but soon gets
tired of her success.
B. Its heroine is a Southern aristocratic woman, who refuses to come to terms with the
present.
C. It tells about a young sailor, who struggles to reach the upper society but soon gets
disillusioned.
D. The heroine is a young vain girl, who indulges herself in grand parties and luxurious trips
but soon becomes penniless.
14.In Henry James‘ Daisy Miller, the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment
of_____.
A. the free spirit of the New World
B. the corruption of the newly rich
C. the force of conviction
D. the change of the social force
15.Henry James‘s fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with _______.
A. the love and marriage theme
B. the theme of humor and satire on life
C. the theme of revealing the miserable life of the poor and criticizing the capitalism
D. the internati onal theme
16.The three dominant figures in the period of Realism of America are William Dean Howells,
Mark Twain and________.
A. Henry James
B. Tom James
C. James Joyce
D. Henry Joyce
17.The use of ________ in his writings has made Mark Twain one of the major literary figures in
the 19th century American literature.
A. point of view
B. stream-of-consciousness
C. interior monologue
D. vernacular
18._______ is generally considered to be Henry James‘ masterpiece, which incarnates the clash
between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a European cultural environment.
A. The Portrait of a Lady
B. The Golden Bowl
C. Daisy Miller
D. The Turn of the Screw
19.Which one of the following statements is NOT true about the theme of ―The Art of Fiction‖?
A. The aim of the novel is to present art itself.
B. The artist has the freedom to write about anything that concerns him.
C. The artist should be able to ―feel‖ the life, to understand human nature and to record them.
D. The writer can write human experiences explored in every possible form: illusion, despair,
reward, delight, etc..
20.In his ―Trilogy of Desire‖, Theodore Dreiser‘s focus shifted from the pathos of the helpless
protagonists at the bottom of the society to the power of the American financial tycoons in the late 19th century. The ―Trilogy of Desire‖ includes The Financial, The Titan and ________.
A. The Stoic
B. The Genius
C. An American Tragedy
D. Jennie Gerhardt
21.Henry James is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century ________ novels and
the founder of psychological realism.
A. local
B. color
C. physical
D. stream-of-consciousness
22.____ is not among the artistic features of Whitman‘s writing.
A. The use of the poetic ―I‖
B. Free verse
C. Musicality or rhythm
D. Allegory
23.The realistic period is referred to as ―the Gilded Age‖ by ______.
A. Mark Twain
B. Henry James
C. Emily Dickinson
D. Theodore Dreiser
24.______, being a boy‘s book specially written for the adults, is Mark Twain‘s most
representative book.
A. Roughing It
B. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
C. Life on the Mississippi
D. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
25.As a realist, Mark Twain concerned particularly about the local character of a region, which
came ab out as ―_______‖.
A. Naturalism
B. Transcendentalism
C. Local Colorism
D. both A and C
26.Realism was a reaction against_____ or a move away from the bias towards romance and
self-creating fictions, and paved the way to Modernism.
A. Rationalism
B. Romanticism
C. Neoclassicism
D. Enlightenment
27.Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by the pen name _____.
A. Mark Twain
B. Henry James
C. William
D. Howells D. Theodore Dreiser
28._____ is considered the founder of Psychological realism.
A. Henry James
B. Jack London
C. Mark Twain
D. Nathaniel Hawthorne
29.About Naturalism, which of the following statements is NOT correct?
A. Naturalists chose their subjects from the lower ranks of society.
B. They portrayed misery and poverty of t he ―underdogs‖, who were demonstrably victims
of society and nature.
C. One of the most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human
―bestiality,‖ especially an explanation of sexual desire.
D. American Naturalism is a reaction against Realism.
30.Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of Henry James‘s writing style?
A. Exquisite and elaborate language
B. Minute detailed description
C. Lengthy psychological analysis
D. American colloquialism
31.The Age of Realism is the literary history of the United States refers to the period from
to .
A. 1861 – 1914
B. 1863 – 1918
C. 1865 – 1914
D. 1865 – 1918
32.Who is described by Mark Twain as a boy with "a sound heart and a deformed conscience?"
A. Tom Sawyer
B. Huckleberry Finn
C. Jim
D. Tony
33.Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for
his .
A. international theme
B. waste-land imagery
C. local color
D. symbolism
34.In 1900, London published his first collection of short stories, named .
A. The son of the Wolf
B. The Sea Wolf
C. The Law of Life
D. White Fang
35.Sister Carrie written by _____ is considered as one of the representative naturalistic novel in
the American literature.
A. Sinclair Lewis
B. Theodore Dreiser
C. F. Scott Fitzgerald
D. H.L. Mencken
36.Mark Twain‘s ____ tells a story of his boyhood ambitious to become a riverboat pilot, up and
down the Mississippi.
A. Roughing It
B. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
C. Life on the Mississippi
D. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
37.Stephen Crane‘s style has been called realistic, _____ and impressionistic.
A. romantic
B. naturalistic
C. classical
D. imagining
38._____ is the scen e of Dreiser‘s Sister Carrie.
A. New York
B. Chicago
C. California
D. Washington
39.With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, _____ became the major trend in
the seventies and eighties of the 19th century.
A. sentimentalism
B. Romanticism
C. realism
D. naturalism
144. Early in the 20th century, _________ published works that would change the nature of American poetry.
A. Ezra Pound
B. T. S. Eliot
C. Robert Frost
D. Both A and B
145. __________ showed great interest in Chinese literature and translated the poetry of Li Po (Li Bai) into English, and was influenced by Confucian ideas.
A. Ezra Pound
B. Robert Frost
C. T. S. Eliot
D.
E. E. Cummings
146. Ezra Pound' s long poem____________ contained more than one hundred poems loosely connected.
A. The Waste Land
B. The Cantos
C. Don Juan
D. Queen Mab
147. When Robert Frost was eighty-seven, he read his poetry at the inauguration of President__________ .
A. Thomas Jefferson
B. Theodore Roosevelt
C. Abraham Lincoln
D. John F. Kennedy
148. Carl Sandburg had also taken interest in folk songs which he tried to collect and sing during his travels. These folk songs appeared eventually in print in his well-known___________ .
A. Good Morning, America
B. The People, Yes
C. In Reckless Ecstasy
D. The American Songbag
149. The first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature was a sharp social critic, whose name was_________________ .
A. Sinclair Lewis
B. Thomas Stearns Eliot
C. Ernest Hemingway
D. William Faulkner
150. Thomas Stearns Eliot's first major poem____________ (1917), has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.
A. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
B. The Waste Land
C. Four Quartets
D. Preludes
151. The Fitzgeralds lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than F. Scoot 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 Twenties
B. The Jazz Age
C. The Dollar Decade
D. all of the above
152. 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 Sea
B. For Whom the Bell Tolls
C. The Sun Also Rises
D. A Farewell to Arms
153. __________ tells the Joad family' s life from the time they were evicted from their farm in Oklahoma until their first winter in California.
A. Of Mice and Men
B. The Grapes of Wrath
C. The Great Gatsby
D. For Whom the Bell Tolls
154. 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 consciousness
B. imagism
C. symbolism
D. naturalism
155. William Faulkner's novel___________ describes the decay and downfall of an old southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, toid from four different points of view. A. The Sound and the Fury B. Startoris
C. The Unvanquished
D. The Town
156. William Faulkner's novel___________ is about a poor white family' s journey through fire and flood to bury the mother in her hometown, Yoknapatawpha.
A. Intruder in the Dust
B. As I Lay Dying
C. Absalom, Absalom!
D. Light in August
157.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 Clasicalism
C. Age of Romanticism
D. Age of Renaissance 158. Which of the following works is regarded as the first American prose epic?
A. Nature
B. The Scarlet Letter
C. Walden
D. Moby-Dick
159. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, "A" may stand for .
A. Adultery
B. Angel
C. Amiable
D. All the above
160. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as .
A. the Naturalist Period
B. the Modern Period
C. the Romantic Period
D. the Realistic Period
161. The Age of Realism is the literary history of the United States refers to the period from to .
A. 1861 – 1914
B. 1863 – 1918
C. 1865 – 1914
D. 1865 – 1918
162. 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. modernism
B. naturalism
C. vernacularism
D. local colorism
163. Which of the following figures does not belong to "The Lost Generation"?
A. Ezra Pound
B. William Carlos Williams
C. Robert Frost
D. Theodore Dreiser 164. Who is a dramatist that holds the central position in American drama the modernistic period?
A. Sinclair Levis
B. Eugene O'Neil
C. Arthur Miller
D. Tennessee Williams
165. The following writers were awarded Nobel Prize for literature except .
A. William Faulkner
B. F. Scott Fitzgerald
C. John Steinbeck
D. Ernest Hemingway 166. In 1954, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his "mastery of the art of modern narration".
A. T.S. Eliot
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. William Faulkner
167. In 1920 Sinclair Lewis published his memorable denunciation of American small-town provincialism in .
A. Main Street
B. An American Tragedy
C. Winesburg, Ohio
D. Sister Carrie
168. For Melville, as well as for the reader and _________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.
A. Ahab
B. Ishmael
C. Stubb
D. Starbuck
169. 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
170.. Dreiser‘s Trilogy of Desire includes three novels. They are The Financier, The Titan and_____ .
A. The Genius
B. The Tycoon
C. The Stoic
D. The Giant
171.. 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
172. 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. Southern
B. Western
C. New Hampshire
D. New England
173. As an autobiographical play, O‘Neill‘s ___________(1956) has gained its status as a world classic and simultaneously marks the climax of his literary career and the coming of age of American drama.
A. The Iceman Cometh
B. Long Day‘s Journey Into Night
C. The Hairy Ape
D. Desire Under the Elms
174. Apart from the dislocation of time and the modern stream-of-consciousness, the other narrative techniques Faulkner used to construct his stories include_________, symbolism and mythological and biblical allusions.
A. impressionism
B. expressionism
C. multiple points of view
D. first person point of view
175. Stylistically, Henry James‘ fiction is characterized by____________.
A. short, clear sentences
B. abundance of local images
C. ordinary American speech
D. highly refined language
176. One of the characteristics that have made Mark Twain a major literary figure in the 19th century America is his use of____________ .
A. vernacular
B. interior monologue
C. point of view
D. photographic description
177. It is on his____________ that Washington Irving‘s fame mainly rested.
A. childhood recollections
B. sketches about his European tours
C. early poetry
D. tales about America
178. At the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called ―____________________‖.
A. the English Renaissance
B. the Second Renaissance
C. the American Renaissance
D. the Salem Renaissance
179. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ____________________.
A. nature, man and the universe
B. the relationship between man and woman
C. the development of Romanticism in American literature
D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism
180. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is NOT right?
A. It‘s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.
B. It‘s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.
C. It‘s mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main
characters and the people in general.
D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
181. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered____________.
A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.
B. an adventurous exploration into man‘s relationship with nature
C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure
D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty
182. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called ―____________________.‖
A. free verse
B. blank verse
C. alliteration
D. end rhyming
183. After the Civil War America was transformed from ______ to _________.
A. an agrarian community …an industrialized and commercialized society
B. an agrarian community … a society of freedom and equality
C. a poor and backward society …an industrialized and commercialized society
D. an industrialized and commercialized society …a highly developed society
184. Which of the following is said of the American naturalism?
A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories.
B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.
C. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh
environment.
D.Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited
attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.
185. Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain‘s style of language?
A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read.
B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.
C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration，
repetition and anti-climax.
D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers. 186. The impact of Darwin‘s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American ______.
A. Romanticism
B. Transcendentalism
C. Realism
D. Naturalism
187. Which of the following is not written by Henry James?
A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans.
B. The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors.
C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians.
D.The Genius and The Gilded Age.
188. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general Skepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed.
A. man and man
B. men and women
C. man and nature
D. men and God
189. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson‘s poems about nature?
A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between man and
nature.
B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond between man and
nature.
C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings.
D. Many of them showed her feeling of nature‘s inscrutability and indifference to the life and
interests of human beings.
190. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an unconventional style which is now called free verse, that is _________.
A. lyrical poetry with chanting refrains
B. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme
C. poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beat
D. poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings
191. In the first part of the 20th century，apart from Darwinism, there were two thinkers -______，whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.
A. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud
B. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund Freud
C. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William James
D. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud
192. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O‘Neill plays?
A. Most of his plays are concerned about the root, the truth of human desires and human
frustrations.
B. His tragic view of life is reflected in many of his works.
C. His plays are concerned about the relationship between man and nature as well as man
and woman.
D. Both A and B.
193. Most of O‘Neill‘s plays are concerned about the following except______.
A. success and failure in man‘s literary career
B. life and death, illusion and disillusion, dream and reality
C. alienation and communication, self and society, desire and frustration
D. the basic issues of human existence and predicament
194. Which of the following can be said about a typical modern literary work?
A. It is a record of sequence and coherence of the history and the world.
B. It is a juxtaposition of the past and present, of the history and the memory.
C. It is a book of integrity drawn from diverse areas of experience.
D. Its perspective is shifted from the internal to the external, from the private to the public. 195. As to the great American poet Ezra Pound, which of the following is not right?
A. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry is dense with
personal, literary, and historical allusions.
B. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement.
C. From his analysis of the Chinese ideogram Pound learned to anchor his poetic language in
concrete, perceptual reality, and to organize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.
D.For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he did in the wartime, his
literary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced.
196. In his poetry, Robert Frost made the colloquial ______ speech into a poetic expression.
A. England
B. New England
C. Plymouth
D. Boston
197. Which of the following statements is right about Robert Frost‘s poetry?
A. He combined traditional verse forms with the difficult and highly ornamental language.
B. He combined traditional verse forms with the pastoral language of the Southern area.
C. He combined traditional verse forms with a simple spoken language-the speech of New
England farmers.
D. He combined traditional verse forms with the experimental.
198. Which of the following statements can be said about the works of Scott Fitzgerald, a spokesman of the ―Roaring 20s‖?
A. Many of them portrayed the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the
unending American dream of fulfillment.
B. They are symbolic of the psychological journey of the modern man and his helplessness
in the modern world.
C. They show the primitive struggle of individuals in the context of irresistible natural forces.
D. They penetrate into the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.
199. Which of the following is not written by Ernest Hemingway, one of the best-known American authors of the 20th century?
A. The Sun Also Rises.
B. The Old Man and the Sea.
C. Mosses From the Old Manse.
D. The Green Hills of Africa.
200. Which of the following statements is right about the novel A Farewell to Arms?
A. The author favored the idea of nature as an expression of either god‘s design or his
beneficence.
B. The author attempted to write the epitaph to a decade and to the whole generation in the
1930s.
C. The author emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally and
suggests that man is doomed to be entrapped.
D. It tells a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with an Italian
nurse.
201. Which of the following is depicted as the mythical county in William Faulkner‘s novels?
A. Cambridge.
B. Oxford.
C. Mississippi.
D. Yoknapatawpha.
202. To Faulkner, the primary duty of a writer was to explore and represent the infinite possibilities inherent in human life. Therefore a writer should ______.
A. observe with no judgment whatsoever.
B. reduce authorial intrusion to the lowest minimum.
C. observe at a great distance and sometimes participate in the events.
D. both A and B.
203. Which of the following is right about American fiction from 1945 onwards?
A. A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their ideals within the artistic
field.
B. There appeared a significant group of Jewish-American writers whose works were set
against the Jewish experience and tradition.
5. Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of ________ which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. A. romantic stories B. symbolic stories C. gothic stories D. humorous stories 7. Romanticism appeared as a literary trend against _____. A. rationality B. imagination C. intuition D. individualism 12. _____ held a “black”vision of life and human beings. A. Ralph Waldo Emerson B. Nathaniel Hawthorne C. Edgar Allan Poe D. James Fenimore Cooper 16. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American Romanticists shared some common features..._______, with the English 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 17. _______ was the first great American writer to earn international fame. A. Irving B. Cooper C. Emerson D. Whitman 21. Pearl is the heroine in Hawthorne’s novel _________ . A. Moses from an Old Manse B. Twice-Told Tales C. The Scarlet Letter D. The Blithedale Romance 7. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, ang Pearl are most likely the names of the characters in __________. A.The Scarlet Letter B. The House of the Seven Gables C. The Portrait of a Lady D. The Pioneers 24. Being a period of the flowering of American literature, the Romantic period is also called “_____”. A. the American Renaissance B. the English Renaissance C. the Harlem Renaissance D. the Second Renaissance 5. According to Hawthorne, the scarlet letter “A”which originally stood for “_______” f inally obtained the meaning of “able”or “angel”through Hester’s efforts. A. adultery B. arrogance C. accomplishment D. agony 13. F. Scott Fitzgerald is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the ____________.
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
美国文学史复习1（colonialism) 第一部分殖民主义时期的文学 一、时期综述 1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记 b、journals 游记 2、清教徒在美国的写作内容： 1）their voyage to the new land 2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops 3) About dealing with Indians 4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit 3、清教徒的思想： 1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 净化信仰和行为方式 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位 3）look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted. 认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝 4）puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated. 反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步 5）religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。 4、典型的清教徒： John Cotton & Roger William 他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy; William begins the history of religious toleration in America. 5、William的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others. He also felt that no political order or church system could identify itself directly with God. 行为上的德，信仰上的诚，并没有给任何人强迫别人该如何行事的权利。没有任何政治秩序和教会体制能够直接体现神本身的意旨。 6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人：Anne Bradstreet 7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Tayor. 学习指南： 1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘 Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first-century church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the great French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wildness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoying his blessings on this earth as in Heaven. 2、Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing. 3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry. 4、The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards Italian, and Portuguese. 美国文学史复习2（reason and revolution) (2009-01-17 15:54:25) 一、美国的性质： The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic - the United States of America. 联邦的资产阶级民主共和国--美利坚合众国。 二、代表作家： 1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林 1706-1790 1）"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴 annual collection of proverbs 流行谚语集
美国文学复习题(有答案版)
美国文学复习提纲 第一部分连线题（1*10=10’） 1. Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence 2. Walt Whitman O’ Captain, My Captain 3. Mark Twain Jumping Frog 4. Robert Frost Mending Wall 5. Ezra Pound In a Station of the Metro 6. Carl Sandburg Chicago 7. Saul Bellow The Adventure of Augie March 8. Ernest Hemingway Men without Women 9. John Steinbeck The Grape of Wrath 10. Jack London The Call of the Wild 11. Sinclair Lewis Babbit 12. Flannery O’ Connor A Good Man Is Hard to Find 13. O. Henry The Last Leaf 14. Jerome David Salinger The Catcher in the Rye 15. 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 she became known as the “________” who appeared in America. A. Tenth Muse B. Ninth Muse C. Best Muse D. First Muse 2. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment. ________ was the dominant spirit. A. Humanism B. Rationalism C. Revolution D. Evolution 3. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic? A. The American Crisis B. The Federalist C. Declaration of Independence D. The Age of Reason 4. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the ________. A. Chartist Movement B. Romanticist Movement C. Enlightenment Movement D. Modernist Movement 5. Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communication with ________. A. nature B. transcendentalist ideas C. human beings D. celestial beings 6. ________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 Tales B. The Scarlet Letter C. The House of the Seven Gables D. The Marble Faun
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
Captain John Smith (first American writer). Anne Bradstreet；The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America （colonists living） Edward Taylor(the best puritan poet) John Cotton ”the Patriarch of New England” teacher spiritual leader Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Poor Richard’s Almanack Thomas Jefferson： Political Career Thoughts The Declaration of Independence we hold truth to be self-evidence Philip Freneau“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle American Romanticism optimism and hope Nationalism Washington Irving“Father of American Literature short story”The first “Pure Writer” A History of New York The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism! “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle James Fenimore Cooper Father of American sea and frontier novels Leather stocking Tales The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer Edgar Allan Poe father of detective story and horror fiction Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The
I. Multiple Choices (40%) 1-5 DCADA 6-10 ADDAD 11-15DBCBA 16-20 DBCCC 21-25 DCDAC 26-30 ACDBC 31-35CAACD 36-40 DDCAB II. Choose the relevant match from column B for each item in column A. (10%) 1-5 CABDE 6-10CDEAB III. Interpreting the following texts. （15%） Passage 1 1.Ezra Pound(2’) 2.This short poem is one of the most famous representative works of Imagist school. In the poem, “the object” to be treated is the faces in that dim and dam context. The impression is brought out most vividly by the single, dominant image of flower petals on a wet, black bough, which serves as the most. (5’) Passage 2 1. Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie(2’) 2. (1)The world is cold and harsh to Sister Carrie. Alone and helpless, she moves along like a mechanism driven by desire and catches blindly at any opportunity for a better existence. A feather in the wind, she is totally at the mercy of forces she cannot comprehend, still less to say control. She does not seem to possess what may be called a mora l fiber in her. (4’) (2) Spencer’s influence is seen at its most powerful as to Hustwood’s tragedy. Dreiser’s portrait is an authentic one of the impotent modern man unfit to survive. He cannot help himself in his relationship with Sister Carrie. No respectable job, no handsome income, no genteel family, nothing could overcome his biological need and stop him from returning to savage, atavistic unreason. He thus hovers between being a man and beast in his behavior. He must die. (6’) IV. Explain the following terms（15%） 1. Local Colorism or Regionalism as a trend first came to prominence in the late 19th century in America. The local colorists were devoted to capturing the unique customs, manners, speech, folklore, and other qualities of a particular regional community, usually in humorous short stories. (3分) The most famous of the local colorists was Mark Twain, with his masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (2分) 2. Transcendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of American literature in the 19th century. （1分）Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively”. （1分）Transcendentalists place emphasis on the importance of the Over-soul, the individual and Nature. （2分）The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. （1分） 3. It defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness. The WWI destroyed the in ocent ideas, many good young men went to the war and died, or returned damaged, both physically and mentally; their moral faith were no longer valid--- they were “Lost.”（2分）. So in a broad Sense: it refers to the entire post -WWI American young generation. In a narrow sense: The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900’s, including Heming way, F.S.Fitzgerald, etc. Who left
美国文学练习题 1. William Faulknerw(福克纳)is the author of ______. a. Far From the Madding Crowd b. Sound and Fury（喧嚣与骚动） c. For Whom the Bell Tolls d. Scarlet Letter a远离尘嚣Thomas Hardy 托马斯·哈代 c.丧钟为谁而鸣（海明威的著作） d红字:纳撒尼尔·霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne） 2. Robert Frost is a famous_______. a. novelist 小说家 b. playwright 剧作家 c. poet 诗人 d. literary critic文学评论家 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 寓言 b. Conflict 冲突，矛盾；斗争；争执 c. Irony 讽刺；反语 d. Flashback 倒叙；闪回 5. The great transcendental 超验的work by Henry David Thoreau is______. a. Nature b. Walden瓦尔登湖 c. Experience d. Essays B亨利·大卫·梭罗（美国作家及自然主义者） 6. Mark Twain shaped the world’s view of America and made a combination of _____and serious literature(严肃文学杨). a. American folk humor美国民间幽默
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”.
History And Anthology of American Literature （6） 附：作者及作品 一、殖民主义时期The Literature of Colonial America 1．船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith 《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》 “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony” 《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》 “A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country” 《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia” 2．威廉·布拉德福德William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰·温思罗普John Winthrop 《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England” 4．罗杰·威廉姆斯Roger Williams 《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America” 或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》 Or “A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ” 5．安妮·布莱德斯特Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》 ”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” 二、理性和革命时期文学The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1。本杰明·富兰克林Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) ※《自传》“ The Autobiography ” 《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac” 2。托马斯·佩因Thomas Paine (1737-1809) ※《美国危机》“The American Crisis” 《收税官的案子》“The Case of the Officers of the Excise”《常识》“Common Sense” 《人权》“Rights of Man” 《理性的时代》“The Age of Reason” 《土地公平》“Agrarian Justice” 3。托马斯·杰弗逊Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) ※《独立宣言》“The Declaration of I ndependence” 4。菲利浦·弗瑞诺Philip Freneau (1752-1832) ※《野忍冬花》“The Wild Honey Suckle” ※《印第安人的坟地》“The Indian Burying Ground” ※《致凯提·迪德》“To a Caty-Did” 《想象的力量》“The Power of Fancy” 《夜屋》“The House of Night” 《英国囚船》“The British Prison Ship” 《战争后期弗瑞诺主要诗歌集》 “The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Late War” 《札记》“Miscellaneous Works” 三、浪漫主义文学The Literature of Romanticism 1。华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving (1783-1859) ※《作者自叙》“The Author’s Account of Himself” ※《睡谷传奇》“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《见闻札记》“Sketch Book” 《乔纳森·欧尔德斯泰尔》“Jonathan Oldstyle” 《纽约外史》“A History of New York” 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》“Bracebridge Hall” 《旅行者故事》“Tales of Traveller” 《查理二世》或《快乐君主》“Charles the Second” Or “The Merry Monarch” 《克里斯托弗·哥伦布生平及航海历史》 “A History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus” 《格拉纳达征服编年史》”A Chronicle of the Conquest of Grandada” 《哥伦布同伴航海及发现》 ”V oyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus” 《阿尔罕布拉》“Alhambra” 《西班牙征服传说》“Legends of the Conquest of Spain” 《草原游记》“A Tour on the Prairies” 《阿斯托里亚》“Astoria” 《博纳维尔船长历险记》“The Adventures of Captain Bonneville” 《奥立弗·戈尔德史密斯》”Life of Oliver Goldsmith” 《乔治·华盛顿传》“Life of George Washington” 2．詹姆斯·芬尼莫·库珀James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) ※《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《间谍》“The Spy” 《领航者》“The Pilot” 《美国海军》“U.S. Navy” 《皮袜子故事集》“Leather Stocking Tales” 包括《杀鹿者》、《探路人》”The Deerslayer”, ”The Pathfinder” 《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《拓荒者》、《大草原》“The Pioneers”, “The Praire” 3。威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ※《死之思考》“Thanatopsis” ※《致水鸟》“To a Waterfowl” 4。埃德加·阿伦·坡Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ※《给海伦》“To Helen” ※《乌鸦》“The Raven” ※《安娜贝尔·李》“Annabel Lee” ※《鄂榭府崩溃记》“The Fall of the House of Usher” 《金瓶子城的方德先生》“Ms. Found in a Bottle” 《述异集》“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” 5。拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) ※《论自然》“Nature” ※《论自助》“Self-Reliance” 《美国学者》“The American Scholar” 《神学院致辞》“The Divinity School Address” 《随笔集》“Essays” 《代表》“Representative Men” 《英国人》“English Traits” 《诗集》“Poems” 6。亨利·戴维·梭罗Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) ※《沃尔登我生活的地方我为何生活》 1
第7章美国文学 7.1 复习笔记 I. A General Introduction II. Fiction III. Poetry IV. Drama I. A General Introduction (简要介绍) 1. The history of American literature is comparatively short, roughly about 200 years. 美国文学的历史很短，大约200年。 2. Many famous writers have earned great fame in the world, such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, and Ernest Hemingway. 很多著名作家已赫然立于世界文坛之上。例如惠特曼、马克·吐温、西奥多·德莱赛和欧内斯特·海明威。 II. Fiction (小说) 1. America did not have its fiction until Washington Irving. 美国的小说从华盛顿·欧文开始。
2. American contemporary literature has continued to undergo healthy development in producing new forms and new language. 美国的现代文学继续健康发展，不断涌现出新的形式和新的语言。 3. In 1990s, American literature takes much newer directions and varieties in quality. 20世纪90年代，美国文学呈现出很多新的趋势和种类。 4. There appeared some famous fiction writers in American literature. 美国文学史上出现了很多著名的小说家。 (1) Washington Irving (1783—1859) (华盛顿·欧文) ①Regarded as the “father of American literature”, Washington Irving was the first American to achieve international literary reputation. ②His most famous story “Rip Van Winkle”helps Irving earn great fame in the literary world. ①华盛顿·欧文是第一个在国际上享有盛誉的美国作家，被称为“美国文学之父”。 ②他最著名的故事是“瑞普·凡·温克尔”，使欧文在文学界获得很高的名望。 (2) Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804—1864) (纳撒尼尔·霍桑) ①Hawthorne is a famous American writer in romantic fiction and a pioneer in psychological description. ②His most famous novel is The Scarlet Letter. ①霍桑是美国浪漫主义小说的著名作家，也是心理描写方面的先驱。 ②他最著名的小说是《红字》。 (3) Mark Twain(1835—1910) (马克·吐温)