Exercises:
1. After the fall of the Roman Empire and the withdrawal of Roman troops from Albion , the aboriginal _Cletic____ population of the larger part of the island was soon conquered and almost totally exterminated by the Teutonic tribes of ___Angles_ , __Saxons__ , and __Jutes___ who came from the continent and settled in the island , naming its central part __Anglio___ , or England.
2. For nearly __400__ years prior to the coming of the English , British had been a Roman province . In__410_, the Rome withdrew their legions from Britain to protect herself against swarms of Teutonic invaders.
3. The literature of early period falls naturally into two divisions, __pagan_and __Christian__.
4.__The song of Beowulf__ can be justly termed England‘s national epic and its hero _Beowulf___—one of the national heroes of the English people.
5. The Song of Beowulf reflects events which took place on the _European Continent___ approximately at the beginning of the _6th___ century , when the forefathers of the Jutes lived in the southern part of the __ Scandinavian peninsula __ and maintained close relations with kindred tribes ,e.g. with the __Danes__who lived on the other side of the straits.
6. Among the early Anglo-Saxon poets we may mention _Caedmon___ who lived in the half of the ___7th_ century and who wrote a poetic Paraphrase of the Bible.
7. __Caedmon__ is the first know religious poet of Engla nd . He is known as the father of English song.
8. The didactic poem The Christ was produced by __Cynewulf__ .
9. The most important work of __a__ is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles , which is regarded as the best monument of the old English prose.
a. Alfred the Great
b. Caedmon
c. Cynewulf
d. Venerable Bede
10. Who is the monster half-human who had mingled thirty warriors in The Song of Beowulf?c
a. Hrothgat
b. Heorot
c. Grendel
d. Beowulf
11. ___b_ is the first important religious poet in English literature.
a. Gynewulf
b. Caedmon
c. Shakespeare
d. Adam Bede
12. The epic , The Song of Beowulf ,represents the spirit of _d__.
a. Monks
b. romanticists
c. sentimentalists
d. pagan
13. Define the literary terms listed below. 1). Alliteration 2). Epic
14. Please give brief description of The Song of Beowulf. Exercise:
1.In the year __1066__, at the battle of _ Hasting___, the ___Normans_ headed by William Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons.
2. The literature with Normans brought to England is remarkable for its bright, __romantic__ tales of ___love_ and adventures, in marked contrast with the __strength__ and __somberness__ of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
3. English literature of Anglo-Norman period is also a combination of __French__ and _Saxon___ elements.
4. Defines the literary terms listed below.
(1) Anglo-Norman Romance (2) Middle English
Exercise:
1. In the 14th century, the two most important writers are __William Langland__ and Chaucer.
2. In the 15th century, there is only one important prose writer whose name is __Sir Thomas Malory__ . He wrote an important work called Morte d’Arthur.
3. Geoffrey Chaucer ,the ―__father of English poetry__‖ and one of the greatest narrative poets of England, was born in London in about the year 1340.
4. Chaucer‘s masterpiece is _The Canterbury Tales__,one of the most works in all literature.
5.The _general prologue__ provides a frame work for the tales in The Canterbury Tales, and it comprises a group of vivid pictures of various medieval figures.
6. Chaucer created in The Canterbury Tales a strikingly brilliant and picturesque panorama of _his time and his country___.
7. The Canterbury Tales opens with a general “prologue” where we are told of a company of pilgrims that gathered at __Tabard__ Inn in Southwark ,a suburb of London.
8. Chaucer believes in the right of man to __earthly__ happiness.
9.The name of the ―jolly innkeeper‖ in The Canterbury Tales is __Harry Bailey__,who proposes that each pilgrim of the __30__ should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back.
10.The pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales are on their way to the shrine of __St. Thomas Becket‘s __ at a place named Canterbury.
11.Despite the enormous plan , The Canterbury Tales in fact contains a general ―prologue‖ and only _24__ tale , of which two are left unfinished.
12.In contradistinction to the __alliterative__ verse of Anglo-Saxon poetry , Chaucer chose the metrical from which laid the foundation of the English __Tonico-syllabic___ verse.
13. Who is the ― father of English poetry ‖ and one of the greatest narrative poets of English?b
A . Christopher Marlow B. Geoffrey Chaucer
C. W. Shakespeare
D. Alfred the Great
14. When he died, Chaucer was buried in _a___ the Poet‘s Corner.
A．Westminster Abbey B. Normandy
C. Canterbury
D. Southwark
15. Chaucer‘s earliest work of any length is his __c__ a translation of the French ―Roman de la Rose‖, which was a love allegory enjoying widespread popularity in the 13th and 14th centuries throughout Europe.
A. Troilus and Criseyde
B. A Red Red Rose
C. Romance of the Rose
D. Piers the Plowman
16. Chaucer composes a long narrative poem named __b___ based on Boccaccio‘s poem ―Filostrato‖.
A. The Legend of Good Women
B. Troilus and Criseyde
C. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
D. Beowulf
17. In his literary development, Chaucer was influenced by three literatures. Which one is not true?d
A. French literature
B. Italian literature
C. English literature
D. German literature
18. There are various kinds of ballads _historical___, __legendary__, __fantanstical__, __lyrical__ and ___homorous__.
19. In the numerous __border ballads__, the age-long struggle
between the Scots and the English is reflected.
20. Bishop __Thomas Perry__ was among the first to take a literary interest in ballads.
21. Robin Hood, a __Saxon__ by birth, was an outlaw, a robber but he robbed only the rich and never molested the poor and needy.
22. The first mention of Robin Hood in literature is in Langland‘s ___Piers the Plowman__.
23. Define the literary terms listed below. (1) Ballad (2) Heroic couplet
24. Comment on Geoffrey Chaucer and his The Canterbury Tales. Exercise:
1. The 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of __feudal __ relation and the establishing of the foundations of __capitalism__.
2. Because the wool trade was rapidly growing in bulk , it was s time when , according to Thomas More , ―__shape devoured man__ ‖.
3. __King Henry the VIII__ broke off with the Pope , dissolved all the monasteries and Abbeys in the country , confiscated their lands proclaimed himself head of __Church of England__.
4. Absolute monarchy in England reached its summit during the reign of __Queen Elizabeth I__.
5. Together with the development of bourgeois relationships and
formation of the English national state this period is marked by a Flourishing of national culture known as the __Renaissance__.
6.__Thomas More_wrote his _Utopia__in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of people‘s sufferings and put forwards his ideal of a future happy society.
7._Thomas Wyatt__was the first to introduce the Italian sonnet into English literature.
8. Edmund Spenser was the author of the greatest epic poem of _The Faire Queene___.
9. Define the literary terms listed below. (1)renaissance (2)Spenserian Stanza
Exercise:
1.Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and __Macbeth___ are generally regarded as Shakespea re‘s four great tragedies.
2. During the 22 years of his literary work, Shakespeare produced __37__ plays, __2__ narrative poems and __154___ sonnets.
3. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is one of ___Christopher Marlowe__‘s best plays.
4. __Edmund Spenser__ is often referred to as ― the poet‘s poet‖.
5. ―Shall I compare thee to a summer‘s day‖ is one of _Shakespeare‘s___ best known sonnets.
6. In the __Elizabethan__ Period, William Shakespeare is the
greatest writer of England.
7. Define the literary terms listed below: Dramatic Irony
8. Comment on William Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice.
9. Comment on William Shakespeare and Hamlet.
Exercises:
1.Pope described Francis Bacon as ― the _wisest__, _brightest__,
__meanest_ of mankind‖.
2. Ba con‘s works may be divided into three classes, the _philosophy__, the __professional_, the _literary__ works.
3. The final edition of Bacon‘s essays contains __58_ essays.
4. The 17th century was a period when _absolute monarchy__ impeded the further development of capitalism in England and the _bourgeoisie__ could no longer bear the sway of __landed nobility_.
5. The government of James I was a __despotism_ based on the theory of the divine right of kings.
6. There were religious division and confusion and a long bitter struggle between the people‘s Parliament and the Throne--- __Puritans_ fighting against the _Cavaliers__ who helped the king.
7. England became a commonwealth under the leadership of __Oliver Cromwell_.
8. After _Oliver Cromwell__‘s d eath, monarchy as again restored (1660). It was called the period of the Restoration____.
9. The Glorious Revolution in _1688__ meant three things the supremacy of _Parliament__, the beginning of _modern England__, and the final triumph of the principle of _political liberty__.
10. The Puritans believed in __simplicity_ of life.
11. The Revolution Period is also called _the Puritan Age__, because the English Revolution was carried out under a religious cloak.
12. Define the literary term – Blank verse.
13. The first thing to strike the reader is Donne‘s extraordinary _frankness__ and penetrating _realism__. The next is the _cynicism__ which marks certain of the lighter poems and which represents a conscious reaction from the extreme __idealism__ of woman encouraged by the Petrarchan tradition.
14. Donne entered the church in 1615, where he rose rapidly to be Dean of _St Paul‘s Cathedral__, and the most famous preacher of his time.
15. Milton‘s father was a __Puritan_, but not so harsh as most of the _Puritans__ of his day.
16. Milton opposed the __Monarchic_ party and gave all his energies to the writing of __pamphlets_ dedicated to the people‘s liberties.
17. Paradise Lost tells how __Satan_ rebelled against God and how _Adam__ and __Eve_ were driven out of Eden.
18. Paradise Lost presents the author‘s view in an _allegorical__, _religious__ form.
19. The poem Paradise Lost consists of _12__ books.
20. Paradise Lost is based on the __Bibelical__ legend of the imaginary progenitors of the human race --- __Adam_ and __Eve_ , and involves God and his eternal adversary _Santan__ in its plot.
21. In Revolution period __John Milton__ towers over his age as William Shakespeare towers over the Elizabethan Age and as Chaucer over the Medieval period.
22. During the civil war and the commonwealth, there were two leadersin England, Cromwell, the man of action, and _John Milton__ the man of thought.
23. In 1637Milton wrote the finest pastoral elegy in English, ―__Lycidas_‖to memorize the tragic death of a Cam bridge friend.
24. Milton wrote his masterpiece __Paradise Lost_ during his blindness.
25. Comment on John Milton and his Paradise Lost.
Exercise:
1. Milton and Bunyan represented the extreme of English life in the 17th century. One gave us the only epic since _Beowulf___, the other gave us the only great _allegry___.
2. Bunyan‘s most important work is _Pilgrim‘s Progess___, written
in the old-fashioned medieval form of __allegory__ and ___dream_.
3. In The Pilgrim‘s Progress, the story begins with a man called __Christian__setting out with a book in his hand and a great load on his back from the city of __Destuction__.
4. Christian has two objects,--- to get rid of his __bureden__, which holds the sins and fears of his life, and to make his way to the __Celestial City_.
5. John Bunyan gives a vivid and satirical description of __Vanity Fair__ which is the symbol of London at the time of Restoration.
6. The literature of the middle and later periods of the 17th century cultimated in the poetry of _John Milton___, in the prose writing of __John Bunyan__, and also in the plays and literary criticism of ___John Dryden_.
Exercise:
1. No sooner were the people in control of the government than they divided into hostile parties: the liberal _Whigs___, and the conservative __Tories__.
2. Another feature of the 18th century was the rapid development of __social life__.
3. The Enlighteners believed in the power of reason and therefore the 18th century is also called ―the age of _Reason___‖.
4. The Enlightenment on the whole was an expression of struggle of
the progressive class of _bourgeoisie__ against __feudalism__.
5. The enlighteners repudiate the false religious doctrines about the __viciousness__ of human nature, and prove that man is born ___kind_ and __honest__, and if he becomes depraved, it is only due to the influence of _corrupted__ social environment.
6. It is simply for convenience that we study 18th century writings in three main divisions: the reign of so-called __neo-classicism__, the revival of __romatic_poetry, and the beginnings of the ___modern novel__.
7. The essays and stories of Addison and Steele devoted not only to social problems, but also to __private_ life_ and __adventures__.
8. Pope was a man of extraordinary __wit__ and extensive __learning__, and his contemporaries considered him as the highest __authority__ in matters of literary art.
9. The image of an enterprising Englishman of the 18th century was created by Daniel Defoe in his famous novel__Robinson Crusoe__.
10. ___Alexander Pope_ is the leading figure of neo-classicism in the early period of the 18th century.
11. Robinson Crusoe is largely an _adventure__ story, rather than the study of __human character__ which Defoe probably intended it to be.
12. In The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, in a vein of grim _humor__ which recalls Swift‘s Modest Proposal Defoe advocated
hanging all dissenting ministers, and sending all member of the free churches into exile.
13. The full name of Robinson Crusoe is __The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe__.
14. The story of Robinson Crusoe itself is real enough to have come straight from a sailor‘s __logbook__.
15. Robinson named __Friday__ to the saved savage.
16. Define the literary term, Picaresque Novels.
Exercise:
1.The 18th century in English literature is an age of __Prose___.
2.Swift is born of English parents in ___Dublin Ireland___.
3.Swift was the most remarkable __satirist__ in the 18th century
who criticized the new bourgeois-aristocratic society of his age with out mercy.
4. Jonathan Swift‘s masterpiece is __Gulliver‘s Travels__.
5. Gulliver‘s adventures begins with __Liliputians__, who are so
small that Gulliver is a giant among them.
6. The country in Gulliver‘s Travels is __Houyhnhnms__, where
horses are the real people and human beings , __Yahoos___ are their filthy servants.
7. In the country of __Brobdingnag __, Gulliver is but pygmy.
8. Gulliver‘s third voyage is occupied with a visit to the flying island
of __Laputa__.
9. A Modest Proposal is made to __English__ government to relieve
the poverty of _Irish___ people.
10. The Tale of a Tub is a satire on the various __churches__ of the day.
Exercise:
1.Henry Fielding is the greatest novelist of the __18th__ century.
2.Fielding‘s fir st novel , _Joseph Andrews___ was inspired by the
success of Richardson‘s novel Pamela.
3. Fielding‘s later novels are ___Jonathon Wild___, the story of a
rogue , which suggests Defoe‘s narrati ve ; __The History of
_Tom Jones_, a Foundling_(1749) his best work; and
__Amelia____ (1751) , the story of a good wife in contrast with
an unworthy husband.
4.In his works Fielding strongly criticizes __social relations__ in the
Contemporary England.
5. Fielding hates that hypocrisy which tries to conceal itself under A
mask of __morality__.
6. The lack of __spirituality__ of the age finds the most ample expression in his page.
7.To read Milton‘s __Il Penseroso__ and Gray‘s is to see the
beginning and the perfection of that ―literature of melancholy‖
which largely Occupied English poets for more than a century.
8. The author of the famous Elegy is the most scholarly and
well-balanced of all the early __romantic__ poets.
9. Oliver Goldsmith was one of the most __versatile__ of author and
made distinguished contributions in several literary forms.
10. Goldsmith was born in __Ireland__ , the son of an __Anglican__
clergyman whose geniality he inherited and whose improvidence he imitated.
11. As ___essayest_ ,Goldsmith is among the best of the century.
12. As a __poet__ he makes the riming couples as natural and simple as his prose.
13. The Deserted Village is a (n )__idylice__ story of the family of a
clergy-man after they have lost their money and are living in poverty.
14. Goldsmith‘s two comedies , The Good-natured Man and She Stoops
to Conquer met with opposition because the fashion was then for __sentimental__ comedy.
15. The two plays by Sheridan and _Goldsmith___ are the only plays of
the 18th century that have been kept alive upon the modem stage.
16. Richard Brinsley Sheridan was, like Goldsmith ,a (n) _Irish__man.
17. His famous comedy , _The Rivals__ , was written in his
twenty-four year.
18. Sheridan‘s famous comedy _The School of Scadal___, written in
1777, is considered his masterpiece.
19. Define the literary term, comedy of humors.
20. Of all the romantic poets of the 18th century ,Blake is the most
independent and the most _original___.
21. For greater part of his life Blake was the poet of inspiration alone ,
following no man‘ s __lead__ , obeying no voice but that which be heard in his own mystic __soul__.
22. Beyond learning to __read__ and __write__, he received no education.
23. His only formal education was in __art__.
24. At 14, Blake apprenticed for seven years to a well-known __engraver__ , James Basire.
25. After three years at Felpham ,Blake moved back to London , determined to follow his ―__Divine Vision___‖ though it meant a life of isolation , misunderstanding , and poverty.
26. The underlying theme in Songs of Innocence is the all-pervading presence of divine and __sympathy__ , even in trouble and sorrow. 27.In 1790 Blake engraved his principal prose , ___The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ , in which, with vigorous satire and telling apologue , he takes up his Revolutionary position.
28. The__Songs of Experienc__ (1794) are in marked contrast with the Songs of Innocence.
29. The brightness of the earlier work gives place to a sense of _gloom___ and mystery , and of the power of __evil__.
30. In Jerusalem we have expounded Blake ?s theory of __Imagination__ .
31. The greatest of __Scottish__ poets is Robert Burns.
32. In 1786. when he was 27 years old ,Burns resolved to abandon the struggle and seek position in the far-off island of __Jamaica__.
33.Burns wrote some __patriotic__ poems , in which he expressed his deep l ove for his motherland ,such as ―My Heart’s in the Highlands‖. 34. Burns‘ poetry bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of the __Scottish__ common people.