PartⅤ The 17th century
The Period of Revolution and Restoration
John Donne
1 What are the characteristics and representatives of the English literature of the revolution period, the metaphysical period and restoration period?
A. The revolution period, Puritans believed in simplicity of life and disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry, and they influence in general tended to suppressed literary art.
Representatives：John Milton，John Bunyan
B.The metaphysical （玄学派）period, the style became spiritual gloom. Representatives：Donne and Herbert；John Milton
C．The restoration period, the literary was often witty and clever, but on the whole immoral and cynical.
Representatives：John Dryden
2 In “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning《告别：莫忧伤》”, why does the speaker forbid mourning when his going to pass away and leave his lover? Why and what are the two conceits （比喻）that he uses to describe their perfect love? A.Although they may leave each other, yet they love is firm and forever, and soul lovers cannot be separated by distance and death. Besides，death is natural just like earthquake.
B. First conceit（like gold to airy thinness beat）, their souls are like gold, it can expand and their love still exit.
Second conceit(as stiff tein com, they are like compasses are two), one moving and anther stay and wait for the companion.
3 In “Death be not proud”(死神莫骄妄), what will happen to us when we die？why does the speaker say that “death should not be proud”? When will death die?
A. It will be rest and sleep flow with much pleasure when we die，and our souls will be released.
B.Because it is a slave of fate, chance, kings and desperate man and death is together with poison,war,sickness and opium or charms. And these things can make us sleep like the death, and the effect is better than death. Death for people is a soul’s delivery, and after death people will feel free and pleased. Although people die, yet they wake eternally, and their souls are exiting forever.
C.When people’s short sleep past, people wake eternally, and death no longer exist and death will die.
John Milton
1 In what way is John Milton a staunch(坚定的)revolution fighter and a great poet?
A.When he was in Italy, he heard the trouble sprung up in England, and he gave up his plan for travelling and went back to England. After he return to England, he
opposed the monarchic party and gave all his energy to the writing of pamphlets小册子 dedicated to the people’s liberties.
B.After finishing the university course，he thought he was born to be a poet.So for five years he lived at home in his father’s country house at Horton about 20 miles from London,writing poetry and studying hard,in order better to fit himself for his work.He worked for 7years upon Paradise Lost.And he also wrote Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.The three works made him a great poet.
2What is the theme of Paradise Lost ?What is the basic idea of Paradise Lost? Theme:？？？？？
The basic idea:the exposure of reactionary forces of his time and passionate appeal for freedom.
3 In Paradise Lost, why was Satan punished by God driven out of heaven and at last into hell? What did he want to do for revenge? And what was his reason? What is the allegorical meaning of the poem?
A. Because Satan led the mutinous(反叛的) angels to rise against God himself but in the battle with the hosts of angels that remained true to God, they were finally defeated.
B. Satan wanted to ruin God’s precious creation (man).
C. So he wanted to tear Adam and Eve away from the influence of God and to make them instrumental in his struggle against God’s authority.
D. God represents authority and tyranny on earth,he has strong rights to control anything .
Satan represents the power of revolting against authority and desire for freedom. 3 In the Sonnet On His Blindness, what is the double meaning of “talent”? What is “mine” question? And what is the answer given by patience? What is the theme of the Sonnet?
A. The “talent” means :ability and a kind of currency unit
B. Question is that God does not give us light, and why I will bear it?(‘Doth God exact day-labor,light denied?’)
C. Patience answers that God does not need gift, and go and climb without rest or stand and wait is also a service.(‘God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts;who best bear his mild yoke,they serve him best)
D. Theme:If you have talents,you should make full use of it. and your pain will be diminished and you will be peaceful and calm.You can use your talent to live a meaningful life. John Banyan
1 What is “allegory”? In what way is Banyan The Pilgrim’s Progress is allegory? What are the literal meaning and symbolic meaning of the work?
A. Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which the characters, actions or settings represent abstract ideas general truth or moral qualities, and a story that has two meanings, literal and symbolic.
B. The literal meaning: Christian’s pilgrimage from the city of Destruction to the Holy City
The symbolic meaning:religious people,people should follow Christian’s example.And it reflects the society and culture.
2 In the part Vanity Fair, what is the Vanity Fair? What are sold and brought at the VF? What do Christian and his companion Faithful want to buy? How are they treated as a fair? What is the meaning of this excerpt? A. Vanity fair is a name of a town and there is a fiar kept. B. Everything in vanity is can be sold and brought,such as jouses,ladns,trades,places…….
C. Christian and his companion want to buy “truth”
D. They was mocked and taunted,and were taken and beaten by the people in the vanity.And the people in fair besmeares(玷污) them with dirt,and put them with dirt,and put them into the cage.
E. “Vanity”means emptiness or worthlessness,and hence the fair is an allegory of the worldliness(俗气) and the corruption of the religious life through the
attractions of the world.And Banyan described the world that lost truth and were full of selfishness and corruption.
PartⅥ The Age of Enlightenment in England
Daniel Defoe
1 What does Enlightenments Movement mean? What do you know about the English literature of the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenments Movement on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisies against feudalism.
Nearly all writers frequented the coffeehouses and matters discussed there became subjects of literature. And the literary leaders emphasized formality or correctness of style. The reign of classicism is Addison, Steele, and Pope, and their verse became the ambition of aspiring young authors. Beside, the modern novels became popular:
realist, psychological, satirical and sentimental novels. And the revival of romanticism or pre-romanticism.
2 What story does the novel Robinson Crusoe tell? What is the theme and style? Why do we say that Robinson Crusoe is the representative of the raising bourgeois? The story is about Robinson was lost in an island, and he was alone and finally survive.
The theme: a man’s struggle against nature for survival by self-reliance and man’s determination to improve his livelihood by labor.
The style: simple, direct, fact-based story and characterization and smooth, easy and colloquial language.
Robinson is fighting with difficulties and does not give in, and he struggles against nature for survival. Just like the enterprising Englishman fighting the survivals of feudalism and develop the bourgeois relations.
Jonathan Swift
1 What kind of writer is JS?What are his major works?
A. JS is a supreme master of devastating satire.( He was a posthumous (遗腹子)child, and people looked upon him as a servant, he had a bitter, unhappy early life. After he entered the strife（争斗） of party politics, he soon became a veritable（名副其实的） dictator, and he was courted and flattered, and he was arrogant. But when the Tories went out of power his position was uncertain, and the last years he was anguish and grief. )
B. Major works:The tale of a Tub ,The battle of the Books, Gulliver’s Travels 2 How many past does Gulliver travelers consist of? What satirize in the novel? Include four parts, the voyage, the Brobdingnag, the flying island and the Houyhnhnms.
The story is an immortal classic of satire, a penetrating anatomy of human nature揭露人性丑恶, and a satirical description of the vices of his age. 2What are the structure ,the significance and the style of it? 见笔记
3 What are Gulliver’s experiences in Lilliput and Brobdingnag described in the selecting readings?
A. In Lilliput, Gulliver is shipwrecked, and the Lilliputians bind the sleeping Gulliver hand and foot. Gulliver has to convince them, then he goes to the war but the officials conspire against him and charge him with high treason. Finally, Gulliver escapes in a boat and goes back to England.
B. In Brobdingnag, people are good-natured and they treat Gulliver kindly, they look him as a plaything. And the king often interrogates Gulliver on European affairs. At last, the travelling-box takes him to the seashore, and he was picked up by a English trip.
PartⅦ The Age of Enlightenment
Joseph Addison
1 What is the Addison’s contribution to the two papers The Tatler and The Spectator?
Addison was a better writer than Steele and he made The Tatler a great success, and he also helped with the anther newspaper. Addison gave many ideas and thoughts to the two papers and made the paper become very and interesting and popular. 2 What are the poems contain form and style on the two papers? The form is little and familiar essays.
The style is clean, wholesome, gentle humor, courtesy and good breeding.
Henry Fielding
1 What are the major features of Henry Fielding’s novels?
Criticism of social relations, hypocrisy and lack of spirituality, and vivid positive and negative characters, besides, direct, vigorous, hilarious, coarse and realistic style. 2 What good quality does Tom Jones display in chapter 20 of book4 and chapter 14 of book 12?
Tom was brave and kind, when Sophia was in dangerous, Tom saved her and got hurt, but he cared about nothing but Sophia’s health, although he was hurt, he also thought about others not himself. And in another story, Tom was clever and friendly, he would like to help other people, even it may be put him in danger.
Thomas Gray
1 In the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard《墓畔哀歌》, what are the contents of the poem?what are the poet thoughts and feelings about the dead buried in the churchyard? How does he describe grooms in the poem? A.见笔记本
B.He shows his respect，praise and symapthy for the poor and the ordinary,but mocks
the great ones who despise(鄙视) the poor and bring havoc（骚乱） on them.
C.The author selects natural phenomena to reflect the mood and display the emotion of man借情抒景，寓情于景P250
William Blake
1 In the poem The Tiger, what is the Blake feeling about the tiger? What is his feeling about the Maker of tiger? What does he want to say by asking the question’did he who made the lamb made thy’? does he ask about God and about the order of nature and the social order in reality?
A. To the poet, the tiger means power and strength, and it makes people scared and frightened.
B. He is praising the skill and courage of the maker of the tiger.So the Marker is great.Symbolically,Blake is praising the French Revolutin and the violent revolutionary forces.
C. The poet is confused, the Marker have made tiger already, why then created the lamb. The tiger id ferocious ,violent and powerful,but the lamb id
peaceful,innocent and midl.But the maker create them both,which symbolizes the disordered society.There are the rich and the poor.And the poor is deprived by the rich.
2 In the poem The Chimney Sweeper, is the chimney sweeper happy?what is the little CS fate? Who are responsible for his sad fate?
A. No, he is not happy,although the little chimney sweeper was positive and believed that everything will be fine.
B. His fate is to die because of the harsh condition.
C.Parents make their children be a tool to earn money, and do not protect them, but the God, the Priest and the King do not help those children.
Robert Burns 彭斯
1In the poet My Heart’s in the Highlands, where is the speaker now? Where is his heart? Why does he have such a strong love for highlands? A. He is not in his homeland.
B. His heart is in the highlands,in his homeland.
C. Because highlands mean the birthplace of valour (勇气),the country of worth, and even the birthplace of him,he compliment his country and show his strong love and homesickness for his home.
2In A Red, Red Rose, how does the speaker describe this love’s loveliness? How does he describe his deep love for her?
A. He uses simile(明喻) and metaphor(暗喻). He describes his love as red rose. B. In the second part of the poem the speaker uses seas, rocks, sun and sands to metaphor his deep love. He also uses overstatement(夸张手法).
大学英语专业英国文学史 考试简答题
