美国文学选读-第三版-课后习题答案-陶洁

美国文学选读-第三版-课后习题答案-陶洁

美国文学选读 第三版 课后习题答案 陶洁(部分)

Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin Questions

1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?

Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it

2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed? His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother. 3.How did he arrive in Philadephia?

First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight or nine o’clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf.

4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection?

It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(言简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的).

Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe Questions

1.Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress? Montresor.

Fortunato,one of wine experts insulted him, so he wanted to murder him. 2.What is the pretext he uses to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar?

He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he believes to be a cask of Amontillado a rare and valuable sherry wine.

Fortunato is anxious to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado, so he goes to the vault with Montresor.

3.What happens to Fortunato in the end?

He was walled up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar.

4.Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Montresor and Fortunato as contrasts?

Poe uses color imagery to characterize them. Montresor face is covered in a black silk mask, In contrast, Fortunato dresses the motley-colored costume of the court fool, who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor's masked motives.

The color schemes here represent the irony of Fortunato's death sentence.

Through the acts, words, and thoughts of Fortunato,we know He is greedy, he was lured into the dark and somber vaults just because a cask of Amontillado.

This is also due to his bad habit of bibulosity(酗酒）. He lost himself on hearing the wine. At the same time, he was cheated by his enemy, which reflected his ignorance.

When he heard the pretended compliment from Montresor, he became very boastful and

The scarlet letter is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate? It seems to declare that she is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin.

In reality, however, Hester simply accepts the “sin” and its symbol as part of herself, just as she accepts her child.

And although she can hardly believe her present “realities,” she takes them as they are rather than resisting them or trying to atone for them. How does this tell us about her character?

Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent, capable. It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure.

Unit5 Herman Melville Questions

1.What are the stories Ismael tells about Moby Dick?

Ishmael compares the legend of Moby Dick to his experience of the whale.

He notes that sperm whale attacks have increased recently and that superstitious sailors have come to regard these attacks as having an intelligent, even supernatural origin. In particular, wild rumors about Moby Dick circulate among whalemen, suggesting that he can be in more than one place at the same time and that he is immortal. Ishmael remarks that even the wildest of rumors usually contains some truth.

Whales, for instance, have been known to travel with remarkable speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific; thus, it is possible for a whale to be caught in the Pacific with the harpoons of a Greenland ship in it.

Moby Dick, who has defied capture numerous times, exhibits an “intelligent malignity”（狠毒） in his attacks on men

2.Why does Ahab react so violently against the white whale? First, he lost one of his legs because of the white whale.

Second,He considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in the world, and he pursues the White Whale，because he believes it his inescapable fate to destroy this evil.

Ishmael suggests that Ahab is “crazy”and call him “a raving lunatic.” Do you agree with him? Why or why not?

Ishmael describes Ahab as mad in his narration, and it does indeed seem mad to try to fight the forces of nature or God.

3.What narrative features can you find in the selected chapter?

In the selected charpter, Melville employed the technique of multiple view of his narrative to portray Moby Dick to achieve the effect of ambiguity and let readers judge the meaning.

Unit 6 Henry David Thoreau

Questions

1.Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and at a spiritual level? He lived in a cabin on Walden Pond, which belonged to Emerson’s property. 2.Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying? No, he hadn’t.

He avoided purchasing a farm because it would inevitably tie him down financially and complicate his life.

Thoreau didn’t see the acquisition of wealth as the goal for human existence, he saw the goal of life to be an exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us. He regarded the places as an existence free of obligations and full of leisure.

3.Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods? Why? Yes, it is.

Because The Fourth of July is known as Independence Day,the birthday ot the United States. Here Thoreau uses the day to express his beginning of regeneration at Walden. It also means a symbol of his conquest of being.

4.How could you answer the question Thoreau asked at the end of this selection?

Unit 7 19th Century American Poets 1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1) I Shot an Arrow…

1. Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song?

The arrow flies too swiftly and too far away to be seen by the speaker; whereas the song is naturally invisible.

2. In what circumstances did he find them again?

He finds them unexpectedly years later from the trunk of a tree and the heart of a friend. 3. What do arrow and song stand for in this poem?

The images of arrow and song here may stand for friendship. (2) A Psalm of Life

1. What kind of person is the speaker of this poem?

The speaker is a man of action, always optimistic and cheerful, trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life.

2. According to the poem, how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death?

We should work harder and live happier.

3. Interpret the metaphor of \ The metaphor refers to human deeds in real life.

2. Walt Whitman (1)One's Self I Sing

1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?

It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.