Multiple Choice (1’×15=15’) 1. ______was the first colony in American history.
A. Massachusetts B. New Jersey C. Virginia D.Georgia
2. ______ was the only good American author before the Revolutionary War. One
of his fellow Americans said, “His shadow lies heavier than any other man’s on
this young nation.”
A. John Smith B. Benjamin Franklin C. Thomas Jefferson D.Thomas Paine 3. Romantics put emphasis on the following EXCEPT ______. A. common sense B. imagination C. intuition D. individualism 4. The Raven was written in 1844 by ________
A. Philip Freneau B. Edgar Allan Poe C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow D. Emily Dickinson
5. The ship ______ carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A. Sunflower B. Armada C. Mayflower D. Titanic
6. 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
7. 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 8. The theme of original sin is fully reflected in _________. A. The Scarlet Letter B. Sister Carrie
C. The Great Gatsby D. The Old Man and Sea
9. In all his novels Theodore Dreiser sets himself to project the ______ American values. For example, in Sister Carrie, there is not one character whose status is not determined economically.
A. Puritan B. materialistic C. psychological D. religious
10. 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
11. ________ was a poet in American modern period who was deeply influence by eastern culture. A. T. S Eliot B. Robert Frost C. Ezra Pound D. Walt Whitman 12. Which of the following statements about Emily Dickinson is NOT true?
A. After 1862 she became a total recluse, not leaving her house nor seeing
close friends.
B. She once felt a deep affection for Charles Wadsworth, a married aged minister, but it proved to be a frustrated
love affair for Dickinson.
C. She wrote about death, immortality, nature, success and failure. D. During her lifetime, all her poems are published.
13. The realistic period is referred to as “the Gilded Age” by _______. A. Mark Twain B. Henry James C. Emily Dickinson D. Theodore Dreiser 14. Which of the following works is NOT by Ernest Hemingway?
A. The Old Man and Sea B. A Farewell to Arms C. Sound and Fury D. For Whom the Bell Tolls 15. Which one is NOT the characteristic of modernism?
A. Modernism in literature is characterized by experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the
cerebral rather than emotive aspects.
B. Modernism is greatly influenced by the two world wars.
C. The work of Marx, and Freud, had mounted an assault against orthodox religious faith that lasted into the
twentieth century.
D. Modernists believe that human nature is kind.
I. Match the Column A with Column B (1’×10=10’)
Column A Column B
( ) 1. Dimmesdale a. Robert Frost
( ) 2. Ahab b. Mark Twain
( ) 3. Drouet c. The Scarlet Letter
( ) 4. Pulitzer Prizer d. Thomas Jefferson ( ) 5. Reclusive poet e. Moby Dick ( ) 6. humorist and satirist f. Ernest Heminway ( ) 7. The Decalration of Indepenence g. Henry David Thoreau ( ) 8. transcendentalist h. Emily Dickinson ( ) 9. The Great Gatsby i. Sister Carrie
( ) 10. The Lost Generation j. F. Scott Fitzgerald
II. Define the following words within one phrase (2’×5=10’)
1. free verse 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson 3. Mark Twain 4. Benjamin Franklin 5. Ezra Pound
III. Simple questions (5’×4=20’)
1. What are Puritan thoughts?
2. What is Transcedentalism and list some representative figures?
3. Explain the symbolic meanings of “A” in The Scarlet Letter. 4. Illustrate the three principles of Imagist Poetry.
IV. Interpreting the following texts (45’)
Text 1
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving
hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counsellor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognised for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
Questions
1. Please use one phrase to summarize the above paragraph (2’)
2. What are the two possibilities for a girl of eighteen leaving her home?(2’) 3. Please find out the figures of speech (2’)
4. What are the attractive forces mentioned in a big city? (4’)
5. How are naturalist views are reflected in this paragraph? Illustrate your points with examples (5’)
Text 2
Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me -- The Carriage held but just Ourselves -- And Immortality.
We slowly drove -- He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess -- in the Ring -- We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -- We passed the Setting Sun –
…
Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –
Questions:
1. Identify the poet and the title of this poem? (2’) 2. Explain the underlined words (4’)
3. What are the implications of “the School”, “the fields of Gazing Grain”, “the Setting Sun”? (3’) 4. How do you understand “Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet / Feels shorter than the Day” ? (3’)
5. What are the speaker’s opinions about death? (3’)
Text 3
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Questions:
1. Please examine the poetic form (rhyme and meter) (2’)
2. Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does the speaker take? (3’) 3. How do you understand the word “sigh”? (4’)
4. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind? (4’) 5. What is the theme of this poem? (2’)
美国文学史及选读试卷
