英语专业美国文学试题exercise 1

Exercise OneⅠ. Write the names of the authors.(10%)1.Walden2.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets3. A Farewell to Arms4.White Fang5.“Legend of Sleepy Hollow”6.The Cantos7.“Birches”8.Poor Richard’s Almanac9.“One’s Self I sing”10.Twice Told Tales. Fill in the following blanks. (10%)1._________________________was one of the founders of the Jamestown colony inVirginia in 1607 and is known for his work describing the colonies.2.__________________________was a determined revolutionary whose work helped thecause of the American Revolution considerably, but who lost his popularity long before his death.3.The term refers to the group of people, some of them important toAmerican literature (especially secular essay writing), who led the American Revolution and helped create the early American Republic.4.________________________was an early form of horror fiction that originated in 18thcentury Europe and was very popular in America during the Romantic Period.5._____________________________, known for her deeply personal poems and radicallydifferent poetic themes and form, didn’t achieve fame as a poet until long after her death.. Choose only one answer form the four choices as the most appropriate(15%)1. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. When her poems were published in England, she became know as the “______” who appeared in America.A Ninth MuseB Tenth MuseC Best MuseD First Muse2. ______ is the sometimes exaggerated use of local language, characters and customs in regional literature.A purple proseB waste-land imageryC local colorD symbolism3. The first great flourishing of African American literature that appealed to a relatively large literate Black readership was known as_____.A The HolocaustB The Harlem RenaissanceC AbolitionismD The Civil Rights Movement4. _______ was a leading 19th century feminist and one of the core members of the Transcendentalist movement.A Margaret FullerB Sylvia PlathC Hilda DoolittleD Gloria Stein5. Which of the following is not typical of modern poetry?A gushing sentimentalism and comfortable imagesB abandonment of earlier verse formsC use of free verseD an effort to find and/or explore a new role for the poet in a changing world6. Who was perhaps the most popular of all 20th century American poets?A Ezra PoundB Walt WhitmanC Robert FrostD Allen Ginsburg7. 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 Jazz AgeB The Gilded AgeC The Roaring AgeD The Beat Age8. Which is true of the “Fireside Poets”?A They were generally strongly in favor of abolishing slavery.B They were deeply involved in the Transcendentalist movement.C They were a group of 19th century New England poets who were tremendously popular and respected at the time they wrote.D They opposed to tradition and were in favor of radical change.9. Ernest Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love witha nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel ________.A The Old Man and the SeaB For Whom the Bell TollsC The Sun Also RisesD Farewell to Arms10. The Brahmists or Boston Brahmi, in American literature, refers to _______.A The highest ranking of the Hindu castes.B A movement that emerged from rebellion against Puritan religious ideas and systems.C A group of New England writers known for their scholarship and/or conservative philosophy.D A school of imaginative writing.11. Which of the following is one of Ben Franklin’s famous proverbs?A “A stitch in time saves nine”B “God helps those who help themselves”C “A Friend in need is a friend indeed”D “Ask not who the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee”12. ___________ was a reaction to the ideas of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment.A RomanticismB RealismC NaturalismD Modernism13. Although her poems were never published in her lifetime and a complete collection of them didn’t appear until the 1950’s, _____ had a major impact on 20th century poetry.A Anne BradstreetB Gertrude SteinC Emily DickinsonD Amy Lowell14. Which of the following writers died a natural death in his old age?A Jack LondonB Ernest HemingwayC Stephen CraneD Mark Twain15. Who of the following is NOT a 20th century American poet?A Henry Wordsworth LongsfellowB Amy LowellC Ezra PoundD Robert Frost(10%)1. Hawthorne was a firm believer in Puritan principles and mourned their passing in hisworks.2. Frederick Douglas was a major 19th century black writer.3. The sound of Whitman’s words casts a magic, romantic spell over readers. His tone isawesome, sad and melancholy.4. Haiku, a form of traditional Japanese poetry, greatly influenced the Imagist movement.5. Leaves of Grass is Whitman’s life work.6. Thanks in part to the efforts of Ezra Pound, Robert Frost was published in England andquickly became recognized as a major American poet.7. In 1954, T. S. Eliot was awarded a Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of modernnarration.”8. Hemingway believed that a man could find meaning in life by facing is death with dignityand courage.9.Thomas Jefferson was famous for powerful, persuasive essays, such as his pamphletCommon Sense , which persuaded many people to support the American Revolution. 10. William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy , written in 1789, is often called “the firstAmerican novel”. (20%) Passage OneThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.Questions:1. Who is the writer of this poem? _______________2. What is the title of this poem? _______________3. What images in this poem suggest Haiku poetry and what images are “modern”?4.What is the effect of the parallel between lines one and two of the poem? And what feeling and meaning does the poem express to you?Passage 2It was late and everyone had left the café except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.Questions:1.This part is from the novel , written by .2.Why does the old man get drunk every night and why did he commit suicide?3.What does the young waiter think of the old man and how does he treat him?答案I．Write the names of the authors.(1*10=10%)1.Henry David Thoreau2.Stephen Crane3.Ernest Hemingway4.Jack London5.Washington Irving6.Ezra Pound7.Robert Frost8.Benjamin Franklin9.Walt Whitman10.Nathaniel HawthorneII. Fill in the following blanks. (2*5=10%)1.John Smith2.Thomas Paine3.“founding fathers”4.Gothic Fiction5.Emily DickensonⅢ. Choose only one answer form the four choices as the most appropriateanswer. (1*15=15%)IV. Decide whether the statements are true or false. (1*10=10%)V. Identify the following fragments and then answer questions. (20%)Passage 11.Ezra Pound (1)2.In A Station of the Metro (1)3.Answer should comment on the parallel between the “modern” imagery (description ofurban crowds and transp ortation, loneliness) of the first line and the traditional “Oriental”imagery (budding flowers on a tree, wetness) of the second line. (4)4.What is the effect of the parallel between lines one and two of the poem? Describe thestylistic result of the parallel and the feelings it evokes (4)Passage 21.This part if from the short story “A Clean Well Light Room” written by ErnestHemingway. (2)2.Describe the old man’s character and relate it to the nihilist philos ophy expressed in thestory. (3)3.What does the young waiter think of the old man (and why) and how does he treat him?Describe the young man’s character, his lack of understanding of the old man and thesignificance of how he treats the old man as described in the story. (5)VI. Discuss the difference between Henry James’s realism and Mark Twain’s realism. (20%)∙Although Henry James and Mark Twain both worked for realism, there were obvious differences between them. In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society.（4’）Technically, James pursued the Psychological realism, but Mark Twain’scontribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole waspartly through his colloquial style. （4’）∙Henry James believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. Such realism is therefore merelythe obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it, which may not be the same life as it “really” is. James shi fted the ground of realistic art from the outer to theinner world. （6’）∙Mark Twain preferred to represent social life through portraits of local places that he knew best. He drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places.He confined himself to the life with which he was familiar. By quoting from his ownexperience, Mark Twain managed to transform art into the freedom and humor, in short , the finest elements of western culture. （6’）VII. Write about 120 words to comment on Ezra Pound’s contribution to American Poetry of twenty century. (15%)∙Answer should mention his being an American poet writing from Europe and contacting American poets and discuss his role in the imagist movement, as a translator and hissupport (editing, assuring publication) of American writers.。