陶洁版美国文学选读第三版课后习题答案解析

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’clo ck, 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

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 arrogant.

He was easily confused by the superficial phenomena and failed to watch out for others. He couldn’t tolerate th at others were stronger than him.

For example, Montresor always stimulated him with Luchresi who was good at connoisseur（鉴赏） in wine.

Under the impulse of vanity, he fell into Montresor’s terrible trap.

In fact, he was careless and foolish and didn’t fi nd that the danger was approaching him.

He looked down upon Montresor and others.

He didn’t realize his foolishness until the death was coming.

Talking from the appearance, Monstresor was a well-educated and “kind” businessman.