美国文学练习题 学生

Basic Literary Knowledge of American Literature1.American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect and admiration for morethan a century and a half. The first successful American short stories came from _________in the early 19th century.2.__________is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories because he was the first writerwho formulated a poetics of the short stories.3.As you read from writer to writer, from __________‟s …Rip Van Winkle‟ to __________‟s …A Go od Man isHard to Find‟, you will see the coming of a short story age, growing from an entertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls.4.Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: _________and___________.5.Washington Irving, “the Father of American Literature”, developed_______ ___ as a genre in Americanliterature.6.__________ is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is also credited withdeveloping many of the standard features of detective fiction.II.Multiple choice1.Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beauty and craftsmanship, such as ____.A. I Hear America SingingB. The RavenC. To a waterfowlD. The fall of the House of Usher2.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism3.In American literature, the 18th century was the Age of the Enlightenment, ___ was the dominant spirit.A. humanismB. rationalismC. revolutionD. evolution4.Who was considered the “Poet of American Revolution”?A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau5.Thomas Jefferson‟s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of theperiod we now call___.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of Regionalism6.Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the great books ofworld literature.A. Huckleberry FinnB. Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted HadleyburyD. The Gilded Age7.The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as___.A. Mark TwainB. Scott FitzgeraldC. Walt WhitmanD. Stephen Crane8.Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19th century, their final triumph came in the 20thcentury, with the popular and critical successes of such writers as Edwin Arlington, William Cather, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and_____.A. Edgar Allan PoeB. Sherwood AndersonC. Washington IrvingD. Ralph Ellison9.American literature produced only one female poet during the 19th century. She was___.A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane AustenC. Emily DickinsonD. Harried Beecher10.With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene, ____ became the major trend in the seventiesand eighties of the 19th century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism11.Choose from the following writers a staunch advocate of the 19th century American realism.A. Mark TwainB. Washington IrvingC. Stephen CraneD. Jack London12.Which writer has naturalist tendency?A. Frank NorrisB. William Dean HowellsC. Theodore DreiserD. Both A and C13.Early in the 20th century, ____ published works that would change the nature of American poetry.A. Ezra PoundB. T.S. EliotC. Robert FrostD. Both A and B14.The Imagist writers followed three principles. They respectively are direct treatment, economy ofexpression and ____.A. local colorB. ironyC. clear rhythmD. blank verse15.____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest statement of T.S. Eliot‟s aesthetics, whichprovided a useful instrument for modern criticism.A. …Sweeny Agonistes‟B. …Tradition and Individual Talent‟C. …A Primer of Modern Heresy‟D. …Gerention‟16.T.S Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes in successive movements, in such worksas ____.A. The Waste LandB. A Rose for EmilyC. The Scarlet LetterD. …The Egg‟17.T.S. Eliot‟s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the first masterpieces of modernism in English.A. …The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock‟B. …The Waste Land‟C. …Four Quartets‟D. Prelude18.The three poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and ____ opened the way to modern poetry.A. O. HenryB. Henry David ThoreauC. E.E. CummingsD. Robert Frost19.In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.A. T.S EliotB. Earnest HemingwayC. John SteinbeckD. William Faulkner20.William Faulkner is one of the most important southern writers in the United States. ____, As I Lay Dying,Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend to admire.A. The Sound and the FuryB. The Invisible ManC. A Good Man is Hard to FindD. The Wrath of the GrapesLiterature of Colonial America1.The term “__________” was a pplied to those settlers who originally were devout members of the Churchof England.2.Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.3.Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the __________ values that dominated much of the earlyAmerican writing.4.The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth century adapted the style of established Europeanpoets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. __________ Bradstreet was one of such poets.5.Br adstreet used a word “__________” to describe the community of believers who sailed fromSouthampton England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.6.The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonial period was __________.7.The Puritan philosophy known as __________ was important in New England during colonial time, andhad a profound influence on the early American mind for several generations.II.Multiple choice1.Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in ___ began the main stream of what we recognize as theAmerican national history.A. Virginia and PennsylvaniaB. Massachusetts and New YorkC. Virginia and MassachusettsD. New York and Pennsylvania2.The first writings that we call American were the narratives and ___ of the early settlements.A. journalsB. poetryC. dramaD. folklores3.Among the earliest settlers in North America were Frenchmen who settled in the Northern Colonies andalong the ____ River.A. St. LouisB. St. LawrenceC. MississippiD. Hudson4.In 1620 a number of Puritans came to settle in ___.A. VirginiaB. GeorgiaC. MarylandD. Massachusetts5.Whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as the first distinctAmerican literature written in English?A. John Winthrop‟sB. John Smith‟sC. William Bradford‟sD. Christopher Columbus‟s6.What style did the seventeenth century American poets adapt to the subject matter confronted in astrangely new environment?A.The style of their own.B.The style mixed with English and American elements.C.The style mixed with native-American and British tradition.D.The style of established European poets.7.____ was a civil covenant designed to allow the temporal state to serve the godly citizen.A.The early history of Plymouth Colony.B. The Magnalia Christi America.C.Mayflower Compact.D. Freedom of the Will8.Who among the following translated the Bible into the Indian tongue?A. Roger WilliamsB. John EliotC. Cotton MatherD. John Smith9.The best of Puritan poets was____, whose complete edition of poets appeared in 1960, more than twohundred years after his death.A. Anne BradstreetB. Michael WigglesworthC. Thomas HookerD. Edward Taylor10.English literature in America is only about more than ___ years old.A. 500B. 600C. 200D. 10011.The early history of ___ Colony was the history of Bradford‟s leadership.A. PlymouthB. JamestownC. New EnglandD. Mayflower12.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the ___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism13.Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the“___” who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. best MuseD. First Muse14.The ship “___” carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. InDecember of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Titanic15.Which writer best expressed the Puritan sense of the self?A. Jonathan EdwardsB. Cotton MatherC. John SmithD. Thomas Hooker16.Before _____ the American newspapers were cultural and literary nature, but after this time, they becamemore political.A. 1620B. 1700C. 1775D. 1750Literature of Reason and Revolution1.At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely due to __________.2.Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called______ ____.3.Franklin‟s beat writing is found in his masterpiece ____ ______.4.Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriately born into an age of__________.5.On January 10, 1776, Paine‟s famous pamphlet __________appeared.6.Paine‟s second most important work __ ________was an impassioned plea against hereditary monarchy.7.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was __________.8.Philip Freneau‟s famous poem “_____ _____” was written about his imprisoned experience.9.Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of President Thomas Jefferson.10.__________ was cons idered as the “poet of the American Revolution”, because he wrote impassioned verse insupport of the American revolution.11.Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of the nature of his poems. They were truly American and verypatriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has been called the “__________of American poetry”.12.In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of__________ and Revolution.II.Multiple choice1.In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. ___ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. rationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution2.In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to___.A. the colonial orderB. religious obscurantismC. the Puritan traditionD. the secular literature3.The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the Continental Congressadopted ___ in 1776.A. the Declaration of IndependenceB. the Sugar ActC. the Stamp ActD. the Mayflower Compact4.Which statement about Franklin is not true?A.He instructed his countrymen as a printer.B. He was a master of diplomacy.C.He was a Puritan.D. He was a scientist.5.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of ___.A. Thomas HoodB. Benjamin FranklinC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington6.Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Waste Land7.Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___.A. American EnlightenmentB. Sugar ActC. Chartist movementD. Romanticist8.From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous ___, an annual collection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard’s AlmanacC. Common SenseD. The General Magazine9.The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is ___.A. The Rights of ManB. Common SenseC. The American CrisisD. Declaration of Independence10.“These are the times that try men‟s souls”, these words were once read to Washington‟s troops and did much toshore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?A. Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas JeffersonC. Thomas PaineD. George Washington11.Which statement about Philip Freneau?A. He was a satiristB. He was a pamphleteer.C. He was a singer.D. He was a bitter polemicist.12.Who was considered as the “poet of American Revolution”?A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau13.At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the___.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement14.Thomas Jefferson‟s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of theperiod we now call____.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of RegionalismRomantic Period of American Literature1.In the early 19th century Rip Van Winkle established ______ ____‟s reputation at home and a broad, anddesigned the beginning of American Romanticism.2.Ralph Waldo Emerson‟s first book in 1836 __________ brought American Romanticism into a new phase,the phase of New England Transcendentalism.3.In the early 19th century, Washington Irving wrote ____ ______which became the first work by anAmerican writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.4.__________‟s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty. The Raven is his best-known poem.The Civil War of 1861-1865 ended in the defeat of the Southerners and the abolition of __________.5.Leaves of Grass, either in content or form, is an epoch-making work in American literature; its democraticcontent marked the shift from __________ to __________, and its __________form broke from old poetic conventions to open a new road for American poetry.6._______ ___ was regarded as the first great prose stylist of American Romanticism.7. 1823 James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Pioneers, the first of the five novels that make up _______ __.The remaining four books: The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer, continue the story of Natty Bumppo, one of the most famous characters in American fiction.8.The short story …______ ____‟ is taken from Washington Irving‟s work named The Sketch Book.9._______ ___ was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation after the RevolutionaryWar.10.__________ is famous for writing about the sea and the islands of the Southern Pacific. In his master piece______ ____, he tells a story of whaling voyage which sets a symbolic account of the conflict between man and his fate.11.The first important American novelist was ______ ____.12.“To a Waterfowl” is perhaps the peak of _____ _____‟s work. It has b een called by an eminent Englishcritic “the most perfect brief poem in the language”.13.Among William Cullen Bryant‟s most important later works are his translations of the Iliad and the__________ into English blank verse.14.Edgar Allan Poe‟s poem “__________” is perhaps the best example of onomatopoeia in the Englishlanguage.15.Most of Allan Poe‟s stories can be roughly divided into two kinds: tales of Gothic horror or grotesque like__________, an incisive enquiry into the capacity of the human mind to originate its destruction and _______ ___.16.A superb book __________came out of Thoreau‟s two-year experience at Walden Pond.17.From Thoreau‟s Concord jail experience, came his famous essay “______ __”.18.In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece _____ _____, the story of a triangle loveaffair in colonial America.19.Herman Melville‟s novel Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of aseemingly supernatural white whale.20.In “I Hear America Singing”, _____ _____ depicts the beauty of labor and laborers.21.For the whole 19th century _______ ___ was the only woman poet who enjoys high academic esteemtoday. She has been acclaimed as a poet of philosophical and tragic dimensions, a poet who was responsive to the challenging questions of man, nature and human consciousness.22.The American Romantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outburst of the__________.23.The way in which Hawthorne wrote _____ _____ suggests that American Romanticism adapted itself toAmerican Puritan morality.Multiple Choice.1. In 1837, the first college-level institution for women, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, opened in ___ toserve the “Muslin sex”.A. New EnglandB. VirginiaC. MassachusettsD. New York2. As a philosophical and literary movement, ___ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism3. The appearance of the Scarlet Letter marked the maturity of Hawthorne as a novelist. Soon he composed theother three important novel including___, The Blithedale Romance and The Marble Faun.A. The House of the Seven GablesB. The PrairieC. The Fall of the House of UsherD. Walden4. Transcendentalism recognized ___ as the “highest power of the soul”.A. intuitionB. logicC. data of the sensesD. thinking5. A new ___ had appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century. It spread to continental Europe andthen came to America early in the 19th century.A. RealismB. Critical realismC. RomanticismD. Naturalism6. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of Americanliterature, evident in___.A. James Fenimore Cooper‟s Leatherstocking Tales.B. Henry David Thoreau‟s WaldenC. Mark Twain‟s Huckleberry FinnD. of the above7. Herman Melville‟s ___ is not only an adventure story, but also a significant philosophical wo rk on spiritualexploration.A. Moby DickB. The EggC. NatureD. The Over-Soul8. Poe‟s first collection of short stories is ____.A. Tales of a Travele rB. Leatherstocking TalesC. Canterbury TalesD. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque9. The first example of Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ___.A. The Scarlet LetterB. Young Goodman BrownC. The Marble FaunD. The Ambitious Guest10. Herman Melville called his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne ____ in American literature.A. The largest brain with the largest heartB. Father of American poetryC. The TranscendentalistD. The American scholar11. Which is the character who appears in the novel Moby Dick?A. Hester PrynneB. Mr. HooperC. AhabD. Pearl12. ___ was a romanticized account of Melville‟s stay among the Polynesians. The success of the book soonmade Melville known as the “man who lived among cannibals”.A. Moby DickB. TypeeC. OmooD. Billy Budd13. With the appearance of ___ in 1855, which is about American Indian, Longfellow‟s poetical reputationwas established.A. EvangelineB. The Courtship of Miles StanndishC. Song of HiawathaD. Michael Angelo14. In the early 19th century American moral values were essentially Puritan. Nothing has left a deeper imprinton the character of the people as a whole than did___.A. PuritanismB. RomanticismC. RationalismD. Sentimentalism15. “The universe is composed of nature and the Soul… Spirit is present everywhere”. This is the voice of thebook Nature written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England___.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. NaturalismD. Symbolism16. Which is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism?A. NatureB. WaldenC. “On Beauty”D. “Self-Reliance”17. Which is regard ed as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?A. The American ScholarB. English TraitsC. The Conduct of LifeD. Representative Men18. ___ is an appalling fictional version of Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s belief that “the wrong doing o f onegeneration lives into the successive ones” and that evil will come out of evil though it may take generations to happen.A. The Marble FaunB. The House of Sven GablesC. TheBlithedale RomanceD. …Young Goodman Brown‟19. In additio n to his novels,____ wrote about 120 short stories and sketches. Among them are …YoungGoodman Brown‟ and …The Minister of Black Veil‟.A. Henry David ThoreauB. Nathaniel HawthorneC. Ralph Waldo EmersonD. Herman MelvillePeriod of RealismFill in the blanks1.By 1875, American writers were moving toward__________in literature. We can see this in the true-to-lifedescriptions of Bret Harte, Willim Dean Howells and Hamlin Garland.2.The most straightforward definition of realism is probably the one given by the American realist__________________. That is: “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.”3.Realism first appeared in the United States in the literature of__________, an amalgam of romantic plots andrealistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights and sounds of regional.4.As one of America‟s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel LanghorneClemens, usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experiences.5.At the heart of Mark Twain‟s achievement is his creation of two characters: _____ _____ and_____ _____.6.Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in the village of Florida, Missouri, and grew up in the larger rivertown of Hannibal. The__________ which passed daily were the fascination of the town and became the subject matter of Twain‟s Life on the Mississippi.7.Ernest Hemingway, whose own style is based on Twain‟s, once said, “All mod ern American literature comes from____________________.”8.____ ______, the first American naturalist, was not much influenced by the scientific approach. He was a geniuswith amazing sympathy and imagination.9.In ____________________, Stephen Crane‟s gre atest novel, the accident of war makes a young man seem to be ahero. War changes men into animals. In the view of the author, good or bad, hero or coward, are merely matters of chance, of fate.10.Hamlin Garland developed a writing method which he called “__________” (meaning truth). He described people,places and events in a careful and factual manner.11.____ ______ was a realist, but not a naturalist. He was an observer of the mind rather than a recorder of time. Hisrealism was a special kind of psychological realism.12.Henry James first achieved recognition as a writer of the “_______ ___” novel--- a story which brings togetherpersons of various nationalists who represent certain characteristics.13.____________________is the best novel of Henry James‟ “middle period”. It is a story about a young, brightAmerican girl who goes to Europe to explore life.14.Dreiser‟s greatest novel _______ ___, reveals a last stage in his thinking of social consciousness.15.____ ______ had an evident influence on naturalism. It seemed to stress the animality of man, to suggest thatman was dominated by the forces of evolution.16.___ _______was Henry James‟ most famous and influential critical essay written in response to a lecture onfiction delivered by an English novelist.II.Multiple choice1.___, who became the editor of Harper’s Monthly in 1891,created the first theory for American realism.A. Emile ZolaB. Hamlin GarlandC. Stephen CraneD. William Dean Howells2.___ in the 1860s was the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity.A. Mark TwainB. William Dean HowellsC. Bret HarteD. Harriet Beecher Stowe3.Stephen Crane‟s novel: Maggie: A Girl of the Street, is the story of a girl ___.A.who is brought up in a poor area of ChicagoB.who is loved by her family but betrayed by her friends.C.who experienced the violence and cruelty of the society almost every dayD.who is evil by nature.4.In his short story, ___, Stephen Crane shows how even life and death are determined by fate.A. …The Open Boat‟B. …The Open Window‟C. …War Is Kind‟D. …War is Slaughterhouse‟5.The naturalism of ___ was filled with deep sympathy for the common people. His literature was a form of protestsagainst the conditions which made the lives of Mid-western farmers so painful and unhappy.A. Harold FredericB. Ambrose BierceC. Henry JamesD. Hamlin Garland6.The novel which was described by an American critic as “an outrage to American girlhood” is Henry James‟ ___.A. Daisy MillerB. The Portrait of a LadyC. Woman in LoveD. Awakening7.Mark Twain‟s first novel, ___, was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the period whi ch itattempts to satirize.A. The Gilded AgeB. Life on the MississippiC. The Innocents AbroadD. The Mysterious Stranger8.Jack London was at his height of his powers when he wrote ___, which is deeply influenced by Darwinism.A. The Sea WolfB. To Build a FireC. The Call of the WildD. Martin Eton9.With the publication of ___ in 1900, Theodore Dreiser committed his literary force to opening the new ground ofAmerican naturalism.A. An American TragedyB. Sister CarrieC. The BulwarkD. The Stoic10.In his works, Theodore Dreiser‟s tone is always ___.A. sadB. satiricalC. comicD. serious20th Century American Poetry1.__________is a poetic movement of England and the United States, which flourished from 1980-1917.2.Generally considered the leader of the imagist movement,__________ borrowed techniques from classical Chineseand Japanese poetry and produced poems stressing clarity, precision and economy of language and foregoing traditional rhyme and meter.3.________ __by T.S. Eliot is regarded as a central text of modernism. It is said to catch precisely the state of cultureand society after Word War I and graphically illustrate the spiritual poverty of the West of that time.4.Published in 1917, Prufrock and Other Observations immediately established T.S. Eliot as a leading poem of the avant-garde. The most notable poem in this collection is entitled …______________________________’.5.In 1927, T.S. Eliot became a ________ citizen and converted from the Unitarian Church to the Church of England.6.Among the imagists, ________is credited with giving a female voice to classical myths.7.Winner of the National Book Award in 1950 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, ________________ is the author of thefive-volume epic Paterson which is a lucid statement of the author‟s aesthetics.8.T.S. Eliot also wrote verse plays and he excelled in dramatic monologue. ________________is widelyacknowledged as his best verse play, which is based on the story of Thomas a Becket, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church of the ancient time.II.Multiple choice1.Imagist poems are mainly composed in the form of ___.A. blank verseB. free verseC. heroic coupletD. sonnet2.Imagism was equivalent to ___ in fiction in a sense. Imagist never stated the emotion in the poem, but just presented an。