美国文学史试题库

美国文学史试题库 TTA standardization office【TTA 5AB- TTAK 08- TTA 2C】F i l l i n t h e b l a n k s.1.American achievements in the short story have demandedinternational respect and admiration for more than a century and ahalf. The first successful American short stories came fromWashington Irving in the early 19t h century.2.Edgar Allan Poe is generall y thought of as the tru e beginner of theshort stories because he was the first writer who formulated apoetics of the short stories.3.In the 20t h century, there have been many who have won fameabroad as well as in the US for their short stories: SherwoodAnderson, Hemingway Fau lkner, Anna Porter, and dozens ofothers.4.As you read from writer to writer, from Washington Irving’s ‘RipVan Winkle’ to O’Connner’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’, youwill see the coming of a short story age, growing from anentertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls.5.Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: the shortstory and the novel.6.Washington Irving, the Father of American Literature, developedthe short story as a genre in American literature.7.Allan Poe is usually acknowledged as the originator of detectivestories. He is also credited with developing many of the standardfeatures of detective fiction.Multiple choice8.Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beaut y andcraftsmanship, such as ____.A. I Hear America SingingB. The RavenC. To a waterfowlD. The fall of the House of Usher9.The common thread throughout American literature has been theemphasis on the___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism10.In American literature, the 18t h century was the Age of theEnlightenment, ___ was the dominant spirit.A. humanismB. rationalismC. revolutionD. evolution11.Who was considered the “Poet of American Revolution”12.A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau13.Thomas Jefferson’s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress,and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of the period we nowcall___.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of Regionalism14.Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of Americanrealism that is also one of the great books of world literature.A. Huckleberry FinnB. Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted HadleyburyD. The Gilded Age15.The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervadedthe works of such American writers as___.A. Mark TwainB. Scott FitzgeraldC. Walt WhitmanD. Stephen Crane16.Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19t hcentury, their final triumph came in the 20t h century, with thepopular 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 Ellison17.American literature produced only one female poet during the19t h century. She was___.A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane AustenC. Emily DickinsonD. Harried Beecher18.With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene,____ became the major trend in the seventies and eighties of the 19t h century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism19.Choose from the following write rs a staunch advocate of the19t h century American realism.A. Mark TwainB. Washington IrvingC. Stephen CraneD. Jack London20.Which writer has naturalist tendency?21.A. Frank NorrisB. William Dean HowellsC. Theodore DreiserD. Both A and C22.Early in the 20t h century, ____ published works that wouldchange the nature of American poetry.A. Ezra PoundB. . EliotC. Robert FrostD. Both A and B23.The Imagist writers follow ed three principles. Theyrespectivel y are direct treatment, economy of expression and ____.A. local colorB. ironyC. clear rhythmD. blank verse24.____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earlieststatement of . Eliot’s aesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.A. ‘Sweeny Agonistes’B. ‘Tradition and IndividualTalent’C. ‘A Primer of Modern Heresy’D. ‘Gerention’25. Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related the mesin successive movements, in such works as ____.A. The Waste LandB. ‘A Rose for Emily’C. The Scarlet LetterD. The Egg26.. Eliot’s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the firstmasterpieces of modernism in English.A. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’B. ‘The WasteLand’C. ‘Four Quartets’D. Prelude27.The three poets Ezra Pound, . Eliot and ____ opened the wayto modern poetry.A. O. HenryB. Henry David ThoreauC. . CummingsD. Robert Frost28.In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his“mastery of the art of modern narration”.A. EliotB. Earnest HemingwayC. John SteinbeckD. William Faulkner29.William Faulkner is one of the most important southernwriters in the United States. ____, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend toadmire.A. The Sound and the FuryB. The Invisible ManC. A Good Man is Hard to FindD. The Wrath of the Gr apesIV. Questions and answers.1.How do you understand Mark twain’s use of local color in hiswriting?2.Mark Twain’s narratives are distinguished for his use of localcolor. This may be defined as the careful attention to details of the physical scene and to those mannerisms in speech, dress, orbehavior peculiar to a geographical locality. He insisted that the job of the native novelists was to depict each of the country’sregions and people accurately. Onl y in this way could thepeculiarity of American experience, the polyglot tongues of itspeople, and the vastness of the continent be captured. He mainly exploited the possibilities of the local color in the Mississippiregion.3.Discuss the concept of wasteland in relation to the works of thosewriters in the 20t h century American literature.‘The Waste Land’ is a poem written by . Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of th3 contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair in the postwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 2othcentury American literature. Faulkner exemplified . Eliot’sconcept of modern society as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, industrialized society that hasdehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values anddecrease those essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness. Fitz gerald sought to portray a spiritualwasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks of relaxation andjoviality, there was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway, the leading spokesman of the LostGeneration, though disillusioned in the postwar period, strove to bring about man’s “grace under pressure”. He tried to bring out the idea than man can be physicall y destroyed but never defeated spiritually.4.Analyze Walt W hitman’s ‘O Captain! My Captain’ in terms of freeverse.In the poem, Whitman celebrates the heroic struggle of theAmerican people for democracy, freedom and justice andexpresses his seething hatred of slavery.Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme. Depending on natural speech rhythms, itslines may be of different lengths and may switch abruptly from one rhythm to another. Whitman was the first American poet touse free verse extensively, because it is an appropriate form forhis liberating view of life and for his poetry that would allowevery aspect of life to speak without restraint. He tried toapproximate the natural cadences of speech in his poetry, carefullyvarying the length of his lines according to his intended emphasis.Literature of Colonial AmericaI.Literary Terms: In the colonial period, the Puritans who had gone to extreme were known as “separatists”. Unlike the majority of Puritans, they sawno hope of reforming the Church of England from w ithin. They feltthat the influences of politics and court had led to corruptionswithin the church. They wished to break free from the Church ofEngland. Among them was the Plymouth plantation group. Theywished to follow Calvin’s model, and to set up “particular”churches.and Puritans: A small group of Europeans sailed from England on the Mayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers---Puritans who were critical of the Church of England. Having givenup hope of “purifying” the Church from within, they chose insteadto withdraw from the Church. This action earned them the nameSeparatists. We know them as the pilgrims.II.Fill in the blanks1.The term “Puritan” was applied to those settlers who originallywere devout members of the Church of England.2.Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press setup nearly in 1639.3.Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriet y, these were the puritan valuesthat dominated much of the earl y American writing.4.The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth centuryadapted the style of established European poets to the subjectmatter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreetwas one of such poets.5.Bradstreet used a word “pilgrim” to describe the community ofbelievers who sailed from Southampton England, on the Mayflowerand settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.6.The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonialperiod was John Winthrop.7.The Puritan philosophy known as Puritanism was important in NewEngland during colonial time, and had a profound influence on theearl y American mind for several generations.III.Multiple choice1.Early in the 17t h century, the English settlements in ___ beg an themain stream of what we recognize as the American 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 earl y settlements.A. journalsB. poetryC. dramaD. folklores3.Among the earliest settlers in North America were Frenchmen whosettled in the Northern Colonies and along 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 earl y 1600s, havebeen regarded as the first distinct American lite rature written inEnglish?A. John Winthrop’sB. John Smith’sC. William Bradford’sD. Christopher Columbus’s6.What style did the seventeenth century American poets adapt to thesubject matter confronted in a strangel y new environment?7.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.8.____ was a civil covenant designed to allow the temporal state toserve the godly citizen.A.The earl y history of Plymouth Colony.B.The Magnalia Christi America.C.Mayflower Compact.D.Freedom of the Will9.Who among the following translated the Bible into the Indiantongue?A. Roger WilliamsB. John EliotC. Cotton MatherD. John Smith10.The best of Puritan poets was____, whose complete edition ofpoets appeared in 1960, more than two hundred years after his death.A. Anne BradstreetB. Michael WigglesworthC. Thomas HookerD. Edward Taylo r11.English literature in America is only about more than ___years old.A. 500B. 600C. 200D. 10012.The earl y history of ___ Colony was the history of Bradford’sleadership.A. Plymout hB. JamestownC. New EnglandD. Mayflower13.The common thread throughout American literature has beenthe emphasis on the ___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism14.Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such astir in England that she became known as the “___” who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. best MuseD. First Muse15.The ship “___” carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, itput the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Titanic16.Which writer best expressed the Puritan sense of the self?A. Jonathan EdwardsB. Cotton MatherC. John SmithD. Thomas Hooker17.Before _____ the American newspapers were cultural andliterary nature, but after this time, they became more political.A. 1620B. 1700C. 1775D. 1750IV.Question and answer.Who was Anne Bradstreet What were her literary achievementsAnne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American literature. She is considered bymany to be the first American poet and her first collection ofpoems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, by aGentlewoman of Those Parts, was the first book written by awoman to be published in the United States. Mrs. Bradstreet’swork also serves as document of the struggles of a Puritan wifeagainst the hardships of new England colonial life.Literature of Reason and RevolutionI.Literary terms.1.Autobiography: An autobiography is a person’s account of his orher life. Generally written in the first person, with the authorspeaking as “I”. Autobiographies present life events as the writerviews them. In addition to providing inside details about thewriter’s life, autobiographies offer insights in to the beliefs andperceptions of the author. They also offer glimpse of what it waslike to live in the author’s time period. They often provide a viewof historical events that you won’t find in history books. Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography set the st andard for what was then a new genre.2.Persuasion: Persuasion is writing meant to convince readers tothink or act in a certain way. A persuasive writer appeals toemotions or reason, offer opinions and urges action.3.Aphorism: An aphorism is a short, concis e statement expressing awise or clever observation or a general truth. A variety of devicesmake aphorisms easy to remember. Some contain rhymes orrepeated words or sounds. Others use parallel structure to presentcontrasting ideas. The aphorism “no pains no gains” uses rhyme,repetition and parallel structure.II.Fill in the blanks.1.At the initial period the spread of ideas of the AmericanEnlightenment was largel y due to journalism.2.Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called theGreat Magazine.3.Franklin’s beat writing is found in his masterpiece Autobiography.4.Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering andrebellion, was appropriately born into an age of revolution.5.On January 10, 1776, Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Senseappeared.6.Paine’s second most important work The Rights of Man was animpassioned plea against hereditary monarchy.7.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18t h century wasPhilip Freneau.8.Philip Freneau’s famous poem “The British Prison Ship” waswritten about his imprisoned experience.9.Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate ofPresident Thomas Jefferson.10.Philip Freneau was considered as the “poet of the AmericanRevolution”, because he wrote impassioned verse in support of the American revolution.11.Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of the nature ofhis poems. They were truly American and very patriotic. In thisrespect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has beencalled the “father of American poetry”.12.In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age ofReason and Revolution.III.Multiple choice1.In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of theEnlightenment. ___ 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 theirparent country and the Continental Congress adopted ___ in 1776.A. the Declaration of IndependenceB. the Sugar ActC. the Stamp ActD. the Mayflower Compact4.Which statement about Franklin is not true?5.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.6.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplifiedin the life and career of ___.A. Thomas HoodB. Benjamin FranklinC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington7.Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Waste Land8.Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___.A. American Enlightenmen tB. Sugar ActC. Chartist movementD. Romanticist9.From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published hisfamous ___, an annual collection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard’s AlmanacC. Common SenseD. The General Magazine10.The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediateindependence from Britain is ___.A. The Rights of ManB. Common SenseC. The American CrisisD. Declaration of Independence11.“These are the times that try men’s souls”, these words wereonce read to Washington’s troops and did much to shore up thespirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of thesewords?12.A. Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas JeffersonC. Thomas PaineD. George Washington13.Which statement about Philip Freneau?14.A. He was a satiristB. He was a pamphleteer.C. He was a singer.D. He was a bitter polemicist.15.Who was considered as the “poet of American Revolution”16.A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau17.At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans wereinfluenced by the European movement called the___.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement18.Thomas Jefferson’s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress,and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of the period we nowcall____.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of RegionalismIV.Questions and Answers.1.What are the characteris tics of Benjamin Franklin’s literary work?2.The main quality in all Benjamin Franklin’s writing is its genuinehumanness. His literary work was t ypical of himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interestedin the practical side of life. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his compositions. He never reached the high levels of imaginativeart. But on this lower plane of material interest and every-day lifehe was, the works possess a universal charm3.Give a brief account of American literature of this period.Much work during the Revolutionary period was public writing. Bythe time of the War for Independence, nearl y fifty newspapers hadbeen established in the coastal cities. At the time of Washington’sinauguration, there were nearl y fort y magazines. Almanacs werepopular from Massachusetts to Georgia. The mind of the nation wason politics. Journalists and printers provided a forum for theexpression of ideas. The writing of permanent importance is mostlypolitical writing. The best-known writing of the period outside thefield of politics was done by Benjamin Franklin.4.Write an anal ysis of The Declaration of Independence.The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, not onlyannounced the birth of a ne w nation, it also set forth a philosophyof human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for itinstilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and adignified place in society.Romantic Period of American LiteratureI.Literary Terms.1.Romanticism: The literature term was first applied to the writers ofthe 18t h century in Europe who broke away from th e formal rules ofclassical writing. When it was used in American literature itreferred to the writers of the middle of the 19t h century whostimulated the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote the mysteries of life, love, birth and death. The romantic writersexpressed themselves freel y and without restraint. They wrote allkinds of materials: poetry, essays, plays, fiction, history, works oftravel, and biography.2.Fireside poets: William Gullen Bryant, Henry WadsworthLongfellow, James Russel Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group called the Fireside Poets.They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearthas an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gatheredto learn and tell stories. They were widely read around thehearthsides of 19t h-century American families.3.Transcendentalism: In New England, an intellectual movementknown as transcendentalism developed as an American version ofRomanticism. The movement began among an i nfluential set ofauthors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by RalphWaldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both18t h century rationalism and established religion, which for thetranscendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. Thetranscendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of thematerial world. They found their chief source of inspiration innature. Emerson’s essay nature was the maj or document of thetranscendental school and stated the ideas that were to remaincentral to it.4.Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts thatoriginated in France in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late19t h century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movementthat encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and valuesby means of s ymbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements.Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19t h century.5.Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composedwithout attention to conventional rules of meter. Free verse wasfirst written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19t hcentury. Their purpose was to deliver poetry f rom the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of naturalspeech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varyinglength and cadence, usually not rhymed. The emotional content ormeaning of the work was expresse d through its rhythm. Free versehas been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg.6.Puritanism: The word is originally used to refer to the theoryadvocated by a party within the Church of England. It is also usedto refer to attitudes and values considered characteristics of thePuritans. It denotes a rigid moral, or the condemnation of innocentpleasure, or religious narrowness adhered by the early New EnglandPuritans. It exerted great influence ove r American Romanticism.The preoccupation with the Calvinist view of original sin and themystery of evil marked the works by such famous writers asHawthorne and Melville.II.Fill in the blanks1.In the earl y 19t h century Rip Van Winkle established WashingtonIrving’s reputation at home and abroad, and designed the beginningof American Romanticism.2.Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book in 1836 Nature broughtAmerican Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New EnglandTranscendentalism.3.In the earl y 19t h century, Washington Irving wrote The Sketch Bookwhich became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.4.Allan Poe’s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty.The Raven is his best-known poem.5.The Civil War of 1861-1865 ended in the defeat of the Southernersand the abolition of slavery.6.Leaves of Grass, either in content or form, is an epoch-making workin American literature; its democratic content marked the shift from Romanticism to Realism, and its free verse form broke from old poetic conventions to open a new road for American poetry.7.Washington Irving was regarded as the first great prose stylist ofAmerican Romanticism.8.In 1823 James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Pioneers, the first of thefive novels that make up The Leatherstocking Tales. The remaining four books: The Last of the Mohicans, the Prairie, the Pathfinder and the Deerslayer, contimue the story of Natty Bumppo, o ne of the most famous characters in American fiction.9.The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken fromWashington Irving’s work named The Sketch Book.10.Washington Irving was the first American to achieve aninternational literary reputation after the Revolutionary War.11.Melville is famous for writing about the sea and the islands ofthe Southern Pacific. In his master piece Moby Dick, he tells astory of whaling voyage which sets a symbolic account of theconflict between man and his fate.12.The first important American novelist was James FennimoreCooper.13.The central figure in the Leatherstocking Tales is NattyBumppo, who goes by the various names of Leatherstocking,Deerlayer, Pathfinder and Hawkeye.14.“To a Waterfowl” is perhaps the peak of William CullenBryant’s work. It has been called by an eminent English critic “the most perfect brief poem in the language”.15.Among William Cullen Bryant’s most important later worksare his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey into English blank verse.16.Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” is perhaps the bestexample of onomatopoeia in the English language.17.Most of Allan Poe’s stories can be roughly divided into twokinds: tales of Gothic horror or grotesque like The Black Cat, anincisive enquiry into the capac it y of the human mind to originate its destruction and The Fall of the House of Usher.18. A superb book Walden came out of Thoreau’s two-yearexperience at Walden Pond.19.From Thoreau’s Concord jail experience, came his famousessay “Civil Disobedience”.20.In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece TheScarlet Letter, the story of a triangle love affair in colonialAmerica.21.Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicleof a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural whitewhale.22.In “I Hear America Singing”, Walt Whitman depicts thebeauty of labor and laborers.23.For the whole 19t h century Emily Dickinson was the onlywoman poet who enjoys high academic esteem today. She has beenacclaimed as a poet of philosophical and tragic dimensions, a poetwho was responsive to the challenging questions of man, nature andhuman consciousness.24.The American Romantic period stretches from the end of the18t h century through the outburst of the Civil War.25.In The Pioneers, Natty Bumppo represents the ideal American,living a virtuous and free life in God’s world.26.The way in which Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Lettersuggests that American Romanticism adapted itself to AmericanPuritan morality.III.Multiple Choice.1.In 1837, the first college-level institution for women, MountHolyoke Female Seminary, opened in ___ to serve the “Muslin sex”.A. New EnglandB. VirginiaC. MassachusettsD. New York2.As a philosophical and literary movement, ___ flourished in NewEngland from the 1830s to t he Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism3.The appearance of the Scarlet Letter marked the maturity ofHawthorne as a novelist. Soon he composed the other three。