英国文学史及选读试卷

英国文学史及选读试卷
Part One
I. Multiple Choice (40 points in all, 1 for each)
Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. Write your choice on the answer sheet.
1. The sentence “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”is the
beginning line of one of Shakespeare’s____. ( )
A. comedies
B. tragedies
C. histories
D. sonnets
2. _____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. ( )
A. The Pilgrim’s process
B. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
C. The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
D. The Holy War
3. Among the representatives of the Enlightenment, who was one of
the first to introduce rationalism to England? ( )
A. John Bunyan
B. Daniel Defoe
C. Alexander Pope
D.
Jonathan Swift
4. Of all the eighteenth-century novelists, who was the first to set out,
both in theory and practice, to write a “comic epic in prose”, the first to give the modern novel its structure and style? ( )
A. Thomas Gray
B. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
C. Jonathan Swift
D. Henry Fielding
5. Generally, the renaissance refers to the period between the 14th
and mid-17th centuries, its essence is ____( )
A. science
B. philosophy
C. arts
D. humanism
6. Which of the following is not true about Renaissance? ( )
A. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.
B. Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the
14th and 15th
centuries persisted well into the era of humanism and Reformation.
C. It was Chaucer, who initiated the Reformation.
D. The Elizabethan drama, in its totality, is the real main stream
of the English Renaissance.
7. “ So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. ”
What does “this ” refer to? ( )
A. lover
B. time
C. summer
D. poetry
8. Fielding has been regarded by some as “____”, for his
contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel. ( )
A. Best Writer of the English Novel
B. Father of the English Novel
C. the most gifted writer of the English novel
D. conventional writer of the English novel
9. It is ____alone who, for the first time in English literature,
presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life. ( )
A. Geoffrey Chaucer
B. Matin Luther
C. William Langland
D. John Gower
10. The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is Not such an event? ( )
A.the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture
B.England’s domestic rest
C.new discovery in geography and astrology
the religious reformation and the economic expansion
11. ____ was the first person who introduced printing into England?
( )
A. William Caxton
B. Virgil
C. Homer
D. Plutarch
12. Which of the following statements is not the reason for that
Edmund Spenser is famous for “the poet’s poet”? ( )
A. Spenser’s idealism
B. his struggle for criteria
C. his love of beauty
D. his exquisite melody
13. In Shelley’s “To a Skylark ”,the bird, suspended between reality
and poetic image, pours forth an exultant song which suggests to the poet____. ( )
A. both celestial rapture and human limitation
B. both image creation and profound meaning
C. both music words
D. both inspiration and skill of writing
14. Marlowe gave new vigor to ____ with his “mighty lines” ( )
A. the Petrarchan sonnet
B. sestina
C. terza rima
D. blank verse
15. “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am
soulless and heartless? … And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave.”The above quoted passage is most probably taken from ____. ( )
A. Great Expectations
B. Wuthering Heights
C. Jane Eyre
D. Pride and Prejudice
16. The sentence “And now he stared at her so earnestly that I
thought the very intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes”but they burned with anguish, they did not melt”are found in ____. ( )
A. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
B. Jane Eyre by
Charlotte Brontë
C. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
D. Paradise Lost by
John Milton
17. All the following four except ____ are the most famous dramatist
in the Renaissance England. ( )
A. Francis Bacon
B. Christopher Marlowe
C. William Shakespeare
D. Ben Johnson
18. The First two Lines of Alfred Tennyson’s well-Known poem
“Break, Break, Break” read “Break, break, break, /On thy cold grey stones, O Sea! ” The repeated word “break” suggests ____.
( )
A. joy
B. fear
C. fondness
D. hatred
19. In the following descriptions of the Neoclassical Period, which is
wrong? ( )
A. The Neoclassical Period is prior to the Romantic Period.
B. Henry Fielding is one of the representatives of the
Neoclassical Period.
C. The Modern English Novel came into being in the
Neoclassical Period
D. The Neoclassical Period is also known as the Age of
Enlightenment.
20. “O prince, O chief of many thronèd power, /That led th’
embattled seraphim to war /Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds /fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual King”In the third line of the above quoted from Milton’s Paradise Lost, the phrase “thy conduct” refers to ____ conduct. ( )
A. God’s
B. Satan’s
C. Adam’s
D. Eve’s
21. In the long poem “The Ring and the Book”, the “Book”is
compared to ____. ( )
A. love
B. comprehensive knowledge
C. the hard truth
D. the method of study
22. In the following descriptions of Gothic novel, which is not true?
( )
A. Gothic novel was one phase of the Romantic movement.
B. Gothic novel predominated in the eighteenth century.
C. Its principal elements are violence, horror and the
supernatural.
D. Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliff and
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance. 23. Which of the following comments on William Blake is not true?
( )
A. childhood is central to Blake’s concern in the Songs of
Innocence and Songs of Experience.
B. Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into
maturity.
C. The Book of Loss is his Masterpiece.
D. Symbolism in wide range is a distinctive feature of his poetry.
24. It is generally regarded that Keats’s most important and mature
poem are in the form of ____. ( )
A. elegy
B. ode
C. Epic
D. sonnet
25. Daniel Defoe’s novels mainly focus on ____. ( )
A. the struggle of the unfortunate for mere existence
B. the struggle of the shipwrecked persons for security
C. the struggle of the pirates for wealth
D. the desire of the criminals for property
26. In The Shepherd’s Calendar, Edmund Spenser tried to express
____. ( )
A. He met Sir Philip Sidney and started a friendship with him.
B. He met Leicester.
C. his laments over the loss of Rosalind
D. his laments over the loss of Elizabeth
27. In Beowulf, ____ fought against the monster Grendel and a fire
breathing dragon.
A. the Anglo-Saxons
B. Beowulf
C. the Scandinavians
D. the Winter Dragon
28. “So much the worse for me, that I am strong. Do I want to live?
What kind of living will it be when you-oh, God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?” In the above passage quoted from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the word “soul”
apparently refers to ____. ( )
A. Heathcliff
B. ghost
C. one’s spiritual lift
D.
Catherine
29. In terms of Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, which is
wrong? ( )
A. The author employs metaphor in this poem.
B. The author excessively expresses his personal melancholy.
C. Here he reveals his sympathy for the poor and unknown.
D. He mocks the great ones who despise the poor and bring
havoc.
30. In Spenser’s masterpiece The Faerie Queene, he speaks of ____
virtues of the private gentleman. ( )
A. 10
B. 11
C. 12
D. 13
31.Which statement about Emily Brontë is not true? ( )
A. She was famousfor her Wuthering Heights.
B. She wrote 193 poems
C. She lived a very short life.
D. Her masterpiece is noted for its optimistic tone.
32. Francis Bacon is best known for his __ which greatly influenced
the development of this literary form. ( )
A. essays
B. poems
C. works
D. plays
33. The literary form of The Faerie Queene is ____. ( )
A. allegorical poem
B. lyrical poem
C. ironical poem
D. narrative poem
34. The author of the work “Men of England” is ___. ( )
A. T. S. Eliot
B. Thomas Gray
C. Shelley
D. Walt Whitman
35. Of the following descriptions, which doesn’t belong to the
characteristics of Spenser’s poetry? ( )
A. a perfect melody
B. a rare sense of beauty
C. a splendid imagination
D. realism
36. We can perhaps describe the west wind in Shelley’s poem “Ode
to the West Wind” with all the following terms except __.
A. swift
B. proud
C. tamed
D. wild
37. Which of the following cannot correctly describe Enlightenment
Movement? ( )
A. Enlightenment Movement flourished in France.
B. Enlightenment Movement was a furtherance of the
Renaissance.
C. The purpose of the movement was to enlighten the whole
world.
D. It advocated individual education.
38. “Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep, /Where nothing, save the
wave and I, /May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; /There, swan-like, let me sing and die; /A land of slaves shall ne’er be mine─ /Dash down you cup of Samian wine!” These lines are taken from ____. ( )
A. The Isle of Greece by Byron
B. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
C. The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
D. Song of the Luddites by Byron
39. “Blindness”, “partiality”, “prejudice”and “absurdity”in the
novel Pride and Prejudice most likely the characteristics of ____. ( )
A. Elizabeth
B. Darcy
C. Mr. Bennet
D. Mrs. Bennet
40. Which of writings by John Milton is the most influential
dramatic poem after the Greek style in English? ( )
A. Samson Agonistes
B. Paradise Lost
C. Paradise Regained
D. Areopagitica
II. Reading Comprehension ( 16 points, 4 for each )
Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answer in the corresponding space on
the answer sheet.
41. “To be, or not to be—that is the question;
Whether’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep----”
Questions:
A.Identify the play and the playwright.
B.What is the meaning of “To be, or not to be”?
C.Based on the lines, discuss the characteristic of the
protagonist.
42. “ ‘Yes, so, sir,’ I rejoined: ‘and yet not so; for you are a married
man─or as good as a married man, and wed to one inferior to you─to with whom you have no sympathy─whom I do not believe you truly love; for I have seen and heard you sneer at her.
I would scorn such a union; therefore I am better than you─let
me go!’”
Questions:
A.What does “I” represent? Who is “I” in text?
B.Identify the writer and the title of the novel from which this
passage is taken.
C.What idea do the passage expresses?
43. “If he be not apt to beat over matters, let him study the lawyer’s
cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.”
Questions:
A.What does “beat over matters”mean? What does “receipt”
refer to? From which essay do the above sentences come, what is the essay mainly about?
44. “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold
me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry “’weep! weep!
weep!”/So your chimney I sweep, ﹠in soot I sleep”
Questions:
A.Who is the author of this stanza, and what is the title of the
poem from which this stanza is taken? What does the “weep”
mean? Based on this stanza, discuss the characteristics of his poems in his early years.
Part Two
III. Questions and Answers ( 24 points in all, 6 for each) Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
45. How do you understand that Dickens is the greatest critical
realist writer of the Victorian Age?
46. The following quotation is the ending of a poem by Robert
Browning:
Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a seahorse, though a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Questions:
A.Who is the speaker? What is the importance of the allusion
“Neptune… / Taming a seahorse” in the whole poem?
B.What is the title of the poem?
47. What is neoclassicism?
48. Robinson Crusoe is universally considered as Daniel Defoe’s
masterpiece. Discuss why it became so successful when it was published?
IV. Topics for Discussion ( 20 points in all, 10 for each) Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet. 49. According to the setting of the poem Paradise Lost, discuss the
theme, the author’s intention to create it and the implication that the poem expresses.
50. Generally speaking, Jane Austen was a writer of the 18th century,
though she lived mainly in the nineteenth century. Based on her writing, discuss Jane Austen’s greatest contribution to English
literature.。