美国文学选读试题

美国文学选读试题
美国文学史及作品选读模拟试题一
I.Multiple Choice (1’×15=15’)
1.C______was the first colony in American history.
A. Massachusetts
B. New Jersey
C. Virginia
D.Georgia
2. _B_____ was the only good American author before the Revolutionary War. One
of his fellow Americans said, “His shadow lies heavier than any other man’s on
this young nation.”
A. John Smith
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Thomas Jefferson
D.Thomas Paine
3. Romantics put emphasis on the following EXCEPT __A____.
A. common sense
B. imagination
C. intuition
D. individualism
4. The Raven was written in 1844 by __B______
A. Philip Freneau
B. Edgar Allan Poe
C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
D. Emily Dickinson
5. The ship __C____ carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat
its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at
Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A. Sunflower
B. Armada
C. Mayflower
D. Titanic
6. Melville’s novel __D____ is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in
pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.
A. Typee
B. Omoo
C. White Jacket
D. Moby Dick
7. As a philosophical and literary movement, __D____ flourished in New England
from the 1830s to the Civil War.
A.Modernism
B.Rationalism
C.Sentimentalism
D.Transcendentalism
8. The theme of original sin is fully reflected in ___A______.
II.M atch the Column A with Column B (1’×10=10’)
Column A Column B
( c ) 1. Dimmesdale a. Robert Frost
( e ) 2. Ahab b. Mark Twain
( i ) 3. Drouet c. The Scarlet Letter
( a ) 4. Pulitzer Prizer d. Thomas Jefferson
( h ) 5. Reclusive poet e. Moby Dick
( b ) 6. humorist and satirist f. Ernest Heminway
( d ) 7. The Decalration of Indepenence g. Henry David Thoreau
( g ) 8. transcendentalist h. Emily Dickinson
( j ) 9. The Great Gatsby i. Sister Carrie
( f ) 10. The Lost Generation j. F. Scott Fitzgerald III.Define the following words within one phrase
(2’×5=10’)
1. free verse
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Mark Twain
4. Benjamin Franklin
5. Ezra Pound
IV.Simple questions (5’×4=20’)
1.What are Puritan thoughts?
2.What is Transcedentalism and list some representative figures?
3. Explain the symbolic meanings of “A” in The Scarlet Letter.
4. Illustrate the three principles of Imagist Poetry.
V.Interpreting the following texts (45’)
Text 1
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she
rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms.
Without a counsellor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear!
Unrecognised for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
Questions
1.Please use one phrase to summarize the above paragraph (2’)
2.What are the two possibilities for a girl of eighteen leaving her
home?(2’)
3.Please find out the figures of speech (2’)
4.What are the attractive forces mentioned in a big city? (4’)
5.How are naturalist views are reflected in this paragraph? Illustrate
your points with examples (5’)
Text 2
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me --
The Carriage held but just Ourselves --
And Immortality.
We slowly drove -- He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess -- in the Ring --
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain --
We passed the Setting Sun –
…
Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
Questions:
1.Identify the poet and the title of this poem? (2’)
2.Explain the underlined words (4’)
3.What are the implications of “the School”, “the fields of Gazing Grain”, “the
Setting Sun”? (3’)
4.How do you understand “Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet / Feels
shorter than the Day” ? (3’)
5.What are the speaker’s opinions about death? (3’)
Text 3
Two roads diverged in a
yellow wood,
And sorry I could not
travel both
And be one traveler, long I
stood
And looked down one as
far as I could
To where it bent in the
undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just
as fair,
And having perhaps the
better claim,
Because it was grassy and
wanted wear;
Though as for that the
passing there
Had worn them really
about the same.
And both that morning
equally lay
In leaves no step had
trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for
another day!
Yet knowing how way leads
on to way,
I doubted if I should ever
come back.
I shall be telling this with a
sigh
Somewhere ages and ages
hence:
Two roads diverged in a
wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled
by,
And that has made all the
difference.
Questions:
1.Please examine the poetic form (rhyme and meter) (2’)
2.Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does
the speaker take? (3’)
3.How do you understand the word “sigh”? (4’)
4.What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind? (4’)
5.What is the theme of this poem? (2’)
参考答案
I.Multiple Choice (1’×15=15’)
1. _C___
2._B__
3.__A__
4.__B__
5.__C___
6.__D_
7.__D__
8._A__
9.__B__ 10.__B___
11._C__ 12.__D__ 13._A_ 14._C __ 15._D__
II.Match the Column A with Column B (1’×10=10’)
1.( c )
2.( e )
3.( i )
4.( a )
5.( h )
6.( b )
7.( d )
8.( g )
9.(j ) 10.( f )
III.Define the following words within one phrase (2’×5=10’)
(Any related information can be given marks)
1. poetry without a fived beat or regular rhyme scheme, produced by Walt Whitman
2. is the representative of transcedentalists, who believes in individualism and
self-reliance and brings transcendentalism to New England
3．is a humorist and satirist, who uses broad humor and biting social satire
4．is one of Thoreau’s masterpieces, which is the result of the author’s two years of living near Walden lake.
5. is regarded as the classical poem of imagist poetry by Ezra Pound,
conveying the theme of the speaker’s sudden pleasure of finding some
beautiful faces in the subway
IV.Simple Questions (5’×4=20’) (Answers should be to the points. 1 score for time, 2 scores for features and 1 score for representative figures when defining
the
literary terms)
a)Puritan thoughts: to make pure their religious beliefs and practices, to restore
simplicity, to live a hard and disciplined life and oppose pleasure and arts.
b)Transcendentalism is the climax of American Romanticism.
First, the Transcendentalist placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the most
important thing in the universe.
Secondly, Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual.
Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of
the spirit.
3. a. The letter’s meaning shifts as time passes. Originally intended to mark
Hester as
an adulterer, the “A”eventually comes to stand for “Able”or“Angel”.
b. Besides Hester, Dimmesdale also ironed the letter A on his body, which provoked
his self-consciousness and showed his repent for what he did.
c. Pearl, their baby, wore a green letter a in a piece of seaweed while playing on the
beach. This green letter A symbolizes vitality or new life, and also suggests her
inheritance from her mother.
4. a. direct treatment of the “thing”（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,
b. exclusion of superfluous words（precision and economy of expression）,
c. the rhythm of the musical phrase rather than the sequence of a
metronome
（free verse form and music）.
V.Interpreting the following texts (45’)
Text 1
1. The attraction of big city (2’)
2. One is to fall into the saving hands and becomes better; secondly, she may
admit the
moral value of big city and becomes worse. (2’)
3. Simile, metaphor and synecdoche (2’)
4. The gleam of lights, a blare of sound, a roar of life, and a vast array of
human
hives (4’)
5. Naturalist attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness,
presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were
dominated by their environment and heredity. In this novel, the major
female character Carrie Meeber is deeply influenced by the present
environment and heredity, which leads to the result of her dynamic
character.(5’) (the features of naturalism 3 scores, examples 2 scores) Text 2
1. Emily Dickinson and “Because I Could not Stop for Death”(2’)
2. He: death; civility: politeness; Recess: break Surmised: guessed (4’)
3. They represent three stages of life. The school is the childhood and young
age; the fields of gazing grain refers to the mature period and the setting sun the old age, that is the end of one’s life. (3’)
4. Because this day is towards death, immortal and eternal (3’)
5. Death is immortality (3’)
Text 3
1. It is written in iambic tetrameter and rhymed abaab.(2’)
2. Similarities: both of the roads are beautiful (fair)
Differences: one is quiet and grassy, less-traveled; the other is trodden by many
people and flat
He took the less-travelled road (3’)
3. The word “sigh”is a tricky word. Because sigh can be interpreted into
nostalgic relief or regret. If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker feels glad with the road he took. If it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret.
Hence, sigh is ambigous here for the speaker is not showing whether his choice is right or wrong. (4’)
4. The real road; the life road and the road in career (4’)
5.Choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you
have lived it. This is also the theme of the poem. (2’)
第 7页。