美国文学史及选读2 [美国文学史及选读试卷(3)]

美国文学史及选读试卷

Ⅰ. Multiple choice. (60 points in total, 2 points for each)

1. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American Romanticists shared some common features…______, with the English Romanticists.

A. an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions

B. an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters

C. an increasing emphasis on the desire to return to nature

D. both A and B

2. As a philosophical and literary movement, transcendentalism flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War, whose most important representatives are ______.

A. Emerson and Thoreau

B. Emerson and Whitman

C. Hawthorne and Melville

D. Edgar Poe and James Cooper

3. Washington Irving’s ______ became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic in the first half of 19th century.

A. Sketch Book

B. Charles the Second

C. The Scarlet Letter

D. Moby Dick

4. Which of the following is not right about American fiction from 1945 onwards?

A. A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their traumatic experience within the military machine and on European and Pacific battlefields.

B. There appeared a significant group of Jewish-American writers whose work drew on the Jewish experience and tradition.

C. Black fiction began to attract critical attention during the 1950s.

D. American fiction in the 1950s and 1960s proves to be a harvest which derived from

its predecessors.

5. Which of the following is reflected in the hero of The Great Gatsby by F.S. Fitzgerald?

A. The hypocrisy and materialism of small town life in the Middle West.

B. The moral confusion and social decay of the South after the Civil War.

C. The contradictions and disillusionment of the American dream.

D. The cynicism among American veteran soldiers.

6. In spite of strong foreign influences, American romantic writings are typically American which can be revealed in the following except A. a desire for an escape from civilized society and a return to the ennobling nature

B. American type of characters speaking local dialects appeared in the fiction

C. the American national experience of “pioneering into the west”

D. an emphasis on the free expression of emotions

7. Which of the following is not written by Herman Melville?

A. Typee and Omoo B. Mardi and White Jacket

D. Moby-Dick and Pierre C. The Bostonians and American Tragedy

8. In the novel Moby Dick, the rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab was thought to be against.

A. the white whale

B. the gliding great demon of the seas of life

C. the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and the awesome forces

D. the savage harpooners and the motley crew

9. In the post-Civil War society the American realists portrayed the harsh realities and pressures by _________.

A. a comprehensive picture of modern life in its various occupations, class stratifications and manners

B. a narrative exploration of man’s sub-consciousness

C. a disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War

D. a revival of heroism resulting from the glorious memories of the Revolutionary War

10. In his masterpiece The Portrait of A Lady Henry James _________ .

A. incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a European cultural environment

B. tells a story about a young and innocent American confronting the complexity of the European life as well as the American society

C. describes a young American girl who gets “killed” by the winter in Rome

D. tells about some Europeans who learn with difficulty to adapt themselves to the American life

11. Which of the following can be said about the titular heroine in the novel Daisy Miller?

A. She has become a celepated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the new world.

B. The author’s sympathy for her, a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome was easily felt.

C. Her innocence turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality in the new world.

D. all of the above

12. As Emily Dickinson’s poems about love are concerned, which of the following is not right?

A. Many of them give original depictions of the longing for shared moments, the pain of separation, and the futility of finding happiness.

B. Some of her love poems treat the suffering and frustration love can cause.

C. Her love poems show people’s feelings of rapture and happiness coming from their love experience.

D. Some of them emphasize the power of physical attraction and expressing a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes.

13. The novel Moby Dick shows the rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against .

A. the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and the awesome forces

B. the gliding great demon of the seas of life

C. the white whale

D. the savage harpooners and the motley crew

14. About Emily Dickinson’s poems of love which of the following is not right?

A. Her love poems show people’s feelings of rapture and happiness coming from their love experience.

B. Some of her love poems treat the suffering and frustration love can cause.

C. Many of them give original depictions of the longing for shared moments, the pain of separation, and the futility of finding happiness.

D. Some of them emphasize the power of physical attraction and express a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes.

15. Which of the following indicates a permanent convention of American literature which is evident in both of Cooper’s Leather-stocking Tales and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

A. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature.

B. The desire to push forward to the west frontier.

C. The self-reliance and independence of the individual.

D. Both A and B.

16. By the end of the 19th century, the American realists sought to ______and therefore rejected the portrayal of idealized characters and events in their writings.

A. describe the wide range of American experience

B. show animal nature of human beings

C. present the subtleties of human personality

D. both A and C

17. In the first part of the 20th century, apart from Darwinism, there were two thinkers -______, whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.

A. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud

B. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund Freud

C. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William James

D. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud

18. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O"Neill plays?

A. Most of his plays are concerned about the root, the truth of human desires and human frustrations.

B. His tragic view of life is reflected in many of his works.

C. His plays are concerned about the relationship between man and nature as well as man and woman.

D. both A and B

19. The pen name of Mark Twain is

A. Samuel Langhorne Clemens B. Langhorne Clemens Samuel

C. Langhorne Samuel Clemens D. Samuel Clemens Langhorne

20. Which of the following statements about Mark Twain is NOT true?

A. He is a humorist. B. He is a realist.

C. He is a local colorist. D. He is a psychologist.

21. Henry James"s fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with the （ ） theme.

A. Deep South B. local color

C. international D. national

22. As a poet in the 20th century, Robert Frost _________.

A. rejected the conventional poetic principles and chose the revolutionary way

B. rejected the romantic way choosing instead the revolutionary principles

C. rejected the revolutionary principles choosing instead the romantic way

D. rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries choosing instead the old-fashioned way to be new

23. Pound’s translations cast light on his affinity to the Chinese and his strenuous effort in the study of _________.

A. ancient Asian literature B. ancient Roman literature

C. Oriental literature D. ancient Indian literature

24. Which of the following is not written by Eugene O’Neill?

A. Long Day’s Journey into Night and The Great Gatsby

B. The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape

C. Desire Under the Elms and The Great God Down

D. Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie

25. In his novels, Hemingway dramatizes __________ among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred.

A. the sense of faith and success B. the sense of loss and despair

D. the disorder and chaos C. the transcendence of the over-soul

26. Which of the following can be said of the recurring themes of Ernest Hemingway’s writings?

A. The evitability of world wars and their impacts in individuals.

B. The affinities between the idealistic and the materialistic, and the human effort to reconcile the extremes.

C. Life’s tragedies and the courage required to face them.

D. The coexistence of different races and the clashing of conflicting values.

27. As to Hemingway’s writing style, which of the following statements is right?

A. It is seldom polished and loosely controlled though seemingly simple and natural.

B. It’s colloquialism make his characters dull and boring.

C. It’s simple and natural thus not very suggestive and connotative.

D. The use of short, simple and conventional words and sentences has an effect of clearness, terseness and great care.

28. In “Indian Camp”, the first and the typical of the seven Nick stories written by Hemingway, Nick’s night trip to the Indian Village and his experience inside the hut can be considered to be_________.

A. an important lesson about Indian tribes B. an initiation to the harshness of life

C. a confrontation with evil and sin D. a leading process in human relationship

29. To William Faulkner, the primary duty of a writer was to explore and represent the _________ inherent in human life.

A. finite impossibilities B. infinite impossibilities

C. infinite possibilities D. finite possibilities

30. Which of the following statements is right about Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms?

A. The author favored the idea of nature as an expression of either god’s design or his beneficence.

B. The author emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally and suggests that man is doomed to be entrapped.

C. It tells a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with an Italian nurse.

D. The author attempted to write the epitaph to a decade and to the whole generation in the 1940s.

Ⅱ. Choose the relevant match from Column B for each item in Column A. (10 points in total, 2 for each)

1. Walt Whitman

A. A Farewell to Arms B. Arrowsmith C. Leaves of Grass D. The Enormous Room E. The Divinity School 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson 3. E. E. Cummings 4. Ernest Hemingway 5. Sinclair Lewis

Ⅲ。 Explain the following terms. (25 points in total, 5 for each)

1. Confessional poetry

2. New Criticism

3. Psychological Criticism

4. Stream of Consciousness

5. Harlem Renaissance

Ⅳ。Make a comparison between Hemingway and Fitzgerald. (5 points)