《英美文学》练习测试题库
I Of the four alternative answer, choose the one that would best complete the statement:（选择题）
1. Benjamin Franklin was born in the family of a small _____________. A. Landlord B. merchant C. lawyer D. clergyman
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s leading reputation began with the publication of_____________.
A. Essays B. Nature C. Oversoul D. Self-Relience 3. Ellen Poe was both a poet and a _____________________. A. dramatist B. essayist C actor D. fiction writer.
4. Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s view of man and human history originates in __________________.
A. Puritanism B. Socialism C. Transcendentalism D. naturalism
5. Walt Whitman was born and brought up in a family of a ______________. A. Peasant B. carpenter C. captain D. printer 6. Mark Twain‘s first successful literary work is _____________________________.
A. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County B. Life on the Mississippi
C. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
D. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
7. Closely related to Emily Dickinson‘s religious poetry are her poems concerning _______________.
A. Childhood B.youth and happiness C. loneliness D. death and immortality 8. Among the works of Dreiser, the bet known to the Chinese readers is _________________.
A. An American Tragedy B. Sister Carrie C. Th Financier D. The Titan
9. Robert Frost‘s works mainly focus on the landscape and people in _________________.
A. the West B. American South C. New England D. Mississippi 10. Most of the plays Eugene O‘Neill wrote are _______________________. A. comedies B. . romances C. historical plays D tragedies
11. Scott Fitzgerald is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the ______________________.
A. modern time B. young Americans C. Jazz Age D. Guilded Age
12. _______________________________ is Hemingway‘s masterpiece, which is about the old fisherman Santiago and his losing battle with a giant marlin. A. Farewell to Arms B. For whom the Bell Tolls C. The Sun Also Rises D. The Old Man and The Sea
13. As a great fiction writer, William Faulker devotes most of his works to the description of the life and the people in the __________________________.
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A. American West B. New England in America C. American South D. American North
14. When he was young, Benjamin Franklin became an apprentice in a __________________.
A. printing house B. store C. Tailor‘s shop D. factory 答案：A
15. Ralph Emerson was born in a family of a _____________________. A. merchant B. businessman C. clergyman D. writer 答案：C
16. Ellen Poe began his literary career by writing ___________________; A. short stories B. plays C. essays D. poems 答案：D
17. According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is _________ in every hearer, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.
A. evil B. virtue C. kindness D. tragedy 答案：A
18. Whitman is radically innovative in term of form of his poetry. What he prefers for his new subjects and new feelings is _____________.
A. blank verse B. free verse C. heroic couplet D. sonnet 答案：B
19. Mark Twain shaped the world‘s view of America and made a combination of serious literature and _______.
A. American folk humor B. English folklore C. American traditional values D. funny jokes 答案：A
20. Altogether, Emily Dickinson wrote ______ poems, of which only severn had appeared during her lifetime.
A. 1145 B. 1775 C. 897 D. 785 答案：B
21. Theodore Dreiser is generally acknowledged as one of America‘s literary ________________.
A. realists B. naturalists C. romantists D. modernists 答案：B
22. In Frost‘s poems, images and metaphors in his poems are drawn from _________________.
A. the simple country life B. the urban life
C. the life on the sea D. the adventures and trips 答案：A
23. Scott Fitzgerald never spared an intimate touch in his fiction to deal with the bankruptcy of the _______________________________. A. American Dream B. ruling classes
B. American Capitalists D.American bourgeoisie
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答案：A
24. Eugene O‘Neill is regarded as the founder of American _____________________. A. poetry B. drama C. fiction D. literature
25. ___________________ is Hemingway‘s masterpiece, which tells a story about the tragic love of a wounded American soldier with a British nurse. A. A Farewell to Arms B. The Sun Also Rises C. For Whom the Bell Tolls D. In Our Time 答案：A
26. William Faulkner was born in a family of a _______________________. A. merchant B. colonel C. manager D. doctor 答案：A
27. In his essays, ______ put forward his philosophy of the over soul, the important of the Individual and Nature.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Washington Irving C. Mark Twain D. Ralph Waldo Emerson
28. The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism is __________ A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Ralph Waldo Emerson C. Henry David Thoreau D. Washington Irving
29. ______ literary world turns out to be a most disturbed, tormented and problematical one, which has much to do with his ―black‖ vision of life and human beings.
A. Herman Melville‘s B. Washington Irving‘s C. Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s D. Walt Whitman‘s
30. Most of the poems in _____ sing of the ―en-masse‖ and the self as well.
A. Leaves of Grass B. Drum Taps C. North of Boston D. The Cantos 31. In _____, Whitman airs his sorrow at President Lincoln‘s death. A. ―Cavalry Crossing a Ford‖ B. ―A Pact‖
C. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom‘d D. There was a Child Went Forth‖
32. In _____, Whitman‘s own early experience may well be identified with the childhood of a young growing America.
A. ―A Pact‖ B. ―Song of Myself‖
C. ―There was a Child Went Forth‖ D. ―Cavalry Crossing a Ford‖
33. In ______, Hawthorne sets out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret. A. ―The Custom-House” B. ―Young Goodman Brown‖ C. ―Rappaccini’s Daughter‖ D. ―The Birthmark\
34.______ is called by Hemingway the one from which ―all modern American literature comes.‖
A. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn B. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer C. The Gilded Age D. Life on the Mississippi
35. Theodore Dreiser‘s forgiving treatment of the career of his heroine in ______ also draws heavily upon the naturalistic understanding of sexuality.
A McTeague B. An American Tragedy C. Sister Carrie D. The Genius 36. _______ is a great giant of American, whom H.L.Mencken considers ―the true
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father of our national literature.‖
A. Henry James B. Washington Irving C. Mark Twain D. Theodore Dreiser
37. _______ is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys.
A. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer B. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn C. Innocents Abroad D. Life on the Mississippi
38. _______ is described by Mark Twain as a boy with ―a sound heart and a deformed conscience.‖
A. Tom Sawyer B. Huckleberry Finn C. Jim D.Tony
39. _________ is considered to be Theodore Dreiser‘s greatest work.
A. An American Tragedy B. Sister Carrie C. The Financier D. The Titan
40. The leading playwright of the modern period in American literature, if not the most successful in all his experiments, is _______
A. Arthur Miller B. Tennessee William C. George Bernard Shaw D. Eugene O‘Neil
41. _______ stems from the ambiguity of the speaker‘s choice between safety and the unknown.
A. ―Mending the Wall‖ B. ―Home Burial‖
C. ―The Road Not Taken‖ D. ―Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 42. ________ is a play that concerns the problem of modern man‘s identity. A. The Hairy Ape B. Long Day’s Journey Into Night C. The Iceman Cometh D. The Emperor Jones
43. In a tragic sense, _______ is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable forces in which only a partial victory is possible.
A. For Whom the Bell Tolls B. In Our Time C. The Old Man and the Sea D. A Farewell to Arms
44. Faulkner once said that ________ is a story of ― lost innocence,‘ which proves itself to be and intensification of the theme of imprisonment in the past.
A. The Sound and the Fury B. Light in August C. Go Down, Moses D. Absalom, Absalom!
45. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner makes best use of the _______ devices in narration. A. Romantic B. Realistic C. Gothic D. Modernist 46. _______ is Hemingway‘s first true novel in which he depicts a vivid portrait of ―The lost Generation.‖
A. The Sun Also Rises B. A Farewell to Arms C. In Our Time D. For Whom the Bell Tolls
47. The only dramatist ever to win a Nobel Prize was ___________.
A. Bernard Shaw B. Eugene O‘Neil C. Richard Brinsley Sheridan D. William Shakespeare
48. By means of ―free verse,‖ _______ believes that he has turned the poem into an open field, an area of vital possibility where the reader can allow his own
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imagination to play.
A. Emily Dickinson B. Walt Whitman C. Robert Frost D. Ezra Pound 49. An eccentric woman who refuses to accept the passage of time, or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it may probably refer to _______. A. Irene in The Man of Property B. Emily in A Rose for Emily
C. Catherine in Wuthering Heights D. the widow Douglas in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
50. One source of evil that Nathaniel Hawthorne is concerned most is overreaching intellect. Which of the following stories is one of this kind?
A. Rappaccini’s Daughter B. Young Goodman Brown C. The Minister’s Black Veil D. The Birthmark
51. ― In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.‖ This is the last sentence of _______ .
A. Sister Carrie B. An American Tragedy C. The Genius D. Jane Eyre 52. In Walt Whitman‘s ―There was a Child Went Forth,‖ the child refers to ________. A. the poet himself as a child B. any American child
C. the young America D. one of the poet‘s neighbor
53. The _______ techniques are used in some of Eugene O‘Neil‘s plays to highlight the theatrical effect of the rupture between the two sides of an individual human being, the private and the public.
A. naturalistic B. expressionistic C. stream-of-consciousness D. metaphysical
54. Which of the following is true as far as Emily Dickinson‘s poetry is concerned? A. She seldom uses dashes.
B. All her poems are about death or immorality. C. Her poems are very personal and meditative D. Her poems usually have well-chosen titles. 55. In his poems, Whitman tends to use ______.
A. oral English B. the King‘s English C. American English D. old English
56. As far as Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s art is concerned, which of the following statement is true?
A. His The Scarlet Letter tells a love story.
B. His art is deeply influenced by Puritanism because he was a puritan himself. C. Young Goodman Brown is a story about superstition. D. Ambiguity is one of the salient characteristics of his art. 57. ―I like to see it lap the Miles— And lick the Valleys up —
And stop to feed itself at Tanks—
And then —?‖ (Emily Dickinson, ―I like to see it lap the Miles—―) Here ―it‖ refers to ______ .
A. love B. death C. a fly D. the train
58. Which of the following statements concerning Theodore Dreiser‘s style is correct? A. Dreiser‘s Cowperwood trilogy includes The Financier, The Titan and The Genius
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B. His novels have little detail descriptions of characters and events. C. His novels are written in refined language. D. His style is not polished but very serious.
59. ______ has long been well known as a poet who can hardly be classified with the old or the new.
A. Ezra Pound B. Robert Lee Frost C. T. S. Eliot D. Emily Dickinson 60. F. Scott Fitzgerald skillfully employs the device of having events observe by _______ to his great advantage.
A. a ―central consciousness‖ B. his double vision C. more than one witness D. the protagonists
61. Shakespeare wrote ___________sonnets.
a. 125 b. 154 c. 245 d. 138
62. Francis Bacon is not only a great ____________, but also the founder of modern science.
a. poet b. essayist c. dramatist d. novelist 63. John Milton became blind mainly because of_______________.
a. reading b. disease c. hard work d. accident 64. Paradise lost is a great __________ consisting of 12 books.
a. epic b. story c. lyric poem d. narrative poem 65.The most important representative work by Jonathan Swift is ―___________________‖.
a. A Tale of a Tub b. The Battle of the Books c. A Modest Proposal d. Gulliver‘s Travels 66. The first comedy Sheridan wrote is __________________. a. The School for Scandal b. The Critic c. A Trip to Scarborough d. The Rivals
67.‖____________________‖ is the cooperative work of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.
a. Tintern Abbey b. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner c. Lyrical Ballads d. Prelude
68.―The Isles of Greece‖ is a part of Byron‘s masterpiece ―___________________‖ a. Don Juan b. Childe Harold‘s Prigrimage c. Oriental Tales d. Manfred
69.Percy Shelly‘s greatest achievement is his four- act poetic drama
―_____________‖.
a. Men of England b. Prometheus Unbound c. Ode to the West Wind d. The Revolt of Islam
70.At the age of fifteen, Keats became an apprentice to a ______________. a. landlord b. apothecary c. stable keeper d. doctor 71.Jane Austen was the daughter of a ____________________.
a. landlord b. merchant c. lawyer d. rector
72.The novel Pride and prejudice by Austen mainly centres round the relationship between __________.
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a. Mr.Bennet and Mrs.Bennet b. Darcy and Elizabeth c. Bingley and Jane d. Sir William and Luccas 73. Bronte Sisters are all outstanding ________________.
a. essayists b. playwrights c. poets d. novelists 74.Most of Hardy‘s later works show his ___________ view of life. a. optimistic b. pessimistic c. practical d. ironical
75. Structurally and thematically Bernad Shaw followed the great traditions of _________
a. realism b. romanticism. c. modernism d. classicism
76.Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights and _________________________ the world has ever known. a. poets b. novelists c. essayists d. critics
77.The greatest plays Shakespeare creates are________________. a. histories b. comedies c. tragedies d. tragicomedies
78. Bacon is not only a essayist and philosopher, but also a _________________. a. lawyer b. scientist c. historian d. dramatist 79.John Milton is a great poet in the _____________________ Peorid. a. Renaissance b. Neoclassical c. Romantic d. Realist 80.The story of Paradise lost is taken from __________________. a. a legend b. Bible c. an epic d. a folklore
81.In 1689 Jonathan Swift became the __________________of Sir William. a. House-keeper b. servant c. private secretary d. steward
82. The representative play Sheridan wrote is ― __________________‖. a. The School for Scandal b. The Critic c. A Trip to Scarborough d. The Rivals
83. Lyrical Ballads is the cooperative work of William Wordsworth and _________________.
a. Samuel Coleridge b. Robert Southey
c. John Keats d. Percy Bysshe Shelley
84. The Isles of Greece of Byron is taken from ―_______________________‖. a. Hours of Idleness b. Don Juan c. Childe Harold Pilgrimage d. Cain
85. The first long serious work of Shelly is ________________________. a. The Necessity of Atheism b. Queen Mab
c.The Spirit of Solitude d. Ode to the West Wind 86. Keats‘ father was a ______________.
a. landlord b. apothecary c. stable keeper d. doctor 87. Jane Austen was the daughter of a ____________________.
a. landlord b. merchant c. lawyer d. rector
88. As a novelist, Emily Bronte was also good at writing________________.
a. essays b. plays c. poems d. stories
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89．The first novel written by Thomas Hardy is ―__________________‖.
a. Desperate Remedies b. Under the Greenwood c. The Return of the Native d. The Mayor of Casterbridge
90.Shakespeare was the son of a _________________________. a. clerk b. landlord c. trader d. lawyer
91.‖_______________‖ is NOT one of the four great tragedies of Shakespeare. a. Othello b. King Lear c. Romeo and Juliet d. Macbeth
92.The total number of the essays published by Bacon is_________________. a.10 b.26 c.45 d. 58
93.John Milton became blind at the age of 48,mainly because of_______________. a. reading b. desease c. hard work d. accident 94.Paradise lost is a great epic consisting _____________ books. a. 8 b. 10 c. 12 d. 14
95.In 1689 Jonathan Swift became the __________________of Sir William. a. House-keeper b. servant c. private secretary d. steward
96. The first comedy Sheridan wrote is ― __________________‖. a. The School for Scandal b. The Critic c. A Trip to Scarborough d. The Rivals
97.‖____________________‖ is the cooperative work of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.
a. Tintern Abbey b. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner c. Lyrical Ballads d. Prelude
98. The first volume of poems of Byron is ―_______________________‖. a. Hours of Idleness b. Don Juan c. Childe Harold Pilgrimage d. Cain
99. Percy Shelly was expelled from Oxford University because he wrote a pamphlet
― On the Necessity of _____________‖.
a. Atheism b. Aesthetics c. Athletics d. Ethics 100. Keats was born in the family of a ______________.
a. landlord b. apothecary c. stable keeper d. doctor 101. Jane Austen was the daughter of a ____________________.
a. a. landlord b. merchant c. lawyer d. rector
102. As a novelist, Emily Bronte was also good at writing________________.
a. essays b. plays c. poems d. stories
103．The first novel written by Thomas Hardy is ―__________________‖. a. Desperate Remedies b. Under the Greenwood c. The Return of the Native d. The Mayor of Casterbridge
104. In 1884 Bernad Shaw joined __________ and became one of its most influential members.
a. Chartist Movement b. Fabian Society c. Socialist Movement d. Trade Union
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105.The well-known soliloquy by Hamlet ―To be , or not to be‘ shows his a. hatred for his uncle b. love for life c. resolution of revenge d. inner- strife
106.― Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;‖( Of Studies). Here Bacon compares reading to a. walking b. eating c. drinking d. acting
107.―That glory never shall his wrath or might/ extort from me.‖ (Paradise Lost). ―That glory‖ means
a. Satan‘s unconquerable will b. Satan‘s failure c. Satan‘s surrender to God d. God‘s victory
108.Which of the following shows in a more implicit way that the poet was touched by the song of the solitary reaper?
a. I listened, motionless land still b. Will no one tell me what she sings ? c. I saw her singing at her work. d. The music in my heart I bore.
109.‖Of two such lessons, why forget / The nobler and the manlier one ? ( The Isles of Greece )‖ The nobler and manlier one refers to
a. the Pyrrhic dance b. the Pyrrhic phalanx c. the glorious history d. the heroic leader
110. ―Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is…‖ (Ode to the West Wind )This
shows Shelly‘s wish to be a
a. propagator of revolutionary ideas. b. singer enjoying great fame c. man who can wander freely d. heroic fighter in the forest
Ⅱ. Decide whether the following statements are true or false and write your answers in the brackets.
( T ) 1. Leaves of Grass established Walt Whitman as the most popular American poet of the 19th century.
( F ) 2. The poem ―Song of Myself‖ got this title from the first edition.
( T ) 3. Puritanism and Calvinistic doctrine have great effects on Hawthorne‘s writing.
( T ) 4. According to Emerson, man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible.
( F ) 5. Walt Whitman is granted the honor of being ―the American Goldsmith‖ for his literary craftsmanship.
( F ) 6. Emersonian Transcendentalism inspired a whole generation of famous authors like Whitman, Dickinson and Mark Twain.
( F ) 7. As a Puritan, Hawthorne embraced the Puritanical doctrines and expresses them in his novels.
( F ) 8. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne intends to tell a love story and a story
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of sin.
( T ) 9. Hawthorne is a master of symbolism, which he took from the Puritan tradition and bequeathed to American literature in a revivified form.
( F ) 10. Walt Whitman follows only one theme in his Leaves of Grass, that is, the burgeoning life in cities.
( F ) 11. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are written in heroic couplet. ( F ) 12. Life on the Mississippi tells a story of Henry James‘s boyhood ambition to become a riverboat pilot up and down the Mississippi.
( T ) 13. Emily Dickinson‘s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys.
( T ) 14. Theodore Dreiser is greatly influenced by Darwinism and it is not surprising to find in his fiction a world of jungle, where ―kill or to be killed‖ is the law.
( F ) 15. In ―This is my letter to the World‖ Dickinson expressed her reluctance to communicate with the outside world.
( F ) 16. Each of Emily Dickinson‘s poems has a well-chosen title.
( T ) 17. Emily Dickinson‘s poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way, covering love, death and nature.
( T ) 18. In Robert Lee Frost‘s poems, profound ideas are delivered under the disguise of the plain language and the simple form.
( F ) 19. Robert Lee Frost has long been well known as a poet who belongs to the new.
( F ) 20. Robert Frost wrote most of his poems in free verse.
( F ) 21. Eugene O‘Neil, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams are together called ―founders of the American drama.‖
( F ) 22. Fitzgerald shows an interest both in the upper-class society and in the lower-class society.
( T ) 23. Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain.
( T ) 24. In his novels, William Faulkner exploits the modern steam-of –consciousness technique to emphasize the reactions and inner musings of the narrator.
( F ) 25. Benjamin Franklin is a early feminist, because he thinks that women should receive education.
( T ) 26. Emerson‘s lasting reputation was established by his masterpiece Essays.
( F ) 27. Ellen Poe wrote many poems, so he has a very important position as poet; he wrote about 70 short stories and is regarded as a pioneer of the detective fiction and the horror fiction in the west.
( T ) 28. In style, her poems are characterized by their brevity, directness and plainness
( F ) 29. Philosophically, the naturalists believe that the real and true is always completely hidden from the understanding of the individual or beyond his control. ( T ) 30. The defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are
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discontinuity and fragmentation.
( F ) 31.English critical realism found its expression chiefly in the form of drama. ( F ) 32.The greatest English playwright of the 18th century was Goldsmith, whose best play is \
( F ) 33. In 1805, Southey completed a long autobiographical poem entiled \Prelude\
( T ) 34. The Romantic Age began in 1789 when Wordsworth and Coleridge published their joint work \
( T ) 35. Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece; the story is taken from the Old Testament: Satan and other angels rebel against God.
( F ) 36. George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Scotland. ( F ) 37. Byron's masterpiece is Tom Jones.
( F ) 38. Novel writing made a big advance in the 18th century. the main characters in the novels were no longer common people, but the kings and nobles. ( T ) 39. Shakespeare'a prime creating period lies in his third period when his greatest tragedies were written.
( F ) 40. Tess is arrested and hanged because she murders her seducer Clare. ( T ) 41. Paradise Lost is one of Milton's masterpiece.
( F ) 42. Thomas Hardy is one of the representatives of English critical romanticism at the turn of 19th century.
( F ) 43. The Revolution period produced one of the most important poets in English literature, William Shakespeare.
( T ) 44. The publication of \Lyrical Ballads\marked the break with classicism and the beginning of the Romantic Age.
( F ) 45. Song to the Men of England is Byron's political lyric. ( T ) 46. Man and Superman is shaw's play.
( F ) 47. Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abey is written by Coleridge.
( F ) 48. “Shall i compare thee to a summer's day?” is a line in sonnet 18 written by Bacon.
( F ) 49. Paradise Lost is a novel divided into 12 books.
( F ) 50. John Milton towers over his age as Byron towers over the Elizabethan Age, and as Chaucer towers over the medieval period.
( F ) 51. Women as poets appeared in the Romantic Age, such as Jane Austen. ( F ) 52. Queen Mab is the first long poem written by Keats. ( F ) 53. Manfred and Cain were Byron's two poems.
( F ) 54. The Pride and Prejudice is the masterpiece of Charles Dickens.
( F ) 55. In Of Studies, \in line \make men wise; Poets, witty...\means \
( F ) 56. Paradise Lost took its material from Greek mythology.
( F ) 57. Hamlet, Shakespeare's first of the great tragedies, was based on a widespread legend in northern Europe.
( F ) 58. Optimism and positivism are strongly reflected in Hardy's writings. ( F ) 59. Hardy is a dramatist before he was a novelist.
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( F ) 60. Defoe's masterpiece is \
III. Paraphrase the following quotations: （改写解释题） 1. The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset—when the King Be witnessed—in the Room—
( Dickinson: I heard a fly buzz—when I died )
答案：My relatives and friends had cried so that there were no tears any more. I hold my breath and got ready for the last attack of Death when he appeared in the room.
2. To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from
society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. ( Emerson: Nature )
答案：To be solitary, a man should also leave his room.When I am reading or writing, I amnot alone. When a man looks at the stars, his mind can be purified and above the dirty things.
3. 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 I less traveled by, And that has made all the difference
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken
答案：In the future I shall tell this with some regret: facing the two roads, I chose a road few people had traveled by, and that has decided my whole life.
4. 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?
( Hamlet )
答案：We are facing two choices: to endure suffering in our life patiently or to take up arms and fight. Which is nobler?
5. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business. ( Of Studies )
答案：To get pleasure of reading, you should be alone; to show your elequence, you should talk with others; to improve your ability, you should use the bookish knowledge in the judgement and arrangement of business.
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6. Must we but weep o‘er days more blest ?
Must we but blush ?— Our father bled.
(The Isles of Greece )
答案：Must we only weep for the past happy time ?
Must we only feel ashamed , our fathers fought and died. So we must take up arms and fight.
7. When old age this generation waste,
Thou shall remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a fiend to man, to whom thou say‘st; ―Beauty is truth, truth beauty.‖ – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. ( Ode on a Grecian Urn )
答案： When the old generation die, you shall live in the sorrows of another generation. You tell the people that truth and beauty are one, and that is all you know and need to know.
8. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the
heart of the child.
Emerson: Nature
答案：The sun only lights up the adult superficially, but it lights up both the eye and the depth of the soul of the child .This means the child is purer than the adult.
9. It is when the feet weary and hope seems vain that the heartaches and the
longings arise. Know then, that for you is neither surfeit nor content. In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.
Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie 答案：When you are tired and hopeless, desire will appear in your heart. When you sit in your arm-chair by the window, you are dreaming of the happiness, but you can never get it.
10. A wafer of moon was shining over Gatsby‘s house, making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolatio the fighre of the host who stood othe porch, his hand up in as formal gesture of farewell. (Scott Fitzgerald: Great Gatsby)
答案：After the guests left, the laughter and the music faded, but the moon was still thining and the night was still fine. An emptiness overwhelmed the whole place, the figure of Gatsby became very lonely and isolated.
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11. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them,…
( Of Studies)
答案：Men with experience look down upon reading, ignorant people admire reading, wise people make use of the knowledge from books.
12． And every fair from fair sometimes declines.
By chance or nature‘s changing course untrimmed But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow‘st. (Sonnet 18)
答案：Every beautiful thing and person can not keep its or his beauty for ever, because of the accidents or natural law.
13 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…
( Isles of Greece )
答案：Let me stand on the cliff by the sea alone and murmur to the waves. I would die as a swan after I sing my last song, because I would not live as a slave in my country.
14. ―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?‖
(Wuthering Hights)
答案：I am strong, but this is even worse, because after you die, my life will be torture.
15． ―I love my murderer---but not yours!‖
(Wuthering Hights)
答案：Even if you kill me, I still love you; But you kill yourself. I can never forgive you for that.
16. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
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Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars mever rises but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
Ellen Poe : Annabel Lee
答案：Whenever I see the moon, I think of Annabel Lee; Whenverer I see the stars, I think of her beautiful eyes.
17. 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 I less straveled by, And that has made all the difference
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken
答案：In the future I shall tell this with some regret: facing the two roads, I chose a road few people had traveled by, and that has decided my whole life.
Ⅳ. Answer the following questions briefly: （简答题） 1. Why did Benjamin Franklin sit up late in his room?
Answer: Because he had to finish reading the books he borrowed from the apprentices of the booksellers, so he could return the books in the morning.
2. What is Emerson‘s great contribution to American philosophy and literature?
Answer: Emerson brought Transcendentalism to American philosophy and literature and became the leader of the school.
3. What are the common themes in Poe‘s poems? Answer: The common themes are love and death.
4. What a kind of woman is Hester in The Scarlet Letter?
Answer: She was a woman with a strong will and personality, brave in her pursuit of true love. She has a rebellious spirit in face of conventional bondage.
5. What is the theme of the poem To Those Who’ve Failed?
Answer: It shows the greatness of the common people. Even if they fail, their spirit is immortal.
6. What is the characteristic of the language of the novel Huckleberry Finn ? Answer: comic jargon, dialect, easy, informal, unaffected and humorous
7. What is the theme of Dickinson‘ poem I’m Nobody ?
Answer: Its theme is that fame is empty; common people are worthy people
8. What is the position of Eugene O‘Neill in American literature?
Answer: O‘Neill is the greatest American playwright, the founder of American
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Drama.
9. Why is Gatsby eager to become rich?
Answer: He wanted to win back his love, Daisy by his money and position
10. What kind of man is Hemingway‘s hero
Answer: Hemingway‘s hero is a man who keeps grace under pressure, a man who can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually.
11. What is the difference between the man and the child in their relation with nature, according to Emerson?
Answer: The man has a superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.
12. What are the characteristics in the style of Ellen Poe‘s poems?
Answer: Poe‘s poems show strong musical effect and the beauty of form.
13. What different meanings do the scarlet letter ―A‖ symbolizes? Answer: The scarlet letter A can mean Adultery, Able and Angel.
14. What does the ―self ― in Whitman‘s poem mean?
Answer: The ―self‖ in Whitman‘s poem is both the poet himself and all Americans
15. Why did Huckleberry Finn tear up the letter he had written?
Answer: Because Huck decided to save Jim and help him to become a free man.
16. What are the features of the style of Dickinson‘s poetry? Answer: The features are brevity, directness and plainness.
17. Why is Robert Frost generally considered as a regional poet?
Answer: Because his poems focus on the landscape and people in New England.
18. Why did Yank in Hairy Ape come to the zoo?
Answer: Because he could not find where he belonged to, and he wanted to see the ape.
19. Why is Great Gatsby often considered as a parody of the American Dream?
Answer: American dream is a romantic expectation, but now traditional devotions are wasted on spiritual gumdrops and material trivialities.
20. What is the theme of Faulkner‘s story A Rose for Emily ?
Answer: The theme is the tragedy of the aristocrats in the American South, their decline and states of mind.
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21. How does Theodore Dreiser describe the death of Hurstwood ?
The author describes the death of Hurstwood in a very objective and even indifferent tone, which reinforce the tragic effect.
22. What is the significance of the story of Sister Carrie?
The story of Sister Carrie not only exposes the evils of the capitalist society, but also shows a universal truth: money and fame cannot win happiness.
23. What is the symbolic sense of the subtitle: “The Way of the Beaten: A Harp in the Wind”?
“The Way of the Beaten” refers to the tragic decline of Hurst wood and people like him; “A Harp in the Wind” can show more implications: it can refers to the dream of the dreamers like Carrie, “As harp in the wind, the latter respond to every breath of fancy voicing in their moods all the ebb and flow of the ideal.” It can also mean the passive role of Carrie in the environment—like a harp, she was played by the strong wind of the society.
24. What are the characteristics of the style of Frost’s poetry?
In the form of poetry, Frost carried on the tradition and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression. His poems are short, direct, and have simple diction, but they are rich in symbolic implication.
25. Why “ I shall be telling this with a sigh‖? The “sigh” may express a regret for an unfulfilled wish or something he had to give up.
26. What is the significance of O’Neill’s tragedies?
His tragedies deal with the basic issues of human existence and predicament.
27. What are the stylistic features of O’Neill’s plays?
His plays show his inventiveness. They have different new styles and froms, especially with strong color of Expressionism.
28. What is the role of Nick in the novel?
Nick is not only the narrator of the story, but also an important role in the novel, who witnesses and comments on Gatsby’s tragedy.
29. What is the link between this novel and Fitzgerald’s own life story?
The novel contains much from Fitzgerald‘s own life story. In Gatsby and Daisy, the readers can see the shadows of Fitzgerald and Zelda.
30. What does Hemingway’s principle of iceberg mean?
Hemingway‘s principle of iceberg refers to his terse style : There is only one eighth of the iceberg is above water and seven eighths of it under water. This means his
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narration is very brief, but the implied meaning is very profound.
31. What kind of life did Ellan Poe live?
Ellan Poe’s life was full of frustration, misfortune and poverty, yet he struggled on and achieved many successes.
32. What are Poe’s major contributions to literature?
He wrote only about 50 poems, but he has a very important position as poet; he wrote about 70 short stories and is regarded as a pioneer of the detective fiction and the horror fiction in the west.
33. What is the theme of the poem Annabel Lee?
The poem shows the death of a beauty and expresses the sorrow of the narrator and his conviction in eternal love.
34. What is Emersonian Transcendentalism?
Emersonian Transcendentalism is a philosophical school, which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man.
35. What is the theme of Tess ?
From different points of view,we can find different themes of the novel: 1. fatalism: According to Hardy‘s pessimistic belief,man‘s life is decided by mystic fate or chance.Chance is malignant force and man is a victim of chance.Tess‘s story is a good example.She is led to her destruction by a series of chances. 2. social criticism: Although Hardy tries to explain the misfortune of his characters from the viewpoint of the unseen but potential fate, his truthful representation of the lives of his characters reveal that the misfortune is evidently determined by the social causes.It is the capitalist society that ruins such innocent people as Tess.
36. How does Satan encourage his followers in his speech in Paradise Lost?
Satan is both passionate and cool-headed. He speaks with firm determination. He analyzes the situation and points out the advantages of his side and the disadvantages of God's side.
37. What are the features of Bacon's Essays?
Bacon‘s essays are characterized by their conciseness and brevity, simplicity and forcefulness, practicality and versatility.
38. What is the significnce of the publication of Lyrical Ballds ？
The publication of Lyrical Ballads is a milestone in the history of English Literature. It marks a breakthrough in the English poetry. In the book a new kind of poetry appears ,which is characterized by themes from the rustic life, simplicity in diction
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and sincerity in emotions.
39. What is The School for Scandal about?
The play shows how a group of rich and idle members of the high society created and spread scandals to blacken others' reputations.
40. Why is Wuthering Heights regarded as a great and unique novel ?
Wuthering Heights is a great and unique novel because the following reasons:the rich implications of its theme,different people can have different interpretations;the unique characters ; the intensity of the emotions;the supernatural and mysterious elements; the gloomy natural environment and atmposphere; the unique way of narration.
41. What are the main features of the language in Swift‘s works ?
Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. clear, simple, concrete diction, uncomplicated sentence structure, economy and consiseness of language mark all his writings.
42. What is the constant theme of Sheridan‘s plays ? The constant theme of his plays is morality. (祥略)
43. What do you know about the character Hamlet? what is the significance of the image of Hamlet?
Hamlet is a soldier, scholar and statesman. He is the perfect image of humanist.
44. What is the theme of the poem The Solitary Reaper?
The poem shows the melancholy atmosphere of the countryside and the lonely and miserable life of the poor people there.
45. What are the different functions of different branches of learning according to Bacon?
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
46. What is Byronic hero?
Byronic hero is a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin, with immense superiority in his passions and powers, he carries on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and rises single-handedly against any kind of tyranny.
47. What are the two functions of the west wind on the land in Ode to the West Wind? The west wind is both the destroyer and the preserver, destroying the old rotten things and preserving the new born things.
48. What is Austen's main concern in her novels？
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Her main concern in her novels is about human beings in their personal relationships.
49. Why is Bernard Shaw regarded as a great dramatist of critical realism?
Because Shaw‘s plays, especially the ―unhappy plays‖ present ruthless exposure of the evils in the capitalist society, and a searing satire of the seeming respectability and moral dignity of the those who live on various exploitations.
50. Why is the first sentence a very good beginning in The Pride and Prejudice ?
The first sentence shows the theme and the tone of the novel; it also exposes the importance of money in marriage in Jane Austen‘s time.
51. What is the theme of Paradise Lost?
The theme of Paradise Lost is the ―Fall of Man‖， that is, man's disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause--Satan.
52. What is the cause of the conflict between Mrs. Warren and her daughter in Mrs. Warren's Profession ?
The cause of their conflict is the shameful profession of Mrs.Warren.
53. What is the theme of Hamlet?
It seems a story of blood and revenge, but in fact it presents the conflict between humanist ideals and the reality.
54. What does \
In Ode to the West Wind, the power of the west wind is praised as the symbol of revolutionary force.
55. What is the significance of Gulliver's Travels?
Gulliver‘s Travels is a devastating criticism and satire of all aspects in the then English and European life. And it is a profound study of human nature and life.
56. What is the difference between Mr.and Mrs.Bennet in character in Austen's Pride and Prejudice?
Mr.Bennet was a man of quick-mind,sarcastic humor, reserve and caprice while Mrs.Bennet was a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper.
57. Why did Heathcliff and Catherine in the scene of their final meeting make a strange and fearful picture to Nelly ? (Wuthering Heights)
Because the intense love and agony in the hearts of Heathcliff and Catherine made them behave and talk in a strange and even abnormal way: love expressed in blaming and cursing,caressing like fighting.
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58. What are the general characteristics of the style of Keats's poetry ?
In style, Keats's poetry is characterized by exact and closely knit construction, sensual description and force of imagination.
59. What is the implication of the title of the play The School for Scandal?
The whole high society and upper class is like a school for training the members in the creation and spreading of scandals; and all the ―students‖ are working hard.
60. Why is Don Juan regarded as―the epic satire‖?
Don Juan is an epic because it is 16000 lines long in sixteen cantos and it shows a very vast pictures of different countries in Europe and deals with many aspects of those societies. It is a satire because it exposes and satirizes the sham, hypocrisy, greed and moral degeneracy of the upper classes.
61. What does soliloquy show about Hamlet's mind?
This soliloquy shows Hamlet's consideration about the social reality , especially his accusation against the corruption and injustice of the ruling class and the state institutions, which shows Shakespeare‘s humanism and realism.
62. What is the meaning of \
It shows the inner strife of Hamlet: to live on in this world or to die; to suffer or to take action.
63. What revolutionary ideas did Shelly expressed in his poems ?
In his poems, Shelley expressed his love for freedom and his hatred for tyranny.（详略）
64. What is Sheridan's position as a dramatist in English Literature?
Sheridan is the only important English dramatist in the 18th century. His plays are important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw.
65. Why does Emerson say, “nature always wears the colors of spirit?
Because though nature can give people a lot of pleasures and delights, it is also changeable according to human emotions.
V. Short essay questions: （论述题）
1．What do you know about the character Hamlet? What is the significance of the image of Hamlet?
Hamlet is a soldier, scholar and statesman. He is the perfect image of humanist.
2． How does Emily Bronte describe the strong love between Heathcliff and Catherine in the scene of their final meeting ?
During the last meeting between Heathcliff and Catherine, Emily shows their strong
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love by their words, actions, facial expressions. Some of their words sound as blame and curse, some of their movements look like fighting, but all this shows intense love.
3. What have you learned from Bacon‘s Of Studies ?
From the essay, we have learned how to read and why to read; we have known what kinds of books we should read. We also know the different functions of different books.
4．What is the difference between the characters of Mrs.Warren and her daughter Vivie? What is the conflict between them?
Mrs. Warren is a prostitute, she is uneducated, vulgar, even rude. Vivi is very intelligent, elegant. Their conflict lies in their different point of view of life and different way of life.
5. Please comment on Hemingway‘s story Indian Camp .
Answer: The theme of the story is death and birth of life. It shows the experience of a boy who witnessed both birth and death. which became a good lesson in his childhood and enabled him to become a Hemingway‘s hero when he grew up. The style of the story shows the typical style of Hemingway— iceberg. Very brief narration reveals very profound implication.
6. One important American writer always sets his works in the American South with his emphasis on the Southern subjects and consciousness. Who is the writer? Discuss the writer‘s narrative techniques.
Answer: It is William Faulkner. He has always been regarded as a man with great might of invention and experimentation. He added to the theory of the novel an art form and evolved his own literary strategies.
The range of narrative techniques used by Faulkner is remarkable. He would let the characters explain themselves and hinder as little as possible the reader‘s direct experience of the work of art. The most characteristic way of structuring his stories is to fragment the chronological time. The modern stream-of-consciousness technique was also frequently and skillfully exploited by Faulkner to emphasize the reactions and inner musings of the narrator. And the interior monologue Faulkner used helps him achieve the most desirable effect of exploring the nature of human consciousness. Moreover, Faulkner was good at presenting multiple points of view. The other narrative technique Faulkner used to construct his stories includes symbolism and mythological and biblical allusions.
7. What makes Mark Twain one of the giant figures in world literature? Discuss the question from the following aspects: his major works, his language, his style, etc. Answer: Mark Twain is a great literary giant of America. With works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi Twain shaped the world‘s view of America and made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done. All his masterpieces are
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based on the scenes and emotions of his boyhood and youth. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a boy‘s book specially written for the adults, is Twain‘s most representative work. These two books, especially the latter, proved to be the milestone in American literature, and thus firmly established Twain‘s position in the literary world. Huckleberry Finn marks the climax of Twain‘s literary creativity. Hemingway once described the novel the one book from which ―all modern American literature comes.‖
The language of the book is simple, direct, lucid, and faithful to the colloquial speech. The profound portrait of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution to the legacy of American literature.
Twain is also known as a local colorist who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions. He wrote about the lower-class people. He successfully used local color and historical settings to illustrate and shed light on the contemporary society. With his great mastery and effective use of vernacular, Twain has made colloquial speech an accepted respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country. His style of language influenced many later writers like Hemingway and so on. Twain‘s humor is remarkable, too. However, his humor is not only of witty remarks mocking at small things or of farcical elements making people laugh, but a king of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.
8. Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest American writers. Name two of his major novels. Try to discuss the characteristics of the heroes in Hemingway‘s novels. Answer: Hemingway‘s major novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), The Old Man and the Sea (1952) and so on.
His world is limited. He deals with a limited range of characters in quite similar circumstances and measures them against the same code, known as ―grace under pressure,‖ which is actually an attitude towards life that Hemingway had been trying to demonstrate in his works. Those who succeed in the process of seeking to master the code with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint are Hemingway Code heroes.
9. Write an essay on Walt Whitman.
Answer: Born in a working-class family, Walt Whitman tried at a variety of jobs. His rich experience in life furnishes both material and spirit for is masterpiece Leaves of Grass, Of which he devoted all his life to the creation. In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism are all that concerned him. His aim is to express some new poetical feelings and to initiate a poetic tradition in which difference should be recognized. The genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort is, according to Whitman, to behave as a supreme individualist; however, the poet‘s essential purpose is to identify his ego with the world, and more specifically with the democratic ―en-masse‖ of America, which is established in the opening lines of ―Song of Myself.‖ As Whitman saw it, poetry could play a vital part
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in the process of creating a new nation. It could enable Americans to celebrate their release from the Old World and the colonial rule. And it could also help them understand their new status and to define themselves in the new world of possibilities. Hence, the abundance of themes in his poetry voices freshness. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the ―en-masse‖ and the self as well. Some of Whitman‘s poems are politically committed. In Drum Taps, Whitman expresses much mourning for the sufferings of the young lives in the battlefield and shows a determination to carry on the fighting dauntlessly until the final victory.
To strengthen the nature of these new poetical feelings, Whitman employs brand-new means in his poetry, which is first discerned in his style and language. Whitman‘s poetical style is marked, first of all, by the use of the poetic ―I.‖ Speaking in the voice of ―I,‖ Whitman becomes all those people in his poems, and yet still remains ―Walt Whitman,‖ hence a discovery of the self in the other with such identification. Usually, the relationship Whitman is dramatizing is a triangular one: ―I‖ the poet, the subject in the poem, and ―you‖ the reader. Whitman is also radically innovative in terms of the form of his poetry. What he prefers for his new subject and new poetic feelings is ―free verse,‖ that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. Contrary to the iambic pentameter of traditional poetry, Whitman‘s is relatively simple and even rather crude. Most of the pictures he paints with words are honest, undistorted images of different aspects of American of the day. Another characteristic in Whitman‘s language is his strong tendency to use oral English. Whitman‘s vocabulary is amazing.
Walt Whitman has proved an immortal figure in American literature because he embodies a new ideal, a new world and a new life-style, and his influence over the following generations is great. Leaves of Grass has always been considered a monumental work, which demands great attention because of its uniquely poetic embodiment of American ideals of democracy and equality.
10. Analyze the symbolic significance of The Scarlet Letter.
Answer: Hawthorne is a master of symbolism. The symbol can be found everywhere in his writing, and his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter provides the most convincing proof. By using Pearl as a thematic symbol, Hawthorne emphasizes the consequence the sin of adultery has brought to the community and people living in that community. The scarlet letter A is the biggest symbol of all. As a key to the whole novel, the letter A takes on different layers of symbolic meanings as the plot develops. At first it is a token of shame ―Adultery‖, then it has been changed into ―Able‖, and finally it signifies ― Angel‖. People come up with different interpretations and they do not know which one is definite. The scarlet letter A is ambiguous and the ambiguity is one of the prominent characteristics of Hawthorne‘s art.
11. Discuss the theme in Emily Dickinson‘s poetry.
Answer: The themes of Emily Dickinson‘s poetry cover religion, death, immortality, love and nature. In some of her poems she writes about her doubt and belief about religious subjects. While she desires salvation and immortality, she denies God‘s plans
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for an after-life in paradise. Although she believes in God, she sometimes doubts His benevolence. Closely related to Dickinson‘s religious poetry are her poems concerning death and immortality. The themes rang over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death. She looks at death from the point of view of both the living and the dying. Love is another subject Dickinson dwells on. One group of her love poems depicts the suffering and frustration love can cause. The other group of love poems focuses on the physical aspect of desire, in which Dickinson deals with, allegorically, the influence of the male authorities over the female. The poet stresses the power of physical attraction and expresses a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well revealed. On the one hand, as her romantic and transcendental predecessors she believes that a mythical bond between man and nature exists and that nature reveals to man things about mankind and universe. On the other hand, she feels strongly about nature‘s indifference to life and interests of human beings. Dickinson sees nature as both benevolent and cruel.
12. Comment on Eugene O‘Neil‘s dramatic experiments.
Answer: O‘Neil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He was constantly experimenting with new styles and forms for his plays, especially during the twenties when Expressionism was in full swing. Between 1920 and 1924 came his outstanding achievements in symbolic expressionism: The Emperor Jones (1920), The Hairy Ape (1922), All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924) and Desire Under the Elms (1924). These plays are daring forays into race relations, class conflicts, sexual bondage, social critiques, and American tragedies on the Greek model. What is more, the expressionistic techniques are used in these plays to highlight the theatrical effect of the rupture between the two sides of an individual human being, the private and the public. Built on the success of the expressionistic experimentations, O‘Neil reached out to extend his mastery of the stage and worked up to the climax of his career. He concerned himself with some non-realistic forms to contain his tragic vision in a number of his plays, such as The Great God Brown (1926) and Lazarus Laughed (1927).
13. Comment on Robert Lee Frost‘s poetic style.
Answer: Robert Lee Frost has long been well known as a lyrical poet. It is difficult to classify him with the old or the new. He did not break up with the traditional rhythm and iambic pattern nor made any experiment on form. Instead, he learned from the tradition and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression. Images and metaphors in his poems are taken form the simple rural life and the pastoral landscape. Profound ideas are revealed under the disguise of the plain language and the simple form. What Frost did was to take symbols from the limited human world and the pastoral landscape to reach the universal meaning beyond the rustic scene. By using simple spoken language and conversational rhythms and treating seemingly trivial subjects, Frost achieves an effortless grace in his style. He
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combines traditional verse forms with a clear American local speech rhythm. He writes in both the metrical forms and the free verse, and sometimes he writes in a form that might be called semi-free or semi-conventional.
14. Analyze the themes in Eugene O‘Neil‘s plays.
Of all O‘Neil‘s plays, most of them are tragedies, dealing with the basic issues of human existence and plight: life and death, illusion and disillusion, alienation and communication, dream and reality, self and society, desire and frustration, etc. As a playwright, O‘Neil himself was making his lifelong endeavor to find the truth of life. In his writing, he is looking for an answer both psychologically and artistically, and his dramatic thought follows a tragic pattern running through all his plays, from a celebration of ―pipe dreams‖ to the doubt about the reality of the dream or the inevitability of the defeat. So his final dramas became ―transcendental,‖ in the way that the dramatization of man‘s endeavor in finding the meaning of life results in a tragic failure.
15．What do you think of the image of Gatsby? What does his tragedy show?
Answer: The Great Gatsby shows the realistic picture of Jazz Age. The loss of an ideal and the disillusionment are exploited fully in the personal tragedy. Gatsby is a mythical figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a state of mind that embodies America itself; Gatsby‘s failure magnifies to a great extent the end of the American dream.
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