infinite space-all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. Questions:
1. Which work is the passage quoted from? --- Nature 2. Who is the author of the work? --- Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. How do you understand the philosophical ideas in these words? --- Ralph Waldo Emerson regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. In this connection, Emerson's emotional experiences are exemplary in more ways than one. Now this is a moment of \when one feels completely merged with the outside world, when one has completely sunk into nature and become one with it, and when the soul has gone beyond the physical limits of the body to share the omniscience of the Oversoul. In a word, the soul has completely transcended the limits of individuality and become part of the Oversoul. Emerson sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature.
Passage 14
There were careless people, Tom and Daisy ——
They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. Questions:
1. Which novel is this passage taken from? ---The Great Gatsby 2. Who is the writer of this novel? ---F· Scott Fitzgerald
3. What is the author’s attitude toward such persons as Tom and Daisy?---The author criticized them as selfish, hypocritical person.
Passage 15
Passage 4
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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. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. Questions:
1) This paragraph is taken from a famous essay. What is the name of the essay? --- Nature
2) Who is the author? --- Ralph Waldo Emerson
3) What does the author say would happen if the stars appeared one night in a thousand years? --- Then, the men cannot believe and adore the God, cannot preserve the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown.
Passage 16
Standing on the bare ground-my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space-all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. Questions:
1) Which work is this selection taken from? --- Nature.
2) How do you understand the philosophical ideas in these words? --- Ralph Waldo Emerson regards nature as the purest, and the most
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sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. Emerson sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature.
Explain the following literary terms. (5分 x 2题 = 10 分)
1. Imagism --- Imagist movement is a poetic movement that flourished in the United
States and Britain between 1909 and 1917. The outstanding leader of the movement is the American poet Ezra Pound who laid down three main principles for imagism with some other imagist poets. They are: 1) direct treatment of poetic subjects; 2) elimination of ornamental or superfluous words; and 3) the use of musical .phrases for the effect of rhythm. Imagist poems tend to be short, composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity. 2. Puritanism (清教徒主义) --- The most influential religious thought of this period
was the Puritanism which is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. Originally the Puritans were devout members of the Church of England. However, they sought to reform the religion and purify the religious rituals to lessen the authority of bishops. They believed in the \and accepted the Swiss religious reformer John Calvin's concept of \that one had to suffer and live a life of simplicity in order to be prepared for a good afterlife. During the reign of Elizabeth I , one of the sects教派 of Puritans separated from the Protestants 新教徒 and after much persecution they took refuge in the Netherlands. They finally determined to immigrate to the New World in search of religious freedom.
3. Naturalism --- Naturalism designates a literary movement in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries in France, America and England. It applies the principles of scientific determinism to fiction and drama. It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding to environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they have control and none of which they fully
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understand. Here are the major features of naturalism. (1) Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment. (2) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. (3) Naturalistic writers are pessimistic. They choose their subjects from the lower ranks of the society, and portray misery and poverty of the ―underdogs‖ who demonstrably victims of society and nature.
4. American Romanticism --- American Romanticism flourished in the first half of
the 19th century and culminated around the 1840s in what is known as \had firm faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception. They presumed that nature was a source of goodness and emphasized the importance of nature. American romanticism marks the real beginning of the American literature. American literature of this period was no longer an awkward follower of the British literature and it ceased to be a servant of religion and politics. True literary genres, novels, short stories, poems and plays, replaced the religious sermons and political statements. Answering the call for a national literature, writers concentrated on the New World to search for subject matters and themes, celebrating American farmers, the poor, the natural beauty, and the noble savages. A lot of writers were recognized as literary masters in the world.
5. Transcendentalism --- Transcendentalism was a philosophical and literary
movement that flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. It was more a tendency or an attitude than a systematic or logical philosophy. The American Transcendentalism is characterized by: (1) emphasis on intuition, the spirit or the Oversoul; (2) the stress on the importance of individualism; (3) praise of nature as a symbol of the Spirit or God;(4) belief in self-trust and self-reliance; (5) dignity of manual labor.Transcendentalists think that man can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and logic and receive directly higher truths and greater knowledge.Transcendentalism is an outgrowth from the doctrines of European idealistic philosophers and Unrtarianism. Some of its ideas are from the oriental philosophy. The most outstanding advocates of American
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