英美文学史练习题和复习资料4

4. The Victorian Period

Multiple-choice questions

1. In Hard Times, Dickens attacks ______ that rules over the English educational system and destroys young hearts and minds.

A. bourgeois commercialism

B. religious hypocrisy

C. the utilitarian principle

D. political corruptness

2. ______ is the first important governess novel in the English literary history.

A. Jane Eyre B. Emma C. Wuthering Height D. Middlemarch

3. Which of the following best describe the nature of Hardy s later novels?

A. Sentimentalism B. Surrealism

C. Comic sense D. Tragic sense

4. ______ is the most representative Victorian poet whose poetry voices the doubt and the faith, the grief and the joy of English people in an age of fast change.

A. Robert Browning B. Alfred Tennyson

C. George G. Byron D. Thomas Hardy

5. Which of the following statements is not a typical feature of Charles Dickens?

A. He sets out a large-scale criticism of the inhuman social institutions and the decaying social morality.

B. His works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.

C. The characters portrayed by Dickens are often larger than life.

D. He shows a human being not at moments of crisis, but in the most trivial incidents of everyday life.

6. “As for society, he was carried every other day into the hall where the boys dined, and there socially flogged as a public warning and example.” What figure of speech is used in the above sentence?

A. Simile B. Metaphor C. Irony D. Overstatement

7. “I will drink/ life to the lees.” In the quoted line Ulysses is saying that he ______ till the end of his life.

A. will keep travelling and exploring

B. will go on drinking and being happy

C. would like to toast to his glorious life

D. would like t drink the cup of wine

8. “She smiled, no doubt,/ Whene er I passed her…/ … This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” The quoted lines imply that she ______.

A. obeyed his order and stopped smiling at everyday, including the duke.

B. obeyed his order and stopped smiling at anybody except the duke.

C. Refused to obey the order and never smiled again

D. was murdered at the order of duke

9. A contemporary of Alfred Tennyson, ______ is acknowledged by many as the most original and experimental poet of the time.

A. Thomas Carlyle B. Thomas B. Macaulay

C. Robert Browning D. T. S. Eliot

10. Most of Hardy s novels are set in ______, the fictional primitive and crude rural region that is really the home place he both loves and hates.

A. Yorkshire B. Wessex C. London D. Manchester

11. “The floating pollen seemed to be his notes made visible, and the dampness of the garden the weeping of the garden s sensibility.” The quoted sentence is suggestive of ______.

A. the richness of the music in the garden

B. the beauty of the scenery in the garden

C. the great power of the music in affecting the environment

D. the harmony and oneness of the music, the garden and the heroine Tess.

12. In the statement “---Oh, God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?” the term “soul” apparently refers to ______.

A. Heathcliff himself B. Catherine

C. one s spiritual life D. one s ghost

13. “I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in --- with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind.” Here in the quoted passage, Jane is

really saying that she has talked face to face with ______.

A. God who appears in her dreams

B. The reverent priest

C. Mr. Rochester

D. Miss Ingram

14. In the clause “As Mr. Gamfield did happen to labor under the slight imputation of having bruised three or four boys to death already…” , the word “slight” is used as a(n) ______.

A. simile B. metaphor C. irony D. overstatement

15. Dickens takes the French Revolution as the background of the novel ______.

A. Great Expectations B. A Tale of Two Cities

C. Bleak House D. Oliver Twist

16. The Victorian Age was largely an age of _____, eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.

A. poetry B. drama C. prose D. epic prose

17. The title of Alfred Tennyson s poem “Ulysses” reminds the reader of the following except ______.

A. the Trojan War B. Homer C. quest D. Chirst

18. The character Rochester in Jane Eyre can be well termed as a ______.

A. conventional hero B. Byronic hero

C. chivalrous aristocrat D. Homeric hero

19. Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield and Sam Well in Pickwick Paper are perhaps the best ______ characters created by Charles Dickens.

A. comical B. tragic C. round D. sophisticated

20. The typical feature of Robert Browning s poetry is the ______.

A. bitter satire B. larger-than-life caricature

C. Latinized diction D. dramatic monologue

21. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy resolutely makes a seduced girl his heroine, which clearly demonstrates the author s ______ of the Victorian moral standards.

A. blind fondness B. total acceptance

C. deep understanding D. mounting defiance

22. In Hardy s Tess of the D’urbervilles, the heroine s tragic ending is due to ______.

A. her weak character B. her ambition

C. Angel Clare s selfishness D. a hostile society

23. “The dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life” are the right words to sum up the main theme of _____.

A. David Copperfield B. A Tale of Two Cities

C. Oliver Twist D. Bleak House

24. “For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board.”

In the above passage quoted from Oliver Twist, Dickens uses the words “wisdom” and “mercy” ______.

A. ironically B. carelessly C. nonchalantly D. impartially

25. “…and then how they met I hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he caught her, and they were locked in an embrace…” In the quoted passage, Emily Bronte tells the story in ______ point of view.

A. first person B. second person

C. third person limited D. third person omniscient

Blank filling

1. Dickens best-depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, helpless those horrible and grotesque characters and those broadly

2. Charlotte Bronte s works are famous for the depiction of the life of the 3. Wuthering Heights4. many as the most original and experimental poet of the time.

5. _Tennyson s greatest work, is presumably an elegy on the death of a dear friend.

6. In her study of human life, George Eliot paid particular attention to the 7. see the influence from both the past and the present, both the traditional and the modern.

8. The major novelists of the Victorian period made bitter and strong the inhuman social institutions and the decaying social morality.

9. The Victorian Age in English literature was largely an age of prose, especially o 10. The typical feature of Robert Browning

Reading comprehension

(for each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.)

1. “Let it not be supposed by the enemies of the system , that during the period of his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation.”

Reference：The sentence is taken from Charles Dickens early novel, Oliver Twist. It is a typical example of irony. The word “benefit”, “pleasure”, and “advantage” actually mean the opposite. For the “benefit” of exercise, Oliver was whipped every morning in a stone yard; for the “pleasure” of society, he was carried every other day into the dinning hall and flogged as a public warning and example to the boys; and as for the “advantages” of religious consolation, he was kicked into the same apartment every evening at prayer time and listen to the boy s prayer to be guarded against his sins and vices. The ironic statement is, in fact, a bitter denunciation and fierce attack at the brutal, inhuman treatment of the poor orphan by the workhouse authority.

2. “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? --- You think wrong!--- I have as much soul as you--- and full as much

heart… I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh;---it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God s feet, equal--- as we are!”

Reference: The statement is taken from Charlotte Bronte s masterpiece Jane Eyre. In this famous declaration, Jane proves herself a new, unconventional woman, a woman who believes in the basic human rights, in the independence and equality of people of all social classes. She is courageous enough to defy the social conventions that discriminate against the poor and the unfortunate and deprive them of their right to equality. It is not just a personal protest and declaration a governess makes to her master, but a declaration made on behalf of all the unfortunate middle-class working women, and of all the poor people in the world.

3. “He flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel as if I were in the company of a creature of my own species…”

Reference: The sentences are taken from Emily Bronte s Wuthering Heights. It is a description of the mad, desperate love between Catherine and Heathcliff in her death scene. Heathcliff, seeing his love on the verge of death, was heart-broken. Though they two tortured each other with many a false charge, they were eager to cling to each other at this last moment. Heathcliff, in his eagerness to have her all to himself, now behaved like an animal greedily and jealously guarding his dear one or treasured prey. The terms “gnashed” and “foamed”, simple action words, vividly presents the image of a man desperate in his desire to take possession of his beloved and in his anxiety that someone would come and take her away from him.

4. “Tho / We are not now that strength which in old days/ Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;/ One equal temper of heroic hearts,/ Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to speak, to find, and not to yield.”

Reference: These lines are taken from Alfred Tennyson s “Ulysses”. In this poem, the old Ulysses is trying to persuade his old followers into setting upon further adventure

with him again. in these lines, he argues that great strength they used to have in their past glorious days, they still have the same strong will and the same heroic spirit to go on struggling and seeking new knowledge until the end of their life. his undying heroic spirit is admirable, indeed.

5. “I repeat,/ The Count your master s known munificence/ Is ample warrant that no just pretense/ Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; / Though his fair daughter s self, as I avowed/ As starting, is my object.”

Reference: These lines are taken from Robert Browning s “My Last Duchess”. The main idea is that even though, as I said at the very beginning, my real interest in the marriage is his beautiful daughter (it should be his niece) herself, my claim of the money and property that must come with the bride can t be refused by your master, the Count, because he is such a rich man. The statement reveals the Duke s unashamed greediness for wealth. From his word, the reader can easily come to the conclusion that his real purpose of the second marriage is not for love, but for money. The marriage is conditioned by his demand for profit. The sacred marriage between people has been commercialized by him.

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