美国文学一期末复习题

美国文学一期末复习资料

I. Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement.

1. For Melville, as well as for the reader and _________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe. A. Ahab B. Ishmael C. Stubb D. Starbuck

8. Stylistically, Henry James? fiction is characterized by____________.

A. short, clear sentences B. abundance of local images C. ordinary American speech D. highly refined language

9. One of the characteristics that have made Mark Twain a major literary figure in the 19th century America is his use of____________ .

A. vernacular B. interior monologue C. point of view D. photographic description

10. It is on his____________ that Washington Irving?s fame mainly rested. A. childhood recollections B. sketches about his European tours C. early poetry D. tales about America

11. At the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “____________________”.

A. the English Renaissance B. the Second Renaissance C. the American Renaissance D. the Salem Renaissance

12. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ____________________. A. nature, man and the universe

B. the relationship between man and woman

C. the development of Romanticism in American literature D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism

13. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is NOT right?

A. It?s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.

B. It?s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.

C. It?s mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin

upon the main characters and the people in general.

D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel. 14. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered____________. A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.

B. an adventurous exploration into man?s relationship with nature C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure

D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty

15. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called “____________________.” A. free verse B. blank verse

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C. alliteration D. end rhyming

16. After the Civil War America was transformed from ______ to _________. A. an agrarian community ? an industrialized and commercialized society B. an agrarian community ? a society of freedom and equality

C. a poor and backward society ? an industrialized and commercialized society

D. an industrialized and commercialized society ? a highly developed society 18. Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain?s style of language? A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read. B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.

C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced

exaggeration， repetition and anti-climax.

D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers.

20. Which of the following is not written by Henry James? A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans. B. The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors. C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians.

D. The Genius and The Gilded Age.

21. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general Skepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed. A. man and man B. men and women

C. man and nature D. men and God

22. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson?s poems about nature? A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between

man and nature.

B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond

between man and nature.

C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings. D. Many of them showed her feeling of nature?s inscrutability and indifference to

the life and interests of human beings.

23. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an

unconventional style which is now called free verse, that is _________. A. lyrical poetry with chanting refrains

B. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme

C. poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beat

D. poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings 37. Which of the following is not a work of Nathaniel Hawthorne?s? A. The House of the Seven Gables. B. The Blithedale Romance. C. The Marble Faun. D. White Jacket.

38. In Hawthorne?s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as ______________.

A. commentators B. observers C. villains D. saviors

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39. Besides sketches, tales and essays, Washington Irving also published a book on ______, which is also considered an important part of his creative writing. A. poetic theory B. French art

C. history of New York D. life of George Washington 41. In American literature, escaping from the society and returning to nature is a common subject. The following titles are all related, in one way or another, to the subject except _________.

A. Mark Twain?s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn B. Dreiser?s Sister Carrie

C. Copper?s Leather-Stocking Tales D. Thoreau?s Walden

43. Emily Dickinson wrote many short poems on various aspects of life. Which of the following is not a usual subject of her poetic expression?

A. Religion. B. Life and death. C. Love and marriage. D. War and peace.

44. In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled _______ at Harvard, which was hailed by Oliver Wendell Holmes as \intellectual Declaration of Independence.\

A. \ B. \

C. \ D. \

46. In American literature the first important writer who earned an international fame on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is_______________. A. Washington Irving B. Ralph Waldo Emerson C. Nathaniel Hawthorne D. Walt Whitman

47. The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his“black vision．”The Term “black vision” refers to______________.

A. Hawthorne's observation that every man faces a black Wall B. Hawthorne's belief that all men are by nature evil

C. that Hawthorne employed a dream vision to tell his story

D. that Puritans of Hawthorne's time usually wore black clothes

52. Though Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were romantic poets in theme and technique, they differ from each other in a variety of ways. For one thing, whereas

Whitman likes to keep his eye on human Society at large, Dickinson often addresses such issues as_______, immortality, religion, love and nature. A. progress B. freedom C. beauty D. death

53. The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the_______

in the American literary history．

A. individual feeling B. survival of the fittest

C. strong imagination D. return to nature

55. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the literary scene, ______became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19th

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century．

A. Sentimentalism B. Romanticism C. Realism D. Naturalism

57. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely Characters in_______.

A. The House of the Seven Gables B. The Scarlet Letter C. The Portrait of a Lady D. The pioneers

58. In his realistic fiction, Henry James's primary concern is to present the_________. A. inner life of human beings B. American Civil War and its effects C. life on the Mississippi River D. Calvinistic view of original Sin

60. Which of the following is NOT the virtue that Franklin enumerated in his The Autobiography?

A. Temperance B. Humanity (Humility) C. Frugality D. Immoderation

61. American Romanticism stretches from the end of the ________ century through the outbreak of ______.

A. 18th, the Civil War B. 18th, the War of Independence C. 19th, WWI D. 19th, WWII

62. _________ believes that the chief aim of literary creation is beauty, and “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” A. Walt Whitman B. Edgar Allen Poe

C. Anne Bradstreet D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

63. In Emily Dickinson?s Because I Could Not Stop for Death, ______________. A. death is personified as a devil

B. death is described as the tragic end of a person?s life

C. death is a stage of life and it leads people to the Heaven of immortality D. death is described as a beautiful girl who couldn?t find her final destination 64. Which is generally regarded as the manifesto and the Bible of American Transcendentalism?

A. Thoreau?s Walden B. Emerson?s Nature C. Poe?s Poetic Principle D. Thoreau?s Nature

65. Henry David Thoreau?s work, ________, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of the New England Transcendental Movement. A. Walden B. The Pioneers

C. Nature D. \

66. ?Leaves of Grass? commands great attention because of its uniquely poetic embodiment of________, which are written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War.

A. the democratic ideals B. the romantic ideals C. the self-reliance spirits D. the religious ideals 67. ________is the author of the work “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. A. Washington Irving B. James Joyce

C. Walt Whitman D. William Butler Yeats

68. After \The Adventure of Tom Sawyer\Twain gives a literary independence to

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Tom?s buddy Huck in a book called_________, and the book from which \American literature comes\

A. Life on the Mississippi River B. The Gilded Age C. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn D. The Sun Also Rises 69. The greatest work written by Theodore Dreiser is__________.

A. Sister Carrie B. An American Tragedy C. The Financier D. The Titan

70. We can perhaps summarize that Walt Whitman?s poems are characterized by all the following features except that they are _______________. A. conversational and crude B. lyrical and well-structured C. simple and rather crude D. free-flowing

72. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his ____.

A. international theme B. waste-land imagery C. local color D. symbolism

74. Most of Herman Melville?s novels are based on sea voyages and sea adventures. Which of the following is not the case?

A. Typee. B. Moby-Dick.

C. Omoo. D. The Confidence-Man

75. In Henry James? Daisy Miller, the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment of _______________.

A. the force of convention B. the free spirit of the New World C. the decline of aristocracy D. the corruption of the newly rich

77. The Transcendentalists believe that, first, nature is ennobling, and second, the individual is ____________.

A. insignificant B. vicious by nature C. divine D. forward-looking

78. The Publication of ______established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.

A. Nature B. Self-Reliance C. The American Scholar D. The Over-Soul Explain the following literary terms. 2. American Transcendentalism

New England Transcendentalism was, in essence, romantic idealism on Puritan soil. It was a system of thought that originated from three sources. First William Ellery Channing (1780---1842) was an American Unitarian clergyman. His Unitarianism represented a thoughtful revolt against orthodox Puritanism. Unitarianism believed God as one being, rejecting the doctrine of trinity, stressing the tolerance of difference in religious opinion, and giving each congregation the free control of its own affairs and its independent authority. It laid the foundation for the central doctrines of transcendentalism. Secondly, the idealistic philosophy from France and Germany exerted enormous impact on American intellectuals. Thirdly, oriental mysticism as

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