浙江省2012年7月高等教育自学考试

　　美国文学选读试题

　　课程代码：10055

　　Part Ⅰ: Choose the relevant match from Column B for each item in Column A. (10 points in all, 1 point for each)

　　Group 1

　　Column A Column B

　　( ) 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald a. This Side of Paradise

　　( ) 2. Herman Melville b. The Sketch Book

　　( ) 3. Washington Irving c. Billy Budd

　　( ) 4. Ernest Hemingway d. A Farewell to Arms

　　( ) 5. Nathaniel Hawthorne e. The Scarlet Letter

　　Group 2

　　Column A Column B

　　( ) 1. Colonel Sartoris a. The Great Gatsby

　　( ) 2. George Hurstwood b. A Rose for Emily

　　( ) 3. Yank c. Moby Dick

　　( ) 4. Ahab d. Sister Carrie

　　( ) 5. Myrtle Wilson e. The Hairy Ape

　Part Ⅱ: Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternatives. Choose the one that would best complete the statement. (50 points in all, 2 points for each)

　　1. At the middle of the 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “______.”( )

　　A. the English Renaissance B. the American Renaissance

　　C. the New England Renaissance D. the Salem Movement

　　2. The Romantic Period in American literature started from the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s ______.( )

　　A. Tales of a Traveller B. Leaves of Grass

　　C. A History of New York D. The Scarlet Letter

　　3. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerned with ______.( )

　　A. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism

　　B. the American Puritanism

　　C. the development of Romanticism in American literature

　　D. nature, man, and the universe

　　4. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s view of man and human history originates, to a great extent, in ______.( )

　　A. Unitarianism B. Protestantism

　　C. Cathelic Church D. Puritanism

　　5. The most important feature of the American Romantic literature is ______.( )

　　A. the Harlem Renaissance B. England Transcendentalism

　　C. New England Transcendentalism D. New Transcendentalism

　　6. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered______.( )

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

　　B. an adventurous exploration into man’s relationship with nature

　　C. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe

　　D. a merely whaling tale or sea adventure

　　7. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called “______.”( )

　　A. alliteration B. blank verse

　　C. free verse D. rhymed verse

　　8. Realism is a literary movement against ______.( )

　　A. Romanticism B. Modernism

　　C. Neoclassicism D. Humanism

　　9. One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human ______.( )

　　A. “Bestiality” B. “Benignity”

　　C. “Pessimism” D. “Optimism”

　　10. Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain’s style?( )

　　A. His sentence structures are long and ungrammatical.

　　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 contemporary writers.

　11. The impact of ______ theory on American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American Naturalism. ( )

　　A. Marxist B. Henry James’

　　C. Mark Twain’s D. Darwin’s

　　12. 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

　　13. More than five hundred poems Emily Dickinson wrote are about ______, in which her general Skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.( )

　　A. man B. nature

　　C. woman D. God

　　14. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poem, “This is my letter to the World”?( )

　　A. A description of death. B. An expression of anxiety.

　　C. A description of nature. D. An expression of happiness.

　　15. Whitman was able to put forward his own set of ______ principles in Leaves of Grass.( )

　　A. natural B. poetic

　　C. aesthetic D. human

　　16. By the end of the 20th 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 Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud

　　B. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund Freud

　　C. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William James

　　D. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud

　　18. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O’Neill’s 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. Most of O’Neill’s plays are concerned about the following except ______.( )

　　A. success and failure in man’s literary career

　　B. the basic issues of human existence and predicament

　　C. alienation and communication, self and society , desire and frustration

　　D. life and death, illusion and disillusion, dream and reality

　　20. William James, an American psychologist famous for his theory of ______.( )

　　A. “stream of consciousness” B. “collective unconscious”

　　C. “archetypal symbols” D. “interpretation of dreams”

21. As to the great American poet, Ezra Pound, which of the following is not right?( )

　　A. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement.

　　B. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry is dense with personal, literary , and historical allusions.

　　C. For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he did in the wartime, his literary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced.

　　D. From his analysis of the Chinese ideogram Pound learned to anchor his poetic language in concrete, perceptual reality, and to organize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.

　　22. In poetry, ______ made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression.( )

　　A. Robert Frost B. Emily Dickinson

　　C. Ralph Emerson D. Walt Whitman

　　23. Which of the following statements is right about Robert Frost’s poetry?( )

　　A. He combined traditional verse forms with a simple spoken language—the speech of New England farmers.

　　B. He combined traditional verse forms with the experimental.

　　C. He combined traditional verse forms with the difficult and highly ornamental language.

　　D. He combined traditional verse forms with the pastoral language of the Southern area.

　　24. F. Scott Fitzgerald is viewed as a literary spokesman of the ______.( )

　　A. Blues age B. Jazz age

　　C. Rock and Roll age D. U2 age

　　25. About F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing style, which of the following is right ?( )

　　A. His diction and metaphors are partially original and details accurate.

　　B. He follows the Jamesian tradition in using the scenic method.

　　C. His intervening passages of narration leaves the tedious process of transition to the author’s imagination.

　　D. The author dropped off the device of having events observed by a “central consciousness.”

Part III: Interpretation (20 points in all)

　　Read the following selections and then answer the questions briefly.

　　Passage 1

　　All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature. We have theories of races and of functions, but scarcely yet a remote approximation to an idea of creation. We are now so far from the road to truth, that religious teachers dispute and hate each other, and speculative men are esteemed unsound and frivolous. But to a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical. Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena. Now many are thought not only unexplained but inexplicable; as language, sleep, dreams, beasts, sex.

　　Questions:

　　1. Who is the author and where is this passage taken from?

　　2. What does the author most likely indicate in the quoted passage?

　　Passage 2

　　In a Station of the Metro

　　The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

　　Petals on a wet, black bought.

　　Questions:

　　1. What kind of form is adopted in this verse?

　　2. Why is the verse interpreted as a typical example of the Imagist ideas?

　　Passage 3

　　…

　　We passed the School, where Children strove

　　At Recess—in the Ring—

　　We passed the fields of Gazing Grain—

　　We passed the Setting Sun—

　　….

　　Questions:

　　1. Identify the poet of this stanza taken from “Because I could not stop for Death.”

　　2. What do the underlined parts symbolize? Where were “we” heading toward?

　　Passage 4

　　Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

　　And sorry I could not travel both

　　And be one traveler, long I stood

　　And looked down one as far as I could

　　To where it bent in the undergrowth;

　　….

　　Questions:

　　1. What does “Road” symbolize?

　　2. What’s expressed in this stanza?

　　Part Ⅳ: Give brief answers to the following questions. (20 points in all, 12 points for the first and 8 points for the second)

　　1. Please make a comparison between Henry James’ realism and Mark Twain’s realism.

　　2. Please make a brief comment upon Hemingway Heroes.

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