2010年7月高等教育自学考试美国文学选读试题
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Part I: Choose the relevant match from column B for each item in column A.(10%)
Section A
Column A Column B
( )1.Ezra Pound a. The Marble Faun
( )2.William Faulkner b. The Ambassadors
( )3.Mark Twain c. The American Tragedy
( )4.Henry James d. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
( )5.Theodore Dreiser e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Section B
Column A Column B
( )1.Yank a. Indian Camp
( )2.Tom Sawyer b. Daisy Miller
( )3.Nick Adams c. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
( )4.Frederic Winterbourne d. The Hairy Ape
( )5.Charles Drouet e. Sister Carrie
Part Ⅱ: Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook. (10%)
1. To Hawthorne and Melville every person is a sinner and great __________is therefore
indispensable for the improvement of human nature.
2. The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as the Age of __________.
3. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American __________.
4. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general __________ about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.
5. In the history of American literature, Ezra Pound was regarded as a leading spokesman of the famous “__________ Movement”.
6. Eugene O’Neill is considered the leading __________ of the modern period in American literature.
7. Robert Frost is generally considered a regional poet. In his poetry, he made the colloquial __________ speech into a poetic expression .
8. Hemingway’s first novel The Sun Also Rises casts light on a whole generation after the __________ and the effects of the war by way of a vivid portrait of “The Lost Generation.”
9. John Steinbeck is a novelist of the 1930s. His The Grapes of Wrath is a record of the life of the dispossessed and the wretched farmers during __________.
10. Besides his volumes of poems, Pound also worked out quite a few translations, from which his affinity to the __________ and his strenuous effort in the study of Oriental literature can be seen .
Part Ⅲ: Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement. (50%)
1. Which of the following cannot be said of American literature from the early 1800s to the beginning of the Civil War?( )
A. American type of characters speaking local dialects appeared in the fiction
B. There was a stress on law and reason in literary writings of the time
C. There was faith in the value of individualism and self-reliance
D. There was a desire for an escape from civilized society and a return to the ennobling nature
2. The main philosophical concern in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally about __________.( )
A. nature, man and the universe
B. the relationship between man and woman
C. the development of Romanticism in America
D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism
3. Which of the following book was regarded as the first work that had won financial success on both sides of the Atlantic in the first half of the 19th century?( )
A. The Sketch Book B. Charles the Second
C. The Scarlet Letter D. Moby Dick
4. According to Emerson, which of the following is said of nature?( )
A. It is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God’s overwhelming presence.
B. It exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind
C. Without nature man can improve himself and become spiritually whole.
D. both A and B
5. As a man of literary craftsmanship, Hawthorne is good at __________.( )
A. exploring the complexity of human psychology, especially the power of blackness deep in people’s heart
B. exploring the goodness hidden deeply in people’s heart
C. exploring the complexity of human psychology, especially the puritans’ confusion before the real world
D. both A and C
6. As to the great novel Moby-Dick which of the following statements is right?( )
A. It is a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.
B. It’s a spiritual exploration into man’s deep reality and psychology
C. It is only a simple whaling tale or sea adventure
D. both A and B
7. The greatest realist Mark Twain has coined the term“ The Gilded Age”, which later usually refers to __________ in American history.( )
A. the Romantic Period B. the Realistic Period
C. the Modern Age D. the Postmodern Age
8. About the American Naturalism, which of the following statements is right?( )
A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories.
B. Their characteristic setting is an isolated town.
C. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.
D. none of the above
9. Mark Twain had gradually changed from __________ to __________ by the turn of the century, which could be felt in his books The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and The Mysterious Stranger.( )
A. an almost despairing pessimist ...an optimist
B. an optimist ... an almost despairing pessimist
C. a local colorist ... a naturalist
D. a naturalist ... a local colorist
10. 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. The Golden Bowl and The Gilded Age
D. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians
11. Which of the following statements is not right about the heroine in the novel Daisy Miller?( )
A. She has become a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World.
B. She comes from the new world but remains traditional and conservative.
C. Her innocence turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality in the new word.
D. The author’s sympathy for her, a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome was easily felt.
12. The subjects of Emily Dickinson’s poems are mainly about __________. ( )
A. religion B. death and immortality
C. love and nature D. all of the above
13. In her quiet and solitary life, Emily Dickinson makes enchanting poetry out of __________.( )
A. a happy and active life
B. adventurous experiences
C. a single household and an inactive life
D. a hard and suffering life
14. About the novel Sister Carrie , which of the following statements is right?( )
A. The story is about a young sailor, who struggles to reach the upper society but soon gets disillusioned.
B. It is about a Southern aristocratic woman, who refuses to come to terms with the present.
C. It tells a story of a country girl, who strives to gain her material rise in big cities but soon gets tired of her success.
D. It is about a young vain girl, who indulges herself in grand parties and luxurious trips but soon becomes penniless.
15. The Civil War had transformed America from __________ to __________.( )
A. an agrarian community ... a society of freedom and equality
B. an agrarian community ... an industrialized and commercialized society
C. an industrialized and commercialized society ... a highly developed society
D. a poor and backward society ...an industrialized and commercialized society
16. At the end of the 19th century, the realists rejected the portrayal of idealized characters and events and, instead, sought to __________.( )
A. describe the wide range of American experience
B. present the subtleties of human personality
C. show animal nature of human beings
D. both A and B
17. About the first few decades of the 20th century, which of the following is right?( )
A. There was a rise in moral standard and it was best described as a spiritual land of promise
B. Individual power and hope became part of the American experience as a result of the First World War.
C. There was a decline in social standard and it was described as a spiritual wasteland.
D. all of the above.
18. Eugene O’Neill is remembered for his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about__________. ( )
A. the root, the truth of human desires and human frustrations
B. the moral nature of the modern mankind
C. the relationship between man and nature as well as man and woman
D. the inner contradiction of men before the real world
19. In general terms, much serious American literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey __________. ( )
A. a vision of social breakdown and moral decay
B. a vision of social continuity and harmony
C. the continuity and discontinuity between the past and the modern time
D. all of the above
20. Which of the following is not said about Pound’s The Cantos?( )
A. It traces the rise and fall of eastern and western empires.
B. It reflects the moral and social chaos of the modern world.
C. It concerns particularly the corruption of America after the heroic time of Jefferson.
D. all of the above
21. In his poetic creation, Robert Frost looked upon nature as__________.( )
A. the opposite of human society
B. a storehouse of analogies and symbols
C. a contrast to human civilization
D. an ennobling force to purify human soul
22. Which of the following is not said about the thematic concerns of Robert Frost ?( )
A. The terror and tragedy in nature as well as its beauty
B. The relationship between man and society
C. His love of life and his belief in a serenity coming from working
D. The loneliness and poverty of the isolated human being
23. In the play The Hairy Ape, the major character Yank __________.( )
A. has a sense of belonging nowhere, hence homelessness and rootlessness
B. is typical of the mood of isolation and alienation in the early twentieth century in the United States only
C. reflects the problem of modern man’s identity
D. both A and C
24. Which of the following is properly said of Fitzgerald’s writing style?( )
A. The scenic method is explored, each of which consists of one or more dramatic scenes.
B. His intervening passages of narration leaves the tedious process of transition to the author’s imagination
C. The device of having events observed by a “central consciousness” is dropped off.
D. His diction and metaphors are not completely original and details sometimes inaccurate.
25. Faulkner’s first novel A Rose for Emily is set in the town of __________ in Yoknapatawpha.( )
A. Jefferson B. Cambridge
C. Oxford D. New Albany
Part Ⅳ: Interpretation(16%)
Read the following selections and then answer the questions.
Passage 1
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller , long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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 less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
1. What does the poet mean symbolically by “road”?
2. Why did the speaker choose the road less travelled by?
Passage 2
There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.
…
I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited-they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby’s door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.
I had been actually invited. A chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s-egg blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal note from his employer: the honor would be entirely Gatsby’s, it said, if I would attend his “little party” that night. He had seen me several times, and had intended to call on me long before, but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it-signed Jay Gatsby, in a majestic hand.
Dressed up in white flannels, I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill at ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know-though here and there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train. I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were at least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.
As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements, that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table-the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.
3. Which novel is this passage taken from? Who is the writer?
4.How do you interpret the atmosphere of contradiction which is evoked in this chapter?
Part V: Give brief answers to the following questions. (14%)
1. Please give a brief analysis of Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”.
2. What is American naturalism? Please make a brief analysis.
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