华师自考美国文学史及选读试题

I. Multiple Choice 10’

1. Who is different from others according to the division of writing

period?

A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper 2. The American Romantic Period lasted roughly from ____ to ____. A. 1798-1832 B. 1810-1860 C. 1860-18 D. 1776-1783 3. How many syllables are there in this first line of Raven?

(“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,”)

A. 11 B. 12 C. 13 D. 16 4. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing? A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution 5. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to ____.

A. typography B. journalism C. revolution D. the development of paper-making industry

6. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”? A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer

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C. Washington Irving D. Philip Freneau

7. Who is the first American prose stylist that acquired international fame?

A. Captain John Smith B. Washington Irving C. Benjamin Franklin D. E. A. Poe 8. Who is the writer of To a Waterfowl?

A. Anne Bradstreet B. Thomas Hardy C. William Cullen Bryant D. Walt Whitman 9. Thomas Paine is a ____?

A. novelist B. dramatist C. poet D. pamphleteer 10. Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes ____ A. short stories B. literary critic theories C. poems D. dramas II. Blank-Filling 20’

1. ____’s reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written in English.

2. Hard work, ____, piety, and ____were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing, including the sermons, books and letters of such noted Puritan clergymen as John Cotton and Cotton Mather.

3. Most Puritan verse was decidedly plodding, but the work of two

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writers, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of____ 4. From 1732 to 1785, Franklin wrote and published his famous ____, an annual collection of proverbs.

5. On January 10, 1776, Paine’s famous pamphlet ____ appeared. It boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”, and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis.

6. As a poet, ____heralded American literary independence: his close observation of nature distinguished his treatment of indigenous wild life and other native American subjects.

7. The attitudes of America’s writers were shaped by their ____environment and an array of ideas inherited from the ____traditions of Europe.

8. Romantic writers placed increasing value on the ____ expression of emotion and displayed increasing attention to the ____ states of their characters.

9. Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: ____ and ____.

10. The central figure in Cooper’s Novels, ____ goes by various names of Leatherstocking, Deerslyer, Pathfinder, and Hawkeye. III. Chinese Alternation of English Literary Terms 10’

1. Puritanism 2. Romanticism

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3. Sketch Book 4. Thanatopsis

5. The Wild Honey Suckle

IV. Give a brief comment on American Crisis. 15’ V. Answer the following questions. 25’

1. What does the word “Power” in To a Waterfowl refer to? 5’ 2. What is your understanding on Helen in the poem To Helen? 3. What is the tone of Thanatopsis? 5’ 4. List some sound devices used in Raven 10’ VI. Translate this poem by E. Dickinson. 20’

There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any horses like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul!

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5’