全国2014年4月自学考试英美文学选读真题

I. Multiple Choice(40 points in all, 1 for each)

Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. Mark your choice by blackening the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on the answer sheet.

1. Shakespeare has established his giant position in world literature with his ______ plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems.

A. 27 B. 38

C.47 D. 52

2. john Milton's literary achievement can be divided into three groups: the early poetic works, the middle prose pamphlets and the last ______.

A. romances B. dramas

C. great poems D. ballads

3. The novels of ______ are the first literary works devoted to the study of problems of the lower— class people.

A. John Milton B. Daniel Defoe

C. Henry Fielding D. Jonathan Swift

4. The work ranked by many critics as William Wordswoth's greatest work was ______.

A. Lyrical Ballads B. The Prelude

C. Poems in Two Volumes D. The Excursion

5. The author of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is ______.

A. Daniel Defoe B. Johathan Swift

C. Henry Fielding D. William Blake

6. The works of ______ are famous for the depiction of the life of the middle — class women, particularly governess.

A. Charlotte Bronte B. D.H. Lawrence

C. Thomas Hardy D. Jane Austen

7. All of the following writings are created by William Wordsworth EXCEPT ______.

A. 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. '

B. 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Septemer 3, 1802. '

C. 'The Solitary Reaper. '

D. 'The Chimney Sweeper. '

8. The most important representative work by Jonathan Swift is ______.

A. A Tale of a Tub B. The Battle of the Books

C. A Modest Proposal D. Gulliver's Travels

9 'If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?'comes from Shelly's ______.

A. 'To a Skylark' B. 'Adonais'

C. 'Ode to Liberty' D. 'Ode to the West Wind'

10. In Jane Austen' s first novel ______, she tells a story about two sisters and their love affairs.

A. Pride and Prejudice B. Sense and Sensibility

C. Emma D. Persuasion

11. Charles Dickens is one of the greatest ______ writers of the Victorian Age.

A. romantic B. modernist

C. socialist D. critical realist

12. Charlotte Bronte' s most autobiographical work, ______ is largely based on her experience in Brussels.

A. Jane Eyre B. Shirley

C. Villette D. The Professor

13. William Wordsworth' s theory of poetry is calling for simple themes drawn from humble life expressed in the language of ordinary people. The preface to the second edition of ______ acts as a manifesto for the new school and sets forth his own critical creed.

A. Lyrical Ballads B. The Prelude

C. Poems in Two Volums D. The Excursion

14. George Bernard Shaw' s play ______ established his position as the leading playwright of his time.

A. Widowers'Houses B. Too True to Be Good

C. Mrs. Warren' s Profession D. Candida

15. Eliot' s most important single poem ______, has been hailed as a landmark and a model of the 20th-century English poetry.

A. The Hollow Men B. The Waste Land

C. Prurrock and Other Observations D. Poems 1909-25

16. D. H.Lawrence's autobiographical novel, ______ shows the conflict between the earthy, coarse, energetic but often drunken father and the refined, strong — willed and up — climbing mother.

A. Sons and Lovers B. The White Peacock

C. The Trespasser D. The Rainbow

17. 'To be, or not to be — that is the question; /Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer./The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,/ Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,/And by opposing end them?' These words are from ______.

A. King Lear B. Romeo

C. Antonio D. Hamlet

18. John Milton's last important work, ______ is the most powerful dramatic poem on the Greek model.

A. Paradise Lost B. Paradise Regained

C. Samson Agonistes D. Lydidas

19. The author of Moll Flanders and Captain Singleton is ______.

A. John Milton B. Daniel Defoe

C. Henry Fielding D. Jonathan Swift

20. Drapier is the pseudonym of ______.

A. Jonathan Swift B. Daniel Defoe

C. Henry Fielding D. William Blake

21. One of Dickens' later works, ______ in which he presents a criticism of the governmental branches which run an indefinite procedure of management of affairs and keep the innocent in prison for life.

A. Bleak House B. Little Dorrit

C. Hard Times D. A Tale of Two Cities

22. In the second part of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver told his experience in ______.

A. Brobdingnag B. Lilliput

C. Flying Island D. Houyhnhnm

23. Faulkner used the narrative techniques to construct his stories, which include ______ and mythological and biblical allusions.

A. symbolism B. free indirect speech

C. contrast D. dialogue

24. Ernest Hemingway, had been trying to demonstrate in his works an unvarying code, known as '______,' which is actually an attitude towards life.

A. facing the reality B. grace under pressure

C. honesty with benevolence D. security coming first

25. The Blithedale Romance is a novel written by Hawthorne to reveal his own experience on the Brook Farm and his own methods as a ______ novelist.

A. naturalist B. imagist

C. psychological D. feminist

26. Theodore Dreiser' s focus shifted from the pathos of the helpless protagonists at the bottom of the society to the power of the American financial tycoons in the late 19th century in his work ______.

A. The Genius B. An American Tragedy

C. Dreiser Looks at Russia D. 'Trilogy of Desire'

27. Emily Dickinson frequently uses personae to render the tone more familiar to the reader, and ______ to vivify some abstract ideas.

A. images B. metaphor

C. symbols D. personification

28. In his later works, Melville becomes more reconciled with the ______, in which he admits, one must live by rules.

A. women B. world of man

C. family D. politicians

29. Walt Whitman' s ______ has always been considered a monumental work which commands great attention in America.

A. The Pilgrim's Progress B. Leaves of Grass

C. A Passage to India D. Rip Van Winkle

30. Mark Twain's full literary career began to blossom in 1869 with a travel book ______, an account of American tourists in Europe.

A. Innocents Abroad B. The Portrait of A Lady

C. The Grapes of Wrath D. The Great Gatsby

31. With the development of the modern novel and the common acceptance of the ______ approach, Henry James' s importance, as well as his wide influence as a novelist and critic, has been all the more conspicuous.

A. deconstruction B. romantic

C. Freudian D. analytic

32. Emily Dickinson addresses the issues that concern the whole human beings in her poems, which include religion, death, ______, love, and nature.

A. immortality B. wealth

C. power D. politics

33. In Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser expressed his ______ pursuit by expounding the purposelessness of life and attacking the conventional moral standards.

A. romantic B. realistic

C. naturalistic D. modernistic

34. Profound ideas in Robert Frost's poems are delivered under the disguise of ______.

A. the plain language and the simple form B. the vivid descriptions

C. metaphors D. the complicated narration

35. In ______ Hemingway presents his philosophy about life and death through the depiction of the bullfight as a kind of microcosmic tragedy.

A. The Green Hills of Africa B. Death in the Afternoon

C. The Snows of Kilimanjaro D. To Have and Have Not

36 Of Faulkner's literary works, four novels are masterpieces by any standards: The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom ! and ______.

A. Go Down, Moses B. The Fable

C. The Snows of Kilimanjaro D. To Have and Have Not

37. As Whitman saw it, ______ could play a vital part in the process of creating a new nation.

A. music B. fiction

C. poetry D. painting

38. In many of Hawthorne' s stories and novels, the Puritan concept of life is condemned, especially in his The house of the Seven Gables and ______.

A. Go Down, Moses B. The Scarlet Letter

C. As I Lay Dying D. Song of Myself

39. Henry James is generally regarded as the forerunner of the ______ and the founder of psychological realism.

A. 'stream-of-consciousness' novels B. metaphysical poems

C. short stories D. literary criticism

40. Generally considered to be Henry James's masterpiece, ______ incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a Europe an cultural environment.

A. The Ambassadors B. Daisy Miller

C. The American D. The Portrait of A Lady

II. Reading Comprehension (16 points in all, 4 for each)

Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.

41. Wherefore, Bees of England, forge

Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,

That these stingless drones may spoil

The forced produce of your toil?

Questions.

A. Identify the poet and the poem from which the stanza is taken.

B. What do you know about the poem' s writing background?

C. What do you think the poet intends to say in the poem?

42. Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half -deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

(The lines above are taken from 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T. S Eliot. )

Questions..

A. What does the poem present?

B. What form is the poem composed in?

C. What does the poem suggest?

43. My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.

Questions.

A. Identify the poet and the title of the poem from which the above lines are taken.

B. What experience does the poem describe?

C. What are the feelings of the speaker?

44. This is my letter to the World

That never wrote to Me —

The simple News that Nature told —

With tender Majesty

Questions.

A. Identify the poet.

B. What idea does the poem express?

C. Why does the poet use dashes and capital letters in the poem?

III. Questions and Answers (24 points in all, 6 for each)

Give a brief answer to each of the following questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.

45. What are the features of George Bernard Shaw's characterization in his plays?

46. Briefly introduce Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

47. Why does Sister Carrie best embody Dreiser' s naturalistic belief?

48. Briefly state Mark Twain' s magic power with language in his novels.

IV. Topic Discussion(20 points in all, 10 for each)

Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.

49. Why is Jane Eyre a successful novel? Give a brief analysis of the theme and charaterization of the novel.

50. A Rose for Emily is one of Faulkner' s short stories. Discuss the character of Emily Grierson and how this character is depicted.