英语专业考研、专八英美文学习题集锦

英语专业考研、专八英美文学习题集锦
Chapter I An Introduction to Old and Medieval English Literature & The Renaissance Period 
I. Choose the right answer:
1. Dr. Faustus is a play based on the _____legend of a magician aspiring for ____ and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil.
A.British/ immoralityB.French/moneyC.German/knowledgeD.American/political power
Answer: C (可参考课本P21)
2. _____, is a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.
A.The Wife’s Complaint B.BeowulfC.The Dream of the RoodD.The Seafarer
Answer: B (可参考课本P1)
3.It’s Chaucer alone who, for the first time in English literature, presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English Society in his masterpiece__________.
A.The Canterbury TalesB.The Legend of Good WomenC.Troilus and CriseydeD. The Romaunt of the Rose.
Answer: A (可参考课本P4)
4. The Essence of Renaissance, the most significant intellectual movement, was_____.
A. Geographical explorationB. Religious reformationC. Publishing and translationD. Humanism.
Answer: D (可参考课本P8)
5. “Prince Arthur’s greatest mission is his search for Gloriana, with whom he has fallen in love through a love vision.”The two figures come from_____.
A.Paradise Lost B.Dr. FaustusC.The Faerie QueeneD.Hamlet
Answer: C (可参考课本P13)
6. In “Sonnet 18”, Shakespeare_________________.
A.Meditate on the destructive power of time and eternal beauty by poetry.
B.Satirize human’s vanity.C.Predict the eternity of love.D.Eulogize the power of the beauty.
Answer: A (P37)
7. ____ gave new vigor to the blank verse with his “mighty lines” and make ’blank verse’ the principle vehicle of expression in drama.
A.Surrey B.WyattC.MarloweD.Sidney
Answer: C (P21)
8. Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are the following works except____.
A.HamletB.King LearC.Romeo and JulietD.Othello
Answer: C (P33)
9. The Renaissance refers to between 14th----mid-17th century, which was under the reign of Queen___and absolute monarchy in England reached its summit, and in which the ’real mainstream (真正的文学主流)’ was ____.
A.Victoria/poetry B.Elizabeth/ drama C.Mary/ novel D.James/ drama
Answer: B (P11)
10. In The Legend of Good Women, Chaucer used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter, which is to be called later____.
A.The Spenserian stanza B.The heroic couplet C.The blank verse D.The free verse
Answer: B (P5) 
11. The Redcrosse Knight in “The Faerie Queene” stands for_____, and Una stands for_____.
A.bravery/ chastity B.holiness/ truth C.error/ delivery  D.true gentleman/ lady. 
Answer: B (P16) 
12. Which of the following is NOT regarded as one of the characteristics of Renaissance?
A.Rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture.
B.Attempt to remove the old feudalist ideas in Medieval Europe.
C.Exaltation of man’s pursuit of happiness in his life, and tolerance of man’s foibles.
D.Praise of man’s efforts in soul delivery and personal salvation.
Answer: D (P7) 
13. “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” is an example of ______.
A.Metaphor B.Simile C.Irony D.Personification
Answer: A (P55)
14. _____ introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England.
A.Anglos/ Saxons B.Normans/ Anglo-Saxons C.Greeks/ Romans D.Romans/ Normans
Answer: B (P11) 
15. It is ___ alone who, for the first time in English literature presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life.
A.Edmund Spenser B.Geoffrey Chaucer C.William Shakespeare D.John Donne
Answer: B (P4)
16. The following belong to the characteristics of ’metaphysical poetry’ represented by ’John Donne’ except___.
A.Conceits B.Actual imagery and simple diction C.Argumentative form D.Elegant style
Answer: D (P63)
17. Paradise Lost is actually a story taken from____.
A.Greek Mythology B.Roman legend C.The Old Testament D.The New Testament
Answer: C (P73) 
18. In “Paradise Lost”, Satan says “We may with more successful hope resolve/ To wage by force or guile eternal war, / Irreconcilable to our grand Foe” What does the “Eternal war” mean?
A.To remove God from his throne B.To burn the Heaven Down
C.To corrupt God’s creation of man and woman-----Adam and Eve D.To beguile into a snake to threaten man’s life
Answer: C (P71, 节选部分在P75)
19. _____, the first of the great tragedies, is generally regarded as Shakespeare’s most popular play on the stage, for it has the qualities of a “blood-and-thunder” thriller and a ’philosophical exploration’ of life and death.
A.The Merchant of Venice B.Hamlet C.King Lear D.The Winter’s Tale
Answer: B (P33) 
20. It was ___and ___ the two conquests that provided the source for the rise and growth of English literature.
A.Anglos/ Saxons B.Normans/ Anglo-Saxons C.Romans/ Normans D.Greeks/ Romans
Answer: B (P1)
21. Paradise Lost is ___’s masterpiece, which is an epic in 12 books, written in blank verse, about the heroic revolt of Satan against God’s authority.
A.John Donne B.Christopher Marlowe C.John Milton D.Edmund Spenser
Answer: C (P71) 
22. The following description fit into Milton ’except’_____.
A.a great revolutionary poet of the 17th century B.an outstanding political pamphleteer
C.a great stylist and master of blank verse D.a kind of elegant and refine style.
Answer: D (P70---73) 
23. _____is not written by John Milton.
A.Samson Agonistes B.Paradise Lost C.Paradise regained D.Tamburlaine
Answer: D (P71)
24. Marlow’s greatest achievement is that he perfected the ’blank verse’, and he is regarded as ’the pioneer of English drama’, which of the following is not written by him?
A.Tamburlaine B.The Jew of Malta C.The Passionate to His Love D.The Sun Rising
Answer: D (P20) 
25. ____Essays is the first example of that genre in English literature, which has been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English prose.
A.John Milton’s B.Francis Bacon’s C.Montaigne’sD.Thomas Gray’s
Answer: B (P58) 
26. _____Was known as “the poets’ poet”.
A.William ShakespeareB.Edmund Spenser C.John Donne D.John Milton
Answer: B (P15)
27. “And we will make thee beds of roses / And a thousand fragrant posies/ A cap of flowers, and a kirtle/ Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.” The above lines are probably taken from______.
A.Spenser’s The Faerie Queene B.John Donne’s The Sun Rising
C.Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 D.Marlow’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.
Answer: D (P28) 
28. Which of the following statement best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18?
A.The speaker eulogizes the power of Nature. B.The speaker satirizes human vanity.
C.The speaker praises the power of artistic creation. D.The speaker meditates on man’s salvation. 
Answer: C (P37)
II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1.“For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom. It is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty; from which ling’ring penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off” 

1.Identify the title of the works and author.
2.Explain “from which…cut me off”.
3.What happened to him, which caused the words?

参考答案:
The lines are from “The Merchant of Venice”, 
William Shakespeare. (P48)
2) This sentence means she, ’Lady Fortune(命运女神)’, is more kind to him because she is taking away both his wealth and life.
3) The speaker is Antonio, it’s said that his ship have all been lost, and he is penniless, and will have to pay the pound of flesh. (Because Shylock has made a strange bond that requires Antonio to pay him a pound of flesh if he can’t repay him the money that he borrowed for his friend in due time.) (P38)

2.“Read not to contract and confuse, not to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider”
1)Identify the work and author.
2)What idea does the passage express?

参考答案：
1) The sentence comes from “Of Studies” written by ’Francis Bacon’. (P61)
2) The Sentence talks about the proper way to read: When you read, don’t be puzzled by the content of the book; don’t take it for granted; don’t quote too much from the book; before accepting its idea, you’d better think about its shortcomings and consider it from all sides.
3.“ Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
1) Where does the poem comes from? Who wrote it?
What does “eternal lines” mean?Interpret it briefly.

参考答案：1) The poem is “ Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day”, by Shakespeare. (P38)
2) Eternal lines means the lines of the poem and other sonnets. (P38) 
3) It means: you will not lose your beauty, and death will not threaten you with darkness, either. As long as man can live in the world, they will see your beauty in my lines of my poem, which has given you eternal life. (Or A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever. (P37)

4.“… All is no lost: the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?……
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe”
1) Please identify the poem and the poet.
2) Interpret“all is not lost”.
3) What does the whole passage mean?
参考答案：1) It is taken from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”.(P74)
2) “all is not lost” is the word from Satan----Satan and other angels rebel against God, but they are driven from Heaven into hell. In the fire of the hell, Satan is determined to fight back, just like what he says: not all is lost, the unconquerable will, the deep hatred, and the courage to fight till death still remain. (P71)
3) This passage shows Satan’s will not to submit (服从), and the desire to long for freedom; to beg God for mercy and worship his power is more shameful and disgraceful than the downfall.(P71)
5.“If he be not apt to beat over matters, let him study the lawyer’s cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.”
Questions: 3)What does “beat over matters” mean?
4)What does “receipt’ refer to?
5)From which essay does the above sentences come, what is the essay mainly about?
参考答案：1)It means: make through examinations of things. (P63)
2)“Receipt” refers to cure, prescription. (P63)
3)The sentences are from “Of Studies” (Francis Bacon). It is the most popular of bacon’s essays. It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and how studies exert influence over human character. (P60—61) 
6.“What, is great Mephistophilis to passionate 
For being deprived of the joys of heaven? 
Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude
And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.
……
Say he will spare him Four and twenty years
Letting him live in all voluptuousness
Having thee ever to attend on me…
Questions:
1)Identify the passage and author;
2)“Say he surrenders up to him his soul”, who will surrender his soul? What for?
3)Who are thee? What will he do?
参考答案：
1) The passage comes from “Dr.Faustus” written by Christopher Marlowe. (P25—26)
2) Dr.Faustus will surrender his soul to devil. Because he was a great scholar who has a strong desire to ’get knowledge’ in vain, finally he ’made a bond’ to sell his soul to Devil in return for 24 years of life in which he may get anything he desires. (P22)
3) The “thee”, refers to “Mephistophilis”, the Devil’s servant. 
He helped Dr.Faustus to do anything he wants. (P22) 
7.“Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why does thou thus,
Through windows and through curtains call on us?”
Questions: 
6)Identify the work and author.
7)What idea does the passage express?
参考答案:
1)The passage comes from “The Sun Rising”, written by ’John Donne’. (P66) 
2) The speaker questions the sun’s authority and speaks condescendingly, placing the sun in the status of a subordinate. In the lover’s kingdom, the sun has no right to dictate the time of day or the passing of seasons. His presence in their bedchamber is an intrusion on their privacy. 

III. Questions and answers:
1.How do you know about Renaissance? Give a summery about English literature in the period? 
参考答案:
1.The Renaissance refers to the period between 14th----mid-17th century. It first started in Italy.
2.The Renaissance means rebirth or revival----the discovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture.
3.In essence, The Renaissance is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars tried to get rid of the old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie/middle class, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of Roman Catholic church.
4.Humanism is the essence of Renaissance -----Man is the measure of all things. The humanism exalted/praised human nature and emphasized the dignity of human beings and the present life. They thought man had the right to enjoy the beauty of life and had the ability to perfect himself and made wonders, which got ready for the appearance of the great Elizabethan writers in Britain. Poetry and drama were the most outstanding literary forms.
5.Shakespeare, Marlowe and Francis Bacon etc. were the remarkable representatives of the English Renaissance.
(可参考课本P7---12)

2. Please give a brief analysis of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy (独白).
参考答案:
“To be or not to be” is ’a philosophical exploration of life and death’. The soliloquy condemned the hypocrisy and treachery and general corruption of the world, and revealed the character of Hamlet---so ’speculative, questioning, contemplative and melancholy./gloomy’. It was not because he was not able to take action to revenge, but because of his ’hesitative/hesitant character’, when the chance for action came, it seemed defeat. 

It can be interpreted as: Hamlet bears the heavy burden of the duty to revenge his father’s death, he is forced to live in the suspense of facts and fiction, language and action. He considers that it would be better to ’commit suicide’, but being scared of what might happen to him in the afterlife. So he put off the thing because of the sin. He considers the plan carefully only to find reason for not carrying it out. The soliloquy conveys ’the sense of world-weariness (厌世)’ . (P33-34)

3. What common features do the characters share in Marlow’s works? (No more than 150 words) 
参考答案:
The creation of The Renaissance hero is one of Marlow’s contributions. 
1)Such a hero is always individualistic and full of ambition, facing bravely the challenge from god and men. They had human dignity and capacity, trying to get heaven/highest ideas on the earth by their own efforts.
2)For example: Tamburlaine is a character written by Marlowe. By depicting a great hero with high ambition and sheer brutal forc4e in conquering, Marlowe voiced the supreme desire of man for infinite/ limitless power and authority. In Dr.Faustus, Marlowe celebrated the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness.
3) Tamburlaine and Dr.Faustus are typical in owning such Renaissance spirit, Tamburlaine, being a cruel conquer, found happiness in conquering other kingdom. Only death could defeat him. While Dr.Faustus, a more introspective and philosophical figure, had high spirit for knowledge but he had sin for having despair in God and trust in Devil. (P20—22)

4. What are the main themes of Shakespeare’s plays?
参考答案：
Shakespeare’s plays are divided into 3 types: comedies, tragedies and historical plays.
1) His historical plays are with the theme-----national unity under a might and just sovereign/ruler is necessary.
2)In his romantic comedies, he takes an optimistic attitude toward love friendship and youth.
3)In his tragedies, Shakespeare always portrays some noble heroes, who faces the injustice of life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of his nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature. We also see the conflict between the individual and the evil force in the society. And his major characters are always individuals representing certain types.

5. Please comment on the character of Satan in “Paradise Lost.”
参考答案：
Satan is a rebellious (叛逆的) figure against God in literature, defeated, he and his rebel angels were cast into hell. However, Satan refused to accept his failure, swearing that “all was not lost” and that he would revenge for his downfall. The freedom of the will is the keystone of Satan’s character, which was the important spirit of the rising middle class. While he tempted Adam and Eve, which proved his evilness. 

6. What are the characteristics of the Humanism?
参考答案：1)’Humanism’ is the essence of Renaissance.
2)Humanists see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise (轻视) but to ’question, explore, and enjoy’.
3)They also believe that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders (创造奇迹). (P8)

Chapter 2 The Neoclassical Period 
I. Choose the right answer:
1. ____brings Henry Fielding the name of the "Prose Homer".
A.The Pilgrim’s Progress B.Tom Jones C.Robison Crusoe D.Colonel JackAnswer: B (P122) 
2. Alexander Pope worked painstakingly on his poems 
and finally brought to its last perfection ______Dryden 
had successfully used in his plays.
A.the heroic couplet B.the free verse C.the blank verse D.the Spenserian stanza
Answer: A (P92) 
3. Of all the 18th century novelists ___was the first to set out,
both in theory and practice, to write specially a "comic epic in prose."
A.Henry Fielding B.Daniel Defoe C.Jonathan Swift D.John Bunyan
Answer: A (P120)
4. ____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language.
A.Genesis A B.The Holy War C.The Pilgrims progress D.Exodus
Answer: C (P85) 
5. In which of the following works can you find the proper names 
"Lilliput", "Brobdingnag", "Houyhnhnm" and "Yahoo"?
A.The Pilgrim’s ProgressB.The Faririe Queene C.Gulliver’s travels D.The School of Scandel
Answer: C (P108) 
6. "As shades more sweetly recommend the light,
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit;
For works may have more wit than does’em good
As bodies perish through excess of blood."
In the above lines, Pope tries to sat that_______.
A.more wit will make better poetry B.plainness is more important than wit in poetry
C.too much wit will destroy good poetry D.plainness will make wit dull
Answer: C (P93-94)
7. The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope is written in the form of a mock______, which describes the triviality of high society in a grand style.
A.epic B.elegy C.sonnet D.ode
Answer: A (P92)

8. Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of Samuel Johnson’s language style? 
A.His sentences are long and well structured. B.His sentences are interwoven with parallel words.
C.He tends to use informal and colloquial words. 
D.His sentences are complicated, but his thoughts are clearly expressed. 
Answer: C (P132)
9. "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
In the above quoted passage, Thomas Gray intends to say that great family, power, beauty and wealth___________.
A.will never make people lead to the same destination----paths of glory.
B.will inevitably make people realize their glorious dreams
C.are the very best things to lead people to their glories
D.will never prevent people from reaching their final destination---grave. 
Answer: D (P154)
10. ____has been regarded by some as "Father of the English novel" for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel. 
A.John Bunyan B.Henry Fielding C.Daniel Defoe D.Johnathan Swift
Answer: B (P121)
11. ____was very much concerned with the theme of the vanity  of human wishes and tried to awaken men to this folly and hoped to cure them of it through his writing.
A.Samuel Johnson B.Jonathan Swift C.Richard Brinsley Sheridan D.Thomas Gray
Answer: A (P132) 
12. ____was the only important dramatist of the 18th century, in his plays, morality is the constant theme. 
A.Alexander Pope B.Richard Brinsley Sheridan C.Samuel Johnson D.George Bernard Shaw
Answer: B (P136) 
13. As the representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce___to England.
A.Rationalism B.Criticism C.Romanticism D.Realism
Answer: A (P91) 
14. The Rivals and ____are generally regarded as important links between the masterpiece of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw. 
A.The School for Scandal B.The Duenna C.Widower’s Houses D.The Doctor’s Dilemma
Answer: A (P137) 
15. ____is a sharp satire on the moral degeneracy(道德沦丧) of the aristocratic-bourgeois society in the 18th century England.
A.The Rivals B.Gulliver’s Travels C.Toms Jones D.The School for Scandal
Answer: D (P138) 
16. The poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray is regarded as the most representative work of _____.
A.The Metaphysical School B.The Graveyard School C.The Gothic School D.The Romantic School
Answer: B (P152) 
17. _______, written in heroic couplet by Pope, is considered manifesto of English Neoclassicism.
A.An Essay of Dramatic Poetry B.An Essay on Criticism C.The Advancing of learning D.An Essay on Freedom
Answer: B (P93) 
18. ______is a typical feature of Swift’s writings.
A.Elegant style B.Causal narration C.Bitter satire D.Complicated sentence structure
Answer: C (P107) 
19. In the following writings by Henry Fielding, which brings him the name of the "Prose Homer"?
A.The Coffee---House Politician. B.The Tragedy of Tragedies. C.The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. D.The History of Amelia.
Answer: C (P120) 
20. "Hold! See whether it is or not before you go to the door----I have a particular message for you if it should be my brother." 
The two sentences are found in ________. 
A.The School for Scandal B.The Rivals C.The Critic D.The Scheming Lieutenant
Answer: A (P139) 
21. In terms of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which is wrong?
A.The author employs metaphor in this poem. B.The author excessively expresses his personal melancholy.
C.Here he reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown.
D.He mocks the great ones who despise the poor and bring havoc on them.
Answer: B (P152-153) 

22. The Houyhnhnms depicted by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels are________.
A.horses that are endowed with reason. B.pigmies that are endowed with admirable qualities
C.giants that are superior in wisdom. D.Hairy, wild, low and despicable creatures, 
who resemble human beings not only in appearance 
but also in some other ways.
Answer: A (P108) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions: 
1. "Words are like leaves;
and where they most abound, 
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, 
Its gaudy colors spreads on every place;
The face of Nature we no more survey, 
All glares alike, without distinction gay."

Questions: 
1) Identify the author and the passage;
2) Name the devices used in the passage with examples;
3) Explain "Words….found".
4) What is the mainly implied idea of the passage?

参考答案：
1) The passage is from Pope’s "An Essay on Criticism". (P94)
2) In the passage the author used "Simile" the device, e.g. "Words are like leaves" and "false eloquence, like the prismatic glass’ etc.
3) The sentence means: Where/When too many words are used, they seldom express much sense.
4) The passage implies authors shouldn’t stress too much the artificial use of Conceit or the external beauty of language, they should pay special attention to True Wit, which is best set in the plain style. (just as too many leaves will cover the fruits,too gaudy/ showy glass will hide the face the Nature, too false and eloquent language will hide the Wit in the articles.) <P93> 
2. "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Questions: 
1) Identify the author and the works;2) What does "the inevitable hour"?3) Explain the first stanza;4) What does the whole passage imply.
参考答案：
1) This is Thomas Gray’s "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". 
托马斯•格雷的《写在教堂墓地的挽歌》(P154)
2) "The inevitable hour" means time of death. (P156) 
3) The first stanza means: The men with ambition and high position  shouldn’t laugh at the ordinary people for their simple life and hard work.
4) In the passage, the poet reflects on the death----no matter how poor or wealthy, or how important and humble, every is equal before death, the author gives much sympathy to the poor and unknown (P153) 

III. Questions and answers:
1.Please analyze the Neoclassical period and the characters of the literature.
参考答案：
1)The Neoclassical period is about 1660-1798, also known as"the Age of Enlightenment" or "the age of Reason".
2)Its background was:a.It was an age full of conflicts and difference of values;b.It was an age of fast development for English to become 
the first powerful capitalist country in the world; c.It was an age of economic development, in which bourgeois/middle class grew rapidly.
3)In essence, the Neoclassical Period was a progressive intellectual movement.
4)The Enlighteners believed in self-restraint, self-reliance and hard work;They celebrated reason/rationality, equality and science. 
They advocated universal education, which could make people rational and prefect, they believed.
5)In literature, The Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the ancient Greek and Roman classical works; the 
works at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing; having fixed laws and rules for every type of the literature; among which prose and the modern English novel predominated the age. (At the end of the age sentimentalism and Gothic Novel appeared.) 6) The age was an important age with the remarkable authors Pope, Defoe, etc.<P79- - -83>
2.Please cite examples from "Gulliver’s Travels" to explain briefly how did Swift criticized and allude to the government and the society.
参考答案:
1)In the first part of the "Gulliver’s Travels", Swift described the tricks and practices in the competition held before royal members to allude to the fact that the success of the officials was not for their wisdom and excellence but for their skills in the games;
2)In the part 4 of the book, Swift made horses with reason and good qualities.
The citizens who are "hairy, wild, low and despicable brutes, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in almost every way" to criticize/satirize all respects of the English and European life, and urge people to consider the nature of the human and life. (P108-109) 
3. People always say that: "As a member of the middle class, Defoe spoke for and to the members of his class" .How do you understand this sentence? Please explain it with the character of him.
参考答案：
1) In most of his works, Defoe gave his praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class and showed his sympathy for the lower-class people. Robinson Crusoe was such a character.
2) Robison goes out to sea, gets shipwrecked and marooned/landed on a lonely island, struggles to live for 24 years there and finally is saved by a ship and returns to England. During the period Robinson leads a harsh and lonely life and survives by growing corps, taming animals, etc. growing from a naive young man into a hardened man. 
3) With a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy (精力充沛), courage and persistence in overcoming difficulties（在克服困难方面持之以恒）, in struggling against nature, Crusoe becomes the prototype / representative of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. （他是大英帝国缔造者的完美典范，同时也是殖民者的先驱）． 
4) In the novel, Defoe glorified human labor and the puritan fortitude which the middle class praised highly, so he can be regarded as a 
spokesman of the bourgeois. (P98-100)

Chapter 3 The Romantic Period
I. Choose the right answer:
1. The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less______ attitude toward the existing social and political conditions.
A.positive B.negative C.neutral D.indifferent
Answer: B (P160)
2. It is _____who established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit.
A.Jean Jacques Rousseau B.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe C.Edmund Burke D.Thomas Paine
Answer: A (P157) 
3. The two major novelists of the English Romantic Period are _____and Walter Scott.
A.Washington Irving B.Jane Austen C.Herman Melville D.Charles Dickens
Answer: B (P165) 
4. _____defines the poet as "man speaking to men,"  and poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility."
A.William Blake B.William Wordsworth C.Samuel Taylor Coleridge D.John Keats
Answer: B (P161) 
5. For the Romantics, ____is not only the major source of  poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter.
A.love B.man C.nature D.death
Answer: C (P162) 
6. In the Romantic period, ____is the most prosperous literary  form.
A.prose B.poetry C.fiction D.play
Answer: B (P161)
7. The tone of literature in "Song of Experience" by William Blake is _______.
A.doleful B.lively C.plain  D.utter
Answer: A (doleful: 悲哀的P168-169)
8. _____is regarded as a "worship of nature".
A.John Keats B.William Blake  C.William Wordsworth D.Jane Austen
Answer: C (P176)
9. Which of the following writings is not created by William Wordsworth?
A.I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. B.Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.
C.The Solitary Reaper. D.The Chimney Sweeper.
Answer: D (P179---182)
10. Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups:poems about nature and poems about________.
A.love B.human life C.freedom D.social activities
Answer: B (P176) 
11. "Don Juan" is Byron’s masterpiece, a great ______of the early 19th century.
A.comedy B.tragedy C.comic epic D.novel
Answer: C (P194) 
 12. In his lyrics such as "Ode to Liberty", "Ode to Naples", Percy Bysshe Shelly expressed his love for_____ and his hatred toward tyranny.
A.the middle class B.the poor C.freedom D.the proletariat
Answer: C (P207) 

13. "Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; / Destroy and Preserver; hear, O hear!" The two lines are found in_____.
A.Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne B.Ode to the West Wind by Shelly
C.Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman D.Ulysses by Joyce
Answer: B (P212) 
14. In Shelly’s "To a Skylark", the bird, suspended between reality and poetic image, pours forth an exultant song which suggests to the poet________.
A.both celestial rapture and human limitation B.both image creation and profound meaning
C.both music and words D.both inspiration and skills of writing
Answer: A (P206) 
15. The author of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is __________.
A.Wordsworth B.Austen C.Byron D.Keats
Answer: D (217) 
16. Jane Austen’s first novel is __________.
A.Pride and Prejudice B.Sense and Sensibility C.Emma  D.Plan of a Novel
Answer: B (P222)
17. In terms of Pride and Prejudice, which is not true?
A.Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of Jane Austen’s  novels. B.Pride and Prejudice is originally drafted as "First Impressions".
C.Pride and Prejudice is a tragic novel. D.In this novel, the author explores the relationship between great love and realistic benefits.
Answer: C (P223-225)
18. After reading the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice, we may come to know that Mrs.Bennet is a woman of_______.
A.simple character and poor understanding B.simple character and quick wit
C.intricate character and quick wit D.intricate character and poor understanding
Answer: A (P227) 
19. Romanticism is a period of British literature roughly dated from _________.
A.1660-----1798 B.1798----1832 C.1483-----1546 D.1836-----1901
Answer: B (P157)
20. Which of the following is the Gothic novel?
A.Shelly’s Prometheus Unbound B.Keats’ Lamia C.Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein D.Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Answer: C (P166) 
21.The lines "It was a miracle of rare device, / A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice" are found in__________.
A.Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s "Kubla Khan" B.William Wordsworth’s Lines Written in Early Spring"
C.John Keats’s "Ode to Autumn" D.Percy Bysshe Shelly’s "Ode to the West Wind" 
Answer: A (P190---191)
22. Which of the following is taken from John Keats’ "Ode on a Grecial Urn"?
A."I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" B."They are both gone up to the church to pray.’
C."Earth has not anything to show more fair." D."Beauty is truth, truth beauty".
Answer: D (P221) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1. "A little black thing among the snow
Crying "’weep! ’weep! In notes of woe 
"where are thy father & mother? Say? "
"They are both gone up to the church to prey."
(1)Identify the poem and poet.(2)Explain "notes of woe".(3)What does the sentence mean "they ate both gone up to thechurch to prey."
Answer:(1)It is from "The Chimney Sweeper (from songs of experience) by Blake.(P172) (2)"notes of woe" means the songs/notes of sadness. (3)It implies: religion is the instrument of their repression/ oppression, its nature is to help bring misery to the poor children.(P169)

2. "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them all,
But all, except their sun, is set." 

(1)Identify the poem and its author; (2)What does it mean "But all, except their sun, is set."(3)What does the passage imply?
Answer:
(1)The poet is Byron. The poem is taken from "The Isles of Greece (from Don Juan)" (P199) (2)The sentence means: The sun is still on the rise, but the rest things all set. (3)The passage implied: The author lamented over the fallen Greece: In the past, Greece nurtured/ cultivated great poets and heroes,who enjoyed freedom and civilization, but now Greece had been enslaved,the past honorable history couldn’t be found again. (P199)

3. "With plough and spade and hoe and loom 
Trace your grave and build your tomb
And weave your winding-sheet---till fair
England be your Sepulcher"
(1)Explain "sepulcher"(2)What was the deep implication of the poem?
Answer:
(1)Sepulcher means grave. (P210~211)
(2)The poem ironically addressed to the workers who submit to capitalist exploitation. It warned them: If they gave up the struggle, they would be digging graves for themselves wish their own hands. (P211)

4. "Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, 
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:"
(1)Who is the poet? The name? (2)Explain the sentence. (3)What was the theme of the poem?
Answer:
(1)This is the "ode on a Grecian Um", which was written by the poet---John Keats. (P219) (2)The sentence means: though time has passed, the urn , the works of the art still remains, and it tells a pastoral/lyrical tale to us, and the description of the urn is much more beautiful than the words of any human. (P218)(3)The theme is: Human life is transient, but the art is immortal. (P218)

5. "Place me on Sunium’s marbles steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May her our mutual murmurs sweep;
There, swan like, let me sing and die:
A land of slaves shall ne’er be mine---
Dash down you cup of Samian wine!"
(1)Identify the poem and its author. (P203)
(2)Explain "swan like, let me sing and die" (P199) Interpret the passage and spot its implication.
Answer:
(1)The poet is Byron. The poem is taken from "The Isles of Greece (from Don Juan)" (P203)
(2)Swan is famous for its faith to its lover, one of them die, the other will refuse to eat and drink, it will cry till death.
Here the author used a simile to show his strong desire to fight with the invaders till death, and appeal to the suppressed Greek people to struggle for their freedom and liberation.

6. "For oft, when on my couch I lie 
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye 
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dance with the daffodils."

(1) What is the "bliss of the solitude"?(2) Interpret the passage.(3) Why did the poet write the poem, what did he want to express?
Answer:
(1)The Daffodils the poem saw. (P180) (2)It is a bliss/happiness to recollect the beauty of nature in his mind when he is solitude/lonely.
(3)The poem depicts/deals with the flowers that he came across along waterside, by which he expresses the quiet, sympathy, loving feeling to nature just like his words "poetry is from "emotion recollected in tranquility". 

7. "Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind,
And the angle told Tom, if he’d be a good bye,
He’d have God for his father, and never want joy."

(1)Identify the poem and its poet;(2)What does the poem implies?
Answer:
(1) The poem is take from "The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Innocence)", which was written by William Blake.(p171) (2) This is a lovely poem presenting a happy and innocent world, though the wretched child are exploited and orphaned, 
they had nice dream for life and the world, which implies religion make people obedient to exploitation, and from religion, they can get consolation and an "illusory happiness".(p168)

8. "As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift and proud."

(1)Explain "I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed" (P208)
(2)Can you comprehend the deep emotion contained in the poem? What’s that?
(3)The poet was called the "the heart of all hearts", he trumpeted the radical prophecy of hope and rebirth. Please write out his classic words.

Answer:(1)The sentence call Shelley’s desire that he couldn’t best being fettered to/limited by the humdrum/too ordinary reality of everyday! (P208)(2)In the poem, the west wind has become the poet himself, he wants to be free, proud and controllable like the wild west wind,to destruct and construct with the strong power like the west wind. (P207~208) (3)"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (P208)

9. "O Attic shape! Fair attitude! With brede 
…………
As doth eternity: cold pastoral!"

(1)How do you understand "cold pastoral" (2)What device is used in the poem?(3)Explain the implication of the poem.At the end of the poem, the poet gave a famous saying, and it is also the theme of the poem, what is that?

Answer:
(1)Cold pastoral means the lyrical scene on the Grecian urn lacks life and warmth. (P222) (2)Contrast. (P218) (3)The poet wanted to show the permanence of the art and the transience of human passion presenting his ambivalence/opposing feelings about time and nature of beauty.The saying is "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" (P218~219)

10. "Where fore feed and Clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Drain your sweat---nay, drink your blood?"

(1)Who wrote the poem? What’s its name?(2) Explain "drones",(3) Interpret the passage.
Answer:
(1)The poem is "A song: Men of England" by Shelley. (P209) (2)Drones the male of the honey-bees that don’t work ,
referring to the parasitic class in human society.(drones and bees are the devices of metaphor) (P210)(3)The poet called all working people to rise up against their political oppressors, but point out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. It expressed the love for freedom and the hatred to tyranny of the author. (P207)

11. "Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!"
(1)What does the "wild spirit "refer to?(2)Why called it "Destroyer and Preserver" at the same time?(3)Identify the poet and the poem.
nswer:
(1)"wild spirit" refers to west wind/autumn wind. (P212) (2)Because west wind buried the dead year and year and prepared for a new spring, the poet call it "Destroyer and preserver". (3)It is "Ode to the west wind" of Shelley. (terza rima)

III. Questions and answers:
1.Please list the subjects and the faculties of the Romanticism. 
Answer:
(1) The subjects are: love, nature, nationalism, individualism, (2) The faculties they cherished are: imagination, spontaneity, inspiration. (P162)
2.William Wordsworth was the first representative author of Rom,How do you know his idea and style?
Answer:
(1)His poems are most about Nature and Human Life; (2)Beyond the pleasure of the picturesque with the eye and the external aspects of nature, however, lies in deeper moral awareness, a sense of completeness in multiplicity. (it means poem not only deals with the beautiful world, but express moral)(3)Common life and the joy and sorrow of the common people and inner self are his subjects; (4)He is a poet in memory of the past and was called "prophets of nature";(5)He deliberately writes in simple and ordinary speech ,
refuses to decorate the truth of experience of pure and profound feeling; (6)He thought poet is "a man speaking to men," poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility."(7)He always writes an elusive beauty of simplicity or a rural figure. (P176-179)

3.What thoughts and event influenced the period of Romanticism? 
Answer:(1) Rousseau (a French philosopher) explored new ideas about nature, society and education, which provided guiding priding principles for the French Revolution and Romanticism; (2) The French Revolution and "the Declaration of Rights of Man"(written by Thomas Paine)aroused the great sympathy and enthusiasm in the English liberals and radicals,which became a great source for Romanticism. (3) England itself had experienced profound economic and social changes as industrialism,which were reflected in the works of literature. (P157-159)

4.Byron’s greatest contribution is his creation of the "Byronic hero" What kind of the hero he is? Give comment on him. 
Answer:
(1) "Don Juan" is Byron’s masterpiece, a great comic epic, in which Byron described a hero named Don Juan. He was a great lover and seducer of women. In the conventional sense,al positives like courage, generosity, and frankness… In a word, Don was proud Juan was immoral, but Juan had his own mor, mysterious, and a noble rebel figure. He was a young man with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies, one of rebellious individuals against outworn/outdated social systems and conventions. (2) Comment: The poet’s true intention is to present a panoramic view of different types of society,the main theme of the works the basic ironic theme of appearance and reality,during which the poet also presented various materials and the clash of emotions. (P194-196)

5. What is the difference between Romanticism and Neoclassicism?(Neoclassicism=Augustans=enlightener) 
Answer:(1)The Romantic Movement expressed negative attitude toward the existing social and political condition, the Romantics saw the corruption and injustice of the inhumanity of capitalism; (2)The Neo saw man as a social; while Rom saw him as an individual in the solitary state; (3)Neo stressed the common features of men; but the Rom stressed the special qualities of each individual’s mind; (4)Neo celebrated rationality, equality and science of the outside world; while Rom changed to the inner world of the human spirit, whose theory saw the individual as the center of all experience; (5)Literature was heavily didactic and moralizing. There were fixed laws for each type of literature; Rom expressed his feeling, valued accuracy in portraying, they thought literature should be free from all rules.(6)The most important form in Neo was prose; while Rom was an age of poetry. (P160-161)

6.Analyze the characters of John Keats’s poetry.
Answer:(1)The poems are sensuous, colorful, and rich in imagery, (which expresses the acuteness of his senses) (2)Words are beautiful and musical. (3)The ancient Greek and English poetry provides the most important imaginative resource. (4)The construction of poems are knit, and the description go beyond the physical beauty of the world. (P218-219)

7. Jane Austen was the only important female author in the 18-19th century, how do you know about her?
Answer:
Generally speaking, Austen was writer of the 18th century. (1)Her novels always dealt with the romantic entanglement of the heroines; (2)She believed in it that reason over passion, sense of responsibility, good manners,and clear judgment over romance; she honored the Augustan virtues of moderation, dignity disciplined emotion and common sense; (3)She contempt snobbery, stupidity, worldliness etc;(4)Her main concern was the relationship between men and women in love; (5)Her writing range was limited, all restricted to the provincial life of the 18th century England; (6)She presented the quiet, day-to-day country life of the middle -upper -class English. (7)Her characteristic theme was: maturity is got by the loss of illusions. (P223--226)

Chapter 4 The Victorian Period

I. Choose the right answer:
Chronologically the Victorian refers to__________.
A.1798---1832 B.1836---1901 C.the Romantic period D.the Neoclassical Period
Answer: B (P233) 
____works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.
A.Thomas Hardy’s B.Charles Dickens’s C.Charlotte Bronte’s  
Answer: B (P241)
3. _____is famous for its vivid descriptions of the workhouse and life of the underworld in the 19th century London.
A.Oliver Twist B.Great Expectations C.David Copper Field D.Hard Times
Answer: A (P243)
____is an elaborate and powerful expression of Alfred Tennyson’s philosophical and religious thoughts.
A.Idylls of the King B.“Ulysses” C.Poems, Chieoqy Lyrical] D.In Memoriam
Answer: D (P274)
4. The most distinguishing feature of Charles Dickens’s works lies in his ______.
A.social criticism B.optimism C.character-portrayal D.social setting
Answer: C (P241)
_____is based on the Celtic legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.
A.In Memoriam B.“Ulysses” C.Idylls of the King D.The Princess
Answer: C (P275)
5. _____is Robert Browning’s best-known dramatic monologue.
A.“My Last Duches” B.“Meeting at Night” C.“Parting at Morning” D.“Pippa Passes”
Answer: A (P287)
6. _____initiates a new type of realism and sets into motion a variety of developments, leading in the direction of both the naturalistic and psychological novel.
A.Charles Dickens B.George Eliot C.Charlotte Bronte D.Thomas hardy
Answer: B (P292)
7. _____works are known as “novels of characters and environment.”
A.Charles Dickens’s B.George Eliot’s C.Jane Austen’s D.Geroge Eliot’s
Answer: B (P300)
8. ____belives that man’s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of ‘nature”, both inside and outside.
A.Charles Dickens B.Thomas hardy C.Bernard Shaw D.T.S. Eliot
Answer: B (P301)
9. The author of the work “Dombey and Son” is _________.
A.Charles Dickens B.Henry James C.Robert Lee Frost D.Ezra Pound
Answer: A (P239—240)
10. The most important characteristic in Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson is _______.
A.mastering of language B.excellent choice of words C.use of the dramatic monologue D.excellent metaphor
Answer: C (P273)
11. “Self-conceited”, “cruel” and “tyrannical” are most likely the names of the character in______.
A.Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ B.Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Dr.Faustus’
C.Shakespeare’s Love’s ‘Labour’s lost’ D.Sheridan’s ‘The School for Scandal’
Answer: A (P287) 
12. Robert Browning’s style is_______.
A.identical with that of the other Victorian B.similar to that of Tennyson C.perfectly artistic D.rough and disproportionate in appearance
Answer: D (P285)
13. According to D.H. Lawrence, _____was the first novelist that “started putting all the actions inside”.
A.George Eliot B.Thomas Hardy C.Charles Dickens D.T.S. Eliot
Answer: A (P236)
14. Middlemarch is considered to be George Eliot’s greatest novel, owing to all the following reasons EXCEPT_______. 
A.it vividly English country life B.it probed into perpetual philosophical thoughts
C.it provides a panoramic view of life D.it reveals women’s true feelings
Answer: B (P293)
15. ‘Every day, every hour, brought to him one more little stroke of her nature, and to her one more of his”, the sentence is found in_____.
A.Middlemarch by George Eliot B.Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
C.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte D.Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Answer: B (P309) 
16. Which of the following best describes the protagonist (Henchard) of Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of the Casterbridge”?
A.He is a man of self-esteem B.He is a man of self-contempt
C.He is a man of self-confidence D.He is a man of self-sufficiency
Answer: D (P300)
17. Which of the following description of Thomas Hardy is wrong?
A.Most of his novels are set in Wessex.
B.Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the most representative of him as both a naturalistic and a critical realist writer.
C.Among Hardy’s major works, Under the Greenwood Tree is the most cheerful and idyllic.
D.From The Mayor of Casterbridge on, the tragic sense becomes the keynote of his novels.
Answer: D (P299---302) 
18. Charlotte’s works are famous for the depiction of the life of the middle-class working women, particularly________. 
A.governesses B.clerks C.baby-sitters D.managers
Answer: A (P255) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
“You teach me now how cruel you’ve ---cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort---you deserve this…”

Who is the speaker?What does it refer to “you despise me, you break your own heart”?
What was the meaning of the story from the social point of view?
What is the main device of the story in description?

Answer:
The speaker was Heathcliff.(P270—271)It refers to Cathy married her husband (Linton) and deserted him and her own love.
From the social point of view, it is a story about a poor man –Heathcliff abused, betrayed and distorted by his social betters/by the people with higher social position, because he is a poor nobody. (P266)
Flashback. (P267)

“In pursuance of this determination, little Oliver, to his excessive astonishment, was released from bondage, and ordered to put himself into a clean shirt. He had hardly achieved this very unusual gymnastic performance when Mr. Bumble brought him, with his own hands, a basin of gruel and the holiday allowance of two ounces and a quarter of bread. A very tremendous sight, Oliver begins to cry very piteously. Thinking, not unnaturally, that the board must have decided to kill him for some useful purpose, or they never would have begun to fatten him up in this way.”

Identify the title and the writer. Why Oliver was released from the bondage?
Why had he been punished? Interpret “A very tremendous sight”.

Answer:
This is an excerpt from “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. (P249)
Because he would be sold to a notorious chimney-sweeper (at 3 pound ten) and became his apprentice. (P243)
Oliver was punished for that “impious and profane offence of asking for more gruel.” (P242)]
From the passage we can see the food is so little and poor in fact, but in the little Oliver’s eyes, it became “A very tremendous sight”. Because in the usual days Oliver and other children were maltreated and abused cruelly, they couldn’t eat well and were punished severely by the cruelty and hypocrisy of the dehumanizing workhouse board. (P243)

“Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 
When I put out to sea.”

Explain the implications of the “sunset, evening star, sea”.
Name the title of the poem and interpret it.
Can you say some comment on the poem?

Answer:
Sunset, evening star: the images of the death; sea symbolizes life. (P277—278)
The title is “Crossing the Bar”. It means leaving this world and entering the next world –the world of the spirit
The poem expresses the fearlessness to death of the poet and his faith in God and an afterlife.
(The poem is musical in language, rich in poetic images, elaborate in texture and melancholy in air –the characters of Tennyson.) (P273/P278)

“My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard of her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace –all and eachWould draw from her alike the approving speech, 
Or blush, at least. She thanked men –good! But 
thanked
Somehow –I know not how –as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift”

Name the author and the title of the works. What does it mean “a nine-hundred-years-old name”, and to whom the word was spoken?
Interpret the passage and analyze the character of the speaker. What is the literary form?
Answer:
This is the “My last Duchess” written by Robert Browning. (P286)
It means the title of the Duchess (of Ferrara) the Duck gave her through marriage has a family history of over 900 years. (P288)
Interpret: My favor –the title of the Duchess is better and more proud than any gifts of the world, but my last duchess was ready to be grateful to others’ flatter and The Duck was a self-conceited, cruel, possessive, and tyrannical person.
The word was spoken to the agent who comes to negotiate the marriage of the Duck. (P287)
The literary form is “dramatic monologue”. (the Duck’s own defensive words betrays and condemns himself) (P287)

“I will drink 
Life to the lees:
all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when 
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: ……
……but honour’d of them all”

Identify the name of the poem. Explain “drink life to the lees”.
What is the theme of the poem?In what form is the poem written?
Answer:
The name of the poem is “Ulysses”. (P278)
The sentence means: I will keep travelling and exploring till the end of my life. (P281)
The theme is Ulysses can’t endure the peaceful commonplace everyday life. Old as he is, he persuaded his old followers to go with him and to set sail again to pursue a new world and new knowledge. (the poem also expresses Tennyson’s own determination and courage to brave the struggle of life but also reflects the restlessness and aspiration/anxiety of the age.) (P281)
The literary form is “dramatic monologue”. (P281) 

“Come, Tess, Tell me in confidence.” …
“The trees have inquisitive eyes, haven’t they? … and drive all such horrid fancies away!”

1) Interpret the passage. 
Answer:
Tess, as pure woman brought up with the traditional ideas, is abused and destroyed by the destructive force, and the misery made her frightened to the future, which implied the naturalistic viewpoint of Hardy. (P303)

7. “Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thought that arise in me.”

Name the poet and the poem.Name the main tone of the whole poem, the device and the rhyme.Interpret the passage.

Answer:
Alfred Tennyson. “Break, Break, Break”. (P276)
The main tone is Sadness. The device is contract. The rhyme scheme is “a b c d”. (P277)
The poem expressed the poet’s feeling of sadness in memory of his best friend. (P276)

III. Questions and answers:
Ideologically, what influenced Victorian literature? What characters does it have?
Darwin’s theory “the survival of the fittest” shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith, many authors expressed their doubts and uncertainty in their works;
Utilitarianism was widely accepted and practiced, many conscious authors severely criticized the Utilitarianism, especially its devalue of culture and its cold indifference to human feeling and imagination;
Realism novels criticized the society and defended for the mass, and they concerned about the fate of the common people such as their poverty misery, angry with the inhuman social institution, the social immorality, injustice and money-worship.
Victorian literature represents the reality of the age. The high-spirit vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humour and unbound imagination are unprecedented. (P235—237)

Jane Eyre is the greatest governess image in the literature history; can you analyze the character of her?
Jane Eyre was a little plain governess with quick wit, honesty, frankness, loving heart and the spirit of independence and self-dignity.
In literature, she is an individual conscious to self-realization. She was lonely and neglected young woman with a fierce longing for love, understanding and a full, happy life.
In author’s mind, man’s life is composed of perpetual struggle between sin and virtue, good and evil. The heroines’ joy, comes from the sacrifice of self and the overcome of some weakness.
By Jane’s experience, we can see the cruelty, hypocrisy, and other evils of the upper classes and the misery and the suffering of the poor, and the false social convention on love and marriage. (P256—259)

Analyze the background of the Victorian Period.
Economic developed rapidly and social problems prevailed in England and it became the “workshop of the world”.
England settled down to a time of prosperity and stability, the people valued earnestness, respectability, modesty, and democracy.
In the last decades, British empire declined, and Victorian values decayed.

Analyze the character created by George Eliot with an example and his style.
George Eliot set a new type of realism –both naturalistic and psychological novel;
She sought to present the inner struggle of a soul and to reveal the motives, impulse and hereditary influences, the slow growth or decline of the character;Her masterpiece “Middlemarch” is a study of provincial life, showing a panoramic view of life in a small English town;
She concerned for the destiny of women, the heroin in “Middlemarch” –Dorothea, was a typical character of Eliot. She was a lady with great intelligence, potential and social aspiration. She had the ideals to devote to the society, later, she married an elder man to realize her ideals by helping him in the holy Christianity Career. At the end of the story, she became content with giving her second husband “wifely help”.From her experience, we can see Eliot’s view: women were born with the pathetic tragedy. Her spirit declined owing to the social environment and her own weakness.(the story is full of an air of a lifeless bitterness and disappointment) (P292—294)

Analyze the style of Charles Dickens.
Adeptness/skilfulness with the vernacular and large vocabulary;
The most distinguishing/remarkable character-portrayal;
The best writing from the child’s point of view; (His best depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted, helpless children)
The depiction of those horrible and grotesque characters;
The mingling/mixing features of humor and pathos/sorrow. (P241)

How do you know the naturalistic idea of Hardy?
The tragic sense is the keynote of Hardy’s novels, and he is a nostalgic author.
Hardy’s novels always set in Wessex, the fictional primitive and crude region, which is threatened by the invading capitalism, expressing the conflict between the traditional and the modern, the old and the modern.
Man’s fate is tragic with born, driven by the force of the nature of outside and inside, and man is bound by his inherent nature and hereditary traits which prompt him to go and search for happiness or success, and set him in conflict with the environment; we can see he is influenced greatly by Darwin’s theory “survival of the fittest”.
Man proves to be incompetent/impotent before Fate, and he seldom escapes his destiny. The pessimistic view of life predominates most works of Hardy, which earns him the name of a naturalistic writer.
Hardy is noted for he rustic dialect and a poetic flavor, so he is also called local-colorist. (P300--302)

Chapter 5 The Modern Period
I. Choose the right answer:
1. The three trilogies of_____Forsyte novels are masterpieces of critical realism in the early 20th century.
A. D. H. Lawrence’s B. John Galsworthy’s C. James Joyce’s D. Thomas Hardy’s
Answer: B (P337) 
2. ____is the most outstanding stream-consciousness novelist.
A. T.S. Eliot B. Richard Brinsley Sheridan C. James Joyce D. Oscar Wilder 
Answer: D (P317) 
3. In his famous poem_____, Yeats explores the problems of death, love, old age and art.
A. "Leda and the Swan" B. "No Second Troy" C. "September 1913" D. "Sailing to Byzantium"
Answer: D (P354) 
4. ____is a poem concerned with the spiritual breakup of a modern civilization in which human life has lost its meaning, significance and purpose. A. Ulysses B. The Waste Land C. The Confidential Clerk D. Dubliners
Answer: B (P360) 
5. The Rainbow and_____are generally regarded as D.H. Lawrence’s masterpieces.
A. Women in Love B. Son s and Lovers C. Lady Chatterley’s Lover D. The Plumed Serpent
Answer: A (P370) 
6. In ____, James Joyce intends to present a microcosm of the whole human life by providing an instance of how a single event contains all the events of its kind, and how history is recapitulated in the happenings of one day.
A. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man B. Dubliners C. Ulysses D. Finnegans Wake
Answer: C (P388) 
7. Structurally and thematically, George Bernard Shaw follows the great tradition _______.
A. Modernism B. Romanticism C. Realism D. Naturalism
Answer: C (P323) 
8. Galsworthy was a _____writer, having inherited the fine traditions of the great Victorian novelists of the critical realism such as Dickens and Thackeray.
A. naturalistic B. romantic C. realistic D. conventional
Answer: D (P338) 
9. In "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy, a typical Forsyte has a remarkable characteristic-----a strong sense of______.
A. money B. property C. success D. privilege
Answer: B (P339)

10. In "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", William Bulter Yeats expresses his ____________.
A. hope to go abroad B. desire to escape into a "fairyland" C. love for common life D. hatred for war
Answer: B (P356)
11. In which of the following poems by Yeats did you find the allusion to Helen and Trojan War?
A. Sailing to Byzantium B. Down by the Sally Garden C. The Lake Isle of Innisfree D. Leda and the Swan
Answer: D (P354)
12. Of the following poems by T.S. Eliot, which is hailed as a landmark and a model of the 20th Century English Poetry?
A. Poems 1909----1925 B. The Hollow Men C. Prufrock and Other Observations  D. The Waste Land
Answer: D (P359) 
13. "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes/ Linked its tongue into the corners of the evening,/ Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains." The stanza is taken from_________.
A. T.S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" B. Emily Dickinson’s "Because I could not stop for Death"
C. Alfred Tennyson’s "Break, Break, Break" D. William Wordsworth’s "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
Answer: A (P363---364) 
14. Which of the following best describes the speaker of ’The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
A. He is a man of an action. B. He is a man of apathy. C. He is a man of inactivity. D. All the above are wrong.
Answer: C (P363) 
15. Of the following works by D.H. Lawrence, _______established his position as novelist.
A. The White Peacock B. The Trespasser C. Women in Love D. Sons and Lovers
Answer: D (P370)
16. Which of the following is considered to be a better-structured novel?
A. Women in Love B. Son s and Lovers C. The Rainbow D. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Answer: A (P372) 
17. ’The Lawrence trilogy" refers to the following three plays except ______. 
A. A Collier’s Friday Night] B. The Daughter -in-Law  C. The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyed  D. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Answer: D (P373) 
18. Which of the following writings is not the novel of D.H. Lawrence’s?
A. Sons and Lovers B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man C. The White Peacock. D. The Rainbow
Answer: B (P369---370)
19. Of the following writings by James Joyce, which is a prime example of modernism in literature?
A. Ulysses B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man C. Dubliners D. Finnegans Wake
Answer: A (P386) 
20. Which of the following is not true according to James Joyce?
A. Ulysses has become a prime example of modernism in literature.
B. Joyce is regarded as the most prominent stream-of-consciousness novelist.
C. Joyce is a realistic writer in English literature history.
D. His novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man" is a naturalistic account of the hero’s bitter experiences and his final artistic and spiritual liberation. 
Answer: C (P386---389) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1. Analyze the poem of T. S. Eliot -"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 
1) "In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo"
<1> Why does the sentence repeat in the poem for several times? Answer: 
The sentence symbolizes the remote and faraway things, it implies the inability to face up with the reality and the life of the hero. (P363)
2) "And indeed there will be time 
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, ...
There will be time, there will be time ...."
<1> What deep implication can you get from the passage?Answer:
The hero was unable to face up with the life and reality bravely, but he was anxious to find time passing so quickly that he was very depressed. The passage shows the tragic character of the indecision of the young man. (P363)
3) "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from the father room.
So how should I presume?
<1> What did the speaker presume?<2> Interpret the excerpt.
Answer:<1> He will propose marriage to a girl, but he dare not. <2> The Excerpt shows the futile and boring life of the upper class. (Every day, they drink coffee, listen to music, but they can’t really enjoy the pleasure of life, leading a boring life.)
4) "I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floor of silent seas." <1> Interpret it. Answer:If he had been a crab on the ocean bed, maybe he would have been better. The motion of the crab suggests futility and growing old. (P368 注释5)
5) "But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worthwhile" (此节选部分在P367)
<1> Interpret it.Answer: The sentence implies the speaker’s incapability of facing up to love and to life. He is always fearful that others will see through his ideas and truth of falling love, which makes himself live in frightening and restlessness. (P363)
2. "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade"
1) Identify the poem and poet;2) Interpret the poem.
Answer:
1) The poem is "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", which was written by William Butler Yeats. (P355) 2) In the poem, the poet imagined a place where he could live like a hermit, implying that he was tired of the life of his day, he sought to escape into and ideal "fairyland" where he could live calmly as a hermit and enjoyed the beauty of the nature.
 3. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ school set the boys free ..., gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces."
1) Comment the main tone of the story with the concrete images of the passage.
2) Analyze the theme of the story.3) Explain the devices of symbols with the examples of the article.

Answer: 1) The tone of the story is a fine tuned melancholy. The scene is drab, lifeless. The Christian School sounds like prison -it sets the boys free. The brown color also showed the tone of the story. (节选部分在P390) 2) The story introduced a little boy’s love experience, expressing his awareness of reality and expectation, and pointing out the drabness and harshness of the adult world. (P385) 3) In this article the author used many images to show the symbols meaning, expressing the frustrated quest for beauty. (P390)For example: The little boy lived with his uncle and aunt -a symbol of the isolation and the lack of proper relationship;His uncle forgot his arrangement is a symbol of the boy’s failure;The deserted train symbol the indifference relationship, and "all the stalls were in closed and the greatest part of the hall was in darkness" and "the upper part of the hall was now completely dark" symbol the destined failure of the boy’s quest for the beauty.

4. "You are not, my son. Battle-battle -and suffer. It’s about all you do, as far as I can see."
"But why not, my dear? I tell you it’s the best ---"
"It isn’t. And one ought to be happy, one ought."
By this time Mrs. Morel was trembling violently ...
"Eh, my dear -say rather you want me to live."

1) Name the works and its writer.2) Who are the two speakers? How do you know her?
Answer:1) The novel is named "Sons and Lovers". It’s the works of D. H. Lawrence. (节选部分在P383)
2) The two speakers are Mrs. Morel and her son (Paul).Mrs. Morel is a strong-willed, intelligent and ambitious woman. Having been disappointed with her husband, a coal miner, she puts all her feeling on her son, hoping to realize her ideas of success, happiness and social esteem. The distorted relationship reflects the inhuman mechanical civilization and the indifference of the men. (P375—376)

III. Questions and answers:
1. What are the characters of Modernism? Answer:
1) Modernism rose out of scepticism and disillusionment of capitalism;2) The French symbolism heralded modernism; 3) Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base; 4) The major theme of Modernism are the distorted, alienated and ill relationship between man and society, man and nature, man and man, man and himself; 5) The Modernists concern about the private, subjective, inner individual and the tone is disillusioned. (P312—313)

2. D. H. Lawrence is regarded as revolutionary, how do you know his works?Answer:1) Lawrence’s interest lay in the psychological development of his character;
2) He criticized the dehumanizing effect of the capitalism industrialization on human which turned man into inhuman machines and unhealthy animal;
3) He believes the life impulse -the sexual impulse was man’s most important instinct, any conscious repression would cause distortion of the man’s personality;
4) He explored the relationship of man and woman in psychology;
5) He believed the alienation and the perversion were caused by the desire for power and money. (P317)

3. What philosophical ideas influenced Modernism?
Answer:1) Karl Marx’s scientific socialism;2) Darwin’s theory evolution -the social Darwinism "survival of the fittest";3) Einstein’s theory of relativity;4) Freud’s analytical psychology;5) The irrational philosophy. (P311—P312)

4. Common sense about "The Waste Land"
Answer: "The Waste Land" is T. S. Eliot’s masterpiece: 1) The poem presents a panorama of physical disorder and spiritual desolation; 2) It reflects the mood of disillusionment, frustration, and despair of the whole post-war generation; 3) It concerns with the spirit breakup that man has lost his meaning, significance, and purpose of life; 4) The poem derogated/criticized the civilized world for its horror, menace, anguish and futility. (P359—362)

 5. Analyze the background of the Modernism.
Answer:1) Natural and social sciences advanced greatly, capitalism came into its monopoly stage, the gap between the poor and the rich was deepened;2) The First World War and The Second World War happened, which influenced people greatly; 3) All kinds of philosophical ideas were produced. (P311—312)

6. Say something about Freudian and Jungian’ psycho-analysis.
Answer:1) Multiple/many levels of consciousness exist in the human mind at the same time; 2) Man’s present are the sum of his past, present and future; 3) Truth exists in the unique, isolated, and private world of each individual. 4) The theory creates "steam-of-consciousness". (P316)

7. Why Modernism is different from Realism?
Answer:
In many aspects, Modernism acts against Realism; 1) Modernism rejects rationalism, while Realism stresses it; 2) Modernism includes internal, subjective, psychological world, while Realism stresses external, objective, and material world; 3) Modernism advocates new forms and new techniques, and it casts away all the traditional elements such as: story, character, etc. while Realism stresses it. 4) Modernism works are called anti-novel, anti-poetry, anti-drama etc. (P313)

8. List the representative authors of the "Stream of Consciousness" and explain the theory.
Answer: 
1) Stream of Consciousness is a narrative method to describing the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the characters, but not using objective description or conventional dialogue.Authors represent the thought, emotions without logical sequence or syntax and make the characters tell the inner movement of consciousness and the thoughts.
2) The representative authors are: James Joyce "Ulysses"Virginia Woolf "Mrs. Dalloway"Richardson "Pilgrimage"T. S. Eliot Henry JamesGeorge Eliot (P389)

Part Two American Literature
Chapter 1 The Romantic Period
I. Choose the right answer:
1. Of all the following issues, _____is definitely NOT the focus of the Romantic writers in the American literary history. 
A. Puritan morality B. Human bestiality C. Noble savages D. Divinity of man
Answer: B (P401) 
2. 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. "Song of Myself" 
Answer: A (P402) 
3. "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" is a famous quote from______’s writings.
A. Walt Whitman B. Henry David ThoreauC. Herman Melville D. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Answer: D (P402) 
4. ’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
Answer: A (P447) 
5. According to Whitman, the genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort was to behave as a supreme_________.
A. democrat B. individualist C. romanticist D. leader
Answer: B (P448) 
6. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as ___________.
A. The Naturalist Period B. The Modern Period C. The Romantic Period D. The Realistic Period
Answer: C (P399)
7. In the following works, which sign the beginning of the American literature?
A. The Sketch Book B. Leaves of Grass C. Leather Stocking Tales D. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
B (P399) 
8. _____is the author of the work ’The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’.
A. Washington Irving B. James Joyce C. Walt Whitman  D. William Butler Yeats
Answer: A (P404)
9. Washington Irving’s ’Rip Van Winkle’ is famous for_________.
A. Rip’s escape into a mysterious B. The story’s German legendary source material
C. Rip’s seeking for happiness D. Rip’s 20-years sleep
Answer: D (P406) 
10. Which of the following statement is not true about Washington Irving?
A. Washington Irving is regarded as Father of the American short stories.
B. Irving’s relationship with the Old World in terms of his literary imagination can hardly be ignored considering his success both abroad and at home.
C. Irving’s taste was essentially progressive or radical.
D. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American literature ever produced."
Answer: C (P403---406) 
11. 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
Answer: A (P420) 
12. The phrase "a transparent eye-ball’ compares philosophical mentation of Emerson’s. It appears in_________.
A. The American Scholar B. Nature C. The over Soul D. Essays: Second Series
Answer: B (P423) 
13. In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled _______at Harvard, which was hailed by Oliver Wendell Holmeasas :Our Intellectual Declaration of Independence".
A. "Self-Reliance" B. "Divinity School Address" C. "The American Scholar" D. "Nature"
Answer: C (P423) 
14. _____is the most ambivalent (有争议的) writers in the American literary history.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Walt Whitman C. Ralph Waldo Emerson D. Mark Twain
Answer: A (P429) 
15. "There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity", which author of the following authors does the mention belong to________.
A. Washington Irving B. Ralph Waldo Emerson C. Nathaniel Hawthorne D. Walt Whitman
Answer: C (P431) 
16. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as________.
A. saviors B. villains C. commentators D. observers
Answer: B (P432) 
17. All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne except_______.
A. The House of the Seven Gables B. White Jacket C. The Marble Faun D. The Blithedale Romance
Answer: B (P431) 
18. Walt Whitman is radically innovative in the form of his poetry. What he prefers for his new subject is__________.
A. free verse B. blank verse C. lyric poem D. heroic couplet
Answer: A (P450) 
19. Which of the following features cannot characterize poems by Walt Whitman?
A. Lyrical and well-structured B. Free-flowing C. Simple and rather crude D. Conversational and casual
Answer: A (P450---451) 

20. " The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud. These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day." The two lines are taken from____________.
A. "There Was a Child Went Forth" by Walt Whitman B. "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
C. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" by Walt Whitman D. "Ulysses" by Joyce 
Answer: A (P454) 
21. "Moby Dick" is regarded as the first American_________.
A. Prose epic B. Comic epic C. Dramatic fiction D. Poetic fiction
Answer: A (P460) 
22. The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all EXCEPT________.
A. mystery of the universe B. sin of the whale C. power of the great Nature D. evil of the world
Answer: B (P461) 
23. Which of the following comments on the writings by Herman Melville is not true?
A. "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a short story. B. "Benito Cereno" is a novella.
C. The Confidence---Man has something to do with the sea and sailors. D. Moby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic.
Answer: C (P459---460) 
24. The Transcendentalists believe that, first, nature is ennobling, and second, the individual is____, therefore, self-reliant.
A. insignificant B. vicious by nature C. divine D. forward-looking
Answer: C (P402) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1. "Time grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on: a tart temper mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener by constant use. For a long while he used to perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village. 
Questions: 
1) Please identify the author and the title of the work.2) What’s the meaning of this passage?
参考答案:
1) This is an excerpt from "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. (P408) 
2) With his wife’s dominance at home, the situation became harder and harder for Rip Van Winkle. His wife’s temper became worse and she scolded him for more often. He had to stay in the club with idle people. (P407) 
附:Question: Please describe the changes Rip Van Winkle experienced.
Answer: 1) Rip Van Winkle was the hero in Irving’s works. He was a good-natured man, a henpecked (惧内的，妻管严的) husband.
2) Because his wife’s shrewish (泼妇一样的) treatment, Rip had to escape from his home to the little inn in the village. When it failed to give him some restful air, he had to go hunting in the high mountain, where Rip met a stranger, and the man asked Rip to carry keg for him. Then Rip reached the place in the valley, where many strangers were playing nine-pins. Later Rip got drunk after drinking the liquor, which made him sleep for 20 years.
3) Rip woke up as an old man, entering the village learned that his wife had died, he got the freedom of his own,; and the American had been dependent from the control of Britain, he had changed from a subject of the King (George III) into a citizen of the independent new U.S.....

2. " I celebrated myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"
Questions: 
1) Please identify the author and the title of the poem that had used when published. 2) What is the theme of this poem?
参考答案:1) In the 1856, the title was "Poem of Walt Whitman, an American", then it became "Walt Whitman" in 1860, until 1881, it finally became "Song of Myself". The author is Walt Whitman. (P456--457)2) In this poem Whitman sets forth two principle beliefs: 
A. The theory of universality (普遍性), which is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things;
B. The belief in the singularity (个别性) and equality(平等性) of all beings in value. (P457) 

3. "Standing on the bare ground, ----my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -----all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all." 
Questions: 
1) Please identify the author and the title of the work.2) Please briefly interpret this passage.3). What rhetorical device of "transparent eye-ball".4) Emerson said he want to become a transparent eye-ball, what king idea did he want to express?
参考答案:1) This selection is from "Nature" by Emerson. (P427) 
2) In the essay Emerson clearly expresses the main principles of his Transcendentalist pursuit and his love for nature. Emerson develops his concept of "Over-Soul" Or "Universal Mind". Last but not the leas, it affirms the divinity of the human beings. (P423) 
3) It used the device of metaphor. (P423) 4) He wanted to tell us: Nature can purify (净化) our quality and let us get comfort. (P243) 

III. Questions and answers:
1. The Romantic Period was called "The American Renaissance". Discuss the background of the Romantic Period, and compare it with the Romanticism of Britain.
Answer:
1) The two Romanticism both stress the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature;
2) They all pay attention to psychic states of the characters and exalt the individual and common man;
3) American Romanticism revealed unique characteristics: (difference)
<1> American authors describe their native land,, especially the spirit of the pioneering into the west, the desire for an escape from society and a return to nature;
<2> American writers use local dialect in language;
<3> Puritanism has great influence over American Romantics;
<4> Calvinism of original sin is obvious in their works;
<5> Transcendentalism is very important theory in American Romanticism;
<6> The important setting in American Romanticism are: ① the early puritan settlement; ② the confrontation with the Indians; ③ the frontiersmen’s life; ④ the wild west; ⑤ imagination. (P399—402)

2. Analyze the themes and characteristic of Hawthorne. 
Answer: 
Hawthorne was a man with inquiring imagination, meditative mind and dark vision to life.
His themes in writing are: 
1) Man was born with evil and sin, one source of them is over-reaching intellect, whose image was always villain; (Chllingworth e.g.)
2) Hawthorne was influenced greatly by Puritanism, while he criticized it bitterly;
3) He believed Calvinistic ideas, thinking man was depraved and corrupted; they should obey God for saving the spirits;
4) He concerned the moral life of man and human history;
5) He was keen on the description of man’s development of psychology. (P432—433)

3. Explain the theory of Transcendentalism, then list its important author and works.
Answer:
Transcendentalism is a very important theory in American Romanticism, its main ideas are:
1) Man has the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or the ability of getting knowledge transcending the senses;
2) Nature is ennobling and individual is divine, therefore, man should be self-reliant.
3) Man is divine/holy and perfectible and man can trust himself to decide what is right and act accordingly; (but to Hawthorne and Melville man is a sinner);
4) Universe is over-soul -a symbol of the spirit, God or the universe, there is an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal "over-soul" -unity of Nature.
5) The important authors are: Emerson (The American Scholar) and Thoreau. 
6) "Nature", Emerson’s works, is called the unofficial manifesto for the club. (P421—P422)

4. Hawthorne was a master in using symbol and allegory; cite some example to analyze it.
Answer:
1) Allegorically, Young Goodman Brown becomes an Everyman called Brown, who will be aged in one night by an evil adventure, and the evilness makes everyone a fallen idol in the world.
2) In the angle of Symbol: "Brown look up to the Heaven and resist the wicked one" symbols Brown has the force to resist the evilness of the Nature and he still has the faith to God; but "he is alone in the forest" symbols the society is the place full of sins and evilness, Brown’s strength is not enough at all; then after returning, he lives a dismal and gloomy life symbols he has been crushed down by the social evilness and lost his belief in goodness and piety. (P434—435)

5. Washington Irving was called "Father of the American short stories" and "the American Goldsmith". What characteristics did he have?
Answer:
1) He was nostalgic author, and he always juxtaposing the Old and the New world;
2) He remained a conservative and always exalted a disappearing past, and he prefer the past to present, prefer a dream-like world to a real one;
3) His stories were always from legend, especially German legends, showing best classic style. (P405—406)

6. Sea adventures are Melville’s favorite subject; "Moby-Dick" is a great novel in the theme, which is also noted for its symbolism, please analyze it in detail.
Answer:
1) About the sea adventure: it symbols the voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe; a spirit exploration into man’s deep reality and psychology;
2) About the boat; it symbols the society, and the crew symbol all kinds of people with different social and ethnic ideas;
3) About the white whale: To the author, it symbols nature, it is a complex, unfathomable and beautiful; To the captain Ahab, it is evilness, is a wall. So he will lead all his crew to cut through the wall to dig out all the unknown, mysterious things behind it. To the narrator, Ishmael, it is a mystery. (P460—461)

7. Walt Whitman is a unique poet. Can you explain what make him unique?
Answer:
1) His themes are: Democracy; the Revolutionary War and the Civil War; freedom; openness; brotherhood; individualism; the growth of industry and the wealth of the cities; universality.
2) His styles are special: "free verse"; "catalogue"; simple and even crude language. (P448-551)

PART TWO: AMERICAN LITERATURE
Chapter 2 The Realistic Period

I. Choose the right answer:
1. Emily Dickinson was sometimes curious about the feeling of speech of death and in one of her poems she wrote about the______of death, the title of the poem is "I heard a Fly buzz when I died". 
A. moment B. suffering C. happiness D. meaning
Answer: A (P518) 
2. Theodore Dreiser belonged to the school of literary ______which emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministic forces shaping individualized characters who were presented in special and detailed circumstances.
A. naturalism B. realism C. determinism D. humanism
Answer: A (P524) 
3. More than five hundred poems that Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general _____about the relationship between man and nature is well expressed.
A. skepticism B. eulogy C. happiness D. denial
Answer: A (P518) 
4. "This is my letter to the World" is a poem expressing Emily Dickinson’s _____about her communication with the outside world.
A. happinessB. angerC. Anxiety D. sorrow
Answer: C (P520) 
5. Though secluded herself in her own house, Emily Dickinson was never really indifferent of the outside world, as could be seen in her poems such as "I like to see it lap the Miles", which describes a(n) ______, an embodiment of modern civilization.
A. snake B. animal C. the road D. train
Answer: D (P521) 
6. After "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer", Twain gives a literary independence to Tom’s buddy Huck in a book called_____, and the book from which "all modern American literature comes".
A. Life on the Mississippi River B. The Gilded Age C. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn D. The Sun Also Rises
Answer: C (P479---480) 
7. Winterbourne is used as a ______in Henry James’s "Daisy Miller".
A. Protagonist B. Narrator of the events C. A character of central consciousness D. Persona
Answer: C (P499) 
8. Emily Dickinson’s verse is most aptly characterized as ___________.
A. exposing the evils of the society B. paving the way for the following generation of free verse poets
C. sharing the same poetic conventions as Walt Whitman D. exhibiting sensitiveness to the symbolic implications of experience, such as love, death, immortality and etc.
Answer: D (P518) 
9. The author of "The Portrait of a Lady" is best at_______.
A. probing into the unsearched secret part of human life
B. a truthful delineation of the motives, the impulses, the principles that shape the lives of actual men and women.
C. a dramatizing the collisions between two very different cultural systems on an international scene
D. disclosing the social injustices and evils of a civilized society after the Civil War.
Answer: C (P496) 
10. The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as _____________.
A. the Age of Realism B. the Age of Modernism C. the Age of Romanticism D. the Age of Colonicalism
Answer: A (P471) 
11. Who exerts the simple most important influence on literary naturalism? 
A. Emerson  B. Jack London C. Theodore Dreiser D. Darwin
Answer: D (P475) 
12. One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human "______".
A. bestiality B. goodness  C. compassion D. greed
Answer: A (P476) 
13. ______is considered by H.L. Mencken as "the true father of our national literature."
A. Hemingway B. Poe C. Irving D. Twain
Answer: D (P477) 
14. Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a _______language.
A. grand B. pompous C. simple D. vernacular
Answer: D (P481) 
15. Henry James’s fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with________.
A. international theme B. national theme C. European theme D. Regional theme
Answer: A (P497) 
16. In the following writers, who is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century "Stream-of-consciousness" novels and the founder of psychological realism______________.
A. Henry James B. Mark Twain C. Emily Dickenson D. Theodore Dreiser
Answer: A (P498) 
17. In Henry James’ "Daisy Miller", the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment of ___________.
A. the corruption of the newly rich B. the free spirit of the New World C. the decline of aristocracy D. the force of convention
Answer: B (P499) 
18. Which of the following is NOT a usual subject of poetic expression of Emily Dickinson’s?
A. War and peace B. Love and marriage C. Life and death D. Religion
Answer: A (P517) 
19. The following titles are all related to the subject that escapes from the society and returns to nature except__________.
A. Dreiser’s Sister Carrie B. Copper’s Leather-Stocking Tales C. Thoreau’s Walden D. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Answer: A (P401 / P526)
20. The greatest work written by Theodore Dreiser is__________.
A. Sister Carrie B. An American Tragedy C. The Financier D. The Titan
Answer: B (P525) 
21. Closely related to Emily Dickinson’s religious poetry are her poems concerning ___________.
A. Childhood B. Youth and happiness C. Loneliness D. Death and immortality
Answer: D (518)
22. 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 century.
A. sentimentalism B. romanticism C. realism D. naturalism
Answer: C (P474) 

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions: 
1. "It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt tow things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to my self: 
"All right, then, I’ll go to hell"----and tore it up.
It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never though no more about reforming."
1) Who was the "I", which book was the passage taken from? And by whom? 2) Why did he think "it was awful thought"? Analyze it.
3) Analyze the characteristic of the hero.
Answer:
1) The character is Huckleberry Finn, the passage is taken from "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. (P489) 
2) It is the climax of the Huck’s inner struggle on the Mississippi, when Huck is conflicting whether or not he should write a letter to tell Miss Watson where Jim is, and he is polarizing/contradicting by the two opposing forces between his heart and his head, between his affection for Jim and the laws of the society against those who help slaves escape. Huck’s final decision -to follow his own good hearted moral impulse rather than conventional village morality. During his thinking Huck thinks of the consequence of helping Jim (the runaway slave), he might go to hell, "it was awful thought", with the eventual victory of his moral conscience over his social awareness, Huck grows. (P480) 
3) Huck is an innocent and reluctant rebel, a typical American Boy with a "sound heart and deformed conscience". Through the eyes of Huck, the Pre-Civil War American society is fully exposed and we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wildness and civilization. (P483) 

2. "I should think it might be arranged," Winterbourne was thus emboldened to reply. "Couldn’t you get some one to stay----for the afternoon---with Randolph?"
Miss Miller looked at him a moment; and then with all serenity, "I wish you’d stay with him!" she said.
Questions:
1) Please identify the work and the author.2) Please analyze the character of Daisy Miller in literature.
参考答案:
1) It is taken from Henry James’s "Daisy Miller". (P513) 
2) She is the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated type who embodies the spirit of the New World. However, innocence, the keynote of her character, turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures. (P499-500) 

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) Please identify the poem and the poet;2) What does "the School, the Fields of Gazing Grain and the Setting Sun" stands for?

Answers:
1) The lines are from "Because I could not stop fro Death", Emily Dickinson. (P523) 
2) It stands for three stages of life: the School----youth; 
the Fields of Gazing Grain----mature period; 
the Setting Sun------end of life. (P523)

4. "The Eyes around---had wrung them dry---
And breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset----when the King
Be witnessed---in the Room----"
Questions:
1) What is the meaning of the first line? 2) What does "the King" refer to? 3) What idea does the poem from which this stanza is taken express?

Answers:
1) It means the relatives and friends had cried and cried so that there were no tears any more. (P521) 
2) "The King" refers to the God of death. (P521) 3) The poem expresses that the author even imagined her own death, the loss of her own body, and the journey of her soul to the unknown. (P518) 

III. Questions and answers:
1. What are the main ideas of Realists of America?
Answer:
The harsh life and disillusion from the dark memories of the Civil War made the nation dislike the romance, the new generation of writers came up with new inspirations:
1) They were interested in the realities of life. It aimed at the interpretation of the actuality of any aspect of life;
2) People’s attention was now directed the interesting features/things of everyday existence/things -something brutal, sordid/mean, class struggle etc.
3) The authors introduced common people such as: industrial workers and farmers, ambitious businessmen, vagrants, prostitutes/street girls, and unheroic soldiers in fiction;
4) American writers displayed native trends in portrayal of the landscape ad social surface realistically;
5) They formed perfect vernacular style in language;
6) Some authors explored and exploited/used the literary possibilities of the interior life/psychology, such as Henry James;
7) The representatives were: Mark Twain, Henry James, William Dean Howells;
In short, they set the example and pictured the future course for the modernism. (in the subject, themes, techniques, and styles of fiction)
(P472---474)

2. Take examples to analyze the style and theme of Mark Twain.
Answer:
Mark Twain is a great literary of America, H. L. Mencken considered him "the true father of our national literature".
1) Twain’s works like "Adventure of Huckleberry Finn" and "Life on the Mississippi" shaped the views of America and combined American folk humor and serious literature together;
2) "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" proved to be the milestone in American literature, and they were the record of a vanishing way of life in the pre-Civil War Mississippi.
3) The books were noted for their unpretentious, colloquial, poetic, humorous, innocent and free style;
4) The language of Twain was simple, direct, lucid and faithful to truth -"vernacular";
5) Twain was famous for a local colorist, who presented social life through portraits of the local characters of his region -people living in the area, the landscape, the customs, dialects, costumes. Especially the theme of the Mississippi valley and the West;
6) The work of Twain were always confined to a particular region, historical moment, strong accent, intensified humor to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism. (P477-481) 

3. Give a comment on the experience of Carrie.
参考答案：
1) Penniless and "full of the illusions of ignorance and youth", Sister Carrie leaves her rural home to seek work in Chicago, she grows from an innocent, pure country girl to be a girl mature in intellect and emotion, and she becomes a star of musical comedies. But in spite of her success in material, she is not happy but lonely and dissatisfied.
2) Sister Carrie best embodies Dreiser’s naturalistic belief that while men are controlled and conditioned by heredity, instinct and chance, a few extraordinary and unsophisticated human beings refuse to accept their fate wordlessly and instead strive, unsuccessfully, to find meaning and purpose for their existence. (P527-528) 

4. The characteristic and theme analyses of Henry James.
Answer:
1) The Freudian approach is famous in his novels and his literary essays.
2) James took great interest in international themes -the clashed between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America in his first period.
3) "The Portrait of A Lay" is generally considered to be his masterpiece.
4) James experimented with different themes and forms in his middle period.
5) In his last an major period, James returned to his "international-theme."
6) The typical pattern of the conflict between the two cultures would be that of a young American man or an American girl (Daisy Miller) who goes to Europe and affronts/met with his or her destiny. The unsophisticated boy or girl would be beguiled, betrayed, cruelly wronged at the hands of those who pretend to stand for the highest possible civilization.
7) He focuses on psychological approach. His fictional world is concerned more with the inner life of human beings -this emphasis on psychology and on the human consciousness proves to be a big breakthrough in novel writing.
8) He is regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century "stream-of-consciousness" novels and the founder of psychological realism.
9) James avoids the authorial omniscience as much as possible and makes his characters reveal themselves with his minimal intervention. (P495-498) 

5. The period from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to the Age of Realism (The Gilded Age) in the literary history of the United States, why did it happen and what characters did it have?
Answer:
1) The American society after the Civil War provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism, and Civil War affected the social and the value system of the country, America had transformed into an industrialized and commercialised society.
2) The war stimulated the technological development;
3) The booming economy and industry stepped up urbanization;
4) The phenomenon of polarization is serious;
5) People became doubtful about the human nature and the benevolence/grace of God;
6) Gone was the frontier, the spirit of the frontiersman/pioneer, the spirit of freedom and the American dream. (P471---472) 

6. Please analyze the characteristics of Emily Dickinson’s poems.
Answer:
1) Dickinson’s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her little lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and nature. (theme)
2) Her masterpiece -----"I heard a Fly buzz---when I died", she looked at death from the point of view of both the living and the dying. She even imagined her own death, the loss of her own body, and the journey of her soul to the unknown.
3) The style of Dickinson:
A: A particular stress pattern: dash“-------”
B: Capital letters as a means of emphasis;
C: Language: brief, direct, and plain;
D: Poem: short, always on single image or symbol (e.g. "I like to see it lap the miles"---------describe a train in the personification of the literary device) 
E: Her poems tend to be personal and meditative (e.g. “Because I could not stop for Death”).
(P517---519) 

7. In the representatives of "Local colorism", the writers shared some things in common and also had some differences, please analyze them.
Answer:
1) 3 prominent writers differed in the understanding of the "truth": Mark Twain and Howells paid attention to the life of the Americans; Henry James emphasized the "inner world";
2) Howells focused on the rising middle class, while Twine dealt with the region and the people at the forefront;
3) The other local colorists concerned with the life of the small, well-defined region or province, the setting is always the isolated small town;
4) They were nostalgic historians, recording the vanishing way of life, and the fading present. (P474---475) 

8. Analyze the theory of Theodore Dreiser’naturalism with example.
Answer:
1) His naturalism emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministic forces shaping individualized characters who were presented in special and detailed circumstances. At bottom, life was shown to be ironic, even tragic.
2) The characters in his books are often subject to the control of the natural forces -especially those of environment and heredity. For example, the hero Hurstwood’s tragic death showed the theory.
3) The effect of Darwinist idea of "survival of the fittest" was shattering. It is not surprising to find in Dreiser’s fiction a world of jungle, where "kill or to be killed" was the law.
4) He criticizes materialistic to the core, living in such a society with such a value system, the human individual is obsessed with a never-ending, yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his/her desires. One of the desires is for money which was a motivating purpose of life in the United States in the late 19th century. For example in his masterpiece "Sister Carrie" he traces the material rise of Carrie Meeber, which indicates the critical attitude of the author.
5) Sexual beauty symbolizes the acquisition of some social status of great magnitude. (P525---527)

9. Darwin’s evolutionary theory gave rise to American naturalism, what are their characteristics?
Answer:
The American naturalists accepted the more negative implication of Darwin’s theory, and used it to explain the behaviours in literary works.
1) They regarded man as the complex combinations of inherited attributes/elements, their habits conditioned/controlled by social and economic forces;
2) They chose their subjects from the lower ranks of the society and portrayed misery and poverty/poorness;
3) They dealt with the nature of the man of "underdogs" -"bestiality", as an explanation of sexual desire;
4) Their languages were unpolished;
5) The naturalists believed that the real and true nature is hidden from the eyes o the individual, or beyond his control;
6) Naturalism evolved/came from realism, but the tone of the authors were more ironic and pessimistic. (P475-476)
American Literature

Chapter 3 The Modern Period
I. Choose the right answer:
1. Ezra Pound is a leading spokesman of the_________.
A. Imagist Movement  B. Chartist Movement C. Modernist Movement D. Romantic Movement
Answer: A (P553) 
2. Strong affinity of the Chinese and Oriental literature can be found in the works of_________.
A. Mark Twain B. Ezra Pound C. Emily Dickinson D. Arthur Miller
Answer: B (P556) 
3. In Robert Frost’s famous poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", there are four lines like these: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep,/ And miles to go before I sleep”. The second sleep refers to______.
A. die B. calm down C. fall into sleep D. stop walking
Answer: A (P567) 
4. Of the following American poets, whose work was first recognized in England and then in America?
A. Robert Frost B. Walt Whitman  C. Emily Dickinson D. Wallace Stevens
Answer: A (P561) 
5. "For I have had too much/ Of apple-picking: I am overtired/ Of the great harvest I myself desired" From these lines we can conclude that the speaker __________.
A. is happy about the harvest B. is tired of the work of apple-picking
C. is not tired when seeing the harvest D. becomes indifferent of the job
Answer: B (P565)

6. In these lines "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough", Ezra Pound uses the figure of speech of ________.
A. metaphor B. simile C. hyperbole D. contrast
Answer: A (P557) 
7. O’Neill’s inventiveness seemingly knew no limits. He was constantly experimenting with new styles and forms for his plays, especially during the twenties when ______was in full swing.
A. Symbolism B. Expressionism C. Romanticism D. Realism
Answer: B (P571)
8. "He got me, aw right. I’m trou. Even him didn’t tink I belonged." In these sentences taken from ’The Hairy Ape’, the words “he” and “him” both refer to__________.
A. Yank B. God C. The ape in the zoo D. A person unnamed
Answer: B (P575) 
9. ______is a school of modern painting, whose emphasis is on the formal structure of a work of art and especially on the multiple-perspective viewpoints.
A. Expressionism B. Impressionism C. Cubism D. Imagism
Answer: C (P546) 
10. In a class which discuss the Imagist Movement in the United States, we will definitely NOT include________.
A. William Carlos Williams B. Ezra Pound C. Gary Snyder D. Wallance Stevens
Answer: C (P547-548) 
11. In which of the following poems by Ezra Pound did you find the allusion to Wi-shang? ____________
A. In a Station of the Metro B. The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter C. A Pact D. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
Answer: B (P559) 
12. In 1915, Ezra Pound began writing his great work_______, which spanned from 1917 to 1959.
A. Cantos B. Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound C. Personae D. Hygh Selwyn Mauberley
Answer: A (P554) 
13. Robert Frost was the Pulitzer winner on ______ occasions.
A. twoB. Three C. four D. five
Answer: C (P560) 

13. The founder of the American drama is _______.
A. Arthur Miller B. Clifford Odets C. Tennesee Williams D. Eugene O’Neill
Answer: D (P568)
14. The first full-length play written by Eugene O’Neill is ______.
A. The Straw B. Beyond the Horizon C. Bound East for Cardiff D. The Hairy Ape
Answer: B (P568) 
14. Eugene O’Neill’s ’The Hairy Ape’ explores the problem of________.
A. human disillusionment B. the corruption of human desire  C. human responsibility D. the loss of human identity
answer: D (P572)
15. Fitzgerald’s fictional world is the best embodiment of the spirit of_______.
A. the Jazz age B. the Romantic Period C. the Renaissance Period D. the Neoclassical Period
Answer: A (P577) 
16. Fitzgerald wrote the following except_________.
A. The Great Gatsby B. In Our Time C. Tender is the Night D. This Side of Paradise
Answer: B (P578) 
17. "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 chamoagne and the stars...", the two sentences are taken from________.
A. ’The Great Gatsby’ by Fitzgerald B. ’Sister Carrie’ by Theodore Dreiser C. ’Moby-Dick’ by Herman Melville D. ’Daisy Miller’ by Henry James
Answer: A (P583) 
18. Which of the following comments on the novel ’The Great Gatsby’ is not true?
A. The Great Gatsby is a novel that is a set against the ending of the war.
B. Gatsby is a mystical figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a state of mind that embodies American itself.
C. Gatsby is the last of the romantic heroes. D. Gatsby is wealthy but unintelligent and brutal.
Answer: D (P581-582) 
19. _____is Hemingway’s masterpiece.
A. Farewell to Arms B. For Whom the bell Tolls C. The Sun Also Rises D. The Old Man and the Sea
Answer: D (P601) 
20. Which of the following best describes the protagonist of William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily"?
A. She is a conservative aristocrat. B. She is a wealth lady. C. She is a prisoner of the past. D. She has good taste.
Answer: C (P617) 
21. Who, disregarding grammar and punctuation, always used "I" instead of "I" to refer to himself as a protest against self-importance?
A. Cummings B. Wallance Stevens C. Fitzgerald D. Ernest Hemingway
Answer: A (P548)
22. Who is the author of the writing "The Grapes of Wrath"?
A. John Steinbeck B. Eugene O’Neill C. Fitzgerald D. Theodore Dreiser 
Answer: A (P548-549)

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1. "The apparition of these faces in the crowded; / Petals on a wet, black bough." 
1) From which poem does the stanza come? Who is the author?2) What does the “petals”mean?3) Briefly interpret the two lines.
Answers: 1) The lines are taken from "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound. (P557) 2) Here "petals" stands for "human faces". (P557) 
3) The two lines compare human faces to petals on a wet, black bough. This way of making poetry comes from Chinese poetics. (P557) 

2. "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) Please identify the poem and the poet; 2) Please briefly interpret this poem.
Answers:
1) It is taken from Robert Lee Frost’s "The Road Not Taken" (P566) 
2) In this meditative poem, the speaker tells us how the course of his life determined when he came upon two rods that diverged in a wood. Forced to choose, he “took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”He seems to be giving a suggestion to the reader: "Make good choice of your life." (P555-556)

3. "The caterwauling horns had reached a crescendo and I turned away and cut across the lawn toward home. I glanced back once. A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby’s house, making his still glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the lost, who stood on the porch, his stand up in a formal gesture of farewell."
Questions:
1) Name the author and the title of the novel from which this passage is taken.
2) What is the setting of the novel?
3) What implied meaning can you get from reading this passage?
Answers:
1) The passage comes from "The Great Gatsby" written by Fitzgerald. (P597) 
2) The Great Gatsby is a novel that is set against the ending of the war. (P581) 
3) The passage hints at the meaninglessnes, spiritual emptiness and vanity of such a lift of pleasure-seeking. There is a tragic sense that the "party" will be over. Gatsby’s failure magnifies to a great extent the end of the American Dream. (However, the affirmation of hope and expectation is self-asserted in Fitzgerald’s artistic manipulation of the central symbol in the novel, the green light).
(P582) 

III Questions and answers:
1. Analyze the background of the Modern Period.
Answer:
(1) The U.S. participated in The First World War marked a crucial stage in the nation’s evolution/development to a world power.
(2) The technology has brought about great changes in the life of the American people. (P544) 

2. The ideology analyses about the people and especially the authors.
(The ideology analysis of "The Lost Generation)
Answer:
(1) People became less certain about what might arise in this changing world and more cynical about accepted standards of honesty and morality. The idea of "seize the day" or "enjoy the present" was pervasive.
(2) There was a decline in moral standard and the first few decades of the twentieth century was described as a spiritual wasteland. The censor/standard of a great civilization being destroyed or destroying itself, social breakdown, and individual powerlessness and hopelessness became part of the American experience as a result of the First World War, with resulting feelings of fear, loss, disorientation and disillusionment.
(3) Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous, greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experience in the war.
(4) The sense of loss and despair prevails among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred; Faulkner creates his own mythical kingdom that mirrors not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society.
(5) The world is even more disintegrating and fragmentary and people are even more estranged and despondent.
(6) These writers shared almost the same belief that human beings are trapped in a meaningless world and that neither God nor man can make sense of the human condition.
(7) In general terms, much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decay and the writer’s task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. (P545-552) 

3. List some characteristic writers you know in the Modernism.
Answer:
(1) The spirit of frivolity and carelessness is brought vividly to life in "The Great Gatsby" (1925).
(2) Faulkner’s footsteps in portraying the decadence and evil in the Southern society in a Gothic manner.
(3) Salinger is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post-war era and his The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students’ classic.
(4) O’Neill is remembered for his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about the root, the truth of human desires and human frustration. (P548---549)

4. What are the styles of the modernists in writing?
Answer:
(1) The defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works discontinuity and fragmentation.
(2) The biggest shift is from the external to the internal, from the public to the private, from the chronological to the psychic, from the objective description to the subjective projection.
(3) Modern American writers in general emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the direct conveyer of experience.
(4) Their language is direct, compressive, vivid and sparing of words.
(5) Modern fiction tended to employ the first person narration or limit the reader to the "central consciousness" or one character’s point of view. This limitation accorded with the modernistic vision that truth does not exist objectively but is the product of a personal interaction with reality. (P552---553) 

5. Some theories and ideologies influenced the Modernists, what are they?
Answer:
(1) Darwinism; (2) Karl Marx’s scientific socialism; (3) Freud’s "unconsciousness" and psychoanalysis; (4) William James’ "stream of consciousness"; (5) Carl June’s "collective unconscious", "archetypal symble". (P546) 

6. What are the characteristics of the Eugene O’Neill’s plays?
(1) Of all the plays O’Neill wrote, most of them are tragedies, dealing with the basic issues of human existence and predicament: life and death, illusion and disillusion, alienation and communication, dream and reality, self and society, desire and frustration, etc. His characters (The Hairy Ape) in the plays are described as seeking meaning and purpose in their lives in different ways, some through love, some through religion, others through revenge, but all meet disappointment and despair.
(2) Dramatization of man’s effort in finding the secret of life results in a reconciliation with the tragic impossibility.
(3) "The Hairy Ape" is a play that concerns the problem of modern man’s identity. Yank’s sense of belonging nowhere, hence homelessness and rootlessness, is typical of the mood of isolation and alienation in the early twentieth century in the United States and the whole world as well. (P570-571) 

7. Analyze "The Hemingway Code Hero"
Answer:
(1) They are always Exposed to and victimized by violence in various forms, Nick becomes the prototype of the wounded hero who, with all the dignity and courage he could muster, confronts situation.
(2) They are a group of wandering, amusing, but aimless people, who are caught in the war and removed from the path of ordinary life.
(3) They are the men trapped both physically and mentally.
(4) God’s design or his beneficence and to suggest that man is doomed to be entrapped.
(5) They believe: life is worth living and there are causes worth dying for.
(6) In a tragic sense, the struggle of Hemingway’s heroes show: it is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable natural forces in which only a partial victory is possible. Nevertheless, there is a feeling of great respect for the struggle and mankind.
(7) Hemingway hero of athletic prowess and masculinity and unyielding heroism.
(8) To master the code with the honest, the discipline, and the restrains are Hemingway Code heroes. In the general situation of his novels, life is full of tension and battles; the world is in chaos; man is always fighting desperately a losing battle. However, though life is but a losing battle, it is a struggle man can dominate in such a way that loss becomes dignity; man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. (P600---603) 

8. About William Faulkner:
I. Analyses about his life and his theme:
Answer:1) His works criticizes the stratified society among the aristocrats, the new rich, the poor whites and the blacks.
2) His work shows a panorama of the experience and consciousness of the whole Southern society.
3) His works focus on the collision of the intelligent, sensitive, and idealistic protagonist/hero (Emily) with the society of the twentieth century. 
4) Almost all his heroes turn out to be tragic. They are tragic because they are prisoners of the past, or the society, or some social and moral taboos, or of their own introspective personalities.
5) Faulkner suggests that society, which conditions man with its hierarchical stratification and with its laws and institutions, eliminates man’s chance of responding naturally to the experience of his existence, against this imprisoned, confused, fragmented social being is the primitive man who, not conditioned by the civilization and social institutions, accepts the life-death pattern of human existence.
6) By turning away from reality, by alienating himself from truth with his attempts to explain the inexplicable, becomes weak and cowardly, confused and ineffectual.
7) Theme of imprisonment in the past. The past that Faulkner uses in this book to set off the present is not the past of an earlier society or historical period, but the immediate past---the world of childhood, innocent and idealistic. (P612---614) 

II. Analyses on Faulkner’s techniques in writing:
Answer:
1) He holds/believes in the infinite possibilities inherent in human life. Therefore a writer should observe with no judgment whatsoever and reduce authorial intrusion to the lowest minimum. The range of narrative techniques used by Faulkner is remarkable. He would never step between the characters and the reader to explain, but let the characters explain themselves and hinder as little as possible the reader’s direct experience of the work of art. (detached)
2) He deliberately broke up the chronology of his narrative by juxtaposing the past with the present.
3) Faulkner was good at presenting multiple points of view. (P615-616) 

III. The character analyses about Miss Emily Grierson:

Answer:
1) She is an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept the passage of time or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it.
2) She is the symbols of the Old South but the prisoners of the past.
3) Something about plots: Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, and she vanquished the people in the town, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. And she is the victim of the idea of her family: none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. Then she fell in love with a Northerner, but some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young men. (P617)