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美国文学史及选读试题
I. Multiple Choice 10’
1. Who is different from others according to the division of writing
period?
A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant
C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper
2. The American Romantic Period lasted roughly from ____ to ____.
A. 1798-1832 B. 1810-1860
C. 1860-1864 D. 1776-1783
3. How many syllables are there in this first line of Raven?
(“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and
weary,”)
A. 11 B. 12 C. 13 D. 16
4. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing?
A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution
5. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was
largely due to ____.
A. typography B. journalism C. revolution
D. the development of paper-making industry
6. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”?
A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer
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C. Washington Irving D. Philip Freneau
7. Who is the first American prose stylist that acquired international
fame?
A. Captain John Smith B. Washington Irving
C. Benjamin Franklin D. E. A. Poe
8. Who is the writer of To a Waterfowl?
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Thomas Hardy
C. William Cullen Bryant D. Walt Whitman
9. Thomas Paine is a ____?
A. novelist B. dramatist C. poet D. pamphleteer
10. Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes ____
A. short stories B. literary critic theories
C. poems D. dramas
II. Blank-Filling 20’
1. ____’s reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have
been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written
in English.
2. Hard work, ____, piety, and ____were the Puritan values that
dominated much of the earliest American writing, including the
sermons, books and letters of such noted Puritan clergymen as John
Cotton and Cotton Mather.
3. Most Puritan verse was decidedly plodding, but the work of two
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writers, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of____
4. From 1732 to 1785, Franklin wrote and published his famous
____, an annual collection of proverbs.
5. On January 10, 1776, Paine’s famous pamphlet ____ appeared. It
boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”, and brought the
separatist agitation to a crisis.
6. As a poet, ____heralded American literary independence: his close
observation of nature distinguished his treatment of indigenous wild
life and other native American subjects.
7. The attitudes of America’s writers were shaped by their
____environment and an array of ideas inherited from the
____traditions of Europe.
8. Romantic writers placed increasing value on the ____ expression of
emotion and displayed increasing attention to the ____ states of their
characters.
9. Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: ____ and
____.
10. The central figure in Cooper’s Novels, ____ goes by various names
of Leatherstocking, Deerslyer, Pathfinder, and Hawkeye.
III. Chinese Alternation of English Literary Terms 10’
1. Puritanism
2. Romanticism
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3. Sketch Book
4. Thanatopsis
5. The Wild Honey Suckle
IV. Give a brief comment on American Crisis. 15’
V. Answer the following questions. 25’
1. What does the word “Power” in To a Waterfowl refer to? 5’
2. What is your understanding on Helen in the poem To Helen? 5’
3. What is the tone of Thanatopsis? 5’
4. List some sound devices used in Raven 10’
VI. Translate this poem by E. Dickinson. 20’

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any horses like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!