American LiteratureChapter 1 The Romantic PeriodI. 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 moralityB. Human bestialityC. Noble savagesD. Divinity of man2. Henry David Thoreau’s work, ________, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of the New England Transcendental Movement.A. WaldenB. The PioneersC. NatureD. "Song of Myself"3. "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" is a famous quote from______’s writings.A. Walt WhitmanB. Henry David ThoreauC. Herman MelvilleD. Ralph Waldo Emerson4. ’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 idealsB. the romantic idealsC. the self-reliance spiritsD. the religious ideals5. According to Whitman, the genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort was to behave as a supreme_________.A. democratB. individualistC. romanticistD. leader6. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as ___________.A. The Naturalist PeriodB. The Modern PeriodC. The Romantic PeriodD. The Realistic Period7. In the following works, which sign the beginning of the American literature?A. The Sketch BookB. Leaves of GrassC. Leather Stocking TalesD. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn8. _____is the author of the work ’The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’.A. Washington IrvingB. James JoyceC. Walt WhitmanD. William Butler Yeats9. Washington Irving’s ’Rip Van Winkle’ is famous for_________.A. Rip’s escape into a mysteriousB. The story’s German legendary source materialC. Rip’s seeki ng for happinessD. Rip’s 20-years sleep10. 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 literar y imagination can hardly be ignored considering his success both abroad and at home.C. I rving’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."11. The Publication of ______established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-Soul12. The phrase "a transparent eye-ball’ compares philosophical mentation of Emerson’s. It appears in_________.A. The American ScholarB. NatureC. The over SoulD. Essays: Second Series13. 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"14. _____is the most ambivalent (有争议的) writers in the American literary history.A. Nathaniel HawthorneB. Walt WhitmanC. Ralph Waldo EmersonD. Mark Twain15. "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 IrvingB. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman16. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as________.A. saviorsB. villainsC. commentatorsD. observers17. All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne except_______.A. The House of the Seven GablesB. White JacketC. The Marble FaunD. The Blithedale Romance18. Walt Whitman is radically innovative in the form of his poetry. What he prefers for his new subject is__________.A. free verseB. blank verseC. lyric poemD. heroic couplet19. Which of the following features cannot characterize poems by Walt Whitman?A. Lyrical and well-structuredB. Free-flowingC. Simple and rather crudeD. Conversational and casual20. " 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 WhitmanB. "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra PoundC. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" by Walt WhitmanD. "Ulysses" by JoyceAnswer: A (P454)21. "Moby Dick" is regarded as the first American_________.A. Prose epicB. Comic epicC. Dramatic fictionD. Poetic fictionAnswer: A (P460)22. The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all EXCEPT________.A. mystery of the universeB. sin of the whaleC. power of the great NatureD. evil of the worldAnswer: 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. insignificantB. vicious by natureC. divineD. forward-looking10. It is on his____________ that Washingt on Irving’s fame mainly rested.A. childhood recollectionsB. sketches about his European toursC. early poetryD. tales about America12. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ____________________.A. nature, man and the universeB. the relationship between man and womanC. the development of Romanticism in American literatureD. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism13. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is NOT right?A. It’s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.B. It’s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.C. It’s mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the maincharacters and the people in general.D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.15. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called “____________________.”A. free verseB. blank verseC. alliterationD. end rhyming21. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general Skepticismabout the relationship between ______ is well-expressed.A. man and manB. men and womenC. man and natureD. men and God22. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poems about nature?A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between man and nature.B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond between man and nature.C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings.D.Many of them showed her feeling of nature’s inscrutability and indifference to the life andinterests of human beings.23. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an unconventionalstyle which is now called free verse, that is _________.A. lyrical poetry with chanting refrainsB. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme schemeC. poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beatD. poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings31. Which of the following statements can be said about the works of Scott Fitzgerald, a spokesman of the “Roaring 20s”?38. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as ______________.A. commentatorsB. observersC. villainsD. saviors39. Besides sketches, tales and essays, Washington Irving also published a book on ______, which is also considered an important part of his creative writing.A. poetic theoryB. French artC. history of New YorkD. life of George Washington43. Emily Dickinson wrote many short poems on various aspects of life. Which of the following is nota usual subject of her poetic expression?A. Religion.B. Life and death.C. Love and marriage.D. War and peace.44. In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled _______ at Harvard, which was hailed by Oliver Wendell Holmes as "Our intellectual Declaration of Independence."A. "Nature"B. "Self-Reliance"C. "Divinity School Address"D. "The American Scholar"46. In American literature the first important writer who earned an international fameon both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is_______________.A. Washington IrvingB. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman47. The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his“black vision．”TheTerm “black vision” refers to______________.A. Hawthorne's observation that every man faces a black WallB. Hawthorne's belief that all men are by nature evilC. that Hawthorne employed a dream vision to tell his storyD. that Puritans of Hawthorne's time usually wore black clothes52. Though Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were romantic poets in theme and technique, they differ from each other in a variety of ways. For one thing, whereasWhitman likes to keep his eye on human Society at large, Dickinson often addresses such issues as_______, immortality, religion, love and nature.A. progressB. freedomC. beautyD. death53. The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the_______in the American literary history．A. individual feelingB. survival of the fittestC. strong imaginationD. return to nature61. American Romanticism stretches from the end of the ________ century through the outbreak of ______.A. 18th, the Civil WarB. 18th, the War of IndependenceC. 19th, WWID. 19th, WWII62. _________ believes that the chief aim of literary creation is beauty, and “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”A. Walt WhitmanB. Edgar Allen PoeC. Anne BradstreetD. Ralph Waldo Emerson63. In Emily Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death, ______________.A. death is personified as a devilB. death is described as the tragic end of a person’s lifeC. death is a stage of life and it leads people to the Heaven of immortalityD. death is described as a beautiful girl who couldn’t find her final destination64. Which is generally regarded as the manifesto and the Bible of American Transcendentalism?A. Thoreau’s WaldenB.Emerson’s NatureC. Poe’s Poetic PrincipleD. Thoreau’s Nature65. Henry David Thoreau’s work, ________, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of the NewEngland Transcendental Movement.A. WaldenB. The PioneersC. NatureD. "Song of Myself"66. ‘Leaves of Grass’ commands great attention because of its uniquely poetic embodimentof________, which are written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War and theAmerican Civil War.A. the democratic idealsB. the romantic idealsC. the self-reliance spiritsD. the religious ideals67. ________is the author of the work “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.A. Washington IrvingB. James JoyceC. Walt WhitmanD. William Butler Yeats70. We can perhaps summarize that Walt Whitman’s poems are characterized by all the following features except that they are _______________.A. conversational and crudeB. lyrical and well-structuredC. simple and rather crudeD. free-flowing77. The Transcendentalists believe that, first, nature is ennobling, and second, the individual is ____________.A. insignificantB. vicious by natureC. divineD. forward-looking78. The Publication of ______established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-SoulAnswer: C (P402)II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:1. "T ime 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 ofthe 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: ①the early puritan settlement; ②the 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 fo r 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 adventure s are Melville’s favorite subject; "Moby-Dick" is a great novel in the theme, which is alsonoted 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 LITERATUREChapter 2 The Realistic PeriodI. 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. momentB. sufferingC. happinessD. meaningAnswer: 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. naturalismB. realismC. determinismD. humanismAnswer: 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. skepticismB. eulogyC. happinessD. denialAnswer: 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. AnxietyD. sorrowAnswer: 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. snakeB. animalC. the roadD. trainAnswer: 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 RiverB. The Gilded AgeC. Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD. The Sun Also RisesAnswer: C (P479---480)7. Winterbourne is used as a ______in Henry James’s "Daisy Miller".A. ProtagonistB. Narrator of the eventsC. A character of central consciousnessD. PersonaAnswer: C (P499)8. Emily Dickinson’s verse is most aptly characterized as ___________.A. exposing the evils of the societyB. paving the way for the following generation of free verse poetsC. sharing the same poetic conventions as Walt WhitmanD. 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 lifeB. 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 sceneD. 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 RealismB. the Age of ModernismC. the Age of RomanticismD. the Age of Colonicalism Answer: A (P471)18. Which of the following is NOT a usual subject of poetic expression of Emily Dickinson’s?A. War and peaceB. Love and marriageC. Life and deathD. ReligionAnswer: A (P517)3. "We passed the School, where Children stroveAt 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 firmFor that last Onset----when the KingBe 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 fromwhich 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)6. Please analyze the characteristics of Emily Dickinso n’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)。