英语专业美国文学期末考试简答题.ppt

1、1.In the bosom of one of the spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson,at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappaan Zee,and where they always prudently shortened sail,and implored the protection of St.Nicholas when they crossed,there

2、lies a small market town or rural port,which by some is called Greens burgh,but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town.This name was given,we are told in former days,by the good housewives of the adjacent country form the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linge

3、r about the village tavern on market days.Be that as it may,I do not vouch for the fact,but merely advert to it,for the sake of being precise and authentic.1)Identify the author and the title of work from which this part is taken?(Washington Irving;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.)2)What is the setting

4、of this novel?(a quiet,dreamy and mysterious valley,full of superstitions or tales about the ghosts.)3)From the perspective of setting,what are the differences between traditional gothic fiction and early American fiction?(The settings of the traditional gothic fiction are often castles,basements,ch

5、urches,abbeys,forests,chambers,etc.while the setting of the early American fiction is frontier wilderness.)2.I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment,of looking down within the tarn,had been to deepen the first singular impression.There can e no doubt that the consciousnes

6、s of the rapid increase of my superstition for why should I not so term it?served mainly to accelerate the increase itself.Such,I have long known,is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis.And it might have been for upon my imagination as really to believe that around about th

7、e whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity,an atmosphere which had no affinity with ht air of heaven but which had reeked up form the decayed trees,and the gray wall,and the silent tarn,in the form of an inelastic vapor of gas dull,sluggis

8、h,faintly discernible,and leaden-hued.1)This paragraph is excerpted from The Fall of the House of Usher.Please list out the main characters in it and briefly explain their relationship.(Roderick Usher,Madeline Usher,and the narrator.The first two are brother and sister,and the narrator was one of th

9、e brothers friend in their childhood.)2)What is the symbolic meaning of the“tarn”in this fiction?(a.Madeline as the twin of Roderick,reflecting his image and personality;b.the image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceive;though the water of the tarn reflects details exactly,the image is

10、 upside down,leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a false reality;c.the desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world.)3.Nevertheless,so potent an influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it,and by su

11、ch a strange delicacy,to call it so,were they governed in this matter,that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequods main-mast.Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship,the whole of this strange affai

12、r I now proceed to put on lasting record.For my humors sake,I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated it at Lima,to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends,one saints eve,smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn.Of those fine cavaliers,the young Dons,Pedro and Sebastian,w

13、ere on the closer terms with me;and hence the interluding questions they occasionally put,and which are duly answered at the time.1.Who is the narrator“I”?What kind of person is he?(Ishmael,a junior member of the crew of the Pequod and the only survivor of the Pequods voyage.Hes tolerant,jovial,nave

14、 and frank.)2.Whos the captain of the Pequod?Whats his personality?(Ahab.a)He is an egomaniacal,dictatorial but not unfair captain;b)He is single-minded in his pursuit of the whale,obsessed with killing the white whale,using a mixture of charisma and terror to persuade his crew to join him;c)At mome

15、nts he shows a compassionate side,caring for the insane Pip and musing on his wife and child back in Nantucket.)4.I taste a liquor never brewed From Tankards scooped in PearlNot all the Frankfort BerriesYield such an Alcohol!Inebriate of Air am I And Debauchee of Dew Reeling thro endless summer days

16、 From inns of Molten Blue 1)Who is the author of this poem and what is it theme?(Emily Dickson.This poem reveals the authors profound love for nature.)2)What are the figures of speech here?(Metaphor.The poet compares nature to liquor that has never been brewed and herself to a debauchee who loves wi

17、ne more than her life.)5.I heard a Fly buzz when I died The Stillness in the RoomWas like the Stillness in the Air Between the Heaves of StormThe Eyes around had wrung them dry And Breaths were gathering firmThere interposed a Fly With Blue uncertain stumbling Buzz Between the light and me And then

18、the Windows failed and thenI could not see to see1)Whats the rhythm of this poem?(trimeter and tetrameter iambic lines:four stresses in the first and third lines of each stanza,three in the second and fourth,a pattern Dickinson follows at her most formal)2)What scene does this poem describe?(This po

19、em is also remarkable for its detailed evocation of a deathbed scene.It strikingly describes the mental distraction posed by irrelevant details at even the most crucial moments-even at the moment of death;it transforms the tiny,normally disregarded fly into the figure of death itself.)6.During two l

20、ong weeks Tom lay a prisoner,dead to the world and its happenings.He was very ill,he was interested in nothing.When he got upon his feet at last and moved feebly downtown,a melancholy change had come over everything and every creature.There had been a“revival,”and everybody had“got religion,”not onl

21、y the adults,but even the boys and girls.Tom went about,hoping against hope for the sight of one blessed sinful face,but disappointment crossed him everywhere.He found Joe Harper studying a Testament,and turned sadly away from the depressing spectacle.He sought Ben Rogers,and found him visiting the

22、poor with a basket of tracts.He hunted up Jim Hollis,who called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a warning.Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression;and when,in desperation,he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of Huckleberry Finn and was received wi

23、th a Scriptural quotation,his heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all the town was lost,forever and forever.1)Identify the author and the title of work from which this part is taken.(Mark Twain,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)2)What is the authors writing style?(a.His st

24、yle was precise,enviable,and well-crafted;b.His characters were vivid,fallible and funny;c.Vernacular language;d.Local color)7.In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet,black bough.1.What is the subject of this poem?(This poem is an observation of the poet o

25、f the human faces seen in a Paris subway station or a description of a moment of sudden emotion at seeing beautiful faces in a Metro in Paris.He sees the faces,turned variously toward light and darkness,like flower petals which are half absorbed by,half resisting,the wet，dark texture of a bough.)2)W

26、hat are the common feature of imagist poems and Chinese poems?(Picture-like characters,using of images,short and concise,abundant connotation)8.I placed a jar in Tennessee,And round it was,upon a hill.It made the slovenly wildernessSurround that hill.The wilderness rose up to it,And sprawled around,

27、no longer wild.The jar was round upon the groundAnd tall and of a port in air.It took dominion everywhere.The jar was gray and bare.It did not give of bird or bush,Like nothing else in Tennessee.1.Identify the author and the title of this poem.(Wallace Stevens;Anecdote of the Jar)2.What is the symbo

28、lic meaning of the jar?(To“give shape and significance”to the meaningless,futile and chaotic experience of modern man.)9.Let us go then,you and IWhen the evening is spread out against the skyLike a patient etherized upon a table;Let us go,through certain half-deserted streets,The muttering retreatsO

29、f restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you to an overwhelming questionOh,do not ask,“What is it?”Let us go and make our visit.1)Who is the main character?(An ineffectual,sorrowful,tra

30、gic twentieth-century Western intellectual who is divided between passion and timidity,between desire and impotence.)2)What is the theme of this poem?(It shows the speakers incapability of facing up to love and to life in a sterile upper-class world and reveals the frustration and emotional conflict

31、)10.April is the cruelest month,breedingLilacs out of the dead land,mixingMemory and desire,stirringDull roots with spring rain.”1)Identify the author and the title of poem from which this part is taken.(T.S.Eliot;The Waste Land)2)What are the features of this poem?(Its full of quotations and allusi

32、ons(six different languages;nearly 60 others works and large amount of legends),discontinuity and unrelatedness(to show the illogical sides of the modern life).In addition,it has strong historical sense(using the past as a yardstick to measure the present.)11.He went down the hall.I went to the door

33、 of the room.“You cant come in now,”one of the nurses said.“Yes,I can,”I said.“You cant come in yet.”“You get out,”I said.“The other one,too.”But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasnt any good.It was like saying good-by to a statue.After a while I went out and

34、left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.1)Identify the author and the title of work from which this part is taken.(Ernest Hemingway,A Farewell to Arms)2)What are the 3 stages of the authors writing career?(a.Reflecting emptiness of“The Lost Generation”;b.Reflecting the hatred to f

35、ascism and showing the positive attitudes towards the WWII;c.Creating the image of primitive people who are facing the music and fighting against their doom.)12.The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust.A thin,acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhe

36、re upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal:upon the valence curtains of faded rose color,upon the rose-shaded lights,upon the dressing table,upon the delicate array of crystal and the mans toilet things backed with tarnished silver,silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured.Among

37、 them lay a collar and tie,as if they had just been removed,which lifted,left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust.Upon a chair hung the suit,carefully folded;beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head.One of

38、us lifted something from it,and leaning forward,that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils,we saw a long strand of irony-gray hair.1)Whats the story between Emily and Homer?(The two ever dated with each other,but Homer announced hes a gay and not a marrying man.And then Emily poison

39、ed Homer and lay his body on the bed for 30 years.)2)What do the changes of Emilys hair symbolize in this story?(The changes in Emilys hair:a symbol for the changes in Miss Emily herself.Her hair,in the beginning,is described as one of an angel,and then described as one you would find on a witch.As

40、her hairs appearance goes from innocent to evil Emily goes from being innocent to evil.Her hair loses its life,foreshadowing the future of Miss Emily.)13.Poor,poor dear Cat.And this was the price you paid for sleeping together.This was the end of the trap.This was what people got for loving each oth

41、er.Thank God for gas,anyway.What must it have been like before there were anesthetics?1)Identify the author and the title of work from which this part is taken.(Ernest Hemingway,A Farewell to Arms)2).Why this passage is significant for the whole novel?(two reasons:a.It can be used to explain Hemingw

42、ays sometimes problematic treatment of the relationships between men and women.Hemingway tends to depict women as cold and domineering or as overly sweet and submissive.Catherine falls into the second category.Henrys profound sense of loss and impotence suggests that one of the motivations behind th

43、ese somewhat stereotypical representations might be a belief that women possess an inherent“unmanly”helplessness.b.The second facet of this quotations significance lies in Henrys declaration,“Thank God for gas,anyway.”Throughout the novel,characters have sought whatever means possible to shield them

44、selves from the pain of the world.)1.What are the features of American gothic fiction?Please analyze the gothic elements in The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow.2.What is the modernity of Moby Dick?3.What are the major features of American Realism?4.What is Emily Dicksons style?5.What are Emily Dickinson

45、s frequent subjects in her poems?6.What are major features of Local colorism?7.Whats the background of American modernist literature?8.What are major features of Imagism?9.What is the influence of the Chinese culture over Ezra Pound?10.Give an analysis of“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”.11.What

46、are the themes of The Waste Land written by T.S.Eliot?Whats it significance?12.What do you know about Hemingways iceberg theory of writing?13.What is the attitude of A Farewell to Arms toward war?Is it fair to call it an antiwar novel?14.What are features of William Faulkners language?15.Whats the role that the plot plays in this story of A Rose for Emily?