重庆教育学院外语系函授复习试题(A)
I. Understand Literary Terms (15%)
Directions: Define and exemplify the literary terms listed below.
1. Trochee--
2. Elegy--
3. Ode--
4. Allegory--
5. Essay--
II. Recognize important historical and literary background information (20%)
Directions: Choose the best answer to complete each of the following
1. _______ can be justly termed England's national epic and its hero
Beowulf --- one of the national heroes of the English people.
A. Seafarer B. The Song of Beowulf
C. Wildsith D. Cynewulf
2. In the Norman conquest of England, the Teutonic tribes from the
Northern Europe brought with them not only the _____ language, the basis of Modern English, but also a specific poetic tradition.
A. Mediterranean B. Christian
C. Anglo-Saxon D. Roman
3. The Tabard Inn is the setting for important parts of _____.
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A. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight B. The Canterbury Tales
C. The Merchant of Venice D. The School for Scandal
4. The sonnet form, originally Italian, was introduced into English verse by
_____.
A. Sir Thomas Wyatt B. George Chapman
C. Sir Philip Sidney D. John Lyly
5. Bacon?s essays are marked by a(n) _____.
A. aphoristic brevity B. character sketching
C. elegance and correctness D. oratorical profoundness
6. The indomitable Puritan spirit finds its noblest expression in _____.
A. John Donne B. John Milton
C. John Bunyan D. John Dryden
7. The distinctiveness of the metaphysical poets is their use of the so-called
_____.
A. conceits B. imageries
C. euphuism D. imagination
8. Character and novel are correctly matched in each of the following
except _____.
A. Sophia Western—Tom Jones
B. Christian—The Pilgrim’s Progress
C. Friday—Robinson Crusoe
D. Sneerwell—The Vicar of Wakefield
9. The prevailing meter in Gray?s Elegy is _____.
A. trochaic B. dactylic
C. anapestic D. iambic
10. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and
elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and night to the volumes of _____.
A. Francis Bacon B. Jonathan Swift
C. Richard Steele D. Joseph Addison
11. A poet who drew his inspiration from the treasure of Scotch folklore is
_____.
A. William Blake B. Robert Burns
C. William Wordsworth D. John Keats
12. Of all the romantic poets in the 18th century, _______ is the most
independent and the most original.
A. Thomas Gray B. William Blake
C. Alexander Pope D. Daniel Defoe
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13. With the publication of _____, romanticism began to bloom and found a
firm place in the history of English literature.
A. The Rights of Man B. Lyrical Ballads
C. The Prelude D. The Excursion
14. The first half of the nineteenth century in English literature is decidedly
an age of _____
A. drama B. poetry
C. prose D. novels
15. An attack on Byron?s early poetry was launched by the editors of _____.
A. The London Gazette B. The Liverpool Press
C. The Edinburgh Review D. The Manchester Guardian
16. Which is Shelley's masterpiece?
A. Queen Mab B. Prometheus Unbound
C. Prometheus Bound D. The Revolt of Islam
17. The greatest English critical realist novelist was _____, who criticized
the bourgeois civilization and showed the misery of the common people.
A. William Makepeace Thackeray B. Charles Dickens
C. Charlotte Bronte D. Emily Dickinson
18. Which lament was written by Tennyson for the death of his friend
Hallam?
A. In Memoriam B. Lycidas
C. Adodais D. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
19. James Joyce?s Dubliners is _____.
A. a collection of short stories B. a novel
C. an autobiography D. a short story
20. Which of the following plays was not written by Bernard Shaw?
A. Mrs.Warren's Profession B. Widowers' Houses
C. An ideal Husband D. Pygmalion
III. Provide necessary information for the quotations (20%)
Directions: Following are quotations from the books of British Literature you have studied. Provide in the specified place after each quotation the required information. Write the full title of the works and full name of author correctly and clearly, and answer the question briefly.
1. O Attic shape! Fair attitude! With brede
…………
Of Marble men and maidens overwrought,
As doth eternity: cold pastoral!"
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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?
______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________
2. Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted,
nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
1) From which work are these lines taken?
_____________________________
2) Who is the author of them?
_____________________________
3) What idea does the passage express?
______________________________________________
3. 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."
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1) Identify the author and the works;
______________________________________
2) What does "the inevitable hour"?
__________________________________________
3) Explain the first stanza;
__________________________________________________
4. I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make
my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
1) From which work are these lines taken?
_____________________________
_____________________________ 2) Who is the author of them?
3) Why did the narrator?s eyes burn with anguish and anger?
_____________________________
5. Then where are our relatives? My father? our family friends? You claim
the rights of a mother: the right to call me fool and child; to speak to me as no woman in authority over me at college dare speak to me; to dictate my way of life; and to force on me the acquaintance of a brute whom anyone can see to be the most vicious sort of London man about town. Before I give myself the trouble to resist such claims, I may as well find out whether they have any real existence.
1) From which work is the passage taken?
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IV. _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________________ Interpret Literary Works (25%) 2) Who wrote the play? 3) Who is the speaker?
Directions: Answer the following questions briefly.
1. Name the four great tragedies by Shakespeare? What are the common
characteristics shown in them?
2. Please give a brief analysis of Hamlet?s “To be or not to be” soliloquy.
3. How do you understand the hero Robinson Crusoe?
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4. What qualities does the west wind have? Why does the poet regard the
west wind as ?destroyer? and as ?preserver??
5. Summarize the gist of Satan?s speech to his close follower (Paradise
Lost).
V. Read Literary Works (5%)
Directions: Read the following poems and choose the best answer to complete each of the statements below:
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
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So is it now, I am a man:
So be it when I shall grew old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
1. The poet wished _____.
A. to carry on the feeling of childhood into the powers of manhood
B. to grow old
C. his days would be as splendid as a rainbow in the sky
D. his childhood had not been laden with too much care
2. The style is marked by its _____.
A. pessimism B. effect through repetition
C. optimism D. simplicity and sincerity
3. The words concluding the verse “natural piety” refer to _____.
A. a deep religious conviction B. a filial reverence for nature
C. love of man D. none of the above
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good:
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason?s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
4. The line indicates that the poet is _____.
A. impressed by the orderliness of the universe
B. a deeply religious man
C. of the belief that honesty is the best policy
D. vainly seeking an acceptable philosophy of life
5. A philosophy expressed in this verse is that of _____.
A. escapism B. materialism
C. Confucianism D. pragmatism
VI. Write a short essay on the following (15%)
Direction: What are the main characteristics of the Romanticism in England? List at least two authors and their works as examples to illustrate them.
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