英美文學考前串講

本文轉貼
考試注意事項:
大家好,大家辛苦了!現在大家已經到了考前的衝刺階段,這個階段將起著至關重要的作用,到目前為止,大家至少應該達到把課本上的八章內容系統的複習過一遍,這樣通過考試才能更有把握!以下內容是廣大考生在考前或考試過程中需要注意的一些事項,相信它會幫助你提高複習效率,同時也是幫助您順利通考試的重要手段之一!
1) 注意複習的順序
以前的很多考生在複習時,總是看第一章,翻了好幾天的書還是第一章,經實踐證明從後往前看的效果過遠遠高於前者,所以如果您已經複習過一遍了,那么剩下的這幾天,建議您從第八章――第一章,倒著複習,這樣效果會更佳!(首先建議大家看著前面的目錄,把每個時期出現的歷史時期都寫在目錄上,便於複習,這也是考試中選擇題中經常考的內容,把這一項工作做好了,至少可以幫你拿到3---5分的分值).
2) 關於作家及作品的複習
這一部分,大家要看作家的重點理論及主題思想,結合選讀中的作品,主要看每篇選讀中的Summary (即選讀前括弧中的斜體部分), 建議大家在最後的幾天時間裡,利用10分鐘左右的時間把每篇選讀中的人名用彩筆標出來,至少得到5—10分的分值,這經常是選擇題或選讀題中要考的內容)
3) 歷年的考題一定要熟練掌握,特別是01, 02年的考題,一定要把握考點,切忌只記答案,一定要記住與考題選項相關的內容.
4) 以上八章的串講資料一定要充分利用,只要熟練掌握了這些內容,達到融會貫通,靈活運用所學知識,考試順利通過一定是自然而然的事情,相信自己,沒錯的!
5) 考試當中一定要注意寫字的格式,特別是簡答題或論述題,一定要清楚要點1), 2), 3) ……,清晰,明確,千萬不要只寫一整段,不分要點,這樣會導致失去不該失去的得分.(關鍵字一定要寫上,只要意思表達清楚就可得到基本分)
6) 做簡答題或論述題的答題要點:
A. 關於歷史時期的介紹
1> 時間+來源 (0.5分---1分)
2> 歷史背景(不需要擴充) (1---2分)
3> 該時期中最重要的創作思想以及影響該時期的大背景.(2---3分)
4> 代表作家以及代表作品簡介.(1分)
5> 影響 (0.5—1分)
B. 論述題中人物性格分析的答題要點:
1> 利用題目發揮 (0.5--1分)
2> 該任務的代表時期,屬於哪個階層 (1—2分)
3> 作品中人物經歷的有關情節 (2—3分)
4> 該人物的直接性格分析 (1—2分)
5> 該人物的文學性格分析 (3—4分)
6> 作用/影響/語言風格等 (0.5—1分)
C. 論述題中關於作家的分析
1> 利用題目發揮 (0.5—1分)
2> 該作家所處的歷史背景 (1—2 分)
3> 該作家的語言風格 (1—2分)
4> 該作家說寫的典型作品及創作主題 (2—3分)
5> 關於典型作品的有關情節 (1—2分)
6> 影響 (0.5—1 分)
7) 以下內容是我們總結了一些每一章中可能出現的簡答題或論述題,請大家在考前著重看一下並熟練掌握,答案在以前各章的串講資料中都能找到.
英國文學部分:
1> Chapter 1 文藝復興的特點有哪些?
Shakespeare 的戲劇獨白分析
 
2> Chapter 2 新古典主義與浪漫主義的區別
3> Chapter 3 Wordsworth創作的原理以及思想特點
Jane Austen的創作風格以及作品介紹
4> Chapter 4 Jane Eyre的性格分析
關於George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Lawrence and Dreiser四者的自然主義( naturalism) 的思想.(各自的代表作品分析 , 人物性格分析以及作品的理論)
5> Chapter 5 結合美國文學部分的第三章(現代主義)和英國文學部分現代主義時期各自的影響理論.
 T.S. Eliot’s “The love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”的作品分析
美國文學部分:
1> Chapter 1 Emerson’s Transcendentalism
Hawthorne and Melville 的象徵主義手法/ Hawthorne的寫作特點(結合Yong Goodman brown )
2> Chapter 2 Mark Twain’s Local Colorism
3> Chapter 3 Hemmingway’s writing style
Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily (Emily的人物性格分析)
最後預祝大家考試順利通過,心想事成!
Only these who do not pause half way will succeed!
  (成功屬於不懈努力的人!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
前言:大家好!為了幫助廣大的考生在有效的時間內達到較好的複習效果,我們總結了近幾年來京城一些名師的串講資料,以及上課老師所講的重點內容.對於沒有上過課的學生,相信它會給您一個指導性的作用,幫助您達到事半功倍的效果!而對於上過課的考生來說,再看以下的串講內容效果當然會更好!
以下的串講內容包括三方面內容:
第一部分:介紹考試題型及評分標準
第二部分:考試習題集 (以串講內容及課本重點知識為依據).
第三部分: 考試注意事項
(由於時間有限,難免有不足,還請大家原諒!)
Wish you all Success! Good Luck!
Part I Introduction about Examination:
1) 考試題型
第一部分: 選擇題:
I. Multiple Choice: (40 points, 1 point for each)
E.g. Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are the following works except ____.
A. Hamlet
B. King Lear
C. Romeo and Juliet
D. Othello
Answer: C. (可參考課本P33)
II. Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 points for each)
也就是根據選讀中的一句話或一段話,回答三個問題,這些完成來自於書上,在以下的串講中我們會給大家做具體的總結,以幫助大家順利的通過考試!
例如:
2001年考過的一個題目:
“Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;/Destroy and preserver’ hear, O hear!”
Questions:
A. Identify the poem and the poet.
B. What is the "Wild Spirit"?
C. What does the "Wild Spirit" destroy and preserve?
Answer:
A: Shelly’s " ODE to the West wind"
雪萊的《西風頌》
B. The West wind: "breath of Autumn’s being’’
C. It destroys things /thoughts / idea that are dead, it preserves new life. (or seeds that represent new life or new birth.)
(可參考課本P211)
評分標準:
A,B,各1分,C,2分. 語言錯誤酌情扣分
第二部分是非選擇題 (共44分)
III. Questions and Answers (24 points in all, 6 points for each)
例如:"My boy!" said the old gentleman, learning over the desk. Oliver started at the sound. He might be excused for doing so, for the words were kindly said, and strange sounds frighten one. He trembled violently, and burst into tears." ( Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist)
Explain why the boy (Oliver Twist) started first, then trembled violently and burst into tears when the words were” kindly" said.
參考答案:
The boy started at the words because kind words were not expected; it is (was, must be) the first time in all his life that the boy (Oliver Twist) had been “kindly” greeted; strange sounds may predict another suffering/misfortune/torture/…) (At least one example from the text to back up the above statement.)
評分標準:
概述占4分, 例子占2分.語言錯誤酌情扣分.
IV. Topic discussion (20 points in all, 10 points for each)
Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics
in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
例如:
Mark Twin presented the 19th century American in his own unique way. Discuss Twain’s art of fiction: the setting, the language, and the characters, etc., based on his novel The Adventures of huckleberry Finn.
參考答案:
A.Mark Twain uses the Mississippi alley as his fictional kingdom, writing about the landscape and people, the customs and the dialects of one particular region, and therefore known as a local colorist.
B.He creates life-like characters, especially the unconventional Huckleberry Finn, who runs away from civilization and stands opposite to conventional village morality.
C.He uses a simple, direct vernacular language, totally different from any precious literary language. It is the kind of colloquial language belonging to the lower class, the living local American English.
D.He has created a special humor to satirize social injustice and the decayed convention.
評分標準:
A,B, C三點各三分,D點1分.語言錯誤酌情扣分.
注意: 在做這一類題時,不必死記硬背,一些不認識的生詞可以換成你較熟悉的詞來代替,只要意思表達清楚,把關鍵字答上,就可以得到基本的分數.切忌在做題的過程中死記硬背,這樣很容易在考試中遺忘所及的內容,要在理解的基礎上,融會貫通,充分發揮!萬一考試時忘了也不能放棄,寧可多寫,也不能少些或不寫.
附: 非選擇題的評分標準:
1. 提供的答案僅供參考.如果考生答出了參考答案的多數要點,
而且某些要點有較好發揮,可給滿分. 如果考生的回答與參考答案不完全吻合, 但確實有理由據, 能夠自圓其說, 可適當給分.如果考生的答案在一兩點上有創新, 即使在整體上不夠全面, 也應酌情給高分, 但不應超過該題的最高分值.分數不得超過該題的最高分值.分數不得出現0.5分.
2. 考生答非所問不給分.
3. 閱卷時,內容和語言要綜合考慮.語言表達不好的要適當扣分. 評判語言好壞及扣分原則如下:
1)語言通順, 表達清楚, 很少語法錯誤和拼寫錯誤,則基本根據內容評分.
2)語言基本通順, 有少數語法錯誤和拼寫錯誤, 應扣去該題分值的,應扣去該題分值的20%.
3)語言不通順, 表達不連貫, 有較多語法錯誤和拼寫錯誤,應扣去該題分值的40%.
4)語言很不通順,無法表達連貫的意思, 應扣去該題分值的60%.
注: 英美文學這本書共八章,英國文學是五章,美國文學是三章,而在考試中, 英國文學占55%--60%, 美國文學占40%--45%,所以大家要分清主次,以便能在有效地時間內達到最好的效果!切忌:在看串講資料的過程中,不能只記選擇題的答案,一定要記住考點,融會貫通,靈活運用!
Part One: English Literature
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/ immorality
B.French/money
C.German/knowledge
D.American/political power
Answer: C (可參考課本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.Beowulf
C.The Dream of the Rood
D.The seafarer
Answer: B (可參考課本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 Tales
B.The Legend of Good Women
C.Troilus and Criseyde
D. The Romaunt of the Rose.
Answer: A (可參考課本P4)
4. The Essence of Renaissance, the most significant intellectual movement, was_____.
A. Geographical exploration
B. Religious reformation
C. Publishing and translation
D. Humanism.
Answer: D (可參考課本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. Faustus
C.The Faerie Queene
D.Hamlet
Answer: C (可參考課本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.Wyatt
C.Marlowe
D.Sidney
Answer: C (P21)
8. Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are the following works except____.
A.Hamlet
B.King Lear
C.Romeo and Juliet
D.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 (真正的文學主流)’ 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 b URN 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, 節選部分在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’s
D.Thomas Gray’s
Answer: B (P58)
26. _____Was known as “the poets’ poet”.
A.William Shakespeare
B.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?

參考答案:
The lines are from “The Merchant of Venice”,
William Shakespeare. (P48)
2) This sentence means she, ’Lady Fortune(命運女神)’, 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?
參考答案:
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.
參考答案:
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?
參考答案:
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 (服從), 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?
參考答案:
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?
參考答案:
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?
參考答案:
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?
(No more than 150 words)
參考答案:
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.
(可參考課本P7---12)
2. Please give a brief analysis of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy (獨白).
參考答案:
“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 (厭世)’ . (P33-34)
3. What common features do the characters share in Marlow’s works? (No more than 150 words)
參考答案:
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?
參考答案:
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.”
參考答案:
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?
參考答案:
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 (輕視) 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 (創造奇蹟). (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 Jack
Answer: 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 Progress
B.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(道德淪喪) 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?
參考答案:
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.)
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.
參考答案:
1) This is Thomas Gray’s "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".
托馬斯·格雷的《寫在教堂墓地的輓歌》(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.
參考答案:
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.
2.Please cite examples from "Gulliver’s Travels" to explain briefly
how did Swift criticized and allude to the government and the society.
參考答案:
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.
參考答案:
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(在克服困難方面持之以恆), in struggling against nature, Crusoe becomes the prototype / representative of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. (他是大英帝國締造者的完美典範,同時也是殖民者的先驅).
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 the
church 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.
Answer:
(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
D.George Eliot’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 each
Would 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)
詳見:
http://www.engbus.com/showthread.php?t=704

相關詞條

相關搜尋

熱門詞條

聯絡我們