浙江师范大学外国语学院
美国文学选读试题库（7）
Part Ⅰ: Choose the relevant match from Column B for each item in Column A. (10 points in all, 1 point for each) Group 1
Column A
Column B A. The American B. Billy Budd C. The Cantos
D. This Is My Letter to the World E. Wild Palms
（ ）1. Herman Melville （ ）2. Henry James
（ ）3. Emily Dickinson （ ）4. Ezra Pound
（ ）5. William Faulkner Group 2
Column A Column B
（ ）6. Faith
A. Indian Camp B. The Great Gatsby C. Sister Carrie
D. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn E. The Goodman Brown
（ ）7. Abram Forster （ ）8. Jessica
（ ）9. Myrtle Wilson （ ）10. Nick Adams
Part Ⅱ: Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternatives. Choose the one that would best complete the statement. (50 points in all, 2 points for each)
11. The Romantic Period in the history of American literature started with the publication of Washington Irving?s _________ and ended with Whitman?s Leaves of Grass. A. Drum Taps
B. Song of Myself
C. The Sketch Book D. Walden
12. Which of the following statements about the Romantic period in the history of American literature is NOT true?
A. In most of the American writings of this period there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature.
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B. The writers of this period placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and displayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. C. There was a strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man.
D. Most heroes and heroines in the writings of this period exhibited extremes of reason and nationality.
13. The New England Transcendentalism was from the very beginning a local phenomenon restricted only to those people living in New England, who carried out the movement as a reaction against the cold, rigid rationalism of _________ in Boston. A. Classicism C. Unitarianism
B. Calvinism D. Puritanism
14. In the following statements, _________ is NOT true about Washington Irving?s famous story “Rip Van Winkle.”
A. The story is not only well-known for Rip?s 20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American literature.
B. The story is set against the background of the inevitably changing America.
C. The social conservatism and literary preference for the past is revealed, to some extent, in the story.
D. Irving describes Rip?s response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferability of the present to the past.
15. Ralph Waldo Emerson?s essay Experience is a serous discussion about the conflict between _________ and ordinary life. A. nationalis
B. universalism D. communism
C. idealism
16. As one of Hawthorne?s most profound tales, Young Goodman Brown is written in the manner of its concern with_________. A. guilt and evil
B. good and bad
C. moral and corruption D. destruction and hope
17. Which of the following is NOT among the artistic features of Whitman?s writing? A. Free verse. C. Allegory.
B. The use of the poetic “I”. D. Musicality and rhythm.
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18. According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, romance should be_________. A. both imaginative and creative C. full of adventures
B. a true record of human life D. a mixture of facts and fancy
19. The three dominant figures in the period of Realism of American are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain and_________. A. Henry James C. James Joyce
B. Tom James
D. Henry Joyce
20. The use of _________ in his writings has made Mark Twain one of the major literary figures in the 19th century American literature. A. point of view
B. stream-of-consciousness D. vernacular
C. interior monologue
21._________ is generally considered to be Henry James? masterpiece, which incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a European cultural environment.
A. The Portrait of a Lady C. Daisy Miller
B. The Golden Bowl D. The Turn of the Screw
22. Which one of the following statements is NOT true about the theme of “The Art of Fiction”? A. The aim of the novel is to present art itself.
B. The artist has the freedom to write about anything that concerns him.
C. The artist should be able to “feel” the life, to understand human nature and to record them. D. The writer can write human experiences explored in every possible form: illusion, despair, reward, delight, etc..
23. More than five hundred poems Emily Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general _________ about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed. A. denial
B. eulogy D. happiness
C. skepticism
24. In his “Trilogy of Desire”, Theodore Dreiser?s focus shifted from the pathos of the helpless protagonists at the bottom of the society to the power of the American financial tycoons in the late 19th century. The “Trilogy of Desire” includes The Financial, The Titan and _________. A. The Stoic
B. The Genius
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C. An American Tragedy D. Jennie Gerhardt
25. Upon the publication of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) and The Mysterious Stranger(1916), the change in Mark Twain from an optimism to an almost despairing pessimist could be felt and his cynicism and disillusionment with what Twain referred to regularly as the_________became obvious. A. damned slavery
B. damned Negro D. damned society
C. damned human race
26. Henry James is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century _________ novels and the founder of psychological realism. A. local C. physical
B. color
D. stream-of-consciousness
27. In Henry James? Daisy Miller, the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment of_________.
A. the free spirit of the New World C. the force of conviction
B. the corruption of the newly rich D. the change of the social force
28. “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.” This is a detailed description of Emily?s old house. The purpose of such description is to imply the person living in it_________. A. is an old woman
B. has good taste D. is a prisoner of the past
C. is a conservative aristocrat
29. The leading playwright of the modern period in American literature, if not the most successful in all his experiments, is_________. A. Arthur Miller
B. Eugene O?Neill D. E. E. Cummings
C. Tennessee Williams
30. J. D. Salinger is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post-war era and his _________ is regarded as a students? classic. A. This Side of Paradise C. The Catcher in the Rye
B. Tender Is the Night D. Rabbit
31. “The Apparition of these faces in the crowd; /Petals on a wet, black bough.” This little poem
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