华师自考美国文学练习-(1).doc

I. Matching.1. Carl Sandburg A. The Sound and the Fury2. Benjamin Franklin B. Of Mice and Men3. Washington Irving C. Four Quartets4. Edgar Allan Poe D. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer5. Ralph Waldo Emerson E. Poor Richards Almanac6. Nathaniel Hawthorne F. To a Waterfowl7. Mark Twain G. The Fall of the House of Usher8. Henry James H. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow9. T.S Eliot I. The American Scholar10. William Faulkner J. The House of the Seven Gables K. The Portrait of a Lady L. Chicago1. Philip Freneau A. The Sound and the Fury2. William Cullen Bryant B. Of Mice and Men3. O. Henry C. Tales of the Jazz Age4. Edgar Allan Poe D. Roughing It5. Ralph Waldo Emerson E. Poor Richards Almanac6. Nathaniel Hawthorne F. Thanatopsis7. Mark Twain G. Annabel Lee8. Henry James H. The Cop and the Anthem9. F. Scott Fitzgerald I. Self- Reliance10. John Steinbeck J. The Marble Faun K. Daisy Miller L. The Indian Buying GroundII. Reading Comprehension. Passage OneBecause I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me-The Carriage held but just Ourselves-And Immortality.We slowly drove- He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility-We passed the School, where children stroveAt recess- in the Ring-We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-We passed the Setting Sun-Questions:1. Identify the author of the poem from which these lines are taken. (2 scores) 2. How does the poet portray Death? (2 scores) 3. Comment on the symbolic meanings of “School”, “Fields of Gazing Grain”, and “Setting Sun”. (6 scores)Passage Two To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.Questions:1. Identify the author and the title of the work from which the passage is taken. 2. Find three terms the author uses to refer to the stars.3. Why does the author talk about the stars? Passage Three I placed a Jar in Tennessee, And round it was, upon a hill. It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild. The jar was round upon the ground And 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. Questions: 1. What is the title of this poem? 2. Who is the writer? 3. Comment on the theme of the poem. Passage Four Hester Prynnes term of confinement was now at an end. Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast. Perhaps there was a more real torture in her first unattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison, than even in the procession and spectacle that have been described, where she was made the common infamy, at which all mankind was summoned to point its finger. Then, she was supported by an unnatural tension of the nerves, and by all the combative energy of her character, which enabled her to convert the scene into a kind of lurid triumph. Questions: 1. Which novel is this selection taken from? 2. Who is the author?3. Comment on the symbolic meanings of the scarlet letter. Passage Five The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Questions:1. Identify the author and the title of the work from which these lines are taken. 2. Comment on the word “promises” in the poem. III. Write an essay about 200 words on the following topics. Scores will be given according to your content, grammar and structure. 1. Comment briefly on the major features of American Transcendentalism.2. Write a commentary on the following poem. The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for anth