英美文学简答题.doc

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:1.“For herein Fortune shows herself more kindThan is her custom. It is still her useTo let the wretched man outlive his wealth,To view with hollow eye and wrinkled browAn age of poverty; from which lingring penanceOf such misery doth she cut me off” 1.Identify the title of the works and author.2.Explain “from whichcut me off”.3.What happened to him, which caused the words?参考答案:The lines are from “The Merchant of Venice”, William Shakespeare. (P48)2) This sentence means she, Lady Fortune(命运女神), is more kind to him because she is taking away both his wealth and life.3) The speaker is Antonio, its 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 cant repay him the money that he borrowed for his friend in due time.) (P38)Of Study:The Sentence talks about the proper way to read: When you read, dont be puzzled by the content of the book; dont take it for granted; dont quote too much from the book; before accepting its idea, youd better think about its shortcomings and consider it from all sides.3.“ Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst;Nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growst: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.参考答案：1) The poem is “ Shall I Compare thee to a Summers 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 summers 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?参考答案：1) It is taken from John Miltons “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 Satans will not to submit (服从), 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)6.“What, is great Mephistophilis to passionate For being deprived of the joys of heaven? Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitudeAnd scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.Say he will spare him Four and twenty yearsLetting him live in all voluptuousnessHaving thee ever to attend on meQuestions: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?参考答案：1) The passage comes from “Dr.Faustus” written by Christopher Marlowe. (P2526)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 Devils servant. He helped Dr.Faustus to do anything he wants. (P22) 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.2.Please cite examples from Gullivers Travels to explain briefly how did Swift criticized and allude to the government and the society.参考答案:1)In the first part of the Gullivers 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) 1. A little black thing among the snowCrying 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 couldnt be found again. (P199)5. Place me on Suniums 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 neer 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.7. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind,And the angle told Tom, if hed be a good bye,Hed 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 bowedOne 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? Whats 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 Shelleys desire that he couldnt 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. (P207208) (3)If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (P208)10. Where fore feed and Clothe and saveFrom the cradle to the graveDrain your sweat-nay, drink your blood?(1)Who wrote the poem? Whats 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 dont 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.nswer:(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)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 individuals 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)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)“You teach me now how cruel youve -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.(P270271)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:1、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)2、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 Olivers eyes, it became “A very tremendous sight”. Because in the usual days Oliver and other children were maltreated and abused cruelly, they couldnt eat well and were punished severely by the cruelty and hypocrisy of the dehumanizing workhouse board. (P243)2. D. H. Lawrence is regarded as revolutionary, how do you know his works?Answer:1) Lawrences interest lay in the psychological development of his character;2) He criticized the dehumanizing effect of the capitalism industrialization on human which turned man into inhuman machines and unhealthy animal;3) He believes the life impulse -the sexual impulse was mans most important instinct, any conscious repression would cause distortion of the mans personality;4) He explored the relationship of man and woman in psychology;5) He believed the alienation and the perversion were caused by the desire for power and money. (P317)Time grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on: a tart temper mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener by constant use. For a long while he used to perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village. Questions: 1) Please identify the author and the title of the work.2) Whats the meanin Chapter 3 The Modern PeriodI. Choose the right answer:1. Ezra Pound is a leading spokesman of the_.A. Imagist Movement B. Chartist Movement C. Modernist Movement D. Romantic MovementAnswer: A (P553) 2. Strong affinity of the Chinese and Oriental literature can be found in the works of_.A. Mark Twain B. Ezra Pound C. Emily Dickinson D. Arthur MillerAnswer: B (P556) 3. In Robert Frosts famous poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, there are four lines like these: “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”. The second sleep refers to_.A. die B. calm down C. fall into sleep D. stop walkingAnswer: A (P567) 4. Of the following American poets, whose work was first recognized in England and then in America?A. Robert Frost B. Walt Whitman C. Emily Dickinson D. Wallace StevensAnswer: A (P561) 5. For I have had too much/ Of apple-picking: I am overtired/ Of the great harvest I myself desired From these lines we can conclude that the speaker _.A. is happy about the harvest B. is tired of the work of apple-pickingC. is not tired when seeing the harvest D. becomes indifferent of the jobAnswer: B (P565)6. In these lines The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough, Ezra Pound uses the figure of speech of _.A. metaphor B. simile C. hyperbole D. contrastAnswer: A (P557) 7. ONeills inventiveness seemingly knew no limits. He was constantly experimenting with new styles and forms for his plays, especially during the twenties when _was in full swing.A. Symbolism B. Expressionism C. Romanticism D. RealismAnswer: B (P571)8. He got me, aw right. Im trou. Even him didnt tink I belonged. In these sentences taken from The Hairy Ape, the words “he” and “him” both refer to_.A. Yank B. God C. The ape in the zoo D. A person unnamedAnswer: B (P575) 9. _is a school of modern painting, whose emphasis is on the formal structure of a work of art and especially on the multiple-perspective viewpoints.A. Expressionism B. Impressionism C. Cubism D. ImagismAnswer: C (P546) 10. In a class which discuss the Imagist Movement in the United States, we will definitely NOT include_.A. William Carlos Williams B. Ezra Pound C. Gary Snyder D. Wallance StevensAnswer: C (P547-548) 11. In which of the following poems by Ezra Pound did you find the allusion to Wi-shang? _A. In a Station of the Metro B. The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter C. A Pact D. Hugh Selwyn MauberleyAnswer: B (P559) 12. In 1915, Ezra Pound began writing his great work_, which spanned from 1917 to 1959.A. Cantos B. Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound C. Personae D. Hygh Selwyn MauberleyAnsw