美国文学史练习.doc

Exercises of Chapter 2
I. Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is NOT one part of The LeatherStocking Tales by Cooper?
A. The Spy B. The Pathfinder C. The Pioneers D. The Deerslayer
2. Which statement about Thoreau was NOT right?
A. He was a lover of nature.
B. He was a particular kind of romantic.
C. He was a polemicist.
D. He was a thorough transcendentalist.
3. Which of the following has been called “the manifesto of American transcendentalism?”
A. Divinity School Address B. Self-Reliance
C. Nature D. The American Scholar
4. As a philosophical and literary movement, flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.
A. sentimentalism B. transcendentalism C. modernism D. rationalism
5. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as .
A. the Modern Period B. the Realistic Period
C. the Romantic Period D. the Naturalist Period
6. All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne EXCEPT .
A. The Marble Faun B. Typee
C. The Scarlet Letter D. Mosses form an Old Manse
7. Which of the following is not a work of Emily Dickinson’s?
A. I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
B. The Raven
C. This is My Letter to the World
D. I Like to See it Lap the Miles
8. Whitman’s poems are characterized by all the following features EXCEPT .
A. the strict poetic form
B. the free and natural rhythm
C. the easy flow of feelings
D. the simple and conversational language
9. Poe’s first collection of stories is .
A. Tales of a Traveler
B. Leather Stocking Tales
C. Canterbury Tales
D. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
10. Which book is not written by Emerson?
A. The American Scholar B. Self-Reliance
C. Nature D. Civil Disobedience
11. The first example of Hawthorn’s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in .
A. The Scarlet Letter B. Young Goodman Brown
C. The Marble Faun D. The Ambitious Guest
12. The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism is .
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Ralph Waldo Emerson
C. Henry David Thoreau D. Washington Irving
13. Transcendentalists recognized as the “highest power of the soul”.
A. intuition B. logic C. data of the senses D. thinking
14. Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?
A. The American Scholar B. English Traits
C. The Conduct of Life D. Representative Men
15. American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was .
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Jane Austin
C. Emily Dickinson D. Harriet Beecher
16. Captain, My Captain is written for .
A. Lincoln B. Whitman C. Washington D. Heminway
17. Which of the following books is a tremendous chronicle of an appalling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale?
A. The Scarlet Letter B. Moby Dick
C. The Marble Faun D. Moses from an Old Manse
18. was the first man of letters from the United States to win and international reputation.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Washington Irving
C. James Fenimore Cooper D. Longfellow
19. Ralph Waldo Emerson is the most outstanding of all the writers in
literature.
A. transcendental/ English B. transcendental/ American
C. realistic/ English D. realistic/ American
20. Edgar Allan Poe occupies an important position in American literature as a poet and a .
A. short story writer B. novelist C. dramatist D. translator
21. In Walden, who urges people to simplify their lives and look to nature for meaning?
A. Robert Frost B. Walt Whitman
C. Henry David Thoreau D. Herman Melville
22. The setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is in .
A. England during World War II
B. Paris during the French Revolution
C. the Middle Ages in Italy
D. Puritan America
23. In Moby-Dick, the voyage symbolizes .
A. the microcosm of human society B. a search for truth
C. the unknown world D. nature
24. Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communication with .
A. nature B. transcendentalist ideas
C. human beings D. celestial beings
25. tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritan community are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways.
A. Twice-told Tales B. The Scarlet Letter
C. The House of the Seven Gables D. The Marble Faun
26. is regarded as the first American prose epic.
A. Nature B. The Scarlet Letter
C. Walden D. Moby-Dick
27. Washington Irving’s social conservation and literary for the past is revealed, to some extent, in his famous story, .
A. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” B. “Rip Van Winkle”
C. “The Custom-House” D. “The Birthmark”
28. The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all EXCEPT .
A. mystery of the universe B. sin of the whale
C. power of the Great Nature D. evil of the world
29. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, “A” may stands for .
A. Adultery B. Angel C. Amiable D. all the above
30. For Melville, as well as for the reader and , the narrator, Moby-Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.
A. Starbuck B. Stubb C. Ishmael D. Arab
31. was a romanticized account of Melville’s stay among the Polynesians. The success of the book soon made Melville become known as the “man who lived among cannibals”.
A. Moby-Dick B. Typee C. Omoo D. Billy Budd
32. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except .
A. religion B. love and marriage
C. life and death D. war and peace
33. Emily Dickinson’s poetic idiom is noted for the following except .
A. brevity B. directness C. plainest words D. obscure
34. is the most ambivalent writer in the American literary history.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Walt Whitman
C. Ralph Waldo Emerson D. Mark Twain
35. In Hawthorne’s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear .
A. saviors B. villains C. commentators D. observers
36. In the history of literature, Romanticism is regarded as .
A. the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience
B. the thought that designates man as a social animal
C. the orientation that emphasizes those features which men have in common
D. the modes of thinking
37. In the poem “Song of Myself”, Whitman sets forth the principle beliefs of .
A. the theory of universality
B. singularity and equality of all beings in value
C. both A and B
D. none above
38. Most of the poems in Whitman’s leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the
as well.
A. nature B. life C. self D. self-reliance
39. Which of the following features cannot characterize poems by Walt Whitman?
A. Lyrical and well-structured B. Free-flowing
C. Simple and rather crude D. Conversational and casual
40. In “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died”, Emily Dickinson describes the moment of death .
A. passionately B. pessimistically C. in despair D. peacefully

II. Bland Filling
1. The Romantic period in the American literary history covers the time between the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the civil war . It started with the publication of Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass . This period is also called Romanticism .
2. Irving also wrote two biographies, one is The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, and the other is The Life of George Washington .
3. In Song of Myself , Whitman’s own early experience may well be identified with the childhood of a young growing America.
4. Typee by Melville is a novella about a ship whose black slave cargo mutiny holds their captain a terrorized hostage.
5. From Thoreau’s Concord jail experience, came his famous essay Civil Disobedience .
6. Hester Prynne is the heroine in Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter .
7. Published in 1823, The Pioneer , the first of The Leatherstocking Tales, in their publication time, and probably the first true romance of the frontier in American literature.
8. Edgar Allan Poe can somewhat be called “the Father of the American detective story”.