美国文学练习题

brilliant commentary on _____________'s character.

A. Ben Jonson B. William Shakespeare C. John Milton D. Samuel Johnson 13. In his long works Merlin, Lancelot, and Tristram, Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote the most extensive poems based on_____________ since Tennyson.

A. the Arthurian Legends B. the Biblical Stories C. the Greek Mythologies D. Indian Legends 14. When Robert Frost was eighty-seven, he read his poetry at the inauguration of President__________ .

A. Thomas Jefferson B. Theodore Roosevelt C. Abraham Lincoln D. John F. Kennedy 15. Choose the books written by Robert Frost.

A. Mountain Interval B. New Hampshire C. West-Running Book D. A Further Range 16. Which of the following was not written by Robert Frost?

A. \ B. \ C. \ D. \ 17. Robert Frost is famous for his lyric poems. Which of the following lyric poems was not written by Robert Frost?

A. \ B. \ C. \D. \ E. \

18. The poems that made Carl Sandburg famous appeared in four volumes. Choose them from the following. A. Chicago Poems B. Comhuskers C. Smoke and Steel D. Slabs of the Sunburn West E. Design 19. As a poet, Carl Sandburg was associated with the, Imagists and wrote well-known Imagist poems such as A. \ B. \ C. \ D. \ E. all of the above

20. Carl Sandburg had also taken interest in folk songs which he tried to collect and sing during his travels. These folk songs appeared eventually in print in his well-known___________ .

A. Good Morning, America B. The People, Yes C. In Reckless Ecstasy D. The American Songbag 21. Thomas Sutpen is a character in William Faulkner's novel _______________ .

A. Absalom, Absalom! B. Light in August C. Go Down, Moses D. The Sound and the Fury 22. Wallace Stevens’s poetry is primarily motivated by the belief that true ideas correspond with an innate order in nature. Many of his good poems derive their emotional power from reasoned revelation. This philosophical intention is supported by the titles Wallace Stevens gave to his volumes such as_____________ .

A. Harmonium B. Ideas of Order C. Parts of a World D. all of the above 23. The two areas on which the modem American writers concentrated their criticism were___________ . A. the failure of communication among Americans B. the failures of American society C. the extreme prosperity of America D. the paradise of New Land 24. Choose the poems written by Wallace Stevens.

A. \ B. \ D. \25. __________ , one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest statement of Thomas Stearns Eliot' s aesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.

A. Sweeny Agonistes B. Tradition and the Individual Talent C. A Primer of Modern Heresy D. Gerontion 26. Thomas Stearns Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes in successive movements, in such works as __________ .

A. The Waste Land B. 77k? Hollow Men C. Ash-Wednesday D. Four Quartets 27. Thomas Stearns Eliot' s second volume of criticism________ (1914) was much admired for its critical method. A. The Function of Criticism B. The Metaphysical Poets C. Homage to John Dryden D. The Sacred Wood 28. __________ , a poetic tragedy on the betrayal of Thomas a Becket, is a drama of impressive spiritual power. A. \ B. \ C. \ D. \29. The first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature was a sharp social critic, whose name

was___________.

A. Sinclair Lewis B. Thomas Stearns Eliot C. Ernest Hemingway D. William Faulkner 30. Thomas Stearns Eliot was a _________.

A. poet B. playwright C. literary critic D. novelist 31. Thomas Stearns Eliot's first major poem____________ (1917) has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.

A. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock B. he Waste Land C. Four Quartets D. Preludes

32. The Fitzgeralds lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than F. Scoot Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as ______.

A. The Roaring Twenties B. The Jazz Age C. The Dollar Decade D. all of the above 33. Choose the collections of short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A. Flappers and Philosophers B. Tales of the Jazz Age C. All the Sad Young Men D. Taps at Reveille 34. Choose the novels written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A. The Great Gatsby B. Tender Is the Night C. This Side of Paradise D. The Beautiful and the Damned 35. Point out the three poets who opened the way to Modern poetry.

A. Ezra Pound B. Thomas Stearns Eliot C. E. E. Cummings D. Robert Frost 36. In Paris, Ernest Hemingway, along with ________, accomplished a revolution in literary style and language. A. Gertrude Stein B. Ezra Pound C. Thomas Stearns Eliot D. James Joyce E. all of the above 37. In 1954, ______ was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his \A. Thomas Stearns Eliot B. Ernest Hemingway C. John Steinbeck D. William Faulkner 38. Ernest Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love with a nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel__________ .

A. The Old Man and the Sea B. For Whom the Bell Tolls C. The Sun Also Rises D. A Farewell to Arms 39. During the Depression, Ernest Hemingway first went to Spain and then, to the American West and to Africa on hunting expeditions. In the novels written in this period such as___________, he wrote about bullfighting, hunting and his personal anecdote.

A. Death in the Afternoon B.The Green Hills of Africa C. Men without Women D.The Old Man and the Sea 40. Which authors committed suicide?

A. Ernest Hemingway B. Jack London C. Robert Frost D. Mrs. Stowe 41. __________ tells the Joad family’s life from the time they were evicted from their farm in Oklahoma until their first winter in California.

A. Of Mice and Men B. The Grapes of Wrath C. The Great Gatsby D. For Whom the Bell Tolls 42. wrote about the society in the South by inventing families which re?

presented different social forces; the old decaying upper class; the rising, ambitious, unscrupulous class of the \ bored for both of them.

A. William Faulkner B. F. Scott Fitzgerald C. Ernest Hemingway D. John Steinbeck 43. In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, he used a technique called_____________ , in which the whole story was told through the thoughts of one character.

A. stream of consciousness B. imagism C. symbolism D. naturalism

44. William Faulkner's novel___________ describes the decay and downfall of an old southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, toid from four different points of view.

A. The Sound and the Fury B. Startoris C. The Unvanquished D. The Town

45. William Faulkner's novel___________ is about a poor white family' s journey through fire and flood to bury

the mother in her hometown, Yoknapatawpha.

A. Intruder in the Dust B. As I Lay Dying C. Absalom, Absalom! D. Light in August 46. Which three novels form a trilogy which tells the saga of the unscrupuloussnopes family?

A. The Hamlet B. The Town C. The Mansion D. The Unvanquished 47. William Faulkner wrote altogether 18 novels and three volumes of short stories. Of these three novels, ___________, _________ and ___________ are master? pieces by any literary standards.

A. The Sound and the Fury B. Absalom, Absalom] C. Go Down, Moses D. The Wrath of the Grapes 48. William Faulkner wrote about the histories of a number of Southern aristocratic families such as the___________, the___________ , the __________ and the McCaslins, and traces them back to the very beginning when Chickasaw Indians were still lawful owners of the land.

49. Most of the important twentieth-century American poets were related with Imagist movement, including___________ .

A. Ezra Pound B. Wallace Stevens C. E. E. Cummings D. Carl Sandburg E. Thomas Stearns Eliot

A. Compsons B. Sartorises C. Sutpens D. Joads

Part VI. Twentieth Century Literature (II) After WWII

I. Fill in the blanks.

2.

In poetry, Postmodernism strives to go against the vogue of______ poem and its parent style, _____ of the previous decades.

4. __________ is the spokesman of postwar Beat Generation in American literary history. 17. J. D. Salinger is probably best known for his novel ___________.

26. Joseph Heller's_________ is one of the most famous novels dealing with the subject of absurdity in typical \

II. Make multiple choices.

1. One major characteristic of postwar poetry is its diversity. Which of the following terms belong to this period? A. the Black Mountain Poets B. Waste Land Painters C. Poets of the Beat Generation D. Poets of the San Francisco Renaissance E. Poets of the New York School 3. Among these poets, choose the ones belonging to the Confessional School.

A. Theodore Roethke B. John Berryman C. Ann Sexton D. Sylvia Plath E. Robert Lowell 9. The American fiction after the 1960s is noted for____________ .

A .nonfiction B. science fiction C. black and absurd humor D. parody and pop E. experimental novelistic techniques 10. Which of the following novels is NOT written by Saul Bellow?

A. The Dangling Man B. Herzog C. The Naked and the Dead D. Mr. Sammler's Planet 11. Which of the following novels are written by Norman Mailer? D. Tough Guys Don't Dance E. Harlot's Ghost

12. The title of J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye comes from___________ poem \body coming from the rye\

14. John Updike is best known for his \

A. Rabbit, Run B. Rabbit Redeux C. Rabbit Is Rich D. Rabbit at Rest E. Licks of Love 16. The novel of postmodernism after the 1960s includes _________.

A. The Naked and the Dead B. The Armies of the Night C. Ancient Evening

A. William Wordsworth B. William Black C. Alfred Tennyson D. Robert Burns

A. the absurd B. metafiction C. avant-gardism D. the sentimental

Part VII. American Drama

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. 2. 5.

__________ is the first master in the American history of drama.

In 1916, Eugene O' Neill's first play__________ was put on by the Province-town Players, which was Eugene O' Neill received the_____________ Prize for his Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie between

significant not only for him but for American Drama. 1920 and 1922, and ______________ Prize in 1936.

10. __________ in the 1950s and 1960s refers to some plays, some of which center on the meaninglessness of life with its pain and suffering that seems funny, even ridiculous. __________ is one of the representatives.

II. Make multiple choices.

2. Choose the playwrights who belong to the 1940s.

A. Tennessee Williams B. Arthur Miller C. David Mamet D. William Inge E. Arthur Kopit 4. In the decade of 1920s, Eugene O' Neill established an international reputation with such plays as___________ .

A. The Emperor Jones B. Anna Christie C. The Hairy Ape D. all of the above 5. \

A. Elmer Rice B. Edward Albee C. Eugene O'Neill D. Tennessee Williams 9. Death of a Salesman is written by_____________ .

A. Tennessee Williams B. Arthur Miller C. Elmer Rice

D. Clifford Odets

Part VIII. Multi-ethnic Literature

I. Fill in the following blanks.

1. 2. 3. 6. 7.

African American literature centers on a__________ , though also biblical, quite different from that on which African American literature is patterned on a myth of____________ from slavery, that of the Hebrew prophet African American literature has undergone a long process of evolution. Its early form was___________ , In the 1940 Richard Wright' s______ came out as a watershed in the tradition of the African American novel. __________ and ____________ are two of the most important female African American novelists. mainstream American literature is based.

Moses leading the Jews in their flight from the bondage in Egypt.

including ________ , __________ and____________ , in short, folk literature in its various manifestations.

14. By far the most important person in the Harlem Renaissance was______________ known as African Americans' poet laureate, who ultimately outgrew the movement, and developed into one of the major African American authors to help make African American culture.

15. ________was one of the founders of the black theater in the Federal Theater Project during the Depression. 18. Native Son by__________ is a story about an African American adolescent’s growth of awareness. It consists of three sections, namely ____________, _________ and___________.

19. African American literature attained a higher degree of maturity in 1952 when Ralph Ellison' s___________ appeared in print.

21. Toni Morrison's_________ is seen as another milestone in African American literature after Native Son and Invisible Man. It tells the story of an African American trying to recover his family roots.

29. Another important Asian American writer is Amy Tan, whose first novel, ______, made quite a stir on the contemporary American literary scene and brought Asian American literature to the intensive scrutiny of readers and critics alike.