英国文学史及作品选读习题集.doc

(完整版)英国文学史及作品选读习题集
1 Old ＆ Middle English Literature

Ⅰ。 Essay Questions
1。 What are the three parts told in the story of Beowulf？ How is heroic ideal reflected in Beowulf？
2。 State the social significance of William Langland’s Piers the Plowman and comment on the poem’s writing features。
3. Compare Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales with old English poetry and the works of other Middle English poets to illustrate that Chaucer is the first realistic writer in English literature.
4。 What is the function of the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales？
Ⅱ. Define the following terms。
1. Old English period (the Anglo Saxon period)
2. Alliteration
3。 Prose
4。 Courtly love
5. Morality play
6。 Couplet
7。 Meter
8。 Foot
9。 Scottish Chaucerians
10. Ballad （Popular ballad）
11. Middle English period
12. Anglo—Norman period
13. Arthurian legend
14。 Romance
Ⅲ。 Fill the blanks.
1. The Old English poetry can be divided into two groups: the_____ poetry and the ____ poetry。
2。 _____ is regarded as the “Father of English Song"， the first known religious poet of England。
3. The history of English literature begins in the____ century.
4. _____is the most prevailing literary form in the Middle Ages。
5. The most magnificent prose work of the 15th century is Morte d’ Arthur concerning with____ legend.
6。 The only important prose writer in the 15th century is Sir______。
7. Critics tend to divide Chaucer’s literary career into three periods: the ____ period, the___ period and the____ period.
8. Among the Middle English poets, three are the greatest。 One is the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight。 The other two are ____ and ____。
9. The Canterbury Tales contains the ____ and 24 tales， two of which left unfinished。
10. Chaucer employed the _____ couplet in writing his greatest work The Canterbury Tales。
11。 The framework in The Canterbury Tales is a ____。
12。 When Chaucer died on the 25th of October 1400， he was the first to be buried in ____。
13. Besides Chaucer, King James I also wrote in verses of seven lines, so this kind of verse came to be called the________
14。 Compared with Chaucer， “Father of English poetry", __________ in the 14th century can be called “Father of Scottish Poetry and Scottish History”。
15. The ___________is an important stream of the British literature in the 15th century。
16。 The __________century has traditionally been described as the barren age in English literature。
17。 Poetry can be classified as narrative or Lyric。 Narrative poems stress action, and Lyrics__________。
Ⅳ。 Choose the best answer。
1. Beowulf is a ______ poem, describing an all—round picture of the tribal society.
A. pagan B。 Christian
C。 romantic D。 lyric
2. Caedmon’s life story is vividly described in _____’s Historic Ecclesiastica.
A。 Grendel B. Bede C. Cynewulf D。 Beowulf
3. The most important work of Alfred the Great is ____, which is regarded as the best monument of the Old English prose.
A. The Song of Beowulf B。 The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
C。 Apollonius of Type D. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
4。 In the 14th century， the important writers are the following EXCEPT_______。
A. William Langland B. John Gower
C. Thomas Malory D. Geoffrey Chaucer
5。 Chaucer Was once influenced by Italian Literature。 His major work during this period is _____。
A. Troilus and Criseyde B。 The Romaunt of the Rose
C. The Legend of Good Women D。 The Canterbury Tales
6. Chaucer’s active career provided him not only with knowledge but also experiences， which accounted for the wide range of his writings。
7。 Chaucer’s narrative poem _____ is based on Boccaccio’s poem “Filostrato”。
A. The Legend of Good Women B。 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
C. The Book of the Duchess D。 Troilus and Criseyde
8。 All the following writers belong to the Scottish Chaucerians EXCEPT_______。
A。 Robert Henryson B。 William Dunbar
C. Thomas Malory D。 King James I
9. In English poetry, a four—line stanza is called____。
A. heroic couplet B. quatrain C。 Spenserian stanza D. terza rima
10。 The work that presented， for the first time in English literature， a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life is most likely _______.
A。 William Langland’s Piers the Plowman
B。 Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
C。 John Gower’s Confessio Amantis
D. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Ⅴ. Short—answer questions
1. What are the main characteristics of Anglo-Saxon literature？
2. What are the artistic features of Old English poetry？
3。 What are the major subjects that the English romance mainly deals with?
4. Summarize Chaucer’s literary career and the representative works of each period。
5. How many groups do the popular ballads fall into according to the contents or subjects?
6。 What are the stylistic features of ballads?
Ⅵ。 Answer the questions according to the following poem。
When the sweet showers of April fall and shoot
Down through the drought of March to pierce the root，
Bathing every vein in liquid power
From which there springs the engendering of the flower,
When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
Exhales an air in every grove and health
Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
His half—course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And the small fowls are making melody
That sleep away the night with open eye
（So nature pricks them and their heart engages)
The people long to go on pilgrimages
And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
Of far—off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
And specially， from every shire’s end
In England， down to Canterbury they wend
To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick
In giving help to them when they were sick.
Questions:
1。 What is expressed in these opening lines of The Canterbury Tales？
2。 How does the author emphasize the transition from nature to divinity？
3。 Comment on Chaucer's contribution of rhymed stanzas.

Keys
Ⅰ。 Essay questions.
1。 Structurally speaking, Beowulf is built around three fights。 The first part deals with the fight between Beowulf and the monster Grendel that has been attacking the great hall of Heorot, built by Hrothgar， the Danish King。 The second part involves a battle between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother, a water-monster, who takes revenge by carrying off one of the king’s noblemen。 The last part is about the fight between Beowulf and a firedrake that ravages Beowulf’s kingdom.
Beowulf is a pagan poem concerned with the heroic ideal of kings and kingship in North Europe. Battle is a way of life at that time. Strength and courage are basic virtues for both kings and his warriors。 The king should protect his people and show gentleness and generosity to his warriors. And in return, his warriors should show absolute obedience and loyalty to the king。 By praising Beowulf’s wisdom， strength and courage， and by glorifying his death for his people, the poem presents the heroic ideal of a king and his good relations to his warriors and people。
2. Piers the Plowman remains a classic in popular literature。 It was very popular throughout the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries。 It praises the poor peasants, and condemns and exposes the sins of the oppressors。 It played an important part in arousing the revolutionary sentiment on the eve of the Rising of 1381 headed by Wat Tyler and John Ball. It is a realistic picture of medieval England。 But Piers is not a representative of the poor peasants. He is one of the well-to—do peasants。 He has no intention of upsetting the feudal order of society， and he accepts the existing social relations. This is the limitation of the poem。
Writing features：
(1) Piers the Plowman is written in the form of a dream vision. The author tells his story under the guise of having dreamed it.
(2) The poem is an allegory which relates truth through symbolism。
(3) The poem uses indignant satire in his description of social abuses caused by the corruption prevailing among the ruling classes, ecclesiastical and secular。
(4） The poem is written in alliteration。
3。 The vast bulk of Old English poetry is specifically Christian, devoted to religious subjects. More importantly， it is almost all in the heroic mode due to the great influence of the heroic ideal, i。e. Beowulf is the ideal of kingly behavior. The idealized hero figures predominantly in Old English literature。 Middle English romance generally concerns the knight。 It makes liberal use of the improbable， ofte4n of the supernatural. Religious writing reflects the unchanging principles of medieval Christian doctrine, which looked to the world to come for the only answer to men's troubles。 William Langland’s Piers the Plowman reflects the great religious and social issues of his day， yet it is written in the form of a dream vision。 It is Chaucer alone who, for the first time in English literature， presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales。
4。 The General Prologue is usually regarded as the great portrait gallery in English literature。 It is largely composed of a series of sketches differing widely i8n length and method, and blending the individual and the typical in varying degrees。 The purpose of the General Prologue is not only to present a vivid collection of character sketches， but also to reveal the author’s intention in bringing together a great variety of people and narrative materials to unite the diversity of the tales by allotting them to a diversity of tellers engaged in a common endeavour， to set the tone for the story-telling-one of jollity which accords with the tone of the whole work： that of grateful acceptance of life, to make clear the plan for the tales, to motivate the telling of tales and introduce the pilgrims and the time and occasion of the pilgrimage。 The pilgrims are people from various parts of England. They serve as the representatives of various sides of life and social groups. Each of the pilgrims or narrators is presented vividly in the Prologue。 Ranging in status from a knight a humble plowman, the pilgrims are a microcosm of 14th-century English society。 On the other hand, there is also an intimate connection between the tales and the Prologue， both complementing each other。 The Prologue provides a framework for the tales。
Ⅱ。 Define the following terms.
1. Old English period （the Anglo—Saxon period): The Old English Period， extended from the invasion of Celtic England by Germanic tribes (the Angles， Saxons, and Jutes） in the first half of the fifth century to the conquest of England in 1066 by the Norman French under the leadership of the seventh century did the Anglo—Saxons, whose earlier literature had been oral， begin to develop a written literature.
2. Alliteration： alliteration is the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. The term is usually applied only to consonants, and only when the recurrent sound begins a word or a stressed syllable within a word.
3。 Prose： Prose is an inclusive term for all discourse, spoken or written， which is not patterned into the li8nes either of metric verse or free verse.
4。 Courtly love: It is a doctrine of love， together with an elaborate code governing the relations betwe4en aristocratic lovers， which was widely represented in the lyric poems and chivalric romances of western Europe during the Middle Ages.
5. Morality play: Morality plays are medieval allegorical plays in which personified human qualities acted and disputed, mostly coming from the 15th century. They developed into the interludes， from which it is not always possible to distinguish them, and hence had a considerable influence on the development of Elizabethan drama。
6. Couplet: A couplet is a pair of rhymed lines that are equal in length.
7. Meter: Meter is the recurrence, in regular units, of a prominent feature in the sequence of speech-sounds of a language。
8。 Foot： A foot is the combination of a strong stress and the associated weak stress or stresses which make up the recurrent metric unit of a line。 The relatively stronger-stressed syllable is called， for short， “stressed”； the relatively weaker—stressed syllables are called “light,” or most commonly, “unstressed”。 The four standard feet distinguished in English are： (1) Iambic (the noun is “iamb"): an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable。 （2) Anapestic （the noun is “anapest”)： two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable。 (3)Trochaic （the noun is “trochee"）: a stressed syllable。 (4） Dactylic （the noun is “dactyl"）： a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
A metric line is named according to the number of feet composing it：
Monometer： one foot
Dimeter： two feet
Trimester: three feet
Tetrameter: four feet
Pentameter： five feet
Hexameter： six feet
Heptameter: seven feet
Octameter: eight feet
9. Scottish Chaucerians： The name is traditionally given to a very diverse group of 15th—and 16th— century Scottish writers who show some influence from Chaucer， although the debt is now regarded as negligible or indirect in most cases.
10。 Ballad (popular ballad)： Ballad is also known as the folk ballad or traditional ballad。 It is a song， transmitted orally， which tells a story. Ballads are thus the narrative species of folk songs， which originate, and are communicated orally, among illiterate or only partly literate people。
11。 Middle English period: The four and a half centuries between the Norman Conquest in 1066， which effected radical changes in the language, life， and culture of England， and about 1500， when the standard literary language had become recognizably “modern English", that is similar to the language we speak and write today。
12。 Anglo-Norman period: The span from 1100 to 1350 is sometimes discriminated as the Anglo—Norman Period, because the non—Latin literature of that time was written mainly in Anglo—Norman， the French dialect spoken by the invaders who had established themselves as the ruling class of England， and who shared a literary culture with French-speaking areas of mainland Europe.
13。 Arthurian legend： It is a group of tales （in several languages) that developed in the Middle Ages concerning Arthur， semi-historical king of the Britons and his knights. The legend is a complex weaving of ancient Celtic mythology with later traditions around a core of possible historical authenticity.
14. Romance: It is a literary genre popular in the Middle Ages （5th century to 15th century）， dealing， in verse or prose， with legendary， supernatural， or amorous subjects and characters. The name refers to Romance languages a