美国文学考试题.doc

一 选择题（20个共20分）
1. James Fenimore Cooper
作品The Leatherstocking Tales, 《皮袜子故事集》
2. Philip Freneau
The wild Honey Suckle《野忍冬花》
3. Edgar Allan Poe
To Helen
4. Henry David Thoreau
Walden《瓦尔登湖》
5. American Romanticism 浪漫主义
Period: from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the civil war
It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
6. Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter 《红字》
7. 美国内战（南北战争）时间 1861.4.12—1865.4.9
8. Westward Movement 西进运动，开始于18世纪末，终于19世纪末20世纪初。
9. Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady 《一个女人的画像》
10. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature 《论自然》
11. John Smith
First American writer
12. Herman Melville
Moby-Dick 《大白鲸》
二 连线题（作者和作品 10分）
1. Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography
2. O.Henry
The Cop and the Anthem 《警察与赞美诗》
3. Jack London
The Sea Wolf 《海狼》
三 名词解释2个（以下四选二，共10分）
1. American Dream
The freedom allowing all American people to pursue their goals in life through hard work and free choice.(1分) It often refers to the opportunity for immigrants to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin.(2分)The founding Fathers used the phrase, “life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to encompass all that is available in American . It’s the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of class, race or religion. (2分)
2. American Puritanism 美国清教主义
A religious movement in the late 16th century，It sent an offshoot(分支) in the third and fourth decades of the 17th century to the northern English colonies in the New World，It laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual and social order of the New World。Puritans wanted to “purify the church” to its original state, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many rituals。To be a Puritan: taking religion as the most important thing; living for glorifying God.
3. American Romanticism 浪漫主义
(1) The Romanticism Period stretches from the end of 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a period of the great flowering of American literature. It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass .
(2) It was rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.
4. American Literature
mainly refers to literature produced in American English by people living in the U.S.. It also includes literature produced in other countries by American expatriates and in other languages by minorities in the country such as American Indian literature and the Jewish literature.
四 赏析题
1-2诗的赏析 两首诗二选一
答题标准：标出韵脚5分，中文译文15分 共20分。
1. To Helen
海伦，你的美在我眼里a
有如往日尼西亚的三桅船b
船行在飘香的海上，悠悠地a
把已惓于漂泊的困乏船员b
送回他故乡的海岸b

早已习惯于在怒海上飘荡a
你典雅的面庞，你的鬈发b
你水神般的风姿带我返航a
光荣属于希腊b
伟大属于罗马a

看哪！壁龛似的明亮窗户里a
我看见你站着，多像尊雕塑b
一盏玛瑙的灯你拿在手上b
塞姬女神哪，神圣的土地a
才是你的家乡！b

2. The Wild Honey Suckle 《野忍冬花》
美丽的花啊，你长得这么秀丽a
却藏身在这僻静，沉闷的地方b
无人触及你含蜜的芬芳a
你纤弱的枝杈无人欣赏b
没游来荡去的脚把你踩踏c
无多事的手惹你落泪c

大自然授你白色的裙裳a
她命你远遁世俗的眼光b
她布置树荫把你护卫起来a
又让潺潺的柔波淌过你身旁b
你的夏天就这样静静流逝c
这时候你日见萎焉终将安息c

那些难免消逝的美使我销魂a
想起你未来的结局我就心疼b
别的那些花儿也不比你幸运a
虽开放在伊甸园也早已凋零b
无情的寒霜再加秋日的威力c
会叫这花朵消逝的一无踪迹c

朝阳和寒霜曾把你养育a
让你这小小的生命来到这世上b
原来若没有，就没什么失去a
因为你的死让你同先前一样b
这来去之间，不过是一个钟点c
这就是脆弱的花享有的天年c

3-4片段赏析 二选一
答题标准：出处，作者，韵律（几步抑扬格），主题思想（歌颂了，表达了）
Question
(1)Which poem is called the “most perfect brief poem in the language”?
(2)Besides his poems, he also translated two important works into English Blank verse. What are they?
答：To a waterfowl
“the most perfect brief poem in the language”
describes the poet’s observation of a bird escaping from a fowler (hunter) on the horizon at sunset
Divine power/ guides and protects life
Meter:
Vainly the fowler's eye
three iambic feet
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong
five iambic feet
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky
five iambic feet
Thy figure floats along
three iambic feet

(1) In each stanza, the poet uses iambic trimiter in lines 1 and 4 but iambic pentameter in lines 2 and 3.
(2) The second stanza illustrates this format:
Analysis
(1) The poem represents early stages of American Romanticism through celebration of Nature and God’s presence within Nature.
(2) Bryant is acknowledged as being skillful at depicting American scenery and his natural details are often combined with a universal moral, as in "To a Waterfowl”

Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔丽》

In the poem, Poe examines a theme which he examines in many of his works: the death of a beautiful woman. It is a poem written in memory of his deceased young wife Virginia Clemm. The poem is permeated with melancholy.
The poem coincides with Poe’s poetics. It is readable at one sitting. In the poem, Poe examines a theme which he examines in many of his works: the death of a young pretty woman, which, according to him, is “unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” The poem is filled with melancholy as he believes “melancholy is the most legitimate [lə‘dʒɪtəmɪt](合理的) of all the poetic tones.

五 问答题
1. 爱伦坡的文学成就 10分
Edgar Allan Poe，father of modern short story，father of detective story，
father of psychoanalytic(精神分析的) criticism。
Poems
1. theory
1.Poems should be short, concise and readable at one sitting.
2.The aim of poem writing is beauty; the most beautiful thing described by a poem is the death of a beautiful woman; the desirable tone of a poem is melancholy[melənkəlɪ]（忧郁）.
3.He stressed the form of poem, especially the beautiful and neat rhyme.
4.Famous Poems: The Raven, Annabel Lee, To Helen

《红字》 The Scarlet Letter
答题要点：summary+comment
基本人物，情节，故事时间，背景，人物分析。写评价，反映了霍桑…（罪恶是一种与生俱来的东西）
The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters
1.Hester。Beauty，strong will and endurance，kindness。
Hester Prynne: This book is not a praise of Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn(赞歌) on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against.
Hester’s life eventually acquires a real significance when she reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her fellowmen。
Symbolic meaning of her moral development is the gradual, subtle change which the scarlet letter undergoes in meaning. A – “Adultery” “Able”, “Angel”
2.Arthur Dimmesdale
weak and coward
3.Roger Chillingworth。heartless and merciless。his misshapen body reflects or symbolizes the evil in his soul。
4. Pearl。She is the scarlet letter in another form, the scarlet letter endowed with life;
-- She is the symbol of the ardent (deep) love;
-- She serves as moral in the novel;
-- She symbolizes the revolt(反感，厌恶) against Puritanism.
总结：he represents the secret sinner who fights the good fight in his soul and eventually wins.
Hawthorne’s point of view：(1)Evil exists in the human heart, human heart is the source of evil. Everyone possesses some evil secret. Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Evil is man’s birthmark. (2). Evil educates. Achievement is “under the impact of and by engagement with evil”. 经历过犯罪，受到其影响，人们才能有所成就。Man is better for the crime which brings about the fall. 人在犯罪后才能更好的完善自己。
Conclusion: According to Hawthorne, “there is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.” A piece of literary work should “show how we are all wronged and wrongers, and avenge one another.” So in almost every book he wrote, Hawthorne discusses sin and evil.

2. 区别现实主义与自然主义
现实主义：American Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and paved the way to modernism. During this period a new generation of writers , dissatisfied with the romantic ideas in the order generation, came up with a new inspiration . this new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It aimed at the interpretation of the realities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. Instead of thinking about the mysteries of life and death and heroic individualism, people’s attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid. And to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sodid, and to the open portayal of class struggle. Mark Twain Howells and Henry James are three leading figures of the American Realism.
自然主义：American Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. American naturalism had been shaped by the war, by the social upheavals that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age.
4.超验主义（有关内容全写，代表人物，爱默生）
Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in new England in the early to middle 19th century. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society . It placed emphasis on spirit , or the over soul, as the most important thing in the world. It stressed the importance of individual and offered a fresh perception nature and symbolic of the spirit of God. Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David thorough.
爱默生的主题和思想：1. Express his firm belief in the transcendence of the over soul or spirit that runs through almost all his writings
3. Regard nature as the purest and moral influence on man which can make people holy(圣洁的).
4. Believe that the individual is the most importance of all, and convince people the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself. He is optimistic about human perfectibility.
5. Calls for an independent culture in The American Scholar. in Emerson’s phrase, the scholar is “Man Thinking”.