英美文学复习题.doc

For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret the italicized parts. You are required to choose any 5 of the 6 items to answer.1. “But it strikes me that there is a want of harmony between your present mood of self-sacrifice and your past mood of self-preservation.”Keys: 1. Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles”, “What you said gives me such an impression as there is no harmony between your now-behavior and your behavior before, i.e. you say you are wiling to die while you did not die at the time you got seduced.”2. In “ Indian Camp”, Hemingway makes a successful use of situational irony. Please illustrate this with some examples.Keys: A. Situational irony occurs when what happens turns out to be quite the different from what is expected. Sometimes what happens is just the opposite of what is expected.B. In “Indian Camp” there are several instances of situational irony. That is, there are several instances of discrepancy between expectation and fulfillment.C. In the first instance, it is the Indian wife , not the husband, who suffers excruciating physical pain, yet it is the husband, nit the wife, who commits suicide.In the second instance , Nicks father brings Nick to the Indian camp so that Nick can watch the birth of a child, but Nick is far more interested in the death of a man.In the third instance, Nick watches a man die, but afterwards Nick feels quite sure that he himself will live foreverD. One of the functions of irony of situation on “Indian Camp” is to suggest the mystery and unpredictability of life.3.My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began.So is it now I am a man.So be it when I shall grow oldOr let me die!*The child is the father of the manAnd I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.Keys: William Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up”I feel / am very happy when I see a rainbow in the sky. I did / was so when I was a child, and do/am so when I am grown up/an adult, and will do /be so when I grow/ am old, otherwise / if I loose such ability to respond to/ appreciate nature and its beauty, I would rather die.”4. “ I loaf and invite my soul, / I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.”What does the underlined part mean ?Keys: A. “ A spear of summer grass” is an image that run through the whole poem. A spear of summer grass just means a leaf of grass, because a grass leaf looks like a spear.B. The author emphasizes summer grass, because grass grows well in summer. So it stands for life and power5. “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.”The above quotation is taken from Shelleys poem “Ode to the West wind”. What does the underlined part mean?Keys: A. Burdens or pressures of life .B. Moral and cultural conventions picked up buy individuals in life .C. Lessons learned from life experience .D. Sufferings and misfortunes in ones life .6. Tell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream!For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.Keys: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A PSALM OF LIFE"“Do not tell me /say to me in sad poem/song that life is only an empty dream.”7. .In Hamlets soliloquy, when he says, “ To sleep, perchance to dream: -ay, theres the rub .” What is he primarily thinking about? Why does he think there is the rub ?Keys: A. He is primarily thinking about death.B. Because if dying is like going to sleep, he may perhaps have dreams, sometimes even bad dreams. That is still a problem.8. Drive my dead thoughts over the universeLike withered leaves to quicken a new birth!And, by the incantation of this verse,Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearthAshes and sparks, my words among mankind!Be through my lips to unawakened EarthThe trumpet of prophecy! Keys: Percy Bysshe Shelley; “Ode to the West Wind”,Interpretation: and, by the magical effect of my poem, scatter my words throughout the world, just as scatter the ashes and sparks from a hearth that is not put out/that still has embers9. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.Keys: Francis Bacon, “Of Studies”,interpretation: Shrewd/cunning people despise/ scorn studies, simple-minded people worship studies, while wise people make use of studies, because studies do not teach how to use themselves; how to make use of studies is a kind of wisdom without obeying doctrines in books, and above instructions in books - the wisdom gained by observation.10. I died for Beauty - but was scarceAdjusted in the TombWhen One who died for Truth, was lainIn an adjoining Room -Keys: Emily Dickinson, “I died for Beauty”“I replied /answered: I died for beauty. And he said: I died for truth. Both beauty and truth are the same / they are one thing, so we are brothers.”He questioned softly, “Why I failed”?“For Beauty”, I replied -“And I - for Truth - Themselves are One -We Bretheren, are”, He said -Read the following excerpts and answer the questions, or fill in the blanks or choose the correct answer(s) from the options given. There are altogether six sections in this part. You are required to fulfill the first four sections and either of the fifth and the sixth. If both the fifth and the sixth have been done, only the fifth will be assessed.1. “A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,They take a serpentine course , their arms flash in the sun-hark to the musical clank,Be hold the silvery river , in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink,Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person, a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles,Some emerge on the opposite bank , others are just entering the ford-while,Scarlet and blue and snowy white,The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind .”Questions:A. Who is the author of this poem?B. What is the essence of this poem ?C. What is the unique character in this poem?Keys: A. Walt WhitmanB. It reminds its reader of a picture of a scene of the American Civil War.C. All the movements described in this picture are frozen .While sounds are depicted , its more likely that they come out of the watchers imagination , rather than from the picture itself.2. The evening arrived; the boys took their places; the master in his cooks uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him: the gruel was served out, and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared, and the boys whispered to each other and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger and reckless with misery. He rose from the table, and advancing, basin and spoon in hand, to the master, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity“Please, Sir, I want some more.”Questions:(1). From which literary work is this excerpt taken? Who wrote it?(2). What does “the short commons” mean?(3). What is the theme of this novel?Keys: (1) “Oliver Twist”, Charles Dickens(2) the little food provided for the boys(3) Oliver Twist is the story of a young orphan boy who reflects the life of poverty in England in the 1830's. The story illustrates the evils of the Poor House's of the time and the corruption of the people who work there.  It also shows the depths of London's crime with an emphasis on petty robbery and pick-pocketing. It is the most consistently effective as an attack on social injustice. (参见: <指南>p452)3. “ The apparition of the these faces in the crowed; / Petals on a wet, black bough”Questions:A: From which poem does the stanza come ? Who is the author?B: What does the “petals” mean?C: Briefly interpret the two lines.Keys: A. In a Station of the Metro, Ezra Pound.B. Here “ petals” stands for “human faces” .C. The two lines compare human faces to petals on a wet, black bough. This way of making poetry comes from Chinese poetics4. “Never did sun more beautifully steepIn his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!The river glideth at his own sweet will:Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;And all that mighty heart is lying still!“（William Wordsworth's sonnet: “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” September 3, 1802）Questions:A. What does the word “glideth” in the fourth line mean?B. What kind of figure of speech is used by wordsworth to describe the “river”?C. What idea does the fourth line express?Keys: A The word "glideth" means "flows"B wordsworth uses personification to describe the "river"C The fourth line expresses the idea that the river is flowing happily as a living things , which implies the beauty of the nature;5. “With Blueuncertain stumbling BuzzBetween the lightand meAnd then the Windows failedand thenI could not see to see“Questions:A. Identify the poem and the poet.B. What do “Windows” symbolically stand for?C. What idea does the quoted passage express?Keys: A. The poem is "I heard as Fly buzz when I died" by Emily Dickinson.B. "windows" symbolically stand for the door to heaven.C. The quoted passage vividly describes the moment of my dying and expresses my doubt of the existence of eternal heaven.6. I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh twelve pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to twenty-eight pounds.I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of their parents, seem to have the best title to their children.Questions:(1). This passage is taken from a well-known essay entitled _.The author of the essay is _.(2). What is the most striking feature of this essay?(3) Paraphrase the last sentence.Keys: (1) “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift(2) His language is simple, clear and vigorous. His irony is deadly. His satire is masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness. This makes his satire all the more powerful.(3) I admit that the price of baby as a food will be high / expensive, but it is all the more suitable for the landlords. Because it is the landlords who exerted their power and drove the babies parents to death, it seems they have the very right to eat the babies, too.7. “And ever as he rode , his hart did earne, / To prove his puissance in battell brave”Question :A. Identify the poem and the poet.B. What does the word “ puissance” mean?C. Is the theme of the poem “Arms and the Man”? If not , tell your point and explain it briefly.Keys: A . The Faerie Queene ; Edmund SpenserB. Power , ProwessC . Now , “Farce Warres and faithfull lovesAll the events are told in a romantic fantastic way in order to arouse wonder.8. To be, or not to bethat is the question:Whether tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortuneOr to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them. To die, to sleepNo moreand by a sleep to say we endThe heartache, and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to, Tis a consummationDevoutly to be wished. Th die, to sleepTo sleepperchance to dream: ay, theres the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause. Theres the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,The pangs of despised love, the laws delay,The insolence of office, and the spurnsThat patient merit of thunworthly-takes,When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovered country, from whose bournNo traveller returns, puzzles the will,And makes us rather bear those ill we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pitch and momentWith this regard their currents turn awryAnd lose the name of action.Questions:(1). These lines are taken from a famous play named _.The author of the play is _.(2). In the play these lines are uttered by _.(3). What does this speech show about the utterer?Keys: 1. (1) Hamlet, Shakespeare(2) Hamlet(3) His characteristics: (参见: <指南>p367)* Hamlets thoughts were philosophical rather than practical;* His concerns were on the nature of things rather than any specific plans for actions;* His feelings were of a deep sorrow over the injustice and vanity, which brought pains into human life.9. “Break ,break , break , / On thy cold grey stones , O sea! / And I thought that my tongue could utter / The thoughts that arise in me.”Questions:A. Give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which thisstanza is taken .B. Interpret this stanza.C. Analyze the authors art of this poem.Keys: A. Alfred Tennysons Break , Break , Break.B. The sea is throwing its waves violently against the cold grey stones on the bank. I wish that I could just express my sorrow for my dead friend like the surging sea.C. The beauty of the lyric is to be found in the musical language and in the association of sound images with feelings and emotions .10. "Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer raft, Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour? It 'll only make things oncomfortable. It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, it ain't your fault you warn't born a king-so what's the use to worry? Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I-that's my motto. This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here-plenty grub and an easy life-come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends."Questions:(1) From which literary work is this excerpt taken? Who wrote it?(2) Who is “duke”? Who is speaking to the “duke”?(3) What do you know about the novel?Keys: (1) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain(2) a fraud about 30 years old who claimed that he is the Duke of Bridgewater; another fraud at about 70 who claimed to be a descendent of French King.(3) It tells a story about the USA before the Civil War, around 1850. Huck, an uneducated outcast white boy, escaped from his drunk fathers ill-treatment, met Jim, a run-away ignorant