中山大学2004年英语专业考研英美文学专业试.doc

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1、【精品文档】如有侵权，请联系网站删除，仅供学习与交流中山大学2004年英语专业考研英美文学专业试.精品文档.中山大学2004年英语专业考研英美文学专业试题Entrance EXAM for 2004M. A- ProgramSchool of Foreign Languages Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) UniversityBritish and American LiteratureDuration: 3 hoursTotal Score: 150 marksInstructions: Answer all the 3 questions in Part One and

2、 any 3 questions in Part Two. You are required to answer 6 questions altogether.Part OneI. Explain briefly any 3 of the terms listed below (20%)A. American RenaissanceB. EpicC. Metaphysical poetryD. ModernismE. Theatre of the AbsurdII. Comment briefly on any 2 of the following characters. (20%)A. Ca

3、ptain Ahab B. Tom JonesC. GatsbyD. Andrea del SartoE. King LearIII. Match the literary work with the author. For each question (A-T) fill in the blank with one figure (1-20). (20%)Example: David Copperfield 2 1. Jack London 2. Charles DickensA. The Portrait of a Lady 1. William Carlos WilliamsB. The

4、 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn2. Walt WhitmanC. The Wasteland 3. Henry FieldingD. The Rainbow 4. Eugene ONeillE. Leaves of Grass 5. T. S. EliotF. Tom Jones 6. Charles LambG. Bleak House 7. Henry JamesH. The Iceman Cometh8. Charles DickensI. Essays of Elia _ 9. D. H. LawrenceJ. Paterson 10. Mark Twa

5、inK. A Streetcar Named Desire 11. John MiltonL. The Alchemist 12. William FaulknerM. Walden 13. Ben JohnsonN. Ode to a Nightingale 14. Tennessee WilliamsO. Catch-22 15. James JoyceP. Paradise Lost 16. John RealsQ. Ulysses 17. Joseph HellerR. Howl 18. H. D. ThoreauS. The Sound and the Fury 19. Joseph

6、 ConradT. Heart of Darkness 20. Allen GinsbergPart TwoIV. A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem of iambic pentameter. It was originated in Italy in the 14th century and introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Since then it has been a form of poetry much favored by the English poets.

7、 William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. However, the Shakepearean or English sonnet is different from the Italian. Explain the differences of the two kinds of sonnets. (30%)V. According to many critics, Francis Bacon is the father of the English essay while Charles Lamb, the Shakespeare of it. Make

8、a comment on the statement (30%)VI. In what sense do you think that critical realism is a suitable label for the realistic novels in 19th century England? (30%)VII. How do you interpret the concept “the code heroes,” which refers to a certain group of characters created by Hemingway? Give examples t

9、o support your point (30%)VIII. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was praised by Hemingway as a book from which “all modern American literature comes.” How do you interpret Hemingways comment? (30%)IX. Give a brief introduction to one of your favorite writers in British or American literature (30%)

10、中山大学2004年英美文学参考答案Part OneI.Explain briefly any 3 of the terms listed below (20%)A.American Renaissance, also called American Romanticism, is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. (2) It was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feel

11、ings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild, the remote, the mysterious and the strange. They str

12、essed the element “Americanness” in their works. (3) Transcendentalism is the summit of American Renaissance, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Over-soul, and Nature. (4) It started with the publication of Washington Irvings The Sketch Book and ended with W

13、alt Whitmans Leaves of Grass. (4) Being a period of the great flowering of American literature, it is also called “the American Renaissance.” (5) American Romanticists include such literary figures as Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordswort

14、h Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and some others.B.Epic, in poetry, refers to a long work dealing with the actions of gods and heroes. (2) Beowulf is the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. John Milton wrote three great epics: Paradise Lost, P

15、aradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.C.Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. (2) With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry

16、. (3) The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassical periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. (4) Theimagery is drawn from actual life.D. Modernism is an international movement in literature and arts, especially in literary criticism, which beg

17、an in the late 19th century and flourished until 1950s. (2) Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical case. (3) The modernist writers concentrate more on the private and subjunctive than on the public and objective, mainly concerned with the inner

18、of an individual. (4) James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are prominent modernist writers.E. The Theater of Absurd is a kind of drama that explains an existential ideology and presents a view of the absurdity of the human condition by the abandoning of usual or rational dev

19、ices and the use of nonrealistic form. (2) The most original playwright of the Theater of Absurd is Samuel Beckett, who wrote about human beings living a meaningless life in an alien, decaying world. His play, Waiting for Godot, is regarded as the most famous and influential play of the Theater of A

20、bsurd.II.Comment briefly on any 2 of the following characters. (20%)A、Captain Ahab is the main character in Melvilles greatest allegorical novel Moby-Dick. (2) Ahab, the domineering captain on board his ship Pequod, with an overwhelming obsession, is determined to kill the whale which has crippled h

21、im. (3) In order to kill the whale, Moby Dick, he deliberately involves the crew in his revenge. At the end of the story everybody dies except Ishmael who survives to tell the story. (4) For Ahab, the whale represents only evil. Moby Dick is like a wall, hiding some unknown, mysterious things behind

22、. Ahab wills the whole crew on the Pequod to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall, to root out the evil, but only to be destroyed by evil, in this case, by his own consuming desire, his madness. (5) Ahab remains one of the most fascinating characters in world literature.

23、B、Tom Jones is the main character in Fieldings Tom Jones. (2) In the novel Tom Jones stands for a drifting Everyman who is expelled from the paradise and has to undergo hard experiences to gain some knowledge of himself to approach perfection.C、Gatsby is the main character in Fitzgeralds The Great G

24、atsby. (2) Gatsbys tragedy could be tackled in the following possible ways. Gatsbys dream is empty of substantiality in the way he incarnates his dream in a girl he idealizes, and the girl (Daisy) turns out to be veryselfish and indifferent to his true love; he is a man who clings to the past which

25、has gone forever; he is doomed because the world around is a land of spiritual ashes, full of careless drivers who have no sense of wonder about life, But he is great in that he still holds a dream that proves to be incorruptible. (3) Gatsbys tragedy embodies the disillusionment of the American Drea

26、m.D、King Lear is the main character in Shakespeares tragedy King Lear. (2) King Lear is a self-willed ruler who suffers from treachery and infidelity on account of his irresponsibility and vanity. (3) In King Lear, Shakespeare has not only made a profound analysis of the social crisis in which the e

27、vils can be seen everywhere, but also criticized the bourgeois egoism. (4) Shakespeare points out that a king or ruler must be responsible to his people.III. III.Match the literary work with the author. For each question (A-T) fill in the blank with one figure (1-20). (20%)A-7 B-10 C-5 D-9 E-2 F-3 G

28、-8 H-4 I-6 J-1 K-14 L-13 M-18 N-John Keats O-17 P-11 Q-15 R-20 S-12 T-19Part TwoIV. Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with a rigid rhyme scheme. This verse form was first employed by the Italian poets in the early period of the Renaissance and came to perfection in the hands of

29、 Dante and especially ofPetrarch. It was introduced into England in the 16th century, and adopted by many English poets, with chiefly two variants: the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet form and the English or Shakespearean. The chief difference between the two forms lies in their two different rhyme sch

30、emes: abba, abba, cdcdcd or abba, abba, cdecde for the Italian or Petrarchan form and abab, cdcd, efef, gg for the English or Shakespearean. All of Shakepeares 154 sonnets belong to the latter type.V. (1) Bacon is best known for his Essays that is the first example of that genre in English literatur

31、e. Of Studies is the most popular of Bacons essays. His essays deal with a variety of topics about almost all aspects of life. They are characterized by forcefulness, persuasiveness, compactness and precision. These qualities have earned Bacon the father of the English essay. (2) Charles Lamb is a w

32、ell-known essayist in the English Romantic Period. He wrote a series of essays collected in his famous “Essays of Elia”. In these essays Lamb chats with the reader on various topics and reveals his charming personality.The most striking feature of Lambs essays is his humor. He is universally acknowl

33、edged to be unique as an English humorist. Like other humorists, he could tell a ridiculous story in the most solemn tone. He is a master of puns and jokes. Lambs style is touched with archaism, interspersed with quotations from his favorite authors but always faithful to his own personality. It is

34、highly artistic but inimitable. In short, Lambs essays are familiar essays in the best sense of the term. His “Essays of Elia” is Lambs greatest contribution to the treasury of English literature. Lamb is, therefore, regarded as the Shakespeare of the English essay.VI. (1) In the 19th century Englan

35、d the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th-century realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society and the defe

36、nse of the mass. Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by t

37、he money-worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread misery, poverty and injustice. Their truthful picture of peoples life and bitter and strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems and in the actual improvement of the society. Charle

38、s Dickens, the Bronte Sisters and Thomas Hardy are typical novelists of the Victorian period. (2) Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. It is his serious intention to expose and criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptne

39、ss he saw all around him. In his works, Dickens sets out a full map and a large-scale criticism of the 19th-century England, particularly London. A combination of optimism about people and realism about society is present from the very beginning. In his early novels, he attacks one or more specific

40、social evils in each: For example, the dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life in Oliver Twist; the debtors prison in David Copperfield; the money-worship that dominates peoples life, corrupts the young and brings tragedy to Mr. Dombeys family in Dombey and Son, etc. be

41、found. (3) Being faithful to reality of the 19th century England English writers are labeled as the realistic novelists.VII. (1) The code hero refers to a literary character who clings to a certain set of rules or principles invented by a particular writer. (2) Hemingway is a case in point. Hemingwa

42、y deals with a limited range of characters in quite similar circumstances and measure them againstan unvarying code, known as “grace under pressure”. Those who survive in the process of seeking to master the code with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint are Hemingway Code heroes. Such a h

43、ero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. He keeps emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined. He fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The Hemingway hero possesses a kind of “despairing courage”. It is this cour

44、age that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. (3) Barnes in The Sun Also Rises and Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea are such heroes.VIII. (1) Mark Twain is a great literary giant of America. H. L. Mencken considered him “the true father of our national l

45、iterature.” With works like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain shaped the worlds view of America. He made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a boys book specially written for the adults, is

46、 Twains most representative work. These two books, especially the latter, proved to be the milestone in American literature, and thus firmly established Twains position in the literary world. (2) As a sequel to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn marks the climax of Twains literary creativity. Hemingway on

47、ce described the novel the one book from which “all modern American literature comes.” The language of the novel is simple, direct, lucid , and faithful to the colloquial speech which is best described as “vernacular”. With his great mastery and effective use of vernacular, Twain has made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium. (3) In it he created for American Literatu