Exercise 1:
I. Fill in the blanks.
1. The most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature
was ___American Puritanism_______. 2. Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was __John Smith_______________, an English soldiers of fortune, whose reports of
exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinct
American literature written in English.
1
3. Almost a hundred years earlier the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, and other parts of
Central and South American were occupied by the _Spanish___________. 4. The term “Puritan” was applied to those settlers who originally were devout
members of the Church of ___England_____________. 5. __Harvard_______________ College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.
2
6. Among all the settlers in the New Continent, ____English___________ settlers were the most influential.
7. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at
__Jamestown__________, Virginia. 8. _John Smith____ was a famous explorer and colonist. He established Jamestown.
9. In the book __A Description of New England John Smith wrote that “here nature and
liberty afford us that freely which in England we want, or it costs up dearly.”
3
10.General History of Virginia contains Smith?s most famous tale of how the Indian
princess named __Pochahontas saved him from the wrath of her father. 11.Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the __Puritan________ values that dominated much of the early American writing.
12.The American poets who emerged in the 17th century adapted the style of
established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new
environment. ___Anne_______________ Bradstreet was one such poet.
4
13.William Bradford himself used a word “__Pilgrims__” to describe the community
of believers who sailed from Southampton, England, on the Mayflower and settled
in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
14. In 1620, ___William Bradford__ was elected Governor of Plymouth,
Massachusetts.
15.From 1621 until his death, ___William Bradford_____________________ probably possessed more power than any other colonial governor.
5