P.
stereotypical
Q.
suited
R.
symbolizes
S.
vanity
T.
worthiness
List at least two Symbols in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
Springtime: The Canterbury Tales opens in April, at the height of spring. The springtime 1. ________ rebirth and fresh beginnings, and is thus 2. ________ for the beginning of Chaucer’s text. Springtime also 3. ________ erotic, love, as evidenced by the moment when Palamon first sees Emelye gathering fresh flowers to make garlands in honor of May. The Squire, too, 4. ________ in this symbolism. He is 5. ________ to the freshness of the month of May, in his devotion to courtly love.
Clothing: In General Prologue, the description of garments, in addition to the narrator’s own shaky recollections, helps to 6. ________ each character. In a sense, the clothes symbolize what lies beneath the surface of each personality. The Physician’s love of wealth 7. ________ itself most clearly to us in the rich silk and fur of his gown. The Squire’s youthful 8. ________ is symbolized by the excessive floral brocade on his tunic. The Merchant’s forked beard could symbolize his 9. ________ at which Chaucer only hints. Physiognomy: Physiognomy was a science that judged a person’s temperament and character based on his or her anatomy. Physiognomy plays a large role in Chaucer’s 10. ________ of the pilgrims in General Prologue. The most 11. ________ facial features are those of the peasants. The Miller represents the 12. ________ peasant physiognomy most clearly: round and ruddy, with a wart on his nose, the Miller appears rough and therefore 13. ________ to rough, simple work. The Pardoner’s glaring eyes and limp hair 14. ________ his fraudulence.
Why is the Knight first in the General Prologue to tell a tale in The Canterbury Tales?
1) The Knight is described first, as he is a “worthy man” of high 15. ________. The Knight has fought in the Crusades in numerous countries, and always been honored for his 16. ________ and courtesy. Everywhere he went, the narrator tells us, he had a “sovereyn prys” (which could mean either an “outstanding 17. ________”, or a price on his head for the fighting he has done).
2) Thus, in the narrator’s eyes, the Knight is the noblest of the pilgrims, 18. ________ military prowess, loyalty, honor, generosity and good manners
3) The knight 19. ________ himself in a polite and mild fashion, never saying an unkind word about anyone. To some extent, Chaucer’s style was also influenced by the Roman literature at that time, which was 20. ________ in feudal England. The central character of Romance always was the noble knight to seek adventures. Therefore, the knight is the first to tell a tale in The Canterbury Tales. B.
(Questions and Answers)
Supply the missing words in the blanks of the passage on the topic. Write in the exercise book the numbers indicating the 4 divisions of the passage and the words your give.
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What are the reasons for Chaucer’s being honored as “the father of English Poetry”? 1) It usually refers to Geoffrey Chaucer whose m________ The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English literature.
2) Chaucer made a great contribution to English poetry by introducing from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English a________ verse. It was he who used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which was later called the “heroic c________”.
3) Chaucer was the f________ to write in current English language. Though drawing influence from French, Italian and Latin models, he did much in making the d________ of London the foundation for modern English Language.
4) In his works Chaucer developed his characterization to a higher artistic level by presenting c________ with both typical qualities and individual dispositions. That is why John Dryden called him the Father of English Poetry. C.
Complete the passages by filling in the blanks with the given words. Write the corresponding letters as your answers
(Questions and Answers)
1. What are the essential features of romance in the Medieval English literature?
A.B.C.D.E. adventures church form knight lady F.G.H.I.J. life lord nature prose resemblance
1.
The romance was the most prevailing ________ of literature in the Middle Ages. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in 2. ________, describing the 3. ________ and adventures of a noble hero. Its essential features are:
1) It lacks general 4. ______ to truth or reality.
2) It exaggerates the vices of human 5. ________ and idealizes the virtues. 3) It contains perilous 6. ________ more or less remote from ordinary life. 4) It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair 7. ________.
5) The central character of the romance is the 8. ________, a man of noble birth skilled in the use of weapons. He is commonly described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his 9. ________ in battle. He is devoted to the 10. ________ and the king.
2. What is a Sonnet? A.B.C.D.E. conclusion couplet images octave poem F.G.I.J. problem proposition H. quatrains sestet variation
The sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric 1. ______ in predominantly iambic pentameter, with a formal rhyme scheme. Although there can be considerable 2. ______ in rhyme scheme, most English sonnets are written in either the Italian (Petrarchan) style or the English (Shakespearean) style.
1) The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an 3. ______ (an eight-line stanza), rhyming abbaabba, and a 4. ______ (a six-line stanza), rhyming cdcdcd, or cdecde—or using some other variation of the cd or cde patterns, but without a final rhymed couplet.
2) The octave usually presents an idea, raises an argument, makes a 5. ______, or poses a problem. A turning point (“volta”) occurs between the octave and the sestet, and the sestet develops out of the octave by illustrating the idea in the octave, varying it, responding to it, or solving the 6 ______ it poses.
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3) The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three 7. ______ (four-line stanzas), rhyming abab cdcd efef, and a 8. ______ (a two-line stanza), rhyming gg. Because each new stanza introduces a new set of rhyming sounds, the Shakespearean sonnet is well-suited to English.
4) The three quatrains may be used to present three parallel 9. ______, with the couplet used to tie them together or to interpret their significance. Or the quatrains can offer three points in an argument, with the couplet serving to drive home the 10. ______.
3. The following passage is taken from The Merchant of Venice. Read it carefully and find the dramatic irony it contains. Use it as an example to illustrate what dramatic irony is.
“Bassanio: Antonio, I am married to a wife
Which is as dear to me as life itself;
But life itself, my wife, and all the world, Are not with me esteem’d above thy life; I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all, Here to the devil, to deliver you.
Portia: Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
If she were by to hear you make the offer.” A.B.C.E. audience Bassanio disguised D. effect ignorant F.G.H. Portia ridiculous situation
1) When the 1. ________ is aware of a discrepancy between a character’s perception of his or her own situation and the true nature of that 2. ________, that is dramatic irony.
2) In the given example, 3. ________, Bassanio’s newly-married wife, 4. _______ herself as the lawyer to take charge of the case. Portia herself and the audience know all this, but Bassanio is 5. ________ of it. So when 6. ________ offers in front of his 7. ________ wife to sacrifice her in order to deliver Antonio, he makes himself behave in a 8. ________ way in the eyes of the 9. ________. Thus an 10. ________ of dramatic irony is achieved. (Topic Discussion)
4. Discuss briefly Hamlet's hesitation in taking revenge.
A.B.E. defeat incapable C. intolerable D. medium obliged F.J. questioning G. sophisticated H. surpassing I. survived suspended
1). Hamlet has none of the single-minded blood lust of the earlier revengers. It is not because he is 1. ________ of action, but because the cast of his mind is so speculative, so 2. ________, and so contemplative that action, which if finally comes, seems almost like 3. ________, diminishing rather than adding to the stature of the hero.
2). Trapped in a nightmare world of spying, testing and plotting, and apparently bearing the 4. ________ burden of the duty to revenge his father’s death, Hamlet is 5. ________ to inhabit a shadow world, to live 6. ________ between fact and fiction, language and action. His life is one of constant role-playing, examining the nature of action only to deny its possibility for he is too 7. ________ to degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger.
3) For such a figure, soliloquy is a natural 8. ________, a necessary release of his anguish; and some of his questioning monologues possess 9. ________ power and insight, which have 10. ________ centuries of being torn from their context.
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