Part I Multiple Choice
1. Naturalism evolved from realism when the author?s tone in writing became less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more_____.
A. optimistic B. pessimistic C. humorous D. rational 2. Among the following, Jack London wrote all the other three but .
A. The Call of the Wild B. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn C. The Sea Wolf D. Martin Eden
3. Chinese poetry and philosophy have exerted great influence over . A. Whitman B. Ezra Pound C. Emily Dickinson D. Edgar Allan Poe 4. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about .
A. men and women B. man and society C. man and nature D. man and machine
5. , which one American critic described as “an outrage to American girlhood”,
brought Henry James his first international fame.
A. The American B. The Portrait of a Lady C. Daisy Miller D. The Ambassadors 6. Edgar Allan Poe?s works don?t include . A. The Raven B. To Helen C. “The Fall of the House of Usher” D. To His Coy Mistress
7. The American social upheavals and the literary concerns of the Great Depression years ended
with the prosperity and turmoil brought by the . A. World War Ⅰ B. War of Independence C. Civil War D. World War Ⅱ
8. was John Steinbeck?s most clearly “proletarian” novel of class struggle,
depicting the lives of migrants workers and their resistance to exploitation by the entrenched forest of society.
A. The Grapes of Wrath B. Tortilla Flat
C. Of Mice and Men D. In Dubious Battle
9. Early in the 1920s the most prominent of the new American playwrights, established an international reputation with such plays as The Emperor, Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape.
A. Eugene O?Neill B. James Joyce
C. E. E. Cummings D. Langston Hughes
10. America?s literary dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment and heredity. A. naturalists B. realists C. romanticists D. modernists 11. Who is different from others according to the division of writing period? A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant
C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper
12. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing?
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A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution
13. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to ____. A. typography B. journalism
C. revolution D. the development of paper-making industry 14. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”? A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer
C. Washington Irving D. Philip Freneau
15. Who is the first American prose stylist that acquired international fame? A. Captain John Smith B. Washington Irving
C. Benjamin Franklin D. E. A. Poe 16. Who is the writer of To a Waterfowl?
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Thomas Hardy C. William Cullen Bryant D. Walt Whitman 17. Thomas Paine is a ____?
A. novelist B. dramatist C. poet D. pamphleteer 18. Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes ____
A. short stories B. literary critic theories C. poems D. dramas
19. About Washington Irving, Father of American short stories, which of the following statement is right?( )
A. As a writer, he remained democratic and always exalted a disappearing past. B. He preferred the Old World to the New in his writing.
C. Many of his writings are focused on American subjects, landscapes, particularly the legends of the Hudson River region of the fresh young land.
D. He is well-known for his international theme across the Atlantic.
20. Despite strong foreign influences, American romantic writings are typically American which can be revealed in the following ______.( )
A. a desire for an escape from civilized society and a return to the ennobling nature B. the American national experience of “pioneering into the west”
C. American type of characters speaking local dialects appeared in the fiction D. all of the above
21. In the well-known story Rip Van Winkle, Rip is asleep for 20 years, during which ______ takes place.( )
A. World War I B. the Civil War C. World War II D. the Revolutionary War
22. According to Emerson, which of the following is not mentioned as the special terms in his Nature? ( )
A. “unity of Nature” B. “Over-Soul” C. “supernature” D. “a transparent eyeball” 23. Ralph Waldo Emerson hates ______.( )
A. Unitarianism B. Puritanism C. Protestanism D. Transcendentalism
24. Which of the following statements is said about most of the poems in Whitman?s Leaves of Grass?( )
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A. They identify his ego with the conservative America. B. They sing of the “en-masse” and the self as well. C. They celebrate the self and ignore sexuality.
D. They reject the pursuit of love and happiness of individuals.
25. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and paved the way to ______. ( )
A. Puritanism B. Modernism C. Postmodernism D. Materialism
26. ______ is considered “the true father of American national literature.”( )
A. Mark Twain B. Washington Irving C. Ralph Emerson D. Walt Whitman
27. Henry James? most distinguished literary technique is his ______. ( )
A. narrative point of view B. author?s participation in narrating C. first person narrative D. technique of stream of consciousness
28. The subjects of Emily Dickinson?s poems are mainly about the following except______.( )
A. religion B. death and immortality C. man and morality D. love and nature
29. Mark Twain created in ______, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the great books of world literature.( )
A. Leaves of Grass B. Tom Sawyer C. Huckleberry Finn D. The Gilded Age
30. Henry James, the great American realist, treated with great care ______ in the first period.( )
A. ancient European civilization which is satirized severely in his writings
B. the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America C. the clashes between two different cultures, European and American D. both B and C
31. Which of the following statements can be said about the novel Sister Carrie? ( )
A. Its heroine is a Southern aristocratic woman, who refuses to come to terms with the present.
B. Its heroine is a country girl, who strives to gain her material rise in big cities but soon gets tired of her success.
C. The heroine is a young vain girl, who indulges herself in grand parties and luxurious trips but soon becomes penniless.
D. It tells about a young sailor, who struggles to reach the upper society but soon gets disillusioned.
32. The finest example of Nathaniel Hawthorne?s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ______.( )
A. The Scarlet Letter B. Young Goodman Brown C. The Marble Faun D. The Ambitious Guest
33. During the first part of the 20th century, with a series of wars the whole world had undergone a dramatic social change, a transformation ______.( )
A. from order to disorder B. from disorder to order C. from disorder to chaos D. from chaos to disorder
34. The American social upheavals and the literary concerns of the Great Depression years ended
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with the prosperity and turmoil brought by ______.( )
A. World War I B. World War II C. the Civil War D. the War of Independence 35. As to the American realists, which of the following statements is right?( )
A. They tried to explore the harsh realities of life as well as the illusion of heroism. B. Their attention was directed to the great events of the contemporary time.
C. They aimed at the interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. D. all of the above.
36. In the 1960s and 1970s, there appeared the writers of the “new fiction” in America, who shared almost the same belief that ______.( )
A. human beings are living in a prosperous and lively world B. human beings are trapped in a meaningless world
C. neither God nor man can make sense of the human condition D. both B and C
37. In the 1920s, O?Neill established an international reputation with the play or plays______. ( )
A. The Emperor Jones B. Anna Christle C. The Hairy Ape D. all of the above
38. In 1954, ______ was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his “mastery of the art of modern narration.”( )
A. T. S. Eliot B. John Steinbeck C. Ernest Hemingway D. William Faulkner
39. Which of following is not right about the thematic concerns of Robert Frost? ( )
A. His sense of failure and meaninglessness about human life. B. The terror and tragedy in nature, as well as its beauty. C. The loneliness and poverty of the isolated human being.
D. His love of life and his belief in a serenity coming from working. 40. Typical of the “iceberg” analogy is ______ writing style.( )
A. Eugene O? Neill?s B. Ernest Hemingway?s C. William Faulkner?s D. Scott Fitzgerald?s
41. The Jazz Age of the 1920s characterized by frivolity and carelessness is brought vividly to life in ______ works.( )
A. Eugene O? Neill?s B. Ernest Hemingway?s C. William Faulkner?s D. Scott Fitzgerald?s
42. The modern stream-of-consciousness technique was frequently and skillfully exploited by ______ to emphasize the reactions and inner musings of the narrator. He captured the dialects of the Mississippi characters, including Negroes and the redneck, as well as more refined and educated narrators like Quentin.( )
A. Faulkner B. Fitzgerald C. Hemingway D. Steinbeck
43. ______ won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was the only dramatist ever to win a Nobel Prize. He is widely acclaimed “founder of the American drama,” and recognized even more as a major figure in world literature.( )
A. Miller B. William C. Heller D. O?Neill
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44. The author of Death of a Salesman is _______.
A. Eudora Welty B. Arthur Miller C. Tennessee Williams D. Carson McCullers 45. The author of Woman Warrior is_____.
A. Amt Tan B. C.Y. Lee C. Maxine Hong Kingston D. Pearl Buck 46. The first symbol of self-made American man is_____.
A. George Washington B. Washington Irving C. Thomas Jefferson D. Benjamin Franklin 47. American Renaissance started from______.
A. Pragmatism B. Utilitarian
C. New England Transcendentalism D. the age of Realism 48. The most influential novelist in Romantic period is_______.
A. Nathaniel Hawthorne B. Edgar Allan Poe C. Emily Dickinson D. Fennimore Cooper
49. ________divided the 19th century into the age of Romanticism and Realism in American literature.
A. The Spanish-American war B. The Civil War C. WWI D. WWII 50. William Howells explores the life of _______Americans.
A. lower-class B. upper-class C. working-class D. middle-class
51. _______addressed Ernest Hemingway and his peers as “the Lost Generation” which entitled a generation in the 1930s.
A. Gertrude Stein B. William Dean Howells C. Sherwood Anderson D. Henry James 52. Catch 22 is a novel with outstanding____.
A. euphemism B. Black humor
C. allusion D. stream of consciousness
53. In______. Captain Ahab is obsessed with the revenge on a whale which sheared off his leg on a previous voyage, and his crazy chasing of it eventually brings death to all on board the whaler except Ishmael, who survives to tell the tale.
A. Typee B. White Jacket C. Moby Dick D. Billy Budd 54. Which of the following novels is not written by Henry James?
A. Daisy Miller B. The Golden Bowl C. What Maisie Knew D. The Rise of Silas Lapham
55. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of the______.
A. Quakers B. Anglicans C. Catholics D. Puritans
56. It is a critical commonplace now that American literature is based on a myth, that is______.
A the ancient Greek myth of Zeus B.the British myth of the Saint Grail
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