2010英语专业考研报考前(英美文学)摸底测试题

2010英语专业考研报考前（英美文学）摸底测试题

说明：为帮助2010年英语专业考研的学生在十月报名前准确判断自己的水平，找准专业差距，合理定位目标院校，环球时代学校特邀请英语专业考研专家研究组参考全国近100所高校“基础英语、语言学、英美文学”真题，从实际出发，在信度、效度、难度和专业性上全面贴近真题的出题形式和出题内容。本套试题难度适中，如需报考重点院校还需进一步深化复习。

Ⅰ. British literature. (75 points)

A. Fill out the following blanks. (10 points, 1 for each)

1. ___________ is often given the credit for the discovery of the modern novel; but whether or not he deserves that honor remains an open question.

2. “If the censure of Yahoo could any way affect me, I should have great reason to complain that some of them are so bold as to think my book of travels a mere fiction out of mine own brain.” This question is selected from _____________.

3. Henry Fielding has been regarded as “________”, for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel.

4. British novel came of age in ________.

5.The Vicar of Wakefield is the only novel of __________, which describes misfortunes falling on the central character and the family.

6. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by ___________ is taken a model of sentimentalist poetry, esp. the Graveyard school.

7. Friday is a character in the novel _______________.

8. Among the representatives of the Enlightenment, ___________ was the first to introduce rationalism to England.

9. Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem written in the form of

____________.

10. Auld Lang Syne written by __________ deals with the friendship and has long become a universal parting-song of all the English-speaking countries.

B. Define the following terms. (15 points, 3 for each)

1. The Graveyard School

2. Satire

3. Classicism

4. The Heroic Couplet

5. Meter

C. Multiple Choice. (15 points, 0.5 for each)

1. __________ is the most successful religious allegory in the English language.

A. Genesis A

B. Exodus

C. The Pilgrim’s Progress

D. The Holy War

2. The object of __________ novels was to present a faithful picture of life, “the just

copies of human manners”, with sound teaching woven into their texture, so as to teach them to know themselves, their proper spheres and appropriate manners.

A. John Bunyan?s

B. Alexander Pope?s

C. Jonathan Swift?s

D. Henry Fielding?s

3. Of all the 18th century novelists, __________ was the first to set out, both in

theory and practic e, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose”.

A. Henry Fielding

B. Daniel Defoe

C. John Bunyan

D. Jonathan Swift

4. __________ was very much concerned with the theme of the vanity of human

wishes and tried to awaken men to this folly and hoped to cure them of it through his writing.

A. Samuel Johnson

B. Jonathan Swift

C. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

D. Thomas Gray

5. The Rivals and __________ are generally regarded as important links between the

masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw.

A. The School for Scandal

B. The Duenna

C. Widowers Houses

D. The Doctor’s Dilemma

6. ___________ is a sharp satire on the moral degeneracy of the

aristocratic-bourgeois society in the 18th century England.

A. The Rivals

B. Gulliver’s Travels

C. Tom Jones

D. The School for Scandal

7. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, __________ best and most representative

work has been ranked among the best of the 18th century English Poetry.

A. Alexander Pope?s

B. Thomas Gray?s

C. Samuel Johnson?s

D. William Blake?s

8. As the representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce

__________ to England.

A. rationalism

B. criticism

C. romanticism

D. realism

9. The Enlightenment Movement did not advocate __________.

A. rationality, reason, order and rules

B. return to the ancient classical works

C. inner feelings of individuals

D. universal education

10.An Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem written in __________.

A. heroic couplets

B. English sonnet

C. bland verse

D. Italian sonnet

11.Which of the following comments on Thomas Gray?s poetry is NOT true?

A. Distorted in word order.

B. Highly artificial in diction.

C. Calculated in rhythm.

D. Light-hearted in tone.

12.In The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great the word “great”is used __________.

A. allegorically

B. satirically

C. objectively

D. euphemistically

13.By writing in apparently admiring terms of the life of a notorious criminal in

The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great Henry Fielding suggests that there is little difference between __________.

A. noted rogues and great politicians

B. the nobles and the commons

C. great rogues and lesser rogues

D. discovered criminals and secret sinners

14.What makes Jonathan Swift?s satire all the more bitter, biting and poignant is

that his satire is often masked by __________ on the part of the author.

A. an apparent eagerness, gravity, sincerity and detachment in tone

B. a softness and persuasiveness in manner and firmness and thoroughness in

action

C. a strong indignation in tone and open defiance and challenge

D. a friendliness and frankness in tone and the seeming indifference and

nonchalance

15.Henry Fielding adopted “the third-person narration”, which enables the author to

present as the __________ not only the characters? external behavior but also the internal workings of their minds.

A. “all-knowing God”

B. intimate participant

C. invisible man

D. ignorant narrator

16.The novel, which prospered in the hands of Swift, Defoe and Fielding, gives a

realistic presentation of life of the common English people. This is quite contrary to the traditional __________ of aristocrats.

A. elegy

B. epic

C. romance

D. morality play

17.The chief force that motivated John Bunyan to write The Pilgrim’s Progress

was his __________.

A. political commitment

B. religious fervency

C. artistic pursuit

D. long suffering in the person

18.As a result of the conscientious study he made of the Bible, Bunyan?s la nguage

was __________.

A. satiric, concise and well-balanced

B. concrete, living and colloquial

C. general, Latinate and polysyllabic

D. comic, neat and decent

19.The enlighteners believed that if the masses were well educated, there would be

greater chance for a __________ human society.

A. reasonable

B. progressive

C. democratic

D. enlightened

20.Alexander Pope?s An Essay on Criticism is a (n) __________ poem.

A. ironic

B. didactic

C. sarcastic

D. exaggerated

21.The tone of Jonathan Swift?s novel G ulliver’s Travels is ___________.

A. sad

B. sarcastic

C. praising

D. detached

22.The __________ was a progressive intellectual movement throughout western

Europe in the 18th century.

A. Renaissance

B. Enlightenment

C. Religious Reformation

D. Chartist Movement

23.During the reign of reason the enlightenment meant education of people to free

them from all the unreasonable fetters which include __________.

A. theology

B. conventional ideology

C. feudal government

D. all the above

24.Which of the following is NOT Samuel Johnson?s work?

A. London.

B. Tom Jones.

C. Lives of the Poets.

D. A Dictionary of the English Language.

25.“Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling

for life in the water, and when he has r eached ground, encumbers him with help?”

The above passage is taken from __________.

A. Francis Bacon?s Of Studies

B. William Shakespeare?s The Merchant of Venice

C. Samuel Johnson?s To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield

D. Jonathan Swift?s A Modest Proposal

26.The 18th century witnesses a new literary form — the modern English novel,

which, contrary to the medieval romance, gives a __________ presentation of life of the common English people.

A. romantic

B. idealistic

C. prophetic

D. realistic

27.In Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray compared the

common folk with the great ones, wondering what the commons could have

achieved if they had had the __________.

A. chance

B. love

C. money

D. material sources

28.When he writes, in An Essay on Criticism, “A vile conceit in pompous words

expressed, / Is like a clown in regal purple dresses,” Alexander Pope means that __________.

A. pompous words are always destructive to good taste

B. the purple color is for the royal only and it is ridiculous to dress a clown in

purple

C. conceits are always misleading

D. true wit is best set in a plain style

29.“The shepherd in Virgin grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a

native of rocks.” (Samuel Johnson?s To the Right Honorable the Earl of

Chesterfield) The speaker here is __________.

A. cheerful

B. ironic

C. mysterious

D. nonchalant

30.“He has a servant called Friday.” “He” in the quoted sentence is a character in __________.

A. Henry Fielding?s Tom Jones

B. John Bunyan?s The Pilgrim’s Progress

C. Richard Bringsley Sheridan?s The School for Scandal

D. Daniel Defoe?s Robinson Crusoe

D. Read the following quotations and answer the questions. (20 points,

4 for each)

1. “Most mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of he universe, whose

dominions extend five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the extremities of the globe; Monarch of all Monarchs; taller than the sons of men;

whose feet press down to the center, and whose head strikes against the sun; at whose nod the princes of the earth shake their knees; pleasant as spring,

comfortable as summer, fruitful as aut umn, dreadful as winter.”

A. Identify the work and the author.

B. What is the tone of the author?

C. What does the author parody here?

2. “I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me:

first, health and fresh water I just now mentioned; secondly, shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts;

fourthly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my

expectation yet.

A. Identify the author and the title of the novel from which this passage is taken.

B. Who is the narrator?

C. Explain the meaning of the last thing mentioned in the passage.

3. “When each of t he combatants had borne off sufficient spoils of hair from the head

of her antagonist, the next rage was against the garments. In this attack they

exerted so much violence, that in a very few minutes they were both naked to the middle.

A. Identify the author and the title of the work from which this passage is taken.

B. What is the passage describing?

C. What are the names of the two combatants?

4. “Some to conceit alone their taste confines,

And glittering thoughts struck out at every line;

Pleas ed with a work where nothing?s just or fit,

One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.

Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace

The naked nature and the living grace,

With gold and jewels cover every part,

And hide with ornaments their want of art.

True wit is Nature to advantage dressed,

What oft was thought, but ne?er so well expressed;”

A. Identify the author and the work.

B. What idea does the poem express?

C. What is the significance of the poem?

5. “I had sent so many memorials and petit ions for my liberty, that his Majesty at

length mentioned the matter first in the cabinet, and then in a full council; where it was opposed by none, except Skyresh Bolgolam, who was pleased, without any

provocation, to be my mortal enemy.

A. Identify the author and the work.

B. Who is this “Skyresh Bolgolam”?

C. Why does the author make Skyresh Bolgoalm a mortal enemy of the narrator?

E. Discuss the following questions briefly. (15 points, 3 for each)

1. Give a brief comment on Alexander Pope?s lit erary outlook.

2. What?s the theme of Richard Brinsley Sheridan?s The School for Scandal?

3. Robinson Crusoe is universally regarded as Daniel Defoe?s masterpiece. Give

some reasons for its success.

4. As a rule, an allegory is a story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a surface

meaning, and an implied meaning. List two works as examples of allegory. What is an allegory usually concerned with by its implied meaning?

5. Give a brief comment on Enlightenment Movement.

Ⅱ. American Literature (75 points)

A.Fill out the following blanks. (10 points, 1 for each)

1. War in Crane’s novel __________ is a plain slaughterhouse. There is nothing like valor or heroism on the battlefield, and if there is anything,

it is the fear of death, cowardice, the natural instinct of man to run form danger.

2. The literary career of Henry James is generally divided into __________ periods, in the first period (1865-1882), James took great interest in __________ theme.

3. The name of the heroine in the Portrait of a Lady was __________.

4. __________ was the first literary giant born West of the Mississippi.

5. Dreiser visited the Soviet Union in 1927 and published __________ the following year.

6. Mrs. Stowe’s masterpiece is __________.

7. __________ influences American literature a lot and led American romanticism turn into American realism.

8. Mark Twain made a more extensive combination of __________ and

__________ than previous writers had ever done.

B.Define the following terms. (15 points, 3 for each)

1. The Age of Realism

2. American Naturalism

3. Darwinism

4. Regionalism

5. First-person narrative

C. Multiple Choice. (15 points, 0.5 for each)

1. Which of the following is NOT written by Theodore Dreiser?

A. The Genius.

B. The Titan.

C. Light in August.

D. Jennie Gerhardt.

2. One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human

“_________”.

A. bestiality

B. goodness

C. compassion

D. greed

3. Which of the following writings is NOT a p oem of Emily Dickinson?s?

A. This is my letter to the World.

B. I heard a Fly buzz—When I died.

C. The Road Not Taken.

D. I like to see it lap the Miles.

4. Mark Twain created, in __________, a masterpiece of American realism that is also

one of the great books of world literature.

A. Huckleberry Finn

B. Tom Sawyer

C. The Man That Corrupted Hadleybury

D. The Gilded Age

5. What is the analogy that Emily Dickinson uses in her poem Because I Could not

Stop for Death?

A. Horse and carriage.

B. Stage and

performance.

C. Cloud and shade.

D. Ship and harbor.

6. Here is a passage from a novel: “The man gave him a last push and closed the door.

As he did so, Hurstwood slipped and fell in the snow. It hurt him, and some vague sense of shame returned. He began to cry and swear foolishly. The novel must be __________.

A. Dreiser?s Sister Carrie

B. Steinbeck?s The Grapes of Wrath

C. London?s Martin Eden

D. Twain?s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

7. However, innocence, the keynote of Daisy Miller?s character, turn s out to be an

admiring but dangerous quality and her __________ of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures.

A. admiration

B. defiance

C. sympathy

D. disgusting8.

American

8. In Henry James Daisy Miller, the author tries to portray the protagonist as an

embodiment of __________.

A. the force of convention

B. the decline of aristocracy

C. the free spirit of the New World

D. the corruption of the new rich

9. The three dominant figures of the American Realistic Period are William Dean

Howells, Mark Twain, and __________.

A. Emily Dickinson

B. Henry James

C. Theodore Dreiser

D. Ezra Pound

10. As a naturalist writer, Theodore Dreiser was greatly influenced by __________.

A. Nathaniel Hawthorne

B. Charles Darwin

C. Henry James

D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. Henry James?s idea of realism differs from that of the other realist writers because

his emphasis is on man?s __________.

A. language

B. inner world

C. surroundings

D. real actions

12. Emily Dickinson got inspiration from __________ in her writing of poetry.

A. hymns

B. sonnets

C. free verse

D. heroic couplets

13. Henry James is mostly concerned with __________ in his fiction.

A. the inner life of human beings

B. violent events in history

C. small-town life in backward regions

D. sufferings of the aged

14. “Even then he stood there, hidden wholly in that kindness which is night, while

the uprising fumes filled the room. When the odor reached his nostrils, he quit his at titude and fumbled for the bed. …What?s the use?? he said, weakly, as he stretched himself to rest.” The passage is taken from __________.

A. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

B. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё

C. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

D. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontё

15. __________, a novella about a young American girl who gets “killed” by the

winter in Rome, brought its author international fame for the first time.

A. The American

B. Daisy Miller

C. The Portrait of a Lady

D. The

Europeans

16. By the end of Sister Carrie, Dreiser writes: “It was forever to be the pursuit of that

radiance of delight which tints the distant hilltops of the world.” Dreiser implies that __________.

A. there is a bright future lying ahead

B. one should always have forward looking

C. one can never fulfill one?s desire

D. happiness is found in the end

17. After Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain gives a literary independence to Tom?s

buddy Huck in a book entitled __________.

A. Life on the Mississippi

B. The Gilded Age

C. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

D. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s

Court

18. However, ________, the keynote of Daisy Miller?s character, turns out to be an

admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old

World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures.

A. experience

B. sophistication

C. worldliness

D. innocence

19. “I was letting on to give up sin, but always inside of me I was holding on to the

biggest one of all. The sentence, which is taken from The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn, is written in a(n) __________ tone.

A. ironic

B. regretful

C. sincere

D. delightful

20. In I heard a fly buzz — When I died and Because I could not

stop for Death, Emily Dickinson?s attitude toward death is that of __________.

A. eager embrace

B. helpless anxiety

C. peaceful acceptance

D. terrified

despair

21. __________ is considered to be Theodore Dreiser?s greatest work.

A. An American Tragedy

B. Sister Carrie

C. The Financier

D. The Titan

22. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is best known for Mark Twain?s wonderful

characterization of “_________” a typical American boy.

A. Jim

B. Tom Sawyer

C. Huck

D. Miss Watson

23. Where Mark Twain satirized European manners at times, __________ was an

admirer.

A. O. Henry

B. Henry James

C. Walt Whitman

D. Jack London

24. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the literary scene,

__________became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19th century.

A. sentimentalism

B. romanticism

C. realism

D. naturalism

25. In the following writers, __________ is regarded as “the true

father of our national literature.”

A. H. L. Menken

B. Mark Twain

C. Frank Noris

D. Theodore Dreiser

26. The sentence “only the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society” may

be regarded as an appropriate summary of __________.

A. Jack London?s Martin Eden

B. Hemingway?s For Whom the Bell Tolls

C. Dreiser?s Sister Carrie

D. Melville?s Moby Dick

27. __________ was the first American writer to conceive his

career in international terms.

A. Washington Irving

B. T. S. Eliot

C. Ezra Pound

D.

Henry James

28. Compared with the writings of Mark Twain?s, Henry James?s fiction is noted for

their __________.

A. frontier vernacular

B. rich colloquialism

C. refined elegant language

D. vulgarly descriptive words

29. In Sister Carrie, Hurstwood, extremely hopeless and totally devastated, ends his

life by turning on the gas, while at the same time Carrie is rocking comfortably in her luxurious hotel room before she boards a ship for __________.

A. New York

B. London

C. Paris

D. Geneva

30. Which of the following best describes the young woman in

Henry James?s Daisy Miller?

A. She is an embodiment of the force of convention.

B. She means the decline of aristocracy.

C. She represents the free spirit of the New World.

D. She is reflection of the corruption of the newly rich.

D. Read the following quotations and answer the questions. (20 points,

5 for each)

1. “This is my letter to the World

That never wrote to me—

The simple News that Nature told—

With tender Majesty”

A. Identify the poet.

B. What does the word “World” refer to?

C. What idea does the quoted passage express?

2. “It is when the feet weary and hope seems vain that the heartaches and the longings

arise. Know, then, that for you is neither surfeit nor content. In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.”

A. Identify the author and the title of the work from which the passage is taken.

B. What does the rocking-chair symbolize?

C. How do you classify this novel?

3. “I like to see it lap the Miles—

And lick the Valleys up—

And stop to feed itself at Tanks—

And then—prodigious step”

A. Please give the name of the poet.

B. What does “it” in this poem refer to?

C. What idea does this poem express?

4. Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she

imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her her aunt might make better use of her sharpness.

She was very critical herself — it was incidental to her sex, and her antionalit but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs. Touchett’s dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing.

“Now what’s your point of view?” she asked of her aunt. “When you criticize everything here you should have a point of view. Yours doesn’t seem to be American you thought everything over there so disagreeable. When I have time; it’s thoroughly American!”

“My dear young lady”, said Mrs. Touchett, “there are as many points of view in the world as there are people of sense to take them. You may say that doesn’t make them very numerous. American? Never in the world; that’s shockingly narrow, my point of views, thank God, is personal!”

A.What is the name of the novel from which this passage is taken?

B.Who is the author of this novel?

C.Make a brief comment on the heroine Isable Arther.

D.What is Jamesian theme?

E. Discuss the following questions briefly. (15 points, 3 for each)

1. What makes Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn more than

a child’s a dventure story? Briefly discuss the question from THREE of the following aspects: the setting, the language, the character(s), the theme and the style.

2. “Even then he stood there, hidden wholly in that kindness which is night, while the uprising fumes filled the room. When the odor reached his nostrils, he quit his attitude and fumbled for the bed. …What?s the use?? he said, weakly, as he stretched himself to rest.” The above is quoted from Theodore Dreiser?s Sister Carrie. Briefly tell the situation tha t leads to the suicide and interpret Hurstwood?s final words —“what?s the use?”

3. Why are naturalists inevitably pessimistic in their view? Please discuss the above question in relation to the basic principles of literary naturalism.

4. In American literature what is the significance of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain?

5. What are the similarities and differences between the three literary giants, Howells, Mark Twain, Henry James, in terms of their literary orientation?