2020年贵州自考《英国文学选读》试题及答案

PART ONE

I. Multiple Choice

1. Although _______ was essentially a medieval writer, he bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new

era of literature to come.

A. William Langland

B. John Gower

C. Geoffrey Chaucer

D. Edmund Spenser

Answer: C

2. The religious reformation in the early 16th-century England was a reflection of the class struggles

waged by the _____.

A. rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology

B. working class against the corruption of the bourgeoisie

C. landlord class against the rising bourgeoisie and its ideology

D. feudal class against the corruption of the Catholic Church

Answer: A

3. The statement that a man gained the whole world but lost his own soul makes a good summary of the main

plot of ______.

A. Paradise Lost

B. The Merchant of Venice

C. Hamlet

D. The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus

Answer: D

4. "Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and

when he has reached 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"

Answer: C

5. The essence of humanism is to ______.

A. restore a medieval reverence for the church

B. avoid the circumstances of earthly life

C. explore the next world in which men could live after death

D. emphasize human qualities

Answer: D

6. In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes The Vanity Fair in a ______ tone.

A. delightful

B. satirical

C. sentimental

D. solemn

Answer: B

7. The 18th century witnessed 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

Answer: D

8. As a literary figure, John Rivers appears in _______.

A. Fielding’s Tom Jones

B. Dickens’s Oliver Twist

C. Bronte’s Jane Eyre

D. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Answer: C

9. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe created the image of an enterprising Englishman, typical of the English

bourgeoisie in the ______ century.

A. 17th

B. 18th

C. 19th

D. 20th

Answer: B

10. In "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," Thomas Gray compares 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

Answer: A

11. The poetic view of ______ can be best understood from his remark about poetry, that is, "all good

poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."

A. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

B. John Keats

C. William Wordsworth

D. Percy Bysshe Shelly

Answer: C

12. Pip, Estella, Havisham, Magwitch, and Joe Gargery are most likely names of characters in _______.

A. Oliver Twist

B. David Copperfield

C. Bleak House

D. Great Expectations

Answer: B

13. In English poetry the _______ is regarded as the most common foot.

A. iamb

B. anapest

C. trochee

D. dactyl

Answer: A

14. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet finds out some weak points about herself in the process of

judging others. Which of the following is NOT a weak point of hers?

A. Blindness.

B. Partiality.

C. Snobbishness.

D. Prejudice.

Answer: C

15. In Byron’s poem "Song for the Luddites," the word "Luddite" refers to the _______.

A. workers who destroyed the machines in their protest against unemployment

B. rising bourgeoisie who fought against the aristocratic class

C. descendents of the ancient king, King Lud

D. poor country people who suffered under the rule of the landlord class

Answer: A

16. "Five miles meandering with a mazy motion\

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean."

The above lines are taken from ______.

A. Wordsworth’s "The Solitary Reaper"

B. Blake’s "The Chimney Sweeper"

C. Coleridge’s "Kubla Khan"

D. Keats’s "Ode on an Grecian Urn"

Answer: C

17. In his poem, "Ode to the West Wind," Shelley intends to present his wind as a central _______ around

which the poem weaves various cycles of death and rebirth.

A. concept

B. symbol

C. simile

D. metonymy

Answer: B

18. In the conversation with his wife in Chapter One of Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet uses a(n) ______

tone with sarcastic humor.

A. solemn

B. harsh

C. arrogant

D. teasing

Answer: D

19. Charles Dickens takes the French Revolution as the background of his novel ______.

A. Great Expectations

B. A Tale of Two Cities

C. Bleak House

D. Oliver Twist

Answer: B

20. A typical feature of the English ______ literature is that writers became social and moral critics,

exposing all kinds of social evils.

A. Renaissance

B. Romantic

C. Victorian

D. Medieval

Answer: C

21. The statement that those extraordinary people, seeking something beyond the provincial life, have

finally to subject themselves to the limitations of the reality either due to their own weakness or the

social environment may well sum up one of the major themes of ______.

A. Fielding’s Tom Jones

B. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

C. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

D. Eliot’s Middlemarch

Answer: D

22. A typical Forsyte, according to John Galsworthy, is a man with a strong sense of ______, who never

pays any attention to human feelings.

A. justice

B. property

C. morality

D. humor

Answer: B

23. Which of the following statements about The Scarlet Letter is NOT true?

A. It explores man’s never-ending search for the satisfaction of materialistic desires.

B. It relates the conflicts between the society and the individual.

C. It is about the effect of sin on the people involved and the society as a whole.

D. It presents a psychological analysis of the inward tensions of the characters.

Answer: B

24. "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" is a famous quote from _______’s

writings.

A. Walt Whitman

B. Henry David Thoreau

C. Herman Melville

D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer: D

25. Which of Hemingway’s novels describes the drifting life of American exiles in Europe?

A. The Sun Also Rises.

B. A Farewell to Arms.

C. For Whom the Bell Tolls.

D. The Old Man and the Sea.

Answer: B

26. The theme of _______ may be well stated as "It sings of nationalism and of the nature of the self in

relation to the cosmos and the meaning and purpose of birth and death."

A. Edgar Allan Poe’s "To Helen"

B. Robert Frost’s "The Road Not Taken"

C. Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself"

D. Emily Dickenson’s "Because I could not stop for Death"

Answer: C

27. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage benefited the Americans in _______.

A. strengthening their moral values

B. weakening their religious faith

C. knowing truth intuitively

D. developing their science and technology

Answer: A

28. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his ______.

A. international theme

B. waste-land imagery

C. local color

D. symbolism

Answer: C

29. "Strange names were over the doors -strange faces at the windows -every thing was strange. His mind

now began to misgive him, that both he and the world around him were bewitched. Surely this was his

native village, which he had left but the day before." The above passage is taken from ______.

A. Irving’s "Rip Van Winkle"

B. Hawthorne’s "Young Goodman Brown"

C. James’ "Daisy Miller"

D. Hemingway’s "Indian Camp"

Answer: A

30. According to Hawthorne, the scarlet letter "A" which originally stood for "_______" finally obtained

the meaning of "able" or "angel" through Hester’s efforts.

A. adultery

B. arrogance

C. accomplishment

D. agony

Answer: A

31. As a naturalist writer, Theodore Dreiser was greatly influenced by _______.

A. Nathaniel Hawthorne

B. Charles Darwin

C. Henry James

D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer: B

32. 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

Answer: B

33. 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

Answer: C

34. American writers of the first postwar era who were devoid of faith and alienated from the

civilization were commonly called "______."

A. sons of liberty

B. fatherless children

C. a beat generation

D. a lost generation

Answer: D

35. The raft with which Huck and Jim make their voyage down the Mississippi River may symbolize all the

following EXCEPT ______.

A. a return to nature

B. an escape from evils, injustices, and corruption of the civilized society

C. the heavenly kingdom of Christianity

D. a small world where people of different colors can live friendly and happily

Answer: C

36. Of the following American poets in the twentieth century, the one who has the best knowledge of

Chinese culture is _______.

A. Robert Frost

B. Allen Ginsberg

C. Ezra Pound

D. E. E. Cummings

Answer: C

37. Emily Grierson, the protagonist in Faulkner’s story "A Rose for Emily," can be regarded as a symbol

standing for all the following qualities EXCEPT _______.

A. no prejudice against the northerners

B. rigid ideas of social status

C. bigotry and eccentricity

D. grace and integrity

Answer: D

38. Robert Frost is a regional poet in the sense that his poems are mainly concerned about the _______.

A. life in New York

B. country life in New England

C. sea adventures

D. life on the Mississippi

Answer: B

39. In Hemingway’s story "Indian Camp" Nick, the protagonist, witnesses _______.

A. a tragic killing of the Indians by the white man

B. real friendship between the white men and the Indians

C. men’s senseless killing of each other

D. terrible scenes of birth and death

Answer: D

40. Great Gatsby, written by Fitzgerald in 1925, is a story about ______ who was destroyed by the

influence of the wealthy, pleasure-seeking people around him.

A. a vagabond

B. an idealist

C. an eccentric

D. an opportunist

Answer: B

PART TWO

II. Reading Comprehension

41. "Busy old fool, unruly sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows and through curtains call on us?"

Questions:

A. Identify the poem and the poet.

B. What does the word "fool" refer to?

C. What idea does the quotation express?

参考答案：

A It is taken from Jone Donne’s "The Sun Rising" (P66)

B. "fool" refers to the sun.

C. Donne’s great prose works are his sermons, the quotation expresses a strong sense of rebellious

spirit, the author tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.

(P63+66)

42. "Most mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the 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 autumn, dreadful as winter."

Questions:

A. Identify the work and the author.

B. What is the tone of the author?

C. What does the author parody here?

Answers:

A. The passage comes from "Gulliver’s Travels" written by Jonanthan Swift. (P115)

B. The author used the Ironic tone of the passage.

C. Romance (prose)/ Adventurous prose is the parody here.

43. "She thanked men -good! but thanked

Somehow -I know not how -as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift."

Questions:

A. Identify the poem and the poet.

B. What kind of tone does the speaker use here?

C. What idea does the quoted passage express?

Answers:

A. The poem is "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning. (P286)

B. The speaker is Duke, he is a villain. The speaker uses the tone of arrogant (傲慢的) here.

C. The quoted passage reveals the duke is a self-conceited, cruel and tyrannical man. (P287)

44. "This is my letter to the World

That never wrote to Me -

The simple News that Nature told -

With tender Majesty"

Questions:

A. Identify the poet

B. What does the word "World" refer to?

C. What idea does the quoted passage express?

Answers:

A. The poet is Emily Dickinson. (P520)

B. "World" refers to the outside world.

C. The poem expresses Dickinson’s anxiety about her communication with the outside world. (P520)

III. Questions and Answers

45. "For herein Fortune shows herself more kind

Than in her custom; it is still her use

To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,

To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow

An age of poverty; from which ling’ring penance

Of such misery doth she cut me off."

The above lines are taken from a speech made by Antonio, a major character in Shakespeare’s play The

Merchant of Venice. Why does Antonio say that Fortune is more kind to him than in her custom?

参考答案:

This sentence means she, Lady Fortune, is more kind to him because she is taking away both his wealth

and life. The speaker is Antonio, it’s said that his ship have all been lost, and he is penniless, and

will have to pay the pound of flesh. (Because Shylock has made a strange bond that requires Antonio to

pay him a pound of flesh if he can’t repay him, the money that he borrowed for his friend in due time.)

(P38)

46. "The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat which had a little kid by her which

she gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her

till I came and took her up, and not only so, but when I carried the old one with me upon my shoulders,

the kid followed me quite to my enclosure, upon which I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms,

and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have it bred up tame, but it would not eat, so I was forced to

kill it and eat it myself; these two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly; and saved

my provisions (my bread especially) as much as possibly I could."

This is a very significant sentence with great details that reveals the character of Robinson Crusoe.

What aspects of Crusoe’s character are revealed then?

参考答案:

1) In most of his works, Defoe gave his praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class and showed his

sympathy for the lower-class people. Robinson Crusoe was such a character.

2) Robison goes out to sea, gets shipwrecked and marooned/landed on a lonely island, struggles to live

for 24 years there and finally is saved by a ship and returns to England. During the period Robinson

leads a harsh and lonely life and survives by growing corps, taming animals, etc. growing from a na?ve

young man into a hardened man.

3) With a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy (精力充沛), courage and persistence in overcoming

difficulties(在克服困难方面持之以恒), in struggling against nature, Crusoe becomes the prototype /

representative of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. (他是大英帝国缔造者的完美典范，同时也是殖民

者的先驱).

4) In the novel, Defoe glorified human labor and the puritan fortitude which the middle class praised

highly, so he can be regarded as a spokesman of the bourgeois. (P98-100)

47. Situational irony occurs when what happens turns out to be quite different from what is expected;

sometimes what happen is just the opposite of what is expected. In "Indian Camp," Hemingway makes a

successful use of this kind of irony.

Please illustrate it with some examples.

(本题属于超纲题，书上没有现成的答案，可忽略不计)

48. "The only thing I don’t like, she proceeded, is the society." ("Daisy Miller" by Henry James)

What kind of society does Daisy not like? Why?

参考答案:

She doesn’t like the old world ---European life. Because she is the American Girl in Europe, a

celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World. However, innocence, the keynote of her

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. (P499---500)

IV Topic Discussion

49. List three distinctive features of English Renaissance movement in literature and then illustrate

each with proofs from either the concerned chapter in your textbook or your own reading.

参考答案:

1) The first period of the English Renaissance was one of imitation and assimilation. Petrarch was

regarded as the fountainhead of literature by the English writers. Wyatt introduced the Petrachan sonnet

into England and Surrey brought in blank verse.

2) The Elizabethan drama, in its totality, is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance. The Greek

and Roman Drams had a great influence on the Elizabeth Drama, especially on Shakespeare’s tragedies. E.g.

Hamlet, the first of the great tragedies, is regarded as Shakespeare’s most popular play on the stage.

3) Francis Bacon, the first important English essayist, is best known for his essays which greatly

influenced the development of his literary form. He was the founder of modern science in England.

(P10---12)

50. "My faith is gone!" cried he (Goodman Brown), after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth;

and sin is but a name. Come, devil! for to thee is this world given."

Comment on this passage from Hawthorne’s "Young Goodman Brown".

参考答案:

1) Allegorically, Young Goodman Brown becomes an Everyman called Brown, who will be aged in one night by

an evil adventure, and the evilness makes everyone a fallen idol in the world.

2) "My Faith is gone" is a pun, it means my wife has disappeared or my faith to God has gone. In the

angle of Symbol: "Brown look up to the Heaven and resist the wicked one" symbols Brown has the force to

resist the evilness of the Nature and he still has the faith to God; but "he is alone in the forest"

symbols the society is the place full of sins and evilness, Brown’s strength is not enough at all; then

after returning, he lives a dismal and gloomy life symbols he has been crushed down by the social

evilness and lost his belief in goodness and piety. (P434-435)