美国文学选读期末试卷(A)

美国文学选读期末试卷（A）

Part Ⅰ: Choose the relevant match from Column B for each item in Column A.

(10 points in all, 2 point for each)

Group 1

Column A Column B

（）1. Benjamin Franklin a. Moby Dick

（）2.Edgar Allan Poe b. The Cast of Amontillado

（）3. Ralph Waldo Emerson c. The Scarlet letter

（）4. Nathaniel Hawthorne d. Self-Reliance

（）5. Herman Melville e. The Autobiography

Part ⅠⅠ: Gap filling (10 points in all, 1 point for each).

1. „The Old Man and the Sea‟ is written by ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ .

2. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by the pen name ______ _______ .

3. „the remains of my relations‟ means ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ in Chinese.

4. „I must not only punish but punish with impunity‟ means ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿in Chinese.

5. ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ is regarded as the first person to write the detective novel in the west.

6. Ralph Waldo Emerson is the supporter of ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿.

7. Herman Melville is the famous ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿and poet of America.

8. In 1836, a little book came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America. It was entitled ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ by Emerson.

9. The historical novel „Scarlet Letter‟ describes the17th century‟s life style of the＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ in North America.

10. In Herman Melville‟s Moby Dick‟, as the opposite of the human being, the whale stands for ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿.

Part ⅠⅠⅠ: Reading Comprehension (40 points in all, 2 points for each).

I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” (风格) of directions every time 1 ask “How can I get to the post office?”

Foreign tourists are often confused (困惑) in Japan because most streets there don‟t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks (地标) in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”

In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”

People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it‟s

about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don‟t know. It‟s true that a person doesn‟t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, „Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don‟t know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don‟t know” is impolite, they usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!

1. When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a certain place they usually _________

A. describe the place carefully

B. show him a map of the place

C. tell him the names of the streets

D. refer to recognizable buildings and places

2. What is the place where people measure distance in time? _________

A. New York. B. Los Angeles. C. Kansas. D. Iowa.

3. People in Yucatan may give a tourist a wrong answer ________

A. in order to save time B. as a test C. so as to be polite D. for fun

4. What can we infer from the text? _________

A. It‟s important for travelers to understand cultural differences.

B. It‟s useful for travelers to know how to ask the way properly.

C. People have similar understandings of politeness.

D. New Yorkers are generally friendly to visitors.

Heroes of Our Time

A good heart

Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa among great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarshipto study medicine — but Coach John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. Dikembe became a star in the NBA, and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth, or the duty to share his fortune with others. He built a new hospital in his old hometown in the Congo. A friend has said of this good-hearted man: “Mutombo believes that God has given him this chance to do great things.”

Success and kindness

After her daughter was born, Julie Aigner-Clark searched for ways to share her love of music and art with her child. So she borrowed some equipment, and began filming children‟s videos in her own house. The Baby Einstein Company was born, and in just five years her business grew to more than $20 million in sales. And she is using her success to help others — producing child safety videos with John Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Julie says of her new program: “I believe it‟s the most important thing that I have ever done. I believe that children have the right to live in a world that is safe.”

Bravery and courage

A few weeks ago, Wesley Autrey was waiting at a Harlem subway station with his two little girls when he saw a man fall into the path of a train. With seconds to act, Wesley jumped onto the tracks, pulled the man into the space between the rails, and held him as the train passed right above their heads. He insists he‟s not a hero. He says: “We have got to show each other some love.”

A. Being a star in the NBA. B. Being a student of medicine.

C. His work in the church. D. His willingness to help the needy.

6. Mulombo believes that building the new hospital is .

A. helpful to his personal development

B. something he should do for his homeland

C. a chance for his friends to share his money

D. a way of showing his respect to the NBA

7. What did the Baby Einstein Company do at its beginning? .

A. Produce safety equipment for children.

B. Make videos to help protect children.

C. Sell children‟s music and artwork.

D. Look for missing and exploited children.

A. He helped a man get across the rails.

B. He stopped a man from destroying the rails.

C. He protected two little girls from getting hurt.

D. He saved a person without considering his own safety.

Tom was one of the brightest boys in the year, with supportive parents. But when he was 15 he suddenly stopped trying. He left school at 16 with only two scores for secondary school subjects. One of the reasons that made it cool for him not to care was the power of his peer group.

The lack of right male role models in many of their lives — at home and particularly in the school environment — means that their peers are the only people they have to judge themselves against.

They don‟t see men succeeding in society so it doesn‟t occur to them that they could make something of themselves. Without male teachers as a role model, the effect of peer actions and street culture is all powerful. Boys want to be part of a club. However, schools can provide the environment for change, and provide the right role models for them. Teachers need to be trained to stop that but not in front of a child‟s peers. You have to do it one to one, because that is when you see the real child.

It‟s pointless sending a child home if he or she has done wrong. They see it as a welcome day off to watch television or play computer games. Instead, schools should have a special unit where a child who has done wrong goes for the day and gets advice about his problems — somewhere he can work away from his peers and go home after the other children.

9. Why did Tom give up studying? .

A. He disliked his teachers.

B. His parents no longer supported him.

C. It‟s cool for boys of his age not to care about studies.

D. There were too many subjects in his secondary school.

A. Peer groups. B. A special unit. C. The student judges. D. The home environment.

A. Wait for their change patiently. B. Train leaders of their peer groups.

C. Stop the development of street culture. D. Give them lessons in a separate area.

12. A teacher‟s work is most effective with a schoolboy when he .

A. is with the boy alone B. teaches the boy a lesson

C. sends the boy home as punishment D. works together with another teacher

Far from the land of Antarctica, a huge shelf of ice meets the ocean. At the underside of the shelf there lives a small fish, the Antarctic cod.

For forty years scientists have been curious about that fish. How does it live where most fish would freeze to death? It must have some secret. The Antarctic is not a comfortable place to work and research has been slow. Now it seems we have an answer.

Research was begun by cutting holes in the ice and catching the fish. Scientists studied the fish‟s blood and measured its freezing point.

The fish were taken from seawater that had a temperature of-1.88°C and many tiny pieces of ice floating in it. The blood of the fish did not begin to freeze until its temperature was lowered to -2.05°C. That small difference is enough for the fish to live at the freezing temperature of the ice-salt mixture.

The scientists‟ next research job was clear: Find out what in the fish‟s blood kept it from freezing. Their search led to some really strange thing made up of a protein never before seen in the blood of a fish. When it was removed, the blood froze at seawater temperature. When it was put back, the blood again had its antifreeze quality and a lowered freezing point.

Study showed that it is an unusual kind of protein. It has many small sugar molecules（分子）held in special positions within each big protein molecule. Because of its sugar content, it is called a glycoprotein. So it has come to be called the antifreeze fish glycoprotein, or AFGP.

A. The terrible conditions in the Antarctic.

B. A special fish living in freezing waters.

C. The ice shelf around Antarctica.

D. Protection of the Antarctic cod.

A. The seawater has a temperature of -1.88°C.

B. it loves to live in the ice-salt mixture

C. A special protein keeps it from freezing.

D. Its blood has a temperature lower than -2.05°C.

15. What does the underlined .

A. A type of ice-salt mixture. B. A newly found protein.

C. Fish blood. D. Sugar molecule.

16. What does “glyco-” in the underlined word “glycoprotein” in the last paragraph

mean? .

A. sugar B. ice C. blood D. molecule

If your boss asks you to work in Moscow this year, he‟d better offer you more money to do

so — or even double that depending on where you live now. That‟s because Moscow has just been found to be the world‟s most expensive city for the second year in a row by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive including the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

A two-bedroom flat in Moscow now costs $4,000 a month; a CD $24.83, and an international newspaper $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a hamburger is a London takes the No. 2 place, up from No. 5 a year ago, thanks to higher cost of housing and a stronger British pound relative to the dollar. Mercer estimates London is 26 percent more expensive than New York these days. Following London closely are Seoul and Tokyo, both of which are 22 percent more expensive than New York, while No. 5 Hong Kong is 19 percent more costly.

Among North American cities, New York and Los Angeles are the most expensive and are the only two listed in the top 50 of the world‟s most expensive cities. But both have fallen since last year‟s study — New York came in 15th, down from 10th place, while Los Angeles fell to 42nd from 29th place a year ago. San Francisco came in a distant third at No. 54, down 20 places from a year earlier.

Toronto, meanwhile, is Canada‟s most expensive city but fell 35 places to take 82nd place worldwide. In Australia, Sydney is the priciest place to live in and No. 21 worldwide.

17. What do the underlined words “a steal” in Paragraph 3 mean? _________

A. an act of stealing B. something delicious

C. something very cheap D. an act of buying

18. London has become the second most expensive city because of _________

A. the high cost of clothing B. the stronger pound against the dollar

C. its expensive transportation D. the high prices of fast food meals

19. Which city is the third most expensive on the list? _________

A. Tokyo. B. Hong Kong. C. Moscow. D. Sydney.

20. Which city has dropped most on the list in North America?

A. New York. B. Los Angeles. C. San Francisco. D. Toronto.

Ⅰ.Multiple Choice (40 points in all, 1 for each)

Select from the four choices [A],[B],[C],[D] of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement and write the letter on the answer sheet.

1.Romance,which uses narrative verse or prose to tell stories of ___ adventures or other heroic

A.Christian C.Greek D.primitive

2.Among the great Middle English poets, Geoffrey Chaucer is known for his production of ___.

A.Piers Plowman

C.Confessio Amantis 3.Which of the following historical events does not directly help to stimulate the rising of the Renaisssance Movement?

A.The rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture.

D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion.

4.Which of the following statements best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

A.The speaker eulogizes the power of Nature.

D.The speaker meditates on man's salvation.

5.“And we will sit upon the rocks,/Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,/By shallow rivers to whose falls/Melodious birds sing madrigals.”The above lines are probably taken from __.

A.Spenser's The Faerie Queene

B.John Donne's “The Sun Rising”

6.“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.”

The above is a quotation taken from Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice.

B.personification

C.allegory D.symbolism

7.The ture subject of John Donne's poem,“The Sun Rising,” is to ___.

C.criticize the sun's intrusion into the lover's private life

D. lecture the sun on where true royalty and riches lie

8.Of all the 18thcentury novelists Henry Fielding was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “___ in prose,”the first to give the modern novel its structure and style.

A.tragic epic

C.romance

D.lyric epic

B.pigmies that are endowed with admirable qualities

C.giants that are superior in wisdom

D.hairy,wild, low and despicable creatures, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in some other ways.

10.Here are four lines from a literary work:“Others for language all their care express,/And value books,as women men, for dress.”The work is ___.

A.Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

D.Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

11.The phrase “to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and to seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils” may well sum up the implied meaning of ___.

A.Gulliver's Travels

C.Robinson Crusoe

12.William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, advocated all the following EXCEPT ___.

A.the use of everyday language spoken by the common people

B.the expression of the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

13.Which of the following is taken from John Keats‟ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”?

A.“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”

B.“They are both gone up to the church to pary.”

A.J.Keats B.W.Blake C.W.Wordsworth

15.“Ode o na Grecian Urn”shows the contrast between the ___ of art and the ___ of human passion.

A.glory …ugliness

C.transience…sordidness D.glory…permanence

16.In the statement“—oh,God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?” the term“soul” apparently refers to ___.

A.Heathcliff himself C.one's spiritual life

D.one's ghost

17.The typical feature of Robet Browning's poetry is the ___.

A.bitter satire C.Latinized diction 18.The Victorian Age was largely

an age of ____,eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.

A.poetry

B.drama D.epic prose

家庭女教师) novel in the English literary history.

B.Emma

C.Wuthering Heights D.Middlemarch

20.The major concern of ______ fiction lies in the tracing of the psychological development of his characters and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist nature.

B.J.Galsworthy's

C.W.Thackeray‟s D.T.Hardy‟s

21.___is considered to be the best-known English dramatist since Shakespeare, and his

representative works are plays inspired by social criticism.

A.Richard Sheridan

C.Oscar Wilde

22.Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of Modernism?

C.To portray the distorted and alienated relationships between man and his environment.

D.To advocate a conscious break with the past.

23.The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the ___

in the American literary histrory.

A.individual feelings C.strong imagination

D.return to nature

24.Henry David Thoreau's work,__,has always been regarded as a masterpiece of New England B.The pioneers

C.Nature

D.Song of Myself

25.The famous 20-years sleep in “Rip Van Winkle”helps to construct the story in such a way that B.expression of transient beauty

C.satire on laziness and corruptibility of human beings

D.idea about supernatural manipulation of man's life

26.Walt whitman was a pioneering figure of American poetry. His innovation first of all lies in his use of __,poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.

B.heroic couplet

D.iambic pentameter

27.The literary characters of the American type in early 19th century are generally characterized by all the following features EXCEPT that they ___.

C.are simple and crude farmers

D.are noble savages( red and white) untainted by society

28.Hester Pryme, Dimmsdale,Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely the names of the characters B.The House of the Seven Gablest

C.The Portrait of a Lady D.The pioneers

29.“This is my letter to the World” is a poetic expression of Emily Dickinson's __ about her

communication with the outside world.

A.indifference B.anger D.sorrow

30.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 19thcentury.

B.romanticism

D.naturalism

31.After The adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain gives a literary independence to Tom's buddy

Huck in a book entitled ___.

A.Life on the Mississippi D.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

32.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

C.worldliness 33.Generally speaking,all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human reality tend to be ___.

B.idealists

D.impressionists

34.Emily Dickinson wrote many short poems on various aspects of life.Which of the following is NOT a usual subject of her poetic expression?

A.Religion and immortality.

C.Love and marriage.

35.In “After Apple-Picking,”Robert Frost wrote:“For I have had too much/Of applepicking:I am overtired/Of the great harvest I myself desired.”From these lines we can conclude that the speaker is ___.

A.happy about the harvest B.still very much interested in apple-picking

B.Ralph Waldo Emerson

C.Robert Frost D.Emily Dickinson

B.pessimistic view of life

C.war experiences

D.masculinity

38.IN The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape,O'Neill adopted the expressionist techniques to B.uncertainty

C.profound religious faith D.courage and perseverance

39.In Hemingway's “Indian Cmap”,Nick's night trip to the Indian village and his experience inside the hut can be taken as ____.

A.an essential lesson about Indian tribes

D.a learning process in human relationship

40.which of the following statements about Emily Grierson, the protagonist in Faulkner's story “A Rose for Emily,” is NOT true?

A.She has a distorted personality.

C.She is the symbol of the old values of the South.

D.She is the victim of the past glory.