1. For Melville, as well as for the reader and _________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe. A. Ahab B. Ishmael C. Stubb D. Starbuck

2. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more_____________. A. rational B. humorous C. optimistic D. pessimistic 3. Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire includes three novels. They are The Financier, The Titan and_____ .

A. The Genius B. The Tycoon C. The Stoic D. The Giant

4. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American___________ . A. local colorism B. vernacularism C. modernism D. naturalism 5. Robert Frost combined traditional verse forms -the sonnet, rhyming couplets, blank verse -with a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of _______farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.

A. Southern B. Western

C. New Hampshire D. New England

6. As an autobiographical play, O’Neill’s ___________(1956) has gained its status as a world classic and simultaneously marks the climax of his literary career and the coming of age of American drama.

A. The Iceman Cometh B. Long Day’s Journey Into Night C. The Hairy Ape D. Desire Under the Elms

7. Apart from the dislocation of time and the modern stream-of-consciousness, the other narrative techniques Faulkner used to construct his stories include_________, symbolism and mythological and biblical allusions.

A. impressionism B. expressionism

C. multiple points of view D. first person point of view 8. Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by____________.

A. short, clear sentences B. abundance of local images C. ordinary American speech D. highly refined language 9. One of the characteristics that have made Mark Twain a major literary figure in the 19th century America is his use of____________ .

A. vernacular B. interior monologue C. point of view D. photographic description

10. It is on his____________ that Washington Irving’s fame mainly rested. A. childhood recollections B. sketches about his European tours C. early poetry D. tales about America

11. At the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “____________________”.

A. the English Renaissance B. the Second Renaissance C. the American Renaissance D. the Salem Renaissance

12. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ____________________. A. nature, man and the universe

B. the relationship between man and woman

C. the development of Romanticism in American literature D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism

13. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is NOT right?

A. It’s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.

B. It’s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.

C. It’s mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin

upon the main characters and the people in general.

D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel. 14. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered____________. A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe.

B. an adventurous exploration into man’s relationship with nature C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure

D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty

15. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called “____________________.” A. free verse B. blank verse C. alliteration D. end rhyming

16. After the Civil War America was transformed from ______ to _________. A. an agrarian community … an industrialized and commercialized society B. an agrarian community … a society of freedom and equality

C. a poor and backward society … an industrialized and commercialized society D. an industrialized and commercialized society … a highly developed society 17. Which of the following is said of the American naturalism?

A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories. B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.

C. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh

environment.

D. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited

attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.

18. Which of the following is not right about Mark Twain’s style of language? A. His sentence structures are long, ungrammatical and difficult to read. B. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect.

C. His humor is remarkable and characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration，

repetition and anti-climax.

D. His style of language had exerted rather deep influence on the contemporary writers.

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19. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American ______. A. Romanticism B. Transcendentalism

C. Realism D. Naturalism

20. Which of the following is not written by Henry James? A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans. B. The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors. C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians.

D. The Genius and The Gilded Age.

21. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general Skepticism about the relationship between ______ is well-expressed. A. man and man B. men and women

C. man and nature D. men and God

22. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poems about nature? A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between

man and nature.

B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond

between man and nature.

C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings. D. Many of them showed her feeling of nature’s inscrutability and indifference to

the life and interests of human beings.

23. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an

unconventional style which is now called free verse, that is _________. A. lyrical poetry with chanting refrains

B. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme

C. poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beat

D. poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feelings 24. In the first part of the 20th century，apart from Darwinism, there were two thinkers -______， whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period. A. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud B. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund Freud C. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William James

D. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud

25. Which of the following can be said about Eugene O’Neill plays?

A. Most of his plays are concerned about the root, the truth of human desires and

human frustrations.

B. His tragic view of life is reflected in many of his works.

C. His plays are concerned about the relationship between man and nature as

well as man and woman. D. Both A and B. 26. Most of O’Neill’s plays are concerned about the following except______. A. success and failure in man’s literary career

B. life and death, illusion and disillusion, dream and reality

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