1、2012年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷及答案解析(总分：6.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、评论题(总题数：1，分数：2.00)1.Make a critical analysis of the following poem, evaluating how the form and the content interact with and enhance each other.(15 points)Go and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are,Or
2、 who cleft the devil“s foot,Teach me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envy“s stinging,And findWhat windServes to advance an honest mind.If thou be“st born to strange sights,Things invisible to see,Ride ten thousand days and nights,Till age snow white hairs on thee,Thou, when thou return“st, w
3、ilt tell me,All strange wonders that befell thee,And swear,No whereLives a woman true and fair.If thou find“st one, let me know,Such a pilgrimage were sweet;Yet do not, I would not go,Though at next door we might meet,Though she were true, when you met her,And last, till you write your letter,Yet sh
4、eWill beFalse, ere I come, to two, or three.Notes:mandrake root: a forked root supposed to resemble the human shape.（分数：2.00）_二、论述题(总题数：2，分数：4.00)2.Discuss the altruistic spirit reflected in O. Henry“s short story “ Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen.“(10 points)（分数：2.00）_3.The American frontier and wil
5、derness plays a significant symbolic role in American literary imagination. Please discuss the issue in an essay within about 400 words and relate your discussion to TWO to THREE individual works in the history of American Literature.(25 points)（分数：2.00）_2012年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷答案解析(总分：6.00，做题时间：90 分
6、钟)一、评论题(总题数：1，分数：2.00)1.Make a critical analysis of the following poem, evaluating how the form and the content interact with and enhance each other.(15 points)Go and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are,Or who cleft the devil“s foot,Teach me to hear m
7、ermaids singing,Or to keep off envy“s stinging,And findWhat windServes to advance an honest mind.If thou be“st born to strange sights,Things invisible to see,Ride ten thousand days and nights,Till age snow white hairs on thee,Thou, when thou return“st, wilt tell me,All strange wonders that befell th
8、ee,And swear,No whereLives a woman true and fair.If thou find“st one, let me know,Such a pilgrimage were sweet;Yet do not, I would not go,Though at next door we might meet,Though she were true, when you met her,And last, till you write your letter,Yet sheWill beFalse, ere I come, to two, or three.No
9、tes:mandrake root: a forked root supposed to resemble the human shape.（分数：2.00）_正确答案：(正确答案：Go and Catch a Falling Star is a perfect example of John Donne“s earlier playfulness with metaphysical conceits about the unnaturally small frequency of fair and virtuous women in the world. Using a series of
10、strange and interesting comparisons between two subjects while they, in fact, have very little in common at all is the typical form of John Donne“s metaphysical poems. In this poem, the fantastic and impossible examples of catching falling stars, pregnancies with mandrake roots, and hearing mermaids
11、 singing are outrageously compared with the difficulty of finding a beautiful woman who will stay true and loyal to her husband. By pairing objects that normally would have never been associated together like “a falling star“ and “a mandrake root“ or “the devil“s foot“ with the song of mermaids, Don
12、ne juxtaposes these conceits and illustrates both beauty and treachery of women. Also, Donne uses a mocking tone by handing the readers a multitude of impossible tasks and a journey of ten thousand days, all the while knowing the readers will return with nothing. Bitterness is revealed through Donne
13、s diction of blunt commands like “go“ , “get“ , “teach“ and “tell“. Donne uses metaphysical comparisons to stress the impossibility of finding a “ true and fair“ woman.)解析：二、论述题(总题数：2，分数：4.00)2.Discuss the altruistic spirit reflected in O. Henry“s short story “ Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen.“(10 p
14、oints)（分数：2.00）_正确答案：(正确答案：Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen reflects the author“s twisted opinion about the altruistic spirit. The story opens with President Theodore Roosevelt“s Thanksgiving proclamation and states that it is the American tradition to make charitable donations to increase human well-
15、being. The two gentlemen in the story are both altruists. The generous old gentleman escorts homeless Stuffy Pete to a restaurant and treats him to a lavish dinner every Thanksgiving Day. This year though Stuffy Pete is well stuffed by the elderly sisters“ charitable banquet, he doesn“t have the hea
16、rt to disappoint the kindly old man, whose “eyes were bright with the giving pleasure“. So he goes with him to the traditional restaurant and has the second Thanksgiving Day meal. Until now, the plot is fairly straight forward and shows us two best supporting examples of being altruistic. But 0. Hen
17、ry“s characteristic final twist shows. These two altruists are both taken to the hospital. Stuffy Pete is dangerously overstuffed, and the old gentleman is near starving, not having had anything to eat for three days past. The ironic and mocking ending shows us that good intentions may have bad cons
18、equences, and more specifically, that generous impulses toward our less fortunate fellow-citizens do not always yield genuine benefaction. The entire story is more about the exposition of the hollowness and foolishness of gentlemanly generosity than the altruistic spirit.)解析：3.The American frontier
19、and wilderness plays a significant symbolic role in American literary imagination. Please discuss the issue in an essay within about 400 words and relate your discussion to TWO to THREE individual works in the history of American Literature.(25 points)（分数：2.00）_正确答案：(正确答案：Though the definition of “t
20、he frontier“ has developed over time to include not only the “vast and howling wilderness“ of the Puritans, but also the far reaches of cyber space, the essential notion of unexplored territoryof fresh starts and wide open spaceshas always occupied a central place in the American cultural and litera
21、ry imagination. James Cooper depicted the world of the American frontier in his Leatherstocking Tales, in which he creates Natty Bumppo as a western hero who lives in a mysterious wild country and has a legendary career. Natty Bumppo is a typical frontier man. He is honest, simple, innocent and gene
22、rous. His chief strength is adaptability. He adapts to the difficulties of the frontier and bridges the divide between white and Indian cultures. However, Cooper romanticized the frontier as a place of wild adventure where Americans lived beyond the reach of corrupt, restrictive society and tested t
23、hemselves against nature. He intends to idealize, to mythologize, and to elevate the frontier in his romance. If Cooper had only depicted the routine and daily actions of the settlers and pioneers in their battle against the Indians and nature, he would not have won such fame abroad. Cooper interpre
24、ted the American experience and raised it to the level of an epic. He thereby created a frontier myth, using only the raw material of actual happenings as the foundation for his philosophical quest for the meaning of the frontier. Therefore, the rather prosaic and normal lives of men and women on th
25、e frontier are transformed into the idea that two worlds are in sharp collision. Two very different traditions are locked in conflict over the possession of the land, one primitive and the other civilized. Frontier could be a myth about the conquest to the wilderness; it could also be the tale of su
26、rvival, persistence or even cruel destiny in the fighting with the wilderness. Jack London“s famous short story To Build a Fire centers on the wilderness in a more realistic way. This tale is about an unnamed man“s disastrous trek across the Yukon Territory near Alaska. London uses repetition and pr
27、ecise description to emphasize the brutal coldness and unforgiving landscape of the Northland, against which the inexperienced protagonist, accompanied only by a dog, struggles unsuccessfully to save himself from freezing to death after a series of mishaps. Involving such themes as fear, death, and
28、the individual versus nature, To Build a Fire is a typically naturalistic work of fiction in which London depicts human beings as subject to the laws of nature and controlled by their environment and their physical makeup. Cooper is a romanticist at the beginning of the 19th century, while Jack London belongs to the realistic era toward the end of the same century. Approaching the same topic of frontier and wilderness, these two writers portray according to their respective philosophies of art and life, and show us completely different works.)解析：
