1、2008年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷及答案与解析 一、名词解释 1 Total Depravity 2 “Hemingway Heroes“ 3 Oversoul 4 Archetypal Criticism 二、分析题 5 Based on “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud“ by Wordsworth and “Ode on a Grecian Urn“ by John Keats, discuss the main features of the Romantic poetry. (10 points) 6 Names the authors of t
2、he following poems and then make a comparative analysis of them. “AMORETTI, SONNET 75“ One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I write it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay, A
3、mortal thing so to immortalize, For I myself shall like to this decay, And eek my name be wiped out likewise. Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens write your glorious name. Where whenas dea
4、th shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew. “Sonnet 18“ Shall I compare thee to a summers day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summers lease hath all too short a date: Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
5、 And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance, or natures changing course, untrimmd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst; Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade, When in eternal lines to time th
6、ou growst. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 7 Interpret American Dream by citing several relevant American writers and their works. 2008年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷答案与解析 一、名词解释 1 【正确答案】 Total depravity, also called total inability and total corrupti
7、on is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to ch
8、oose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered. 2 【正确答案】 Ernest Hemingways heroes many have different names but they are fundamentally the same person. These characters are similar to each other. They are noble but tragic heroes fighting with the overwhelming force. Though
9、they are fully aware of the fact that they will be defeated at last, they still decides to act like a hero. 3 【正确答案】 Oversoul, is a concept by Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced in his 1841 essay by the same name, meaning “over abiding presence“. It refers to an impersonal force that is eternal, moral,
10、harmonious, and beneficent in tendency. Emerson believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “oversoul“, since the over-soul is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which all is a part. One of the tendencies of the “ov
11、er-soul“ is to express itself in form, hence the world of nature as an emanation of the world of spirit. 4 【正确答案】 Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes (from the Greek arche, or beginning, and typos, or imprint
12、) in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in a literary work. As a form of literary criticism, it dates back to 1934 when Maud Bodkin published Archetypal Patterns in Poetry. 二、分析题 5 【正确答案】 Romantic poetry referred to the natural aspects of the world, focusing on the feelings of sadne
13、ss and great happiness. Nature was a focus of many famous poets. It was often presented as itself a work of art, constructed by a divine imagination, in emblematic language. As is suggested in the poems, Wordsworth derives from the daffodils in full blossom a feeling of philosophical delight and Joh
14、n Keats expresses his contemplation on beauty over the sight of an ancient Urn. And romantic nature poetry is therefore essentially poetry of meditation and the authors displayed what the common reader still expects of poetry: soaring imagination, emotional intensity, freshness of individual experie
15、nce, plus a deep sense of myth and mystery in natural events. 【试题解析】 本题考查考生对浪漫主义诗歌的认识。浪漫主义作家注重感情(feelings)与自然 (Nature)的表达，浪漫主义在反映客观现实上侧重从主观内心世界出发，抒发对理想世界的热烈追求，常用热情奔放的语言、瑰丽的想象和夸张的手法来塑造形象。 6 【正确答案】 Amoretti, Sonnet 75 is written by Edmund Spenser and Sonnet 18 is written by Shakespeare. Though rhymed
16、in different styles, these two poems are both the celebration of the same theme that verses survive time and love is immortal. Following an abab-bcbc-cbcb-dd rhyme scheme, Sonnet 75 is particularly telling about a day of the two lovers at the beach, reporting a conversation between the poet and his
17、beloved. With his sonnet Spenser struggles with a problem of love, the problem of limited existence, just as he struggles with the sand and ocean thus claiming to bestow immortality upon his beloved. Lines 3 and 4 tell how he rewrote the name and the sea repeated the act of erasure. Here, the time i
18、s given as an erasing tide, which is a simile. These first four lines in a way indicate the uselessness of writing. The water washes away the writing, acts as a predator hunting on the lovers pains, a personification of death. However, water may also be a life giver. The ebb and flow of the ocean is
19、 a symbol for immortality death and rebirth. The second quatrain indicates that the lady is with him. She scoffs at him for his “vain assay“ to make what is mortal immortal. She states that she will someday die just as her name, needless to say, is erased by the tide, an allusion to the Christian do
20、ctrine in which mortality is an inevitable part of human existence. However, later on the poet refutes the womans statement with his confidence in the immortality of poetry. Throughout the third quatrain and the couplet, the lover speaks with a tone of triumph, both over his lover and the transience
21、 of their life, their love. He introduces the image of dust like a sudden feeling of thirst, contrasting it to water, but immediately pulls the reader from it and ensures his lovers existence: “you shall live in fame.“ Talking about his ladys virtues but not of her beauty complements Spensers views
22、about immortality. Beauty lies in virtue itself even being more effective in terms of immortality. The poet must be intentionally writing her glorious name in the heavens, the epitome of beautiful places, in order to show that inner beauty is more important than physical beauty (although he never me
23、ntions it directly.) Spenser ends his sonnet by relating to Christian resurrection and afterlife: “.later life renew“ by this statement, He could also mean that he and his lover will marry and have children, through the lineage of whom their love shall live. The last two lines also touch the mutuali
24、ty of love, by saying: “our love shall live.“ Because Spenser himself studied platonic love it can be inferred that the heavenly love, in a platonic concept, expands and transcends the physical world of sand and sea. The poet comes over the problem of limited existence, every time we read this sonne
25、t, their love will become eternal. Shakespeares Sonnet 18 follows an abab-cdcd-efef-gg style. The poem starts with a line of adoration to the beloved “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?“ The speaker then goes on to say that the beloved being described is both “more lovely and more temperate“ tha
26、n a summers day. The speaker lists some things that are negative about summer. It is too short “summers lease hath all too short a date“ and sometimes the sun shines too hot “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.“ However, the beloved being described has beauty that will last forever, unlike th
27、e fleeting beauty of a summers day. By putting his loves beauty into the form of poetry, the poet is preserving it forever by the power of his written words. “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.“ The hope is that the two lovers can live on, i
28、f not through children, then through the poems brought forth by their love which, unlike children, will not fade. 【试题解析】 本题所给出的第一首诗歌是埃德蒙 斯宾塞 (Edmund Spenser)爱情小唱 (Amoretti)的第七十五首，第二首为莎士比亚的名诗能否把你比作夏日璀璨 ? (Shall ICompare Thee to a Summers Day)。这两首诗都描述了时间流逝、诗篇永存以及爱情不朽，但是形式上却采取了不同的格调与韵律。后一首诗已有过分析，这里编者给出
29、了前一首诗的详细分析，考生可以稍加参考。 7 【正确答案】 American Dream is a phrase connoting hope for equality, prosperity and happiness, symbolized particularly by having a house of ones own. Possibly applied at first to the hopes of immigrants, the phrase now applies to all except the very rich and suggests a confident hop
30、e that ones childrens economic and social condition will be better than ones own. Writers in the early time give much thought to the issue and even glorify the dream, as in the works of Whitman. In Leaves of Grass, Whitman interprets the dream as full of energy, optimism, romance, and excitement. Th
31、e self-made man spirit deeply rooted in American Dream is rather evident in Frederick Douglass semi-biography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. However, some critics also question American materialism and concomitant lack of serious morality. Writers of this kind includ
32、e F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck. Disillusion throws a rowdy block party throughout Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby while the tragedy in Steinbecks of Mice and Men leaves the reader feeling hollowed and thoroughly un-dreamy. The interesting thing about The Great Gatsby is that Gatsby, the prota
33、gonist and the embodiment of all that the American Dream is, himself, remains static. As the novel moves forward, he doesnt become more perverse; he doesnt become richer or poorer, nor does he impoverish those around him. In fact, were it not for the innovative use of the narrator, Nick Caraway, as
34、a literary device, Jay Gatsby would seem to be a vivid illustration of how the American Dream can succeed. Its the limited perspective of Nick and those at a distance from Gatsby that preserves his mystique and, by extension, the mystique of the American Dream. When this mystery is removed, when ign
35、orance of Gatsbys character is removed, we feel, with Fitzgerald, that the Dream has been removed too. Then you read of Mice and Men and you find yourself plunged into a world of even deeper despair and pitch-black hardship. The barren lives of the ranch hands George and Lenny are sustained by the A
36、merican Delusion, Lennys simple ignorance allowing him the fantasy of his rabbits and his ranch right up to the novellas powerfully tender end. That is perhaps the essence of the American Dream; ignorance to the truth, willful self-deception. The world as it is, the object of the American Dream, does not change. It, like Gatsby, remains constant while the speculators and wishful individuals congregate around it, willing it to be something other than it is. 【试题解析】 本题考查美国梦在美国文学中的地位与影响。本题的难度较大，建构了美国文化的美国文学反过来受到了文化的制约，美国梦作为美国文化的核心理念不断影响着文学的创作。由于问题比较宽泛，把握起来有些困难。编者将结合文学作品从正反两个方面对这一问题加以阐释。
