1、2012 年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷及答案与解析一、评论题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 devils foot,Teach
2、me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envys stinging,And findWhat windServes to advance an honest mind.If thou best born to strange sights,Things invisible to see,Ride ten thousand days and nights,Till age snow white hairs on thee,Thou, when thou returnst, wilt tell me,All strange wonders that
3、befell thee,And swear,No whereLives a woman true and fair.If thou findst 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
4、three.Notes:mandrake root: a forked root supposed to resemble the human shape.二、论述题2 Discuss the altruistic spirit reflected in O. Henrys short story “ Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen.“(10 points)3 The American frontier and wilderness plays a significant symbolic role in American literary imagination
5、. 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)2012 年武汉大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷答案与解析一、评论题1 【正确答案】 Go and Catch a Falling Star is a perfect example of John Donnes earlier playfulness wi
6、th metaphysical conceits about the unnaturally small frequency of fair and virtuous women in the world. Using a series of strange and interesting comparisons between two subjects while they, in fact, have very little in common at all is the typical form of John Donnes metaphysical poems. In this poe
7、m, the fantastic and impossible examples of catching falling stars, pregnancies with mandrake roots, and hearing mermaids 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 b
8、een associated together like “a falling star“ and “a mandrake root“ or “the devils foot“ with the song of mermaids, Donne 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
9、 of ten thousand days, all the while knowing the readers will return with nothing. Bitterness is revealed through Donnes 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.二、论述题2 【正确答案】
10、 Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen reflects the authors twisted opinion about the altruistic spirit. The story opens with President Theodore Roosevelts Thanksgiving proclamation and states that it is the American tradition to make charitable donations to increase human well-being. The two gentlemen in
11、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 doesnt have the heart to disappoint the kindly ol
12、d 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. Henrys characteristic final twist
13、 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 consequences, and more specifically
14、, 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.3 【正确答案】 Though the definition of “the frontier“ has develo
15、ped 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 literary imagination.James Co
16、oper 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 generous. His chief strength
17、 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 themselves against nature.
18、 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 interpreted the American experien
19、ce 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 the frontier are transforme
20、d 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 survival, persistence or eve
21、n cruel destiny in the fighting with the wilderness. Jack Londons famous short story To Build a Fire centers on the wilderness in a more realistic way. This tale is about an unnamed mans disastrous trek across the Yukon Territory near Alaska. London uses repetition and precise description to emphasi
22、ze 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 the individual versus nature
23、, 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.
