1、2013 年厦门大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷及答案与解析一、名词解释1 The House of Mirth 2 Herzog3 The Sound and the Fury 4 The Grass Is Singing5 Lord of the Flies 6 Possession7 Pygmalion8 “Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. “9 “ Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all / Ye know
2、on earth, and all ye need to know. “10 postmodernism11 feminism12 unreliable narrator13 the Beat Generation14 dramatic monologue15 Bildungsroman二、评论题16 Shylock(in The Merchant of Venice)17 Friday(in Robinson Crusoe)18 Mr. Kurtz(in Heart of Darkness)19 Sethe(in Beloved)20 Blanche(in A Streetcar Named
3、 Desire)三、问答题21 “The American Dream“ is a major theme running through the American literary history. Please define the term in cultural, historical contexts, and then illustrate with examples.22 What is the significance of “Harlem Renaissance“ in the American literary history? Please illustrate your
4、 points with examples.四、分析题22 Read the following poem and write a short essay based on the following questions in no less than 100 words.(10 points)Fire and Iceby Robert Frost(18741963)Some say the world will end in fire,Same say in ice.From what Ive tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.
5、But if it had no perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.23 Do you think the natural world will end someday? If yes, how will the world end in you opinion?24 Whats the relationship between fire and desire and that between ice and hate?2
6、5 Whats your interpretation of the poem?2013 年厦门大学英语专业（英美文学）真题试卷答案与解析一、名词解释1 【正确答案】 Edith Wharton2 【正确答案】 Saul Bellow3 【正确答案】 William Faulkner4 【正确答案】 Doris Lessing5 【正确答案】 William Golding6 【正确答案】 A. S. Byatt7 【正确答案】 George Bernard Shaw 8 【正确答案】 Henry David Thoreau 9 【正确答案】 John Keats10 【正确答案】 It is
7、 a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of objective truth and global cultural narrative. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations; in particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white
8、versus black, and imperial versus colonial.11 【正确答案】 Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employmen
9、t. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.12 【正确答案】 An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mod
10、e is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually to deceive the reader or audience. Most often unreliable narrators are first-person narrators, but sometimes third-person narrators can also be unreliable.13 【正确答案】 The Beat Generation referred to a loose-knit group of poet
11、s and novelists, writing in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s. They shared a set of social attitudesanti-establishment, anti-political, anti-intellectual, opposed to the prevailing cultural, literary, and moral values, and in favor of unfettered self-realization and self-expression.The mo
12、st famous literary creations produced by this group should be Allen Ginsbergs long poem Howl and Jack Kerouacs On the Road.14 【正确答案】 It is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of objective truth and global culturalIt is a kind of narrative poem in which one character spe
13、aks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speakers life, and the dramatic monologue reveals the speakers personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem.15 【正确答案】 Bildungsroman defines a genre of the novel w
14、hich focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, and in which characters change is thus extremely important. In a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity. Charles Dickens David Copperfield is a classic Bildungsroman.二、评论题16 【正确答案】 Shylock is the most controv
15、ersial character in the play. He is a man who has suffered a lot and is destined to suffer a great deal more. His desire for revenge eventually takes him over, becoming an obsession with the destruction of Antonio for previous wrongs. When the court finds against him, he is a shattered man.17 【正确答案】
16、 Friday is the first nonwhite character to be given a realistic, individualized, and humane portrayal in the English novel. If Crusoe represents the first colonial mind in fiction, then Friday represents not just a Caribbean tribesman, but all the natives of America, Asia, and Africa who would later
17、 be oppressed in the age of European imperialism. Friday is also a key figure in the novel and in many ways he is the most vibrant character, Fridays exuberance and emotional directness often point out the wooden conventionality of Crusoes personality.18 【正确答案】 Kurtz is a central character in this b
18、ook. As a trader of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolizes his position as a demigod among native Africans. He resembles the archetypal “evil genius“ : the highly gifted but ultimately degenerate individual whose fall is the stuff of legend. He is significant both for his st
19、yle and eloquence and for his grandiose, almost megalomaniacal scheming.19 【正确答案】 Sethe is a strong woman who lives under an oppressive cultural and social system that does not permit her to be nurtured or to nurture others reliably. Slavery forces her to kill all her children rather than seeing the
20、m grow up. As a result, she is haunted by guilt throughout the novel. When she tries to leave it behind without confronting it, the past comes back to her embodied and demanding in the form of Beloved. In the end, under the help of her fellowmen, she is able to accept herself and take a path toward
21、wholeness.20 【正确答案】 Blanche was once a high school English teacher, but when she arrives in New Orleans, she is destitute. She is a loquacious and fragile woman around the age of thirty. Though she has strong sexual urges and has many lovers, she puts on the airs of a woman who has never known indig
22、nity. She avoids reality, preferring to live in her own imagination. As the play progresses, her instability grows along with her misfortune.三、问答题21 【正确答案】 The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States. The idea is rooted in the Declaration of Independence which proclaims that “all men
23、 are created equal“ and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights“ including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. “Historically the Dream originated in the mystique regarding frontier life. As the Royal Governor of Virginia noted in 1774, the Americans “for ever
24、 imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled“.The ethos today implies an opportunity for Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work. James Adams said in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each
25、 according to ability or achievement“ regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.In American literature, the American Dream was present in writings about the Puritanism immigrations craving for free belief and free creation ranging from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin to Mark Twains
26、 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Willa Cathers My Antonia, F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby.22 【正确答案】 The Harlem Renaissance was successful in that it brought the Black experience clearly within the corpus of American cultural history. Not only through an explosion of culture, but on a soci
27、ological level, the legacy of it redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans. The migration of southern Blacks to the north changed the image of the African-Americans from rural, undereducated peasants to one of urban, cosmopolitan sophistication. This new identity led to a greate
28、r social consciousness, and African Americans became players on the world stage, expanding intellectual and social contacts internationally.It also provided a growing sense of Black militancy as well as a foundation for the community to build upon for the civil rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960
29、s.The Harlem Renaissance encouraged the new appreciation of folk roots and culture. For instance, folk materials and spirituals provided a rich source for the artistic and intellectual imagination, which freed Blacks from the establishment of past condition. Through sharing in these cultural experie
30、nces, a consciousness sprung forth in the form of a united racial identity.On the literary scene, Mckays poetry and novels, exalting the African American heritage, Langston Hughes oeuvre exhibiting his love and knowledge for his own people, novelist-poet Jean Toomers widely acclaimed novel Cane and
31、his other works played an indispensable part in the flowering of Black Harlem.四、分析题23 【正确答案】 I think that the natural world will eventually end someday. It will end when the desire of mankind exceeds how much the earth can offer.24 【正确答案】 Here, fire is associated with desire, a consuming, burning em
32、otion. By pairing fire and desire, Frost suggests that desire can cause as much damage as fire can, and it may be one of the causes of the worlds end. Some of the desires he is referring to are up for interpretation, but perhaps desire for power, money, or status could cause the downfall of people.
33、Maybe having too many desires and not being content will lead to problems, as well. Likely, he means that these desires will lead to situations that humans cannot get out of, and they will bring upon the humans demise.Ice is associated with hate, which, according to Frost, can be just as destructive
34、 as fire(or desire). Hate, certainly, can be a destructive force, and it seems to be suggested here that humans hate for one another can lead to the downfall of the earth.25 【正确答案】 Only nine lines long, this little poem is a brilliant example of Frosts concisely ironic literary style. The poem varie
35、s between two meter lengths(either eight syllables or four syllables)and uses three sets of interwoven rhymes, based on -ire, -ice, and -ate.In the first two lines of the poem, Frost creates a clear dichotomy between fire and ice and the two groups of people that believe in each element. By using th
36、e term “some“ instead of “I“ or “an individual,“ Frost asserts that the distinction between the two elements is a universal truth. In addition to the unavoidable contradiction between fire and ice, these first lines also outline the claim that the world will end as a direct result of one of these el
37、ements.Within this metaphorical view of the two elements, the “ world“ can be recognized as a metaphor for a relationship. Too much fire and passion can quickly consume a relationship, while cold indifference and hate can be equally destructive.Although the first two lines of the poem insist that th
38、ere can only be a single choice between fire and ice, the narrator undercuts this requirement by acknowledging that both elements could successfully destroy the world. Moreover, the fact that he has had personal experience with both reveals that fire and ice are not mutually exclusive. In fact, though the narrator first concludes that the world will end in fire, he ultimately admits that the world could just as easily end in ice; fire and ice, it seems, are strikingly similar.
