2.2 考研真题与典型题详解
Ⅰ.Fill in the blanks.
1．The English Renaissance is a period during which ________ introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England.（首师大2008研）
【答案】Thomas Wyatt
【解析】在英国文艺复兴时期，Thomas Wyatt把彼得拉克式十四行诗引入英国。
2．Shakespeare’s authentic non-dramatic poetry consists of two ________ and 154 _______.（国际关系学院2009研）
【答案】long poems；sonnets
【解析】莎士比亚的作品除了戏剧之外，还包括两首长诗（“Venus and Adonis”及“The Rape of Lucrece”）和154首十四行诗。
3．The Renaissance was an epoch of social and cultural development embracing all parts of ________. It first rose in ________ in the ________ century.（国际关系学院2007研）
【答案】Western Europe；Italy；14th
【解析】文艺复兴运动是社会和文化改革的新纪元，席卷了整个西欧。它于14世纪兴起于意大利。
4．Cordelia is a character in ________.（大连外国语学院2007研）
【答案】King Lear
【解析】Cordelia是莎士比亚著名悲剧《李尔王》中的李尔王最小的女儿。
5．________, ________, ________, and ________ are generally regarded as Shakespeare’s four great tragedies.（南开大学2007研）
【答案】Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear
【解析】莎士比亚的四大悲剧是《哈姆雷特》、《麦克白》、《奥赛罗》和《李尔王》。
6．Shakespeare’s plays have been traditionally divided into four categories according to dramatic type: histories, ________, tragedies and ________.
【答案】comedies, romances
【解析】莎士比亚的戏剧主要可以分为四种：历史剧，喜剧，悲剧和传奇剧。
7．Thomas Wyatt is usually regarded as the first great English sonneteer. It is he who first used a ________for the conclusion of sonnets—a practice followed by Shakespeare.
【答案】couplet
【解析】托马斯·怀亚特（1503-l542）十四行诗介绍到英国文学的第一人，他第一次以押韵的对句结束诗歌。
8．Generally speaking, the development of early English drama experiences three periods: religious period, moral period and ________ period.
【答案】artistic
【解析】英国早期戏剧的发展经历了三个时期：宗教时期，道德时期和艺术时期。
9．The writings of Francis Bacon mainly fall into three categories: ________, purely literary and professional.
【答案】philosophical
【解析】培根的著作可分为三类，即哲学类、文学类及专业类。
10．The major, or central, character of the plot is called the________; his opponent, the character against whom he struggles or contends, is called the ________.
【答案】protagonist, antagonist
【解析】戏剧、故事、小说中的主角或主要参与者称为protagonist，与主角相对的称为antagonist。
11．The principal idea of Shakespeare’s historical plays is the necessity for ________ under one king. These ideas were of vital interest to the Elizabethan audience.
【答案】national unity
【解析】莎士比亚历史剧的一个主要观点就是国王应当维护国家统一，《李尔王》是一个很好的例证。
12．In Shakespeare’s histories there is only one ideal king— ________, though his real prototype little differed from other kings.
【答案】Henry Ⅴ
【解析】莎士比亚历史剧中最理想的国王是亨利五世。
13．From the first half of the 16th century, ________ began to develop into a flowering of literature and then England became “a nest of singing birds”.
【答案】the English Renaissance
【解析】亨利八世统治期间（1509-1547年），文艺复兴的春风吹入英国，16世纪下半叶，英国文学迈入黄金时代。
14．In Elizabethan Period, ________ wrote many excellent essays, such as Of Studies.
【答案】Francis Bacon
【解析】弗朗西斯·培根写了很多优秀的散文，比如《论学习》、《论人生》、《论真理》等。
15．Shakespeare’s plays are poetical dramas. A great number of important dialogues and soliloquies in his plays assume the form of ________.
【答案】poetry
【解析】莎士比亚的戏剧是诗歌戏剧，其作品中大量的重要的对话和独白都是采用诗歌的方式创作的。
Ⅱ.Multiple Choice
1．________ is often considered as the “poets’ poet” because of his considerable influence on later poets.（北二外2009研）
A. Edmund Spenser
B. William Shakespeare
C. Thomas Wyatt
D. Ben Johnson
【答案】A
【解析】据说最早是Charles Lamb（查尔斯·兰姆）把斯宾塞称为the“poets’ poet”。
2．“I am cruel only to be kind to you” The rhetorical device used in this statement is ________.（天津外国语学院2009研）
A. Metonymy
B. Metaphor
C. Oxymoron
D. Allusion
【答案】C
【解析】题目中的话使用了Oxymoron，即矛盾形容法。选项A是转喻，换喻；选项B是隐喻或象征；选项D是借喻或者使用典故。
3．Of the following writers who is NOT a poet in English Renaissance?（北二外2010研）
A. William Shakespeare
B. Robert Burns
C. Edmund Spencer
D. John Milton
【答案】B
【解析】Robert Burns（罗伯特·彭斯）是英国浪漫主义时期的著名诗人，其余三位都是英国文艺复兴时期的诗人。
4．“Liberty, Fraternity and Equality” were first uttered in the book ________.
A. The Shepherd's Calendar
B. Utopia
C. The Rights of Man
D. The Declaration of Independence
【答案】B
【解析】“乌托邦”是人类思想意识中最美好的社会：美好、人人平等、没有压迫、就像世外桃源。
5．Which of the following plays does NOT belong to Shakespeare’s comedies?
A. HenryⅤ
B. The Merchant of Venice
C. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
D. The Winter Tale
【答案】A
【解析】《亨利五世》是莎士比亚的历史剧，不属于喜剧的范畴。
6．Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia was a long ________ written in an elaborately artful prose.
A. pastoral eclogue
B. pastoral lyric
C. pastoral romance
D. pastoral drama
【答案】C
【解析】《阿卡迪亚》是菲利浦·锡德尼写的一部牧歌传奇。这是英国文学中早期的一部最重要的散文体小说，情节非常复杂、离奇，主要描写爱情。歌颂贵族阶级崇高的骑士道德，同时也发表他治理国家的见解。
7．Ben Johnson’s poetic line “not of an age, but for all time” was dedicated to ________.
A. Edmund Spenser
B. Christopher Marlowe
C. Geoffrey Chaucer
D. William Shakespeare
【答案】D
【解析】本·琼生是文艺复兴时期最有成就的剧作家之一，他评价莎士比亚说：“他不属于一个时代，而属于所有的世纪。”
8．Of the following plays, which is NOT written by Ben Jonson?
A. Every Man in His Humor
B. Volpone
C. The Alchemist
D. The Shoemaker’s Holiday
【答案】D
【解析】The Shoemakers’ Holiday（又称为the Gentle Craft）是英国剧作家托马斯·德克（Thomas Dekker）的作品。
9．The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is one of Christopher Marlowe’s best works in which Dr. Faustus seeks ________ no matter at what cost and finally meets his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil.
A. money
B. immorality
C. knowledge
D. political power
【答案】C
【解析】这部戏剧是由英国马洛作于1588年。浮士德博士为追求无限的知识以征服自然毅然叛离上帝，以自己的灵魂换取役使魔鬼二十四年的权利，期满后被魔鬼劫往地狱。
10．Which of the following statements best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18?
A. The speaker eulogizes the power of Nature.
B. The speaker satirizes human vanity.
C. The speaker praises the power of artistic creation.
D. The speaker meditates on man’s salvation.
【答案】C
【解析】在第十八首十四行诗中，莎士比亚赞美了艺术作品的不朽力量。
11．________ was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.
A. Thomas Wyatt
B. William Shakespeare
C. Philip Sidney
D. Thomas Campion
【答案】A
【解析】托马斯·怀亚特首次把十四行诗引入到英国文学。
12．The epoch of Renaissance witnessed a particular development of English drama. It was ________ who made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama.
A. Christopher Marlowe
B. Thomas Loge
C. Edmund Spenser
D. Thomas More
【答案】A
【解析】克里斯朵夫·马洛的艺术成就在于他使无韵体诗成为英国戏剧创作最主要的文学形式。
13．In the conclusion of the prose ________, the author points out that the root of poverty is the private ownership of social wealth.
A. Advancement of Learning
B. Utopia
C. Tamburlaine
D. Henry IV
【答案】B
【解析】托马斯·莫尔是英国的空想社会主义者，也是《乌托邦》一书的作者。他指出社会财富私有制是致使贫穷的根源。
14．Elizabethan poetry is remarkable. England then became "a nest of singing birds". Which is not the famous poets of that period?
A. William Shakespeare
B. Edmund Spenser
C. Philip Sidney
D. Robert Southey
【答案】D
【解析】英国文艺复兴时期的著名的诗人包括：威廉·莎士比亚、埃蒙德·斯宾塞、菲利普·西德尼、托马斯·怀亚特；罗伯特·骚赛是浪漫主义时期的诗人，同华兹华斯和柯勒律治一起被称为“湖畔诗人”。
15．From the following, choose the one which is not Francis Bacon’s work: ________.
A. Advancement of Learning
B. The New Instrument
C. Venus and Adonis
D. The New Atlantics
【答案】C
【解析】弗朗西斯·培根的主要作品有：《科学的进展》、《新工具》、《散文集》、《新大西岛》。
16．“Denmark is a prison.” In which play does the hero summarize his observation of his world into such a bitter sentence?
A. Charles
B. Othello
C. Henry Ⅷ
D. Hamlet
【答案】D
【解析】《哈姆雷特》是莎士比亚著名的四大悲剧之一，丹麦王子哈姆雷特目睹了国家统治阶级的残暴与黑暗，人民生活在水深火热之中，由此感慨道：“丹麦就是一座监狱。”
17．Sir Philip Sidney is known both as a poet and as a ________.
A. essayist
B. dramatist
C. a critic of poetry
D. novelist
【答案】C
【解析】菲利普·西德尼是英国文艺复兴时期的诗人和诗歌批评家。其著作包括：《爱行者与星星》（Astrophel and Stella）、《诗辩》（The Apology for Poetry）、《阿卡狄亚》（Arcadia）。
18．Euphues of John Lyly was written in a peculiar style known as “Euphuism”, which consists in the use of ________.
A. balanced sentences
B. words alliterating
C. timing or identical
D. precision
【答案】A
【解析】约翰·雷利的《尤菲绮斯》采用的是尤菲绮斯体即骈体文，这种文体辞藻华丽，充满双声叠韵、对比、比喻，讲究句式对仗工整。
Ⅲ. Explain the following terms.
1．Renaissance literature（人大2006研）
Key: Renaissance literature：Renaissance literature refers to a new tradition running from Petrarch and Boccaccio in Italy to Jonson and Milton in England, embracing the work of the French Pleiade and of Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare, marked by a new self-confidence in vernacular literatures, a flourishing of lyric poetry, and a revival of such classical forms as epic and pastoral literature.
2．Tragedy（天津外国语学院2008研；厦门大学2009研）
Key: A tragedy is a story that presents courageous individuals who confront powerful forces within or outside themselves with a dignity that reveals the breadth and depth of the human spirit in the face of failure, defeat, and even death. Tragedies recount an individual’s downfall; they usually begin high and end low. Shakespeare is known for his tragedies, including Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, and Hamlet.
3．Sonnet（南开大学2010研）
Key: Sonnet: (1) A lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme. (2) There are two major patterns of rhyme in sonnets written in the English language: ①The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet (named after the fourteenth century Italian poet Petrarch) falls into two main parts: an octave (eight lines) rhyming abbaabba followed by a sestet (six lines) rhyming cdecde or some variant, such as cdccdc. ②Shakespearean sonnet. This sonnet falls into three quatrains and a concluding couplet: abab cdcd efef gg. There was one notable variant, the Spenserian sonnet, in which Edmund Spenser linked each quatrain to the next by a continuing rhyme: abab bcbc cdcd ee.
4．Interlude
Key: Interlude: Interlude (Latin, “between the play”) is a term applied to a variety of short stage entertainments, such as secular farces and witty dialogues with a religious or political point. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, these little dramas were preformed by bands of professional actors; it is believed that they were often put on between the courses of a feast or between the acts of a longer play.
Ⅳ. Read the following quotations and answer the questions.
Passage 1（北航2009研）
Questions:
(1) From which play are these lines taken from?
(2) Who is the playwright?
(3) Who is the speaker?
(4) What does this speech show?
Key:
(1) Hamlet
(2) William Shakespeare
(3) Hamlet
(4) In this famous monologue, Hamlet, facing the dilemma of action and mind, is hesitating whether he should revenge for his father, which may bring him death, or he should suffer and hide his hatred for his uncle in his deep heart, which may secure his life.
Passage 2
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Questions:
(1) These words are taken from a famous essay written by ________.
(2) What is the title of this essay?
(3) What do you think of the language of this essay?
Key:
(1) Francis Bacon
(2) “Of Studies”
(3) The language of this essay is known for its conciseness, brevity, simplicity and forcefulness. The sentences are short, pointed, incisive, and often of balanced structure.
Ⅴ. Short answer questions
1．What historical events combined to bring about the European Renaissance? Which word best sums up the values and ideals of the European Renaissance?（西安交大2008研）
Key:
(1) European Renaissance was stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discovery in geography and astronomy, the religious reformation and the economic expansion.
(2) Humanism best sums up the values and ideals of the European Renaissance. European Renaissance is a historical period in which humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe and introduce new ideas. By emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of present life, the humanists voiced the assertion of the greatness of man, which was the cornerstone of the Renaissance philosophy.
2．What is Ben Jonson’s theory on drama?
Key: Ben Jonson is both a dramatist and a good critic. According to him, a play should be realistic, showing “an image of the times”. Characters should be selected to illustrate particular “humors”. Comedies should portray manners and follies, and thus could expose, ridicule and censure life. He insisted on an adherence to the unities of time, place and action. He rejected the admixture of comedy and tragedy, and thought romantic comedy and chronicle history full of absurdities.
3．Please analyze briefly Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. What do those knights and the evil figures symbolize respectively? What kind of ideas does the author want to express under the guise of medieval knighthood?
Key:
①The whole poem expresses the author’s genuine devotion to Queen Elizabeth Ⅰand the country. In the poem Gloriana, the queen of Fairyland, represents both glory and Queen Elizabeth Ⅰ, in whose honor 12 knights who symbolize the qualities of the chivalric virtues, engage in a series of adventures.
②The six completed books relate the adventures of the knights who represent the qualities of holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy. The knights as a whole symbolize England, and the evil figures stand for the country’s enemies.
③The dominating thoughts of the poem are nationalism (as shown in its celebration of Queen Elizabeth), humanism (as shown in its strong opposition to Roman Catholicism) and Puritanism (as shown in its moral teaching).
Ⅵ.Essay questions
1．What contribution did Christopher Marlowe make to English literature?（北航2008研）
Key:
Marlowe creates his great heroes such as Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, and Barabas, who override the ordinary moral codes of their times in an effort to find the complete realization of their particular ideals.
Marlowe perceived that tragic action must issue from, and be reflected in, the individual. Though death comes to all Marlowe’s tragic heroes, the kernel of his play lies rather in the struggle of a brave human soul against forces that in the end prove too great for it. This conception of serious drama—Renaissance virtue battling on to success and then falling unconquered before fate is at the root of all the great Elizabethan tragic activity, and is one of Marlowe’s most outstanding contributions to the development of a truly august type of English tragedy.
Marlowe gave English tragedy its true meter and diction. It was Marlowe who made the wooden blank verse into a trumpet, blaring out poetry and eloquence “in high astounding terms”.
Marlowe exerted the most important influence over Shakespeare. His importance is due to the energy with which he endowed the blank verse line. His plays have great intensity, but they show a genius, which is epic rather than dramatic. He is the greatest discoverer, the most daring and inspired pioneer, in English literature. Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor genuine tragedy in the English language.
2．Name the authors of the following poems and then make a comparative analysis of them.（武汉大学2008年）
“AMORETTI, SONNET 75”
“Sonnet 18”
Key:
(1) “Amoretti, Sonnet 75” is written by Edmund Spenser; while the author of “Sonnet 18” is William Shakespeare.
(2) The two sonnets are both love poems, and both carry the meaning of Italian or Petrarchan Sonnets. Petrarchan sonnets typically discussed the love and beauty of a beloved, often an unattainable love, but not always.
Both sonnets use the same structure. In “Amoretti, Sonnet 75” addressed to his wife, Spenser claims to give her immortality in his verse. In “Sonnet 18”, Shakespeare is concerned about the effect of passing time on his young friend. He says that though his friend may grow old and lose his beauty, he will be immortalized in the sonnets that Shakespeare wrote for him.
The two sonnets both consist of three quatrains followed by a couplet, but the rhyme scheme is different. Shakespeare’s sonnet consists of three quatrains with a rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef and ends with a couplet rhyming gg, while the rhyme scheme of Spenser’s sonnet is: abab bcbc cdcd ee. Both are different from the rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet.
3．Comment on the theme of Thomas More’s Utopia.
Key: ①Utopia was written by Thomas More to describe his ideal world. The name “Utopia” comes from Greek words meaning “no place”. ②Central to the constitution of Utopia is the community of property. No fundamental reform in society is possible until private property is abolished because the existence of private property is the source of all social evils. Utopia is an enlightened pagan community in which all land and goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed; there is no private property of any kind. ③All the citizens, men and women, are on an equal footing and have the same rights; Their interests are subordinate to those of society at large; and everyone must engage in physical labor. ④A national system of education is extended to men and women alike strictly based on reasoning and persuasion. These conditions are markedly contrasted with those of English society, presenting a sharp criticism of current English society. Utopia is regarded as one of the earliest work of utopian socialism.
4．Make comments on the heroines in William Shakespeare’s comedies.
Key:
(1) In William Shakespeare’s comedies we find an expression of his ungrudging, equalitarian attitude toward women. These plays show, in different ways, William Shakespeare’s respect for the dignity, honesty, wit, courage, determination and resourcefulness of women. Though there are weariness and frailty sometimes, they never lose courage in time of danger. Portia in The Merchant of Venice is the best example. Portia is a woman of the Renaissance, beautiful, prudent, cultured, courteous and capable of rising to an emergency.
(2)The young heroines in William Shakespeare’s comedies are always independent in character and take their own way of life, such as Julia, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Rosalind, the heroine of As You Like It. Heroines like these are no longer the women who, under the yoke of feudalism, cling about the neck of a father or a husband. They are able to defend themselves.
(3) In all, William Shakespeare’s heroines belong to a new type. They are witty, brave, independent, optimistic and faithful.