1.2　考研真题和典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. Many Puritans wrote verse, but the works of two writers, Anne Bradstreet and ______, rose to the level of real poetry.

【答案】Edward Taylor

【解析】美国殖民时期最著名的诗人是安·布莱德斯特和爱德华·泰勒。

2. The most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature was ______.

【答案】American Puritanism

【解析】美国文化源于清教文化，由清教徒移民时传入北美。美国主流价值观都可以追溯到殖民地时期一统天下的清教主义，并且清教思想对美国文学有着根深蒂固的影响。

3. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America is a collection of poems composed by ______.

【答案】Anne Bradstreet

【解析】安·布莱德斯特律是美国殖民时期著名的诗人。其代表作是诗集《最近在北美出现的第十位缪斯》（The Tenth Muse Late Sprung up in America）。

4. Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was ______, an English soldier of fortune, whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinct American literature written in English.

【答案】Captain John Smith

【解析】约翰·史密斯上校（1580.1-1631.6.21）因在北美弗吉尼亚州建立了英国第一个永久殖民地詹姆斯敦而扬名天下。他的《关于弗吉尼亚的真实叙述》（A True Relation of Virginia）则是美国文学的“第一书”，其实也是整个美国历史的“第一书”。

5. ______ College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.

【答案】Harvard

【解析】1636年100多名曾在牛津和剑桥大学受过古典式的高等教育的清教徒，在马萨诸塞州的查尔斯河畔建立了美国历史上第一所学府——哈佛学院。

6. The History of New England is a priceless gift left us by ______.

【答案】John Winthrop

【解析】约翰·温思罗普（John Winthrop）（1588—1649），美国殖民地领导人，马萨诸塞湾清教徒总督。他著名的作品是《新英格兰史》（The History of New England）

II. Multiple choices.

1. Early in ______, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts started the main stream of the American national history.（北二外2007研）

A. 14th century

B. 15th century

C. 17th century

D. 16th century

【答案】C

【解析】17世纪初，英国人在弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞定居，这也是美国历史的开端。

2. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them ______.（北二外2008研）

A. Quakers.

B. Anglicans

C. Catholics

D. Puritans.

【答案】D

【解析】早期来到北美的殖民者有不少是清教徒，因而殖民时期的文学深受清教思想影响。

3. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at ______.（北二外2009研）

A. Jamestown

B. New York

C. Boston

D. Concord

【答案】A

【解析】詹姆斯敦是英国人在北美的第一个永久定居地。

4. The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the ______.

A. Revolutionism

B. Reason

C. Individualism

D. Rationalism

【答案】C

【解析】美国价值观的核心是个人主义，因而，个人主义也成为贯穿美国文学史的主线。

5. The ship “______” carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

A. Sunflower

B. Armada

C. Mayflower

D. Titanic

【答案】C

【解析】1920年100多名清教徒前辈乘坐“五月花”号船到达美国马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯。

6. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the ______ who appeared in America.

A. Ninth Muse

B. Tenth Muse

C. Best Muse

D. First Muse

【答案】B

【解析】安·布拉德斯特里特被誉为“美国出现的第十个缪斯”。

III. Explain the following terms.

1. American Puritanism（南开大学2008研；厦门大学2011研）

Key: The word Puritanism is originally used to refer to the theology advocated by a party within the Church of England. The term Puritanism is also used in a broader sense to refer to the attitudes and values considered characteristic of the Puritans. It has been employed to denote a rigid moralism, or the condemnation of innocent pleasure, or religious narrowness adhered by the early New England Puritans. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influence over American moral values. And this Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. In addition, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works by such famous writers as Hawthorne and Melville.

2. Literary Journals

Key: Literary Journals: ①A journal is an individual’s day-by-day account of events. It provides valuable details that can be supplied only by a participant or an eyewitness. As a record of personal relations, a journal reveals much about the writer.

②While offering insights into the life of the writer, a journal is not necessarily a reliable record of facts. The writer’s impressions may color the telling of events, particularly when he or she is a participant. Journals written for publication rather than private use are even less likely to be objective. The European encounters with and conquest of the Americas are recorded in the journals of the explorers.

IV. Read the following quotations and answer the questions.

Passage 1

Questions:

(1) This is the ninth of the “Contemplations” written by an early American woman writer. What is her name?

Key: Anne Bradstreet.

(2) Make a brief comment on this short poem.

Key: This short poem offers the reader an insight into the mentality of the early Puritan pioneering into a new world. When the poet, heard the grasshopper and the cricket sing, she thought of this as their praising their reator and searched her own soul accordingly. It is evident that she saw something metaphysical inhering in the physical, a mode of perception which was singularly Puritan.

Passage 2

Huswifery

Questions:

1. Identify the poet of this poem.

Key: Edward Taylor.

2. Make a brief comment on this poem.

Key: The poem indicates that the poet saw religious significance in a simple daily incident like a housewife spinning. The spinning wheel, the distaff, the flyers, the spool, the reel and the yarn have all acquired a metaphorical significance in the symbolic, Puritan eyes of Edward Taylor.

V. Short answer questions

1. What are the basic Calvinist tenets?（国际关系学院2007研）

Key: Calvinist theology is sometimes identified with the five points of Calvinism, also called the doctrines of grace. In English, The five points are sometimes referred to by the acronym TULIP, which means Total Inherited Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints England colonial life.

2. Who was Anne Bradstreet? What were her literary achievements?

Key: Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American Literature. She is considered by many to be the first American poet, and her first collection of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts, was the first book written by a woman to be published in the United States. Mrs. Bradstreet’s works also serves as a document of the struggles of a Puritan wife against the hardships of New England colonial life.

VI. Essay question

1. What is the significance of American Puritanism in American literature?

Key: The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in the early part of the 17th century. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of the Puritans. They carried with them to America a code of values which became what is now popularly known as American Puritanism. It was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American literature. To some extent, it has become a state of mind, a part of national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe.

The American Puritans were idealists, believing that the Church should be restored to the “Purity” and religion was a matter of primary importance. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement. It has been a critical commonplace that the American literature—or Anglo-American literature—is based on a myth, that is, the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. Fired with such a sense of mission, the Puritans looked at even the worst of life in the face with a tremendous amount of optimism. All this went, in due time, into the making of American literature. The spirits of optimism burst out of the pages of so many American authors, such as, Emerson, Whitman, etc.

Furthermore, the American Puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. Puritan doctrine and literary practice contributed greatly to the development of an indigenous symbolism. The ever symbolizing process became, in time, part of the intellectual tradition. To Hawthorne, Melville, Howells and many others, symbolism as a technique has become a common practice. This peculiar mode of perception was an essential part of their upbringing.

With regard to technique, simplicity characterizes the Puritan style of writing. The style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. All this has left an indelible imprint on American writing. Thus American Puritanism has been, by and large, a healthy legacy to the Americans.

2. Do you agree that in colonial America there was no poetry at all? Give your reason.

Key: ①The strenuous life of the pioneer left little time for cultivating any of the arts, and the spirit of New England was too serious and too stern to permit indulgence in what was merely pleasant or beautiful. Even after the first critical years of danger and struggle were past, the intellectual life of the people was bounded by the narrow limits of religious discussion and theological debate. That the Puritan was not without imagination, however, is abundantly proved by the forceful figures and impassioned rhetoric of the prose writers who did only occasionally slip into rhyme. Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are such examples.

②Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan who wrote ponderous verses of interminable, inter-locking poems. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the “tenth Muse” who appeared in America. Her famous “Contemplation” offers the reader an insight into the mentality of the early Puritan pioneering in a new world.

③Edward Taylor was a meditation poet. In his splendid, exotic images, Taylor came nearest to the English baroque poets. He was, first and last, a Puritan poet, concerned about how his images speak for God. He has faith in God who can save the erring, or possibly sinful, humankind from the evil designs of Hell.