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Passage 1 [人大2007研]
“ Prophet! ”said I, “thing of evil! —prophetstill, if bird or devil! —
Whether temptersent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet allundaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home byhorror haunted—tell me truly, I implore —
Is there—is there balm in Gilead ? —tell me—tell me, I implore!”
Questions:
1. Give the title of the work and the fullname of the author.
2. Explain the implications of theunderlined parts.
Key:
1. “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
2. Prophet: The speaker here calls the raven as a prophet, who cangive him some clues to his puzzle of his beloved one.
Implore: This word means that the speaker appeals the raven to tellhim whether there are ways to cure his pain.
Balm in Gilead: This sentence is quoted from the Bible, which meansthat whether there are some medicines to reduce the speaker’s pain.
Passage 2 [北二外2009研]
The following poem iswritten for the mourning of the Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.Read it and answer the questions.
O Captain! My Captain
O Captain! MyCaptain! Our fearful trip is done,
The ship hasweather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port isnear, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While followeyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart!heart! heart!
O the bleedingdrops of red!
Where on thedeck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold anddead.
O Captain! MyCaptain! Rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up —for you the flag is flung —for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquetsand ribbon’d wreaths—for youthe shores crowding,
For you theycall, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here, Captain!Dear father!
This arm beneathyour head;
It is some dreamthat on the deck
You’ve fallencold and dead.
My Captain doesnot answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father doesnot feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship isanchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearfultrip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores!And ring, O bells!
But I, withmournful tread,
Walk the deck mycaptain lies,
Fallen cold anddead.
1. The writer of this famous poem is one of the most influentialpoets at the age of romanticism. Can you give out his name and present hiscontribution in literature briefly?
2. Can you enlist at least two major figures of speech used in thispoem and illustrate their functions respectively?
Key:
1. The author of this poem is Walt Whitman. Whitman’s influence overmodern poetry is great in America as well as in the world. His best works havebeen part of the common property of Western culture. Many poets in England, France, Italy and Latin America are in his debt. Modern American poets like T. S. Eliot andEzra Pound would not have been what they were without Whitman. ContemporaryAmerican poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.For his innovations in diction and versification, his frankness about sex, hisinclusion of the commonplace and the ugly and his censure of the weaknesses ofthe American democratic practice—these have paved his way for a share of immortality in Americanliterature.
2. “O Captain! My Captain!” is a poem by Walt Whitman. It waswritten in homage to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in1865. The major figures of speech used in the poem are:
(1) Metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech concisely comparingtwo things, saying that one is the other. In this poem, the “Captain” is asubstitute for Abraham Lincoln, and the “ship” is intended to represent the United States of America. “The fearful trip” is the Civil War, which had ended just priorto Lincoln’s assassination. Thus the ship is returning home to cheering crowdshaving won “the prize” of victory, just as the Union, led by Lincoln, hadreturned victoriously from the Civil War. In the second stanza of the poem, thespeaker calls his Captain “father.” In this manner, Whitman expands themetaphor for Lincoln beyond the more limited scope of a military leader of meninto a father figure, one whose wisdom and teachings led his children intoadulthood. The poem celebrates Lincoln as more than simply a great militaryleader who led the Union to victory during the Civil War and attaches to him abroader significance as the father of this new, this post-slavery country.
(2) Apostrophe. Apostrophe is a form of personification. It isusually an address to an imaginary or absent listener that can be a person, anobject or an abstract concept. Apostrophe is often used to convey extremeemotion. In the poem, the speaker repeatedly cries: “O Captain! My Captain!”,which indicates his deep love and respect for the Captain. In the second stanza,the speaker speaks to “you”, which shows his difficulty in coming to terms withhis Captain’s death, while in the third stanza, the speaker has finallyaccepted that his Captain is dead, so he in no way addresses his Captaindirectly but speaks of him entirely in the third-person.
（本题要求至少列举两项“O Captain! MyCaptain!”中所用的修辞手法，并分别阐述它们在诗中所起到的作用。惠特曼在诗中主要运用了暗喻、象征、呼语和重复等手法，可任选两项进行阐释。）
Passage 3 [大连外国语2007研]
It tells the remarkable story of an aging spinster inJefferson whose death and funeral drew the attention of the entire town, “themen through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the womenmostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save anold manservant—a Combined gardener and cook—hadseen in at least ten years.” The unnamed narrator, which some critics haveidentified as “the town” or at least a representative voice from it, in aseemingly haphazard manner relates key moments in the heroin’s life, includingthe death of her father and a brief fling with a Yankee road paver, HomerBarron.
1. The title of thestory is ______.
A. “Evelyn”
B. “Why I Live at the P. O.”
C. “A Rose for Emily”
D. “The Story of an Hour”
2. Beyond the literal level of the narrative,the story is sometimes regarded as symbolic of ______.
A. the changing of values and attitudes in American South
B. the disillusion of the American Dream
C. the materialistic pursuit of the Americans
D. alienation of human relationship in acommercialized society
Key:
1.C 这段文字描写了美国作家威廉·福克纳（William Faulkner）的小说《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》中的人物艾米丽的葬礼情景，全镇的人都前往观看。
2.A 这篇小说中艾米丽是旧南方的代表，与来自北方的修路工人荷马以及小镇的变化形成鲜明对比，艾米丽小姐的悲剧说明了旧南方社会制度的腐朽和解体，美国南方价值观和生活态度均已发生变化。
Passage 4 [首师大2008研]
1. The author of thispoem is ______.
2. “Downy flake” inthe third stanza means ______.
3. In this poem, ______meter is most frequently used.
4. Interpret the mainidea of this poem.
Key:
1. Robert Frost
2. falling snow
3. iambic tetrameter
4. This poem presents the charm of the natureand the responsibility of the people. The speaker is stopping by woods on asnowy evening. The scene is so lovely that the speaker wants to stay longer,but finally he remembers that he still has a long way to go before he can restfor the night. It also means the speaker has to fulfill his responsibilities beforehis death.
Passage 5 [上海交大2007研]
Questions:
l. What is the theme of the poem? Whatimages does the poet use to express this theme?
2. What are the rhythm and rhyme scheme? In what way do the rhythmand rhyme scheme contribute to the expression of the theme?
3. What is the tone of the poem and how isit established?
4. What is the function of the repetition in the last two lines?What poetic effect does the repetition have?
(Warning: All your answers should be organized into acoherent essay, or marks will be deducted.)
Key:
With very fewwords, Frost here creates a sense of brooding mystery as the speaker stops hishorse in a desolate landscape between woods and frozen lake. The attraction ofthe woods is their darkness, the intimation they offer of losing oneself inthem. The speaker gazes into them with a kind of hopefulness, while his horseshakes his bells, reminding him of getting on with the business of living. Therepetition in the last two lines denotes a literal recognition that the speakermust move on and connotes that there is much to be done before life ends. Hisexperience of gazing into the woods is just “a momentary stay againstconfusion” (Frost’s words) that sends the speaker back to life with a sense ofrenewal. The rhythm of the poem is rigidly regular (iambic tetrameter), and itsrhyme scheme is a complex pattern of interlocking stanzas(aaba/bbcb/ccdc/dddd). Each stanza is a complete sentence, and each sentencefollows the structure of colloquial English (with the possible exception of theinversion of subject and object in the first line). Such interlocking enclosedrhyme links one stanza with the next one, netting the whole poem together,which indicates that the speaker is murmuring to himself since he is attractedby the scenery. The winter bleakness of the setting (the “Frozen lake”, the “downyflake”, the “lovely, dark and deep” woods) establishes a lonely tone and thesymbolic weight of this brief moment when the speaker is drawn to what thewoods represent—death, perhaps,or at least a temporary release from life’s wearying round of duties andobligations. The speaker’s weariness is wonderfully underscored by “downyflake”, a phrase that sets vividly before us the image of snowflake waftingdownward.
（译文：
雪夜林畔小驻
想来我认识这座森林，
林主的庄宅就在邻村，
却不会见我在此驻马，
看他林中积雪的美景。
我的小马一定颇惊讶：
四望不见有什么农家，
偏是一年最暗的黄昏，
寒林和冰湖之间停下。
它摇一摇身上的串铃，
问我这地方该不该停。
此外只有轻风拂雪片，
再也听不见其他声音。
森林又暗又深真可羡，
但我还要守一些诺言，
还要赶多少路才安眠，
还要赶多少路才安眠。
余光中译）
Passage 6 [北航2008研]
I Heard a Fly Buzz—whenI died—
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm—
The Eyes around—hadwrung them dry—
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset—whenthe King
Be witnessed—in theRoom—
I willed my Keepsakes—Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable—and thenit was
There interposed a Fly—
With Blue—uncertainstumbling Buzz—
Between the light—andme—
And then the Windows failed—and then
I could not see to see—
Questions:
1.Identify the author of the passage.
2. Whatare the effect and the meaning of “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—”?
3. Whatis the meaning of the last two lines?
Key:
1. The author is Emily Dickenson.
2. In this poem, thespeaker is waiting for her last moment. The room is still, and the eyes of herrelatives have been dry. All these together create a solemn and woefulatmosphere. The speaker is going to see the “King”, but at this time, she hearsa fly buzz. Fly is generally regarded as a disgusting creature, and sometimesit gathers around the corpse. Its appearance disconcerts us and makes the“immortality” doubtful.
3. The fly’s wings cut the speaker off from the light, and then thespeaker closes her eyes and dies. Here, the light that she sees is from theHeaven. The speaker imagines that she is on the way to the Heaven. Just at thismoment, the fly appears, between the speaker and the heaven. Thus, her hope ofimmortality becomes doubtful. The speaker is not sure whether she can really goto the heaven with “the King”.
Passage 7 [南开大学2011研]
Because I could not stop for Death
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove—He knew nohaste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his Civility—
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—
Or rather. He passed Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My tippet—only tulle—
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in a Ground
Since then—’tis centuries—andyet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward Eternity.
1. Why did Death stopfor me?
2. Why couldn’t I stopfor Death?
3. What did the Death’scarriage hold?
4. What three thingsdid the speaker and Death pass?
5. What is the “House” in the ground in stanza5? Why do the centuries seem shorter than the Day?
6. What is the theme ofthe poem?
Key:
1. In the first line of the poem, Dickinson gives the reason: because I can not stop for death and also because death is kindand wants to offer me some ease. Death here is described as someone who is verykind and considerate.
2. In the whole poem, we can know that Dickinson regards life as a journey and only after a particular journey, can we stop fordeath. Thus, for a life, stop is not the way to death but going on and travellingis the way to death.
3. Death’s carriageholds immortality, “I” and “death”.
4. They pass three places: the School which symbolizesthe childhood, the Fields of Gazing Grain which symbolize maturity and theSetting Sun which symbolizes the old age.
5. “House” means the grave, of which what isvisible on the ground is the tomb like a roof. So the “house” means death. However,death is not the final stop and it is just the pause of journey. After death,according to the Christianity, there is the eternity. Thus, compared to thejourney before death, a century is shorter than even a day.
6. Through the whole poem, we can see thatDickinson compared life as a journey and death is not so painful and terrible. Itis just like a friend and somewhat take you to the eternity. From the poem, itseems that death has cheated her and finally deserted her in eternity, but thatis Emily Dickenson’s impression of death and of the essence of life, whichleads us to a world of imagination and thinking.
（此文需要抓住死亡和旅程这两个概念来回答，同时注意作者对死亡的态度。
参考译文：因为我不能停下来等待死神/他和善地停下来等我——/那辆车只能容我们两个——/还有不朽。//我们慢慢驱车——他不慌不忙/我也把我的劳与闲/统统丢到一边，/为了他的礼让——//我们走过校园，孩子们你推我搡，/在休息时间，在圆形广场——/我们走过在田间凝眸的麦杆——/我们走过落日旁——//或毋宁说，他走过我们身旁/寒露降，身子冻得打颤——/因为我的长衫落纱般——/我的披肩如丝网——//我们停步在一所房子前，/那似乎是隆起的土地一片/屋顶几乎看不见——/屋檐在地里面——//离那时已是几个世纪/过了还不到一天，/我首次猜测到，马头/在朝向永恒奔窜。）
Passage 8 [北航2009研]
Young GoodmanBrown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village: but put his headback after crossing threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his wife. AndFaith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street,letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her cap while she called toGoodman Brown.
Questions:
(1) This passage is taken from “Young Goodman Brown”, who is the author?
(2) What is the symbolic meaning of “pink ribbons”?
(3) What is a symbol in literature?
Key:
(1)Nathaniel Hawthorne
(2)In this story, “pink ribbons” appear three times. They symbolizethe faith Brown holds toward God and human that religion and human are pure andupright.
(3)A symbol is a sign which suggests more than its literal meaning.In other words, a symbol is both literal and figurative. A symbol is a way oftelling a story and a way of conveying meaning. The best symbols are those thatare believable in the lives of the characters and also convincing as theyconvey a meaning beyond the literal level of the story. If the symbol isobscure or ambiguous, then the very obscurity and the ambiguity may also bepart of the meaning of the story.
Passage 9 [北航2010研]
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in theautumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I hadbeen passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country;and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within viewof the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but, with thefirst glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferablegloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for thefeeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasureable, because poetic,sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest naturalimages of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me—uponthe mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—uponthe bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upona few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—withan utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation moreproperly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—thebitter lapse into everyday life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There wasan iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemeddreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture intoaught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was itthat so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was amystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies thatcrowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactoryconclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simplenatural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysisof this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, Ireflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene,of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps toannihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, Ireined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay inunruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with ashudder even more thrilling than before—upon theremodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems,and the vacant and eye-like windows.
Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed tomyself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, has been one ofmy boon companions in boyhood, but many years had elapsed since our lastmeeting.
Questions:
1. Why does the authordeliberately describe the architecture or mansion?
2. What is the author’sartistic view on literature?
Key:
1. This passage isselected from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The House of Usher, itself doubly referring both to the actualstructure and the family, plays a significant role in the story. It is thefirst “character” that the narrator introduces to the reader, presented with ahumanized description: its windows are described as “eye-like” twice in thefirst paragraph. The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decayof the Usher family and the house “dies” along with the two Usher siblings. Thehouse foreshadows doom and gives feelings of fear, and guilt.
2. Poe believes that theshort story must be of such length as to be read at one sitting (brevity), soas to ensure the totality of impression. The very first sentence ought to helpto bring out the “single effect” of the story. No word should be used whichdoes not contribute to the “pre-established” design of the work (compression).A tale should reveal some logical truth with “the fullest satisfaction,” andshould end with the last sentence, leaving a sense of finality with the reader.
Passage 10 [人大2006研]
Isabel alwaysfelt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined they inflicted anydamage on the tough old parchment , but because it seemed to her auntmight make better use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself—it was incidental to her sex, and hernationality ; but she was very sentimental as well, and there was somethingin Mrs. Touchett’s dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing.
“Now what’s yourpoint of view?” she asked of her aunt. “When you criticize everything here youshould have a point of view. Yours doesn’t seem to be American you thoughteverything over there so disagreeable. When I have mine; it’s thoroughlyAmerican!”
“My dear younglady”, said Mrs. Touchett, “there are as many points of view in the world asthere are people of sense to take them. You may say that doesn’t make them verynumerous. American? Never in the world; that’s shockingly narrow. My point ofview, thank God, is personal!”
Isabel thoughtthis a better answer than she admitted; it was a tolerable description of herown manner of judging, but it would not have sounded well for her to say so.
Questions:
1. Give the title of the work and the fullname of the author.
2. Explain the implications of theunderlined parts of the passage.
3. Make a brief comment on the heroineIsabel Archer.
4. What is Jamesian theme?
Key:
1. The Portrait of a Lady, HenryJames
2. “parchment”: This word implies theold European culture with a long history.
“incidental toher sex, and her nationally”: This phrase implies it’s her aunt’s nature to besharp because sharpness is the nature of a woman and an English person.
3. She is one of the splendid Jamesian American girls. She arrivesin Europe, full of hope, and with a will to live a free and noble life, but infact, only to fall prey to the sinister designs of two vulgar and unscrupulousexpatriates, Madam Merle and Gilbert Osmond.
4. Jamesian theme refers to Henry James’s handling of his major fictional theme, “the international theme”:the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrastwith European decadence and its moral and Psychological complications.
Passage 11 [浙大2007研]
Make comments on thefollowing passage.
Speak what youthink now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard wordsagain, though it contradicts everything you said today. —“Ah, so you shall be sure to bemisunderstood?”—Is it so badthen to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, andJesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure andwise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Key: This paragraph is taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”.In this paragraph, Emerson advocates that people should live truly and bravely,being not afraid of being misunderstood. Emerson points out in “Self-Reliance”that a person ought to go upright and speak truth in all ways. First, theauthor speaks loudly that human should speak the truth in hard words eventhough it may contradict everything that you said before. Then he quotesothers’ doubts. Here Emerson gives some examples to demonstrate his opinion,some great figures that have ever been misunderstood but are actually right. Healso points out that greatness will inevitably be misunderstood.
Passage 12 [北大2012研]
Please identify the author and/or theliterary period of the following passage. In addition, please explain thepeculiarities of style and language of the passage (particularly noticing theunderlined parts); and then discuss (1) how important they are to the work thatcontains the passage and(2) how such uses of style and language contribute tothe development of modern American literature.
“Andre Jackson—which was the name of the pup —Andrew Jackson would never let on but what he was satisfied, and hadn’t expected nothing else—and the bets being doubled and doubled on the other side all thetime, till the money was all up, and then all of a sudden he would grad thatother dog jest by the j’int of his hind leg and freeze to i t—not chaw , you understand, but onlyjest grip and hang on till they throwed up the sponge, if it was a year.”
Key:
The author of this passage is Mark Twain. He likes using colloquialand informal language in his works and makes it an accepted form in Americanliterature for the first time. In his works, there are many uneducated andminor characters, who become the representatives to do criticism. So, hislanguage is simple and local, but not very easy to understand. They are basedon their own culture and traditions. Twain actually becomes the representativeof American to a great extent. In the following passage, we can also find hischaracteristics of using language. For example, he uses the informal form “throwed”as the past tense of “throw”, which gives away the uneducated character.
By using these words and language, we can find some kind ofcomparison between educated and uneducated people in the work, and theyrepresent different classes and interest. So, here, the difference between languagesimplies the great difference between their positions, social statues, andvalues and so on. Through this work, Mark Twain satirizes not only old minersand hicks, but also the elite educated who come out and find their traininguseless. The contrast between the main characters shows that the educatednarrator looks like more of a fool than even Jim Smiley and his weighed downfrog.
Mark Twain’s uses of satire and colloquial deeply influencedthe later modern American literature, just as Hemingway said: “All modernAmerican literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called HuckleberryFinn.”
Passage 13 [北航2008研]
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Mostpersons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, butshines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward sensesare still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancyeven into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomespart of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs throughthe man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says,—he is mycreature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Notthe sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute ofdelight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a differentstate of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is asetting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, theair is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles,at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrenceof special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. Almost I fearto think how glad I am. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snakehis slough, and at what period so ever of life, is always a child. In the woodsis perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctityreign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he shouldtire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith.There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, —no disgrace,no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on thebare ground, —my head bathed by the blithe air, and upliftedinto infinite space, —all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; Isee all . The currents of the Universal being circulatethrough me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend soundsthen foreign and accidental. To be brothers, to be acquaintances,—masteror servant, is then a trifle and disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained andimmortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate thanin streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in thedistant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.
1. Identify the author and the work from which the passageis selected.
2. Explain thesentence “The sun illuminatesonly the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.”
3. What kind of philosophical school does the author belongto? And define the term.
4. In the line “I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all”, why the eye-ball is transparent?
5. Compare and contrastEmerson and British Romanticism.
Key:
1. The passage is selected from Emerson’s Nature.
2. The man can only see the sun, but the childcan feel the sun. That is to say, adults usually are not aware of the nature,only little children can enjoy nature from the bottom of their hearts.
3. Emerson belongs to the Transcendentalistschool. Transcendentalism is a New England movement, which flourished fromabout 1835 to 1860. It had its roots in romanticism and in post-Kantianidealism by which Coleridge was influenced. It had a considerable influence onAmerican art and literature. Basically religious, it emphasized the role andimportance of the individual conscience, and the value of intuition in mattersof moral guidance and inspiration. The group of people was also socialreformers. Some of the members, besides Emerson, were famous, including BronsonAlcott, Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
4. Because this is amoment of “conversion”, when one feels completely merged with the outsideworld, when one has completely sunk into nature and become one with it, and thesoul has gone beyond the physical limits of the body to share the omniscienceof the Oversoul. In a word, the soul has completely transcended the limits ofindividuality and become part of the Oversoul.
5. (1) Similarities：①They both respectnature. British Romanticists claim that they can get a lot of aspiration fromnature, they appreciated natural beauty. Emerson believes that nature isennobling. ②They both stress the importance of theindividual. British Romanticists see the individual as the very center of alllife and all experience; Emerson thinks that the individual is divine and,therefore, self-reliant.
(2) Difference: Emerson emphasized the concept of the“Over-soul”. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which allthings came and of which all were a part.
Passage 14 [北二外2010研]
The following is anexcerpt from William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”. Please answerthe following questions according to the excerpt.
When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral:the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the womenmostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save anold manservant—a combined gardener and cook—hadseen in at least ten years.
It was a big, squarish frame house and spires and scrolledbalconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had oncebeen our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached andobliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s housewas left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons andthe gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores. And now Miss Emilyhad gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay inthe cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union andconfederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson (the Town of Jefferson).
Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care;a sort of heredity obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 whenColonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily’sfather had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business,preferred this way of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation andthought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it.
Questions:
1.What is the town people’sresponse toward Emily’s death and what’s the reason for that? Use your ownwords to give an illustration.
2. These paragraphs typically show Faulkner’smajor concern in literary writing. Please explain Faulkner’s literary concernin general with one representative work except this short story.
3. Inthe 3rd paragraph, Miss Emily is referred to as “a tradition”. What does thistradition mean? When the paragraph ends with the sentence “Only a man ofColonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could have invented it, and only awoman could have believed it”, what information does the writer want to give tohis readers?
Key:
1. The town people’s response toward Emily’sdeath is mixed. On one hand, when alive, Emily is an outsider,controlling and limiting the town’s access to her true identity by remaininghidden. She is a muted and mysterious figure. Therefore upon her death, people are curious to see theinside of her house and to know more about her. On the other hand, her deathrepresents the disappearance of a tradition, so it causes the feeling ofsympathy and compassion.
2. Faulkneris a major American southern writer. His major concern in writing is abouttradition versus change. In this short story, through themysterious figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys the struggle that comesfrom trying to maintain tradition in the face of widespread, radical change. TheSound and the Fury is alsoabout this concern. It tells a story of deterioration from the past to thepresent. The past is idealized to form a striking contrast with the lovelesspresent. There is in the book an acute feeling of nostalgia toward the happypast.
3. Thistradition means southern civilization, its morals and ways of behaviors. Although Emily once represented a great southerntradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings andconsiderable resources, Emily’s legacy has devolved, making her more a duty andan obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order. The townleaders conveniently overlook the fact that in her straightened circumstancesand solitary life, Emily can no longer meet her tax obligations with the town.Emily emerges as not only a financial burden to the town but a figure ofoutrage because she unsettles the community’s strict social codes.
Passage 15 [北航2009研]
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, blackbough.
Questions:
(1) What is the title of this short poem?
(2) Who is the author?
(3) What two images arejuxtaposed or placed next to each other in this poem?
Key:
(1)In a Station ofthe Metro
(2)Ezra Pound
(3)The writer uses the image of “petals” onanother image, that is, “wet, black bough”. The poem is considered one of the leading poems of theImagist tradition. Written in a Japanese haiku style, Pound’s process ofdeletion from thirty lines to only fourteen words typifies Imagism’s focus oneconomy of language, precision of imagery and experimenting withnon-traditional verse forms. Pound contrasts the factual, mundane image that heactually witnessed with a metaphor from nature and thus infuses this“apparition” with visual beauty. The word “apparition” is considered crucial asit evokes a mystical and supernatural sense of imprecision which is thenreinforced by the metaphor of the second line. The poem is Pound’s writtenequivalent for the moment of revelation and intense emotion he felt at theMetro at La Concorde, Paris. Because of the treatment of the subject’sappearance by way of the poem’s own vision, it is considered a quintessentialImagist text.
Passage 16 [南开大学2009研]
The stars awakena certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible；but all natural objects make akindred impression when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wearsa mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret nor lose hiscuriosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to awise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom ofhis best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.
When we speak ofnature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind.We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It isthis which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter from the treeof the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitablymade up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, andManning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is aproperty in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all theparts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men’s farms, yet tothis their warranty-deeds give no title.
……
Yet it iscertain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, butin man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures withgreat temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but thesame scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic ofthe nymphs is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colorsof the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hathsadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by himwho has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shutsdown over less worth in the population.
(1) According toparagraph 1, why does the author believe the star awaken a reverence in people?
(2)What does the sentence “Naturenever became a toy to the wise spirit” mean?
(3) What does theauthor imply when he talks about the difference between farms and landscapes?
(4) Whatdo you think is the difference between the meaning the author or a poet findsin nature and the meaning a woodcutter, a botanist, a geographer or an engineerfinds in nature?
(5) Wheredoes the author believe the power to produce a delight in nature comes fromaccording paragraph 3?
(6) What does the phrase “the color of the spirit” (line5 in paragraph 3) mean?
Key:
(1) Thestar is a symbol of the universe, the nature. The author regards nature as thepurest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocates a directintuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.
(2) Nature is not the toy of a wise man, for thewise man will never extort her secret nor lose her curiosity by finding all herperfection. Nature reflects the wisdom of a wise man, as much as she hasdelighted the simplicity of his childhood.
(3) Recallingthe farms he sees while walking, Emerson encourages us to perceive nature as anintegrated whole — and not merely as a collection of individualobjects. He distinguishes between knowing who owns various farms and being ableto see a unified landscape vista, of which the farms form but a single part.
(4) Claiming that the person who is most likelyto see the whole of things is the poet, Emerson differentiates between the poetand other people: The poet, he says, is one of the few people who can seenature plainly, not superficially, as most of us do.
(5) The author believes that the power toproduce a delight in nature comes from the harmony of man and nature.
(6) “The color of the spirit” means the mood orpersonality of human being. To Emerson, nature does not have a personality thatit alone devises. Humans, he says, who are paramount over nature, grant to ithuman characteristics we perceive it to have.
（参考译文：星辰唤醒心中的景仰，即使它们常在，也遥远而不可触摸；而当思想敞开心门，自然景物总会留下熟稔而亲切的印迹。自然永无恶意可憎的容颜。如同大智慧者不会因穷尽自然的和谐底蕴而失去对她的好奇之心。自然之于智慧的心灵绝非玩具。 花朵，动物，群山，它们折射着智者思维的灵光，如同它们娱乐了他纯真的童年。当我们这样谈论自然时，我们的心灵感觉，清晰独特，诗意盎然。我们在感觉着多面的自然客体和谐完整的映像。正是这映像区分了伐木工手中的圆木与诗人心中的树木。
今晨我看到那令人愉悦的风景，它们无疑是由二十到三十个农场组成。米勒拥有这片地，洛克有那片，而曼宁是那片树林的主人。 但是他们都不能占有这片风景。只有诗人的双眼可以拥有这地平线，这是他们农场中最可贵的，却无人能凭产权而据为己有。
……
然而，可以肯定地说，这欢悦的力量不仅源于自然本身，它存在于人，或者说，存在于自然和人的和谐中。要谨慎节制地享有这种欢悦，这很重要。自然并不总悦人以节日盛装，昨日氤氲芬芳晶亮悦目一如为林仙嬉乐而设的同一景致，今天就可能蒙上悲伤的面纱。自然总是折射着观者的精神状态。对于在病痛中挣扎的人，他自身散发的焦虑挣扎就涵容着悲伤。当爱友逝去时，人们会对那风景感到些许漠然。当蓝天落幕于社会底层者眼前，它的壮丽也会减色。（雨树译））
Passage 17 [北航2007研]
“Who isthat man, Hester?” gasped Mr. Dimmesdale, overcome with terror. “I shiver athim! Dost thou know the man? I hate him, Hester!”
She rememberedher oath, and was silent.
“I tell thee, mysoul shivers at him,” muttered the minister again. “Who is he? Who is he? Canstthou do nothing for me? I have a nameless horror of the man.”
“Minister,” saidlittle Pearl. “I can tell thee who he is!”
“Quickly, then,child!” said the minister, bending his ear close to her lips. “Quickly!—and as low as thou canst whisper.”
Pearl mumbledsomething into his ear, that sounded, indeed, like human language, but was onlysuch gibberish as children may be heard amusing themselves with, by the hourtogether. At all events, if it involved any secret information in regard to oldRoger Chillingworth, it was in a tongue unknown to the erudite clergyman, anddid but increase the bewilderment of his mind. The elvish child then laughedaloud.
“Dost thou mockme now?” said the minister.
“Thou wast notbold!—thou wast not true!”answered the child.
“Thou wouldstnot promise to take my hand, and mother’s hand, tomorrow noontide!” [北航2007研]
Questions:
1. Which fiction is this excerpt from?
2. Who is the author? What are the majorartistic features of the author?
3. Try to comment on the irony in thisexcerpt.
Key:
1. This excerpt is from The Scarlet Letter.
2. The author is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Muchof Hawthorne’s writing centers around New England, many works featuring moralallegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part ofthe Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themesoften center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often havemoral messages and deep psychological complexity.
3. When Pearl asked Mr. Dimmesdale to standwith her and her mother on the platform the next day, the minister refused. Heonly promised to stand together with them before the judgment-seat at the greatjudgment day, and thus “the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting”.In fact, he did not want to make known publicly his relationship with Hesterand Pearl. So, Pearl’s words “Thou wast not bold!－thou wast not true!” are ironic.
Passage 18 [厦门大学2012研]
Read the followingpoem and write a short essay based on the following questions in about 100words.
Questions:
1. What, in your opinion, is the themeof this poem?
2. What is the meaningof each stanza?
3. What is yourattitude towards fame?
Key:
1. This poem shows the poet’s attitude towards fame. She prefers tobe nobody rather than be somebody. In the poem, Dickenson satirizes “somebody”who long for fame and boast themselves in public.
2. The first stanza tells us how thespeaker meets a fellow “nobody”, a friend. Together, the two nobodies can enjoyeach other’s company and their shared anonymity. In the second stanza, thespeaker becomes confident by realizing the defects and vanity of “somebody”.She realizes that having a true friend is more important than being admired bya lot of people who can not really understand you.
3. In my opinion, there are so many things thatare more important than fame and reputation, such as love, faith, friendship,values, joy of life and so on. Perhaps, fame is beautiful scenery in one’slife, but it is transitory, and it should not be our ultimate goal of our workand life.