Ⅰ.Multiple Choice Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. Mark your choice by blacking the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on the answer sheet. Ⅱ.Reading Comprehension Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.1. "Some men there are love not a gaping pig,
Some that are mad if they behold a cat,
And others, when bagpipe sings i' th' nose,
Cannot contain their urine; for affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes or loathes."
Questions: A. Identity the author and the work.
B. Who is the speaker of the quoted passage?
C. What idea does the quotation express?
A. William Shakespeare; The Merchant of Venice.
B. Shylock.
C. Shylock says that just as there is no rational explanation of why one man hates a pig, why another cannot tolerate a harmless cat, and why a third cannot contain his urine when listening to a bagpipe, he cannot and will not give a reason for his action other than the deep-seated hatred and loathing that he bears Antonio. Here, Shylock makes himself ridiculous by comparing the unreasoning hatred he feels for Antonio with the irrational and inexplicable impulses found in all men. The examples he gives of human nature mastered by strange and powerful passions are such as to excite disgust and contempt in his hearers.
2. "For oft, when on my couch I lie/In vacant or in pensive mood,/They flash upon that inward eye"
Questions: A. Identify the author and the title.
B. What does the phrase "inward eye" mean?
C. Write out the main idea of the passage in plain English.
A. Wordsworth; I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
B. Human soul.
C. The poet expresses his love for the daffodils.
3. "'You never give it a chance,' she said. Then suddenly all her passion of grief over him broke out. 'But it does matter!' she cried. 'And you ought to be happy, you ought to try to be happy, to live to be happy. How could I bear to think your life wouldn't be a happy one!'"
Questions: A. From which work is this quotation taken?
B. Who is speaking to whom?
C. Why couldn't she bear to think his life wouldn't be a happy one?
A. D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.
B. The mother Mrs. Morel is speaking to her son Paul.
C. Because Mrs. Morel was born into a middle-class family, she is a strong-willed, intelligent and ambitious woman and she couldn't bear to think her son Paul had an unhappy life.
4. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep./But I have promises to keep,/And miles to go before I sleep,/And milts to go before I sleep."
Questions: A. Who is the writer of this poem and what is the title of this poem?
B. What kind of feeling does this stanza show?
C. How do you appreciate this poem?
A. Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
B. It shows a kind of sad, sentimental but also strong and responsible feeling.
C. It is one of the most quietly moving of Frost's lyrics. On the surface, it seems to be simple, descriptive records of close observation, graphic and homely pictures. It uses the simplest terms and commonest words. But it is deeply meditative, adding far-reaching meanings to the homely music. It uses its superb craftsmanship to come to a climax of responsibility: the promises to be kept, the obligation to be fulfilled.
Ⅲ.Questions and Answers Give a brief answer to each of the following questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.1. What are the common features of Defoe's four minor novels? And what are their social significances?
Defoe's four minor novels deal with the personal history of some hero or heroine, usually a whore, a pirate, a pickpocket, a rogue or some other criminal. Their history is traced from their unfortunate childhood, through their many vicissitudes in life, to their final prosperity or repentance and death. The all-powerful influence of material circumstances or social environment upon the thoughts and actions of the hero or the heroine is highlighted. The struggle of the poor unfortunate for mere existence, mixed with their desire for great wealth, comes into conflict with the social environment which prevents them from obtaining the goal under normal circumstances and thus forces them into criminal actions or bold adventures. The group of the four novels clearly manifest Defoe's deep concern for the poor and the unfortunate in his society. They are the first literary works devoted to the study of problems of the lower-class people.
2. What's the theme of Jane Eyre?
The work is one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian Age. It is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e.g. the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions such as Lowood School where poor girls are trained, through constant starvation and humiliation, to be humble slaves, the social discrimination Jane experiences first as a dependent at her aunt's house and later as a governess at Thornfield, and the false social convention as concerning love and marriage. At the same time, it is an intense moral fable. Jane, like Mr. Rochester, has to undergo a series of physical and moral tests to grow up and achieve her final happiness.
3. What's Dreiser's naturalistic belief? Please discuss the question with Carrie, a character in Sister Carrie as an example.
(1)Dreiser believes that while men are controlled and conditioned by heredity, instinct and chance, a few extraordinary and unsophisticated human beings refuse to accept their fate worklessly and instead strive, unsuccessfully, to find meaning and purpose for their existence.
(2)Carrie, as one of such, senses that she is merely a cipher in an uncaring world yet seeks to grasp the mysteries of life and thereby satisfies her desires for social status and material comfort, but in spite of the success, she is lonely and dissatisfied.
4. What does Yoknapatwapha County stand for in Faulkner's novels?
(1)In William Faulkner's writings, the place Yoknapatawpha Country is frequently set as the background for the stories. This place is actually an imaginary place based on Faulkner's childhood memory about the place where he grew up, the town of Oxford in his native Lafayette Country in the American South.
(2)With his rich imagination, Faulkner turned the land, the people and the history of the region into a literary creation and a mythical kingdom. The Yoknapatawpha country series have an overall pattern in which the fate of a ruined homeland always focuses on the collision of Faulkner's intelligent, sensitive, and idealistic protagonist with the society of the twentieth century. Most of the major themes are directly related to this confrontation in Faulkner's novels.
Ⅳ.Topic Discussion Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.1. Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe was a great success partly because the protagonist was a real middle-class hero. Discuss Crusoe, the protagonist of the novel, as an embodiment of the rising middle-class virtues in the mid-eighteenth century England.
(1)Social background: The eighteenth Century England witnessed the growing importance of the bourgeois or middle-class.
a. The Industrial Revolution.
b. The expansion of international markets.
c. Values/virtues/moral standards different from those of the feudal aristocratic class—courageous, full of energy, hard working, practical , resourceful, self-reliant, etc.
d. Literature should give/provide a realistic presentation of the life of the common people; it should meet the demand/interest of the middle-class people.
(2)Robinson Crusoe embodies the virtue of the middle class people.
a. Crusoe as an adventurous/courageous man full of energy and courage (example from the text).
b. Crusoe as a practical man (example from the text).
c. Crusoe as a resourceful/self-reliant man (example from the text).
d. Crusoe as a patient/persistent man (example from the text).
2. Brief the features of Bernard Shaw's works.
(1)His playwrights have a variety of subjects. His early plays were mainly concerned with social problems and directed towards the criticism of the contemporary social, economic, moral and religious evils.
(2)Structurally and thematically, Shaw followed the great traditions of realism. As a realistic dramatist, he took the modern social issues as his subjects with the aim of directing social reforms.
(3)One feature of Shaw's characterization is that he makes the trick of showing up one character vividly at the expense of another. Another feature is that Shaw's characters, are the representatives of ideas and points of view.
(4)Much of Shavian drama is constructed around the inversion of a conventional theatrical situation.