Ⅰ.Multiple ChoiceSelect from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. Ⅲ.Questions and AnswersGive a brief answer to each of the following questions in English.1. List at least two leading neoclassicists in England. What did Neoclassicists celebrate in literary creation?
A. Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson(任选两位作家).
B. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accruacy and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. They seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expressions, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus a polite, urbane, witty and intellectual art developed.
2. What is neoclassicism?
With the introduction of the Enlightenment Movement into England, a revival of interest in the old classical works was in full swing. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicist, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers (Homer, Virgil, Horace. Ovid, etc.) and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.
3. 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.
4. What's Swifts achievements?
Swift is a master satirist. His satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness which renders his satire all the more powerful. His A Modest Proposal is generally taken as a perfect model.
Swift is one of the greater masters of English prose. He is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, precise prose. He defined a good style as "proper words in proper places". Clear, simple, concrete diction, uncomplicated sentence structure, economy and conciseness of language mark all his writings—essays, poems and novels.
Swift's chief works are: A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, The Drapier's Letters, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal.
5. What is the position of Henry Fielding in the history of English literature?
Henry Fielding was the first of all the 18th century English novelists to write the "comic epic in prose", and the first to give the modern novel its Structure and style. Before him, the narration of the novel was either in the epistolary form or through the mouth of the hero. Fielding used "the third person narration" in which the author remains the omniscient God. Thus, "He" can not only represent the behaviours of the characters, hut also the internal workings of their mind. In form, Fielding retains a grand epic style and keeps to a realistic representation of common life as it is. So, he has been regarded as "Father of the English novel."
6. What are the characteristics of Fielding's writing?
In Field's writing, his language is easy, unlaboured and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous. His sentences are always distinguished by logic and rhythm, and his structure carefully planned towards an inevitable ending. His works are also noted for lively, dramatic dialogues and other theatrical devices such as suspense, coincidence and unexpectedness.
Ⅳ.Topic DiscussionWrite no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.1. Briefly discuss Enlightenment Movement.
Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe. The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance from the 14th century to the mid-17th century. The purpose of the movement was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. It celebrated reason of rationality, equality and science. It advocated universal education. Literature at the time became a very popular means of public education.
2. 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.
A. 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.
B. Robinson Crusoe embodies the virtuse 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); e. And others.
3. Robinson Crusoe is universally considered as Daniel Defoe's masterpiece. Discuss why it became so successful when it was published?
A. Robinson Crusoe is supposedly based on the real adventure of an Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island for five years. Actually, the story is an imagination.
B. In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life.
C. In the novel, Robinson is a real hero and he is an embodiment of the rising middle class virtues in the mid eighteenth century England.
D. Robinson Crusoe is an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time. Because of the above reasons, when it was published, people all liked that story, and it became an immediate success.
4. A Modest Proposal is a satire written by Swift and it is generally taken as a perfect model of satire. Gulliver's Travels is Swift's masterpiece. Based on them, discuss why Swift is a master satirist.
Swift has the talent of being a prose satirist. In his life, he wrote many satires. They are A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, The Drapier's Letters, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. The first two books are on corruption in religion and learning and they established his name as a satirist. Gulliver's Travels is one of the most effective and devastating criticisms and satires of all aspects in the then English and European life—socially, politically, religiously, philosophically, scientifically, and morally. Its social significance is great and its exploration into human nature profound. Swift's satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness which renders his satire all the more powerful. In A Modest Proposal, by suggesting that poor Irish parents sell their one-year-old babies to the rich English lords and ladies as food, Swift is making the most devastating protest against the inhuman exploitation and oppression of the Irish people by the English ruling class. The apparent eagerness, sincerity and detachment of the author adds force to the bitter irony and biting sarcasm. So he is a master of satire.
5. Please cite examples from Gulliver's Travels to explain briefly how Swift criticized and alluded to the government and the society.
In the first part of Gulliver's Travels, Swift described the tricks and practices in the competition held before royal members to allude to the fact that the success of the officials was not for their wisdom and excellence but for their skills in the games.
In part 4 of the book, Swift made horses with reason and good qualities. The citizens who are "hairy, wild, low and despicable brutes, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in almost every way" to criticize all respects of the English and European life, and urge people to consider the nature of humans.