Quiz: History of American Literature

Quiz for Unit 1

Fill in the Blanks
1) The majority of native cultures were sustained through the oral tradition. Since
most Native American stories were orally passed on, these tales then have a
performative dimension.
2) The name of Captain John Smith is now associated with the English expedition that
founded the Jamestown colony in 1607.
3) The year 1620 saw the Pilgrims settling in the tiny colony of Plymouth in
Massachusetts which, due to William Bradford’s influential work Of
Plymouth Plantation 普利茅斯种植园 , is now regarded as a symbol for
Puritan culture during colonial settlement. Making this year as the beginning of
colonial period allows us to see Puritanism as a major source of cultural
influence in colonial America.
4) Original sin and Grace are two most important premises in
Puritanism.
5) _______The Declaration of Independence____ , drafted in June, 1776, is at once a
national symbol of liberty and a monument to Jefferson as a statesman and
author.

1. Multiple Choice
1) Who were the first people in America?
A. Europeans
B. Native Americans
C. Polish
D. Dutch
B
2) Native American Literature was __________
A. Meant to be told out loud
B. About Nature
C. Had animals that could talk
 D. All of the above
D
3) What year did Christopher Columbus set sail ?
A. 1490
B. 1491
C. 1492
D. 1493
C
4) The early colonial literature was “personal”. Which type was NOT part of
puritan writing?
A. journals and pamphlets
B. fiction and short stories
C. poetry and sermons
D. narratives and diaries
B
5) Which option best describes the puritan lifestyle?
A. plain lifestyle
B. radical lifestyle
C. immoral lifestyle
D. materialistic lifestyle
A
6) In the 1700s, __________ prompted action and gave colonists a philosophical
footing for their revolution.
A. The Enlightenment
B. French and Indian War
C. The American Revolution
D. None are correct
A
7) Which of the following authors included Enlightenment ideals in their political
writing?
A. Thomas Jefferson
B. Thomas Paine
 C. Benjamin Franklin
D. All of the above
D
8) Which group believe writing should be a tool to help readers understand the
Bible and guide their lives?
A. Puritans
B. Native Americans
C. The Enlighteners
D. The Revolutionists
A
9) People began to rededicate themselves to the Puritan vision and a wave of
religious enthusiasm arose during the _______________.
A. First Great Awakening
B. The Enlightenment
C. The American Revolution
D. None are correct.
A
Quiz for Unit 2
1. During the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century, Americans
of European descent felt that it was God’s Providence that they were “civilizing” the
American Indians. That self-righteous feeling is called “__manifest
destiny__________”.
2. Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的故事
are today two of Irving’s 欧文 best known stories.
3.Irving’s readings of German Gothicism 哥特主义 and Walter Scott 沃尔
特·斯科特 were responsible for the romantic sensibility in his writing.
4. James Fenimore Cooper created an enduring American mythic hero in his novels.
The subjects of his writings include__the Revolution__________, ___the
frontier________, ____the sea___________, ____the wilderness__________(write
four subjects of Cooper’s writings).
5. Transcendentalism shares the characteristics of romanticism such as:
the importance of intuition, the exaltation of the individual over society, the new and
thrilling delight in nature, fascination with the Gothic and the “Oriental”, and the
desire to build a national literature and culture
6. Transcendentalism absorbed many sources of influence. Three such sources can be
identified and they are Neo-Platonism , German romanticism , a certain version of
Easter mysticism
7. Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉 尔 夫 · 瓦 尔 多 · 爱 默 生 is today regarded as the
“Father” of American literature, because he creatively defined the basic parameters of
the American individual and because his social and literary liaisons decisively
contributed to the formation of American _culture_ and ____letters________.
8. “American Scholar” , a lecture Emerson gave in 1837 at Harvard, essentially
delivered that message and, for that reason, is known as America’s “intellectual
Declaration of Independence”.
9. Henry David Thoreau is now primarily remembered by two of his work: Walden
and the essay “Civil Disobedience” .
10. What Thoreau revolted against in Walden was the materialism of his day.
Therefore, he lived simply and deliberately in a hut by the __Walden Pond_ to prove
how far he could free himself from the hypocrisies and unnecessary complexities of
the commercial society.
11. The Scarlet Letter is a first great American novel written by
___Nathaniel Hawthorne_纳撒尼尔霍桑_published in 1850, whose storyline focused
on the adulterous love between Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne.
12. The combination of allegory and irony is characteristically Hawthornian.
13. If there was anything in the 19th century close to being the American epic. It was
Moby Dick 白鲸记 , written by Herman Melville 赫尔曼 梅尔维尔 , published in
1851.
14. Edgar Allan Poe, together with Hawthorne and others, modernized American short
stories. Poe’s stories usually have __carefully crafted_______ symbols,
____complex______ characters in ____deep psychological_________ states.
15. That Whitman’s poetry was a revolution in American literature can be seen in the
first publication of Leaves of Grasses in 1855 (year).
16. Technically speaking, Whitman’s poetry is “ Free Verse ” in that the lack of
meter and rhyme is known as his major technical innovation.
17. Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe 哈里耶持 · 比彻 · 斯托
boosted abolitionist sentiments and shook the conscience of the South. Lincoln once
met the author and said to her: “So this is the little lady who made this big war!”

Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following BEST describes the Transcendentalists?
A. Naïve
B. Nonchalant
C. Nonconformist
D. Anarchic
C
2. American Romanticism &Transcendentalism occur during which time period?
A. 1600-1720
B. 1720-1800
C. 1800-1860
D. 1860-1900
C
3. Which of the following BEST describes the changes that took place in the lives of
Americans between 1800-1860?
A. The moved to Hawaii
B. Many give up their homes and move west in search of land, gold or silver
C. They bought lots of land to cultivate
D. People wanted to look for new jobs
B
4. Which of the following BEST describes the characteristic of the American
Romantic Literature?
A. Used lots of European’s influence in their work
B. Romanticism that showed love and passion
C. Believed in God
D. Romanticism with clear American voice
D
5. Transcendentalist’s view of world is ________________.
 A. Look backward to the wisdom of the past and distrust progress
B. Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine
Soul
C. Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination
D. Love and happiness are the most important things
B
6. What is Rip Van Winkle’s main flaw?
A. He spends money irresponsibly
B. He is rude to his wife
C. He is unable to do any profitable labor
D. He is annoyed by children
C
7. When Emerson writes, “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of
light which flashes across his mind from within,” he is most likely referring to
__________.
A. when the moon hits your eye
B. a person’s optimism
C. a person’s individual ideas
D. a person’s rebellion from society
C
8. According to Emerson, what quality would SOCIETY most value in a person?
A. Optimism
B. Individuality
C. Pessimism
D. Conformity
D
9. Transcendentalists believed in_____________.
A. the power of the individual
B. the power of technology
C. the power of the government
D. the power of God
A
10. Transcendentalists believed all people are inherently _________
A. Bad
B. Evil
C. Good
D. Neutral
C
11. What philosophy does Thoreau express in this statement: “If a man does not keep
pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
A. Love of nature
B. Lack of materialism
C. Individualism
C
12. What is the transcendentalist belief about nature?
A. Nature is “just there”
B. Nature is unstable and changes too much
C. Nature is awe-inspiring and reflects spirituality
D. Nature is the origin of evil
C
13. When is The Scarlet Letter set?
A. 1600s
B. 1700s
C. 1800s
D. 1900s
A
14. In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, what is the narrator’s profession?
A. Lawyer
B. Accountant
C. Scrivener
D. Politician
A
15. Where did Bartleby work prior to the narrator’s office?
A. Internal Revenue Service
 B. Clerk of Courts
C. Unemployed
D. Dead Letters Office
D
16. Where is the story “Bartleby” set?
A. Wall Street
B. Unknown
C. Albany
D. Brooklyn
A
17. What genre of literature is Edgar Allan Poe known as the inventor of?
A. Poetry
B. Historical works
C. Detective
D. Romance
C
18. How was Uncle Tom’s Cabin able to reach such a large audience/reader?
A. People shared the story with each other
B. It ran in a newspaper as a twelve-part series
C. Plays were developed for it
D. All of the above
B
19. An abolitionist is ________________.
A. A person who put the welfare of the country above their region
B. A person who wanted to end slavery
C. A person in favor of slavery
D. A person who wanted to end the spread of slavery
B
20. What law inspired Stowe to write the book?
A. Lincoln-Douglas Act
B. Fugitive Slave Act 逃奴法
C. Kansas-Nebraska Act
 D. Dawes Act
B
21. Key elements of Walt Whitman’s writing include all of the following
EXCEPT___________.
A. Celebration of self and American diversity
B. Free verse form and flowing lines
C. Everyday language of the common people
D. Slant rhyme and iambic meter
D
22. What might grass symbolize in “Song of Myself”?
A. Memories
B. Eternity
C. Art
D. Life
D
23. Which theme is not commonly seen in Emily Dickinson’s poetry?
A. God
B. The self
C. Death
D. Love
D
24. Which of the following is Not a characteristic of Dickinson’s poetry?
A. No titles
B. Slant rhymes
C. Dashes
D. Iambic pentameter
D
25. The American Romantics were similar to the British Romantics in which of the
following ways?
A. Their interest in the American Revolution
B. Their interest in nature
C. Their interest in democracy
 D. Their interest in the frontier
B
26. Rip Van Winkle lived in a village at the bottom of ______.
A. a small hill
B. a great lake
C. the Hudson River
D. the Catskill Mountain 卡茨基尔山

27. What does Hester’s letter “A” eventually come to represent to the townspeople?
A. “Able”
B. “Avaricious”
C. “Alone”
D. “Absolutely Admirable”
28. Which of the following is NOT an example of Dark Romanticism?
A. Nature is dark and mysterious.
B. People are vulnerable to sins.
C. Supernatural elements
D. Positive about human potential

29. Which of the following is NOT true about both Romanticism and Dark
Romanticism?
A. Both emphasize the beauty and healing power of nature
B. Both place their stories in the heart of nature
C. Both avoid placing their stories in large cities and factories
D. Both focus on stories that concern individuals and their motives

30. In terms of its significance, American Romanticism helped to spread_________.

A. American values
B. American influence
C. American Accents
D. American Recipes
Quiz for Unit 3
1. In the 1880s, Mark Twain coined the phrase “The Gilded Age”___ to describe
the age in which under the shadow of success and prosperity was the exacerbation
of poverty, the age of wealth and poverty, of decline and progress, and age of
gaudy excesses.
2. In the United States, realist writers are philosophically allied with
__Pragmatism__________ which are represented by ___William James_______
and _______John Dewey___ 约翰德威 ________. They also place high value on
ethical consequences and conducts.
3. Realists believe that literature imitates reality. Realism is embedded in a
___mimetic_____________ theory.
4. Ernest Hemingway once remarked: “All modern literature comes from one book
by ___Mark Twain___________ called ______Huckleberry Finn______”.
5. Following Flaubert, Henry James has made _irony___ and _____indeterminacy_
不确定性__________ required attributes of the modern novel.
6. In Henry James’s texts, _____Europe________ and _______America_________
are two different societies and cultural forces brought into contact.
7. Like the realists, the naturalists in America strove for __objectivity______ and
were interested in the ___commonplace_________ in contemporary life.
8. Unlike the realists, the naturalists were more conscious of __their philosophical
foundations___ which draw upon scientific__ or __socioeconomic determinisms_
决定论_(such as Darwinism) for its view of humanity.
9. The naturalist stories are often about those __rendered helpless by uncontrollable
forces____. The mood is ____dark____ and ___pessimistic______. Furthermore,
__violence__ in naturalist fiction is explicit and _____sex_______ breaks through
social taboos and decorum.
10. American culture in the late 19th century and early 20th century was not free of
Victorianism. The belief that women were __a sexual and social subclass__was
the theme norm dominating American home and social life.
11. The women ___suffrage__ 选举权 _________ movement----a movement based on
the basic assumption that ____women should have the same rights to vote as
men______----fought long and hard. And it was not until __1918__ that women
 finally got their voting rights.
12. Kate Chopin’s best-known novel ___The Awakening__ is simultaneously a local
color novel, a __realist__novel, a _romantic_novel and a _feminist_novel. It not
only reinforces but also modifies the ____Emersonian ideal of individualism and
democracy_ in that it exposes a sad fact that the ideal had so far been meant only
for American men.
13. ____Charlotte Perkins Gilman__ was a leading intellectual in the woman’s
movement from the 1890s to 1920. Her best known work since 1970s has been the
short story __ “The Yellow Wallpaper”____ which is the fictionalized “rest cure”
of her own mental breakdown and is a powerful feminist indictment of ______ the
norms in a patriarchal culture______.
Multiple Choice
1. At its basic level, American realism was grounded in ___________.
A. religion
B. Human thinking
C. the faithful reporting of everyday life
D. rational thought
2. The American Realism movement covered the years ___________.
A. before the Civil War
B. after the Revolutionary War
C. after the Civil War
D. before the Revolutionary War

3. The purpose of writing during the Realism was to _____.

A. instruct and entertain
B. argument
C. explain ideals
D. persuade

4. What was Mark Twain’s first success as a writer?

A. Roughing it
B The Gilded Age
C. The Innocents Abroad
D. Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog

5. Why does Huck think he’ll go to hell if helps Jim?

A. Society told him
B. Jim told him
C. the duke told him

6. What does the raft/shore dichotomy symbolize in The Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn?
A. the peaceful raft and the squalid shore 平静的木筏和肮脏的海岸
B. the number of times Huck and Jim board the raft
C. the peaceful shore and the squalid raft

7. Why does Twain use the Mississippi River for the setting in The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn?
A. because he knows the people and territory
B. because it is the largest U. S. river
C. because it was unchartered territory

8. What kind of a mother is Edna in The Awakening?

A. Thoughtful and loving
B. Doting and watchful of the children’s every move
C. Uncaring and cruel
D. Concerned about her children when they are present and forgetful when they are
gone

9. Mademoiselle Reisz plays what role in The Awakening?

A. She acts as a go-between, smuggling letters between Edna and Robert.
B. She offers Edna and Robert a private place to meet.
C. She allows Edna to read Robert’s letters.
D. She encourages Edna to leave her husband and marry Robert.
10. Which of the following items are important symbols in The Awakening?
A. Trees and houses
B. Birds and the sea
C. Birds and cigars
D. Dancers and pianists

11. Why is naturalism an important element of Chopin’s novel?

A. It determines Edna’s fate.
B. Much of the action takes place on the island.
C. Edna refuses to follow rules and acts in a natural manner.
D. All the important details make the book seem more real.

12. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, what is John’s profession?

A. writer
B. Lawyer
C. Dentist
D. Physician

13. What word does the narrator frequently use to describe the movement of the
woman in the wallpaper?
A. “Creeping”
B. “Stooping”
C. “Running”
D. “Crawling”

14. Which of the following is NOT a naturalist writer?

A. Ambrose Bierce
B. Stephen Crane
C. Jack London
D. Mark Twain
15. Which of the following is NOT the tenets of Naturalism?
A. objective, scientific, and detached
B. focused on genetics and environment
C. direct opposite of Romanticism and Transcendentalism
D. literature about nature

16. Regionalist writers focused on ______.

A. the political issues in the country
B. the natural landscape of an area
C. the dialect and customs in specific regions

17. Which of the following statements is NOT right?

A. Naturalism focused on man’s triumph over fate and nature.
B. Realism emphasizes portraying things as they are.
C. Workers in America began to form labor unions and joined the Populist party at the
end of the 19th century.
D. Realism was fueled by the view that America was a place of turmoil

Quiz for Unit 4

1. American modernism was the phenomenon of international modernism
transplanted and transformed in the American context. American modernism thus
leads to a greater awareness of the international and __cosmopolitan____
dimensions in American culture and literature.
2. Modernists believe that reality is experienced from ___different perspectives____
and _____at different levels___. Modernists are thus more willing to include
____multiple perspectives______, to keep the structure of their stories
______open-ended___and to experiment with other narrative options to avoid
___a totaliztion of reality_____.
3. In philosophy and in social sciences, the figures that have changed our ways of
responding to the modern world include __ Darwin, Schopenhauer_ 叔 本 华 _,
Nietzsche 尼采 , Marx, Bergson 柏格森 , and Freud. They represent a whole range
of modernist paradigms that would prove to be extremely influential to European
 and American modernist artists and writers in the early, middle and late 20th
century and beyond.
4. Frost’s poetry addresses ____familiar subjects_, makes use of an ___accessible
language__, and shows, on the surface, a simple thought process. But his poetry
accommodates ___irony__ and _____ambiguity__in such a way that we realize
that beneath the __surface simplicity__ is the ______complexity of life____.
5. Sherwood Anderson is primarily remembered as the author of Winesburg, Ohio__
俄亥俄州的瓦恩斯堡 ___. Gathered into a loosely connected novel are stories of
“grotesque”怪诞 or ________twisted characters_____.
6. Ezra Pound exerted tremendous influence on modernism, particularly on modern
verse. He invented the term ___Imagism__ and founded the school bearing the
term.
Pound’s definition of Imagism---“___ that which presents an intellectual and
emotional complex in an instant of time____”--- is in agreement with his
perception of the Chinese ideogram.
7. William Faulkner is both ____an avant-garde modernism__ and a writer of ___the
agrarian American south.
8. The Faulknerian novel is typically an _environment of voices__ that represent
__rivaling perspectives____, thus constantly deferring our judgment. This form of
novel has also become known as the ____polyphonic novel_复调小说_.
9. Hemingway’s style is _____simple_______ on the surface. It is with this style that
Hemingway effectively conveys some intense and complex emotions. These
feelings often seem negative: _ the meaningless of modern life, a sense of loss
(particularly the loss of love), ___disillusion____, ___grief_____, frustration and
despair.
10. In an interview, Hemingway explained: “I always try to write on the principle of
___iceberg_冰山__. There is __seven-eighths__ of it under water for every part
that shows.”
11. The 1920s was a decade know as the “__roaring twenties__”. It was a time of
___“roaring” excitement___, _____“roaring” confusion___ and “roaring” change.
It was marked by political ignorance__, _wild pursuit of material wealth___, and
social intolerance__.
12. American fiction of the 1920s ---Fitzgerald’s fiction included--- registered a sense
of___purposelessness___, decadence 堕落_and ____cultural__emptiness__.
13. T. S. Eliot’s portrayals of the post-war era as a despiritualized desert in his long
poem __The Waste land___ echoed a sense of __loss__ and despair__ that many
felt in that time period.
14. In the early 1920s, many African American writers, painters, photographers,
musicians congregated in New York City, started magazines, published
anthologies, and promoted the creativity of the “___New Negro___”. Their work
transformed Harlem, an African American neighborhood in New York, into an
___intellectual_____ and ____cultural___center for African Americans. This
movement was the “________Harlem Renaissance____”. But a broader term, the
“______New Negro Renaissance_____”, was also used, referring to African
American literature in general that developed in that time period.

Multiple Choice:
1. What is Modernism?
A. A continuation of the Realist movement that now focused on WWI and the horrors
of war
B. A break from Imagism that turned against using imagery and focused on hidden
meaning in poetry
C. A reaction against the Romantic authors that focused on creating realistic, gritty
narratives
D. A reaction that began during the WWI period that focused on a break from
convention and tradition in art, literature, culture, etc.

2. Who was one of the leading authors of the Harlem Renaissance movement?
A. Langston Hughes
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. Robert Frost
D. Ezra Pound

3. Which of the following statements is Not right about the American Modernists?
A. The Modernists agreed with the traditional American Dream.
B. One of the most famous motto of the Modernists is “Make it New”.
C. The American modernist movement occurred approximately between 1910-1945.
D. Most Modernists reject the existence of God.

4. Imagism was inspired by which of the following?

A. Russian Realism
B. The English Romantic Poetry
C. The English Sonnet
D. Japanese Haiku
5. Which is Not the quality of Imagism?
A. vivid imagery
B. common language
C. decorative language
D. free verse

6. Which statement BEST represents how the townspeople feel about Miss Emily in
Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”?
A. They feel obligated to help her.
B. They truly feel sorry for her.
C. They simply ignore her.
D. They resent her and enjoy gossiping about her.

7. What artistic talent does Miss Emily possess in “A Rose for Emily”?
A. China painting
B. Embroidery
C. Pottery
D. Still-life painting

8. In “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the young waiter says “an old man is ____”.
A. “a nasty thing”
B. “a waste of space”
C. “an unclean soul”
D. “an unworthy burden”

9. What serves as a major symbol of Gatsby's hopeful dream?

A. the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg
B. a green light
C. the valley of ashes
D. the yellow car

10. Which quotation from the text best shows why Nick is “inclined to reserve all
judgments”?
A. “I was unjustly accused of being a politician.”
B. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone. just remember that all the people in
this world haven’t had the same advantages that you’ve had.”
C. “Gatsby had an extraordinary gift for hope, or romantic readiness such as I have
never found.”
D. “And after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a
limit.”

Hawthorn: allegory and irony

Henry James: irony and indeterminacy
Robert Frost: irony and ambiguity