9.2　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1．“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was written by ________.（大连外国语2008研）

【答案】Washington Irving

【解析】华盛顿·欧文，美国著名作家，被称为“美国文学之父”。《睡谷的传说》是欧文的著名短篇小说，收在他的著名散文集《见闻札记》中。

2．Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster, is a character in the short story __________ collected in The Sketch Book. （首师大2008研）

【答案】“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

【解析】Ichabod Crane 是一个小学校长，欧文《睡谷的传说》中的人物。

3．The Romantic period in the American literary history covers the time between the end of the __________ century to the outbreak of the __________. It started with the publication of Irving’s __________ and ended with Whitman’s __________. This period is also called __________.

【答案】18th; Civil War; The Sketch Book; Leaves of Grass; the American Renaissance

【解析】美国浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末，到内战爆发为止,是美国文学史上最重要的时期。华盛顿·欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国浪漫主义文学的开端，惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。浪漫主义时期的文学是美国文学的繁荣时期，所以也称为“美国的文艺复兴”。

4．In the early nineteenth century, Washington Irving wrote ________ which became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.

【答案】The Sketch Book

【解析】美国作家华盛顿·欧文被英国作家萨克雷称为“新世界文坛送往旧世界的第一使节”。《见闻札记》被当时的英国评论界誉为“美国富有想象力的第一部真正杰作”，它“组成了它所属的那个民族文学的新时代”。

5．________ was regarded as Father of the American short stories.

【答案】Washington Irving

【解析】华盛顿·欧文被誉为“美国短篇小说之父”。

6．Washington Irving also wrote two biographies, one is Life of Oliver Goldsmith, and the other is ________.

【答案】Life of George Washington

【解析】华盛顿·欧文撰写了两部传记：《哥尔德斯密斯传》和《华盛顿传》。

7．________ was regarded as the first great prose stylist of American romanticism.

【答案】Washington Irving

【解析】华盛顿·欧文是美国著名作家，他被誉为美国第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家。

8．In Washington Irving’s work ________ appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.

【答案】The Sketch Book

【解析】华盛顿·欧文的作品《见闻札记》是现代文学史上第一部短篇小说集和美国第一部伟大的青少年文学读物。

9．Washington Irving’s first book appeared in 1809. It was entitled ________.

【答案】A History of New York

【解析】1809年，华盛顿·欧文的第一部作品《纽约外史》以“迪德里希·尼克博克（Diedrich Knickerbocker）”的笔名出版。《纽约外史》出版后，欧文便成为纽约文坛风靡一时的人物。

10．In Paris, Washington Irving met John Howard Payne, the American dramatist and actor, with whom Irving wrote his brilliant social comedy ________, or The Merry Monarch.

【答案】Charles the Second

【解析】华盛顿·欧文在巴黎遇到美国剧作家兼演员约翰·霍华德·佩恩，欧文同佩恩合写的社会喜剧《查理二世》曾风靡一时。

11．________ was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation after the Revolutionary War.

【答案】Washington Irving

【解析】华盛顿·欧文是美国著名作家，他是美国独立战争后美国文学史上最早赢得国际声誉的作家。

II. Multiple Choices

1．It is on his ________ that Washington Irving’s fame mainly rested.

A. tales about America

B. early poetry

C. childhood recollections

D. sketches about his European tours

【答案】A

【解析】欧文的声望主要体现在关于美国的小说上。

2．Washington Irving’s social conservation and literary for the past is revealed，to some extent，in his famous story, ________.

A. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

B. “Rip Van Winkle”

C. “The Custom-House”

D. “The Birthmark”

【答案】B

【解析】《瑞普·凡·温克尔》在一定程度上反映了欧文的保守思想。

3．The following selection is taken from _________.（大连外国语2007研）

A. “The Cask of Amontillado”

B. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

C. “A Rose for Emily”

D. “Babylon Revisited”

In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town.

【答案】B

【解析】题中片段选自美国著名小说家Washington Irving《睡谷的传说》。此段文章交代了故事的背景。文章大意为：哈德逊河东岸有很多宽阔的小河湾，在一个河湾的深处，很久之前荷兰航海家们曾占领水域，并在那里小心地靠岸，寻求圣尼古拉斯的保护。现在，那里有个小镇，或者农村的港口，有些人叫它格林斯堡，而更多人叫它泰瑞镇。

4．Which of the following words does not describe the features of Irving’s writings? （天津外国语学院2009研）

A. decorum

B. humor

C. musicality

D. imagination

【答案】C

【解析】华盛顿·欧文的作品具有幽默风趣的笔调，活跃而优雅的写作风格，富于幻想的浪漫色彩。

5．Washington Irving’s first book appeared in 1809, titled ______.

A. The American Scholar

B. The Marble Faun

C. The Pioneers

D. A History of New York

【答案】D

【解析】欧文的第一部作品是《纽约外史》，发表于1809年。

6．Choose Washington Irving’s works from the following items.

A. Self-Reliance

B. Sister Carrie

C. Walden

D. A History of New York

【答案】D

【解析】Self-Reliance（《论自助》）是爱默生的作品，Sister Carrie（《嘉莉妹妹》）是西奥多·德莱塞的作品，Walden（瓦尔登湖）是Thoreau（梭罗）的作品，只有A History of New York（《纽约外史》）是欧文的作品。

III. Explain the following term.

Romanticism（北外2011研）

Key：

Romanticism: (1) It refers to the literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th century in Europe. (2) It was characterized by a rejection against the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that were held by the neoclassicists. Instead romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. Romanticists also showed interest in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and nationalistic. (3) Romanticism prevailed in England from the publication of Lyrical Ballad in 1798 to the death of Walter Scott in 1832. The English Romantic Period is a age of poetry. Major romantic poets include William Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats.

IV. Read the following quotations and answer the questions.

Passage 1

“There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquility. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholoas Vedder…”

Questions:

1．From which work is this passage taken?

2．How do you understand this selection?

Key：

1．This passage is taken from Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”.

2．It shows the change that Rip sees as he enters the village after the 20-year sleep and the destructive effect of the change. It also reveals, to some extent, the conservative attitude of its author.

Passage 2

“From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. Adrowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. ”

Questions：

1．Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken?

2．What is the title of this short story?

3．Give a definition of “short story”.

Key：

1．Washington Irving

2．“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

3．A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction—characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view, and style.

Passage 3

Rip Van Winkle

On awaking, he found himself on the green knoll from whence he had first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes—it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft and breasting the pure mountain breeze. “Surely,” thought Rip, “I have not slept here all night.” He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor—the mountain ravine—the wild retreat among the rocks—the woe-begone party at ninepins—the flagon—“Oh! that flagon! that wicked flagon!” thought Rip— “what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?”

He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled fowling piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He now suspected that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick upon him, and having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be seen.

He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening’s gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity. “These mountain beds do not agree with me,” thought Rip, “and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle.” With some difficulty he got down into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grape vines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path.

At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man’s perplexities. What was to be done? The morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward.

As he approached the village, he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!

He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, none of which he recognized for his old acquaintances, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors— strange faces at the windows—everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains—there ran the silver Hudson at a distance—there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been. Rip was sorely perplexed—“That flagon last night,” thought he, “has addled my poor head sadly!”

It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay—the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog that looked like Wolf, was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cur indeed—“My very dog,” sighed poor Rip, “has forgotten me!”

He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears—he called loudly for his wife and children—the lonely chambers rung for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.

Questions:

1．When “Rip Van Wrinkle” woke up from his twenty-year sleep, he started to doubt whether he was himself or another man. Does it mean that identity of a man is closely related to time? If so, do we have a definite answer to the question “who am I”?

2．Rip Van Winkle has been Seen as a symbol of several aspects of America. For example, the village itself symbolizes America—forever and rapidly changing. Then what do you think Rip and his wife symbolize respectively?

3．In this short story Rip drinks and falls asleep. The noise of his daily life becomes only “distant thunder”. Life goes on even in his deathlike sleep. Discuss the purpose of the author to arrange for Rip to sleep for twenty years.

Key：

1．Man must have an identification to communicate with others in society. But man cannot be treated in a labeled way. In the naturalistic view, man is dynamic and constantly changing. If the change is too radical, man may lose his identity, because he fails to adapt himself to the radical change.

2．Rip is good-natured, simple, anti-intellectual, imaginative, and jolly as the overgrown child, which symbolizes the immature America. His wife symbolizes the puritanical discipline and the work ethic of Franklin.

3．Washington Irving has Rip sleep through his own country’s history, through what we might call the birth of America. Rip lives in peace and harmony before but return to the busy, bustling, self-consciously adult United States of America. His purpose is to show us clearly the conflicts of the nations—the conflict of innocence and experience, work and leisure, the old and the new, the head and the heart. The story reveals the conservative attitude of its author. It is also to tell us that a man who has looked toward the beginning of civilization in America can make a choice in his analysis of his own life.

V. Short answer questions

1．In American literature history, the Romantic Period, during which many famous writers and their masterpieces came into being, played an important role. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman, etc, all of whom are not ignored by us. According to their writings, discuss the features of American literature in this period.

Key：

The whole nation had a strong sense of optimism and the mood of “feeling good”, giving birth to the spectacular outburst of romantic feelings. The English counterpart, especially the cultural heritage, exerted a stimulating impact on the writings of the young nation. Taking foreign influence into consideration, the great works of American writers still carried typically American romanticist color. The young nation had brought forth its own Philosophy, Transcendentalism, stressing man’s capacity of knowing truth intuitively, and of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.

2．What is the theme of “Rip Van Wrinkle”? List the major works of Washington Irving and discuss the artistic characteristics of his works.

Key：

①Washington Irving (1783－1859) is the first American author to achieve international renown. “Rip Van Wrinkle” is a short story embraced in Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, which dealt with the nostalgia for the unrecoverable past. The story reveals, to some extent, the conservative attitude of its author. It might be taken as an illustration of Irving’s argument that change—and revolution—upset the natural order of things and of the fact that Irving never seems to accept a modern democratic American.

②His major works include A History of New York ,  The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Life of Oliver Goldsmith and Life of George Washington.

③Irving was the great prose stylist of American romanticism. His familiar prose narrative juxtaposes the Old World and the new one, adding his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspective. Irving put his focus on American subject, American landscape, and he treated his subject with imagination.

3．How to define the Romantic period in American history?

Key：

①The Romantic Period in the history of American literature stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

②Being a period of the great flowering of American literature, it is also called “the American Renaissance”.

4．What is the historical and socio-cultural background of the Romantic Period in American?

Key：

①The development of the American society nurtured “the literature of a great nation.” The young Republic, devoid of a heavy burden of the inherited past and history, was flourishing into a politically, emotionally and culturally independent country.

②Historically, it was the time of westward expansion. Emotionally, the whole nation was experiencing an industrial transformation, which affected the rural as well as the urban life. Politically, democracy and equality became the ideal of the new nation.

③With the founding of the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nation did not have. Besides, the nation’s literary milieu was ready for the movement of romantic feeling that was brought about in the first half of the 19th century.

VI. Essay questions

1．What’s Washington Irving’s main contribution to American Literature? （大连外国语学院2007研）

Key：

Washington Irving’s contribution to American literature is unique in more than one ways. He did a number of things which have been regarded as the first of their kind in America.

He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. When he returned home in 1832, he was acclaimed as the one American author whom people in Europe knew about, and the Americans took as a sign that American literature was emerging as an independent entity. To say that he was father of American literature is not much exaggeration.

The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, a collection of essays, sketches, and tales, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. The book touched the American imagination and foreshadowed the coming of Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe, in whose hands the short story attained a degree of perfection as a literary tradition. It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism. The Gothic, the supernatural, and the longing for the good old days which some of its pieces clearly exhibit, are Romantic enough in subject if not exactly in style, for Irving wrote in the neoclassical tradition of Joseph Addison and Oliver Goldsmith. Looking at a picture of Irving surrounded by his nieces, one does sometimes think of the old man, benign and pleasant and refined, as the uncle of American authors.

2．Analyze “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. （大连外国语学院2007研）

Key：

Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is about the memorable event of an apparently headless horseman throwing his head at his rival in love, and the memorable character of Ichabod Crane with his mixture of shrewdness, credulity, self-assertiveness and cowardice.

The creation of archetypes is a particularly subtle feat of Irving’s consummate craftsmanship. As described in the story, Ichabod Crane is a school teacher who travels to Sleepy Hollow to teach the children of the area. He is an outsider of the village while Brom Bones is the native villager. We may see in Ichabod Crane a precocious, effete New Englander, shrewd, commercial, a city-slicker, who is rather an interloper, a somewhat destructive force, and who comes along to swindle the villagers. His book learning turns on him, and he is driven away from where he does not belong, so that the serene village remains permanently good and happy. Brom Bones, on the other hand, is of a Huck Finn-type of country bumpkin, rough, vigorous, boisterous but inwardly very good, a frontier type put out there to shift for himself. Thus the rivalry in love between Ichabod and Brom, viewed in this way, suddenly assumes the dimensions of two ethical groups locked in a kind of historic contest.

As to the style of the piece, it represents Irving at his best. The association between a certain local and the inward movement of a character, the emotional loading of almost every line of the story, their effect on the five senses of the reader whose attention is so fully engaged and who feels so much involved in what is happening—all these have placed this and other Irving stories among the best of American short stories.