Exercise 2 of Book Two
A. Multiple-choice questions:
(Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose
the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the
brackets.)
1. In Hard Times, Dickens attacks __________
that rules over the English educational system and
destroys young hearts and minds.
A. bourgeois commercialism
B. religious hypocrisy
C. the utilitarian principle
D. political corruptness
2. _________ is the first important governess
novel in the English literary history.
A. Jane Eyre B. Emma C. Wuthering Heights
D. Middlemarch
3. Which of the following best describes the nature of Hardy's later
novels?
A. Sentimentalism. B. Surrealism. C. Comic sense. D. Tragic
sense.
4. ________ is the most representative Victorian poet whose poetry
voices the doubt and the faith, the grief and the joy of English people
in an age of fast change.
A. Robert Browning
B. Alfred Tennyson
C. George G. Byron
D. Thomas Hardy
5. Which of the following statements is not a typical feature of
Charles Dickens?
A. He sets out a large-scale criticism of the inhuman social
institutions and the decaying social morality.
B. His works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.
C. The characters portrayed by Dickens are often larger than life.
D. He shows a human being not at moments of crisis, but in the
most trivial incidents of everyday life.
6. "As for society, he was carried every other day into the hall where
the boys dined, and there socially flogged as a public warning and
example". What figure of speech is used in the above sentence?
A. Simile. B. Metaphor. C. Irony. D. Overstatement.
7. "I will drink /life to the lees." In the quoted line Ulysses is saying that he
_______ till the end of his life.
A. will keep traveling and exploring
B. will go on drinking and being happy
C. would like to toast to his glorious life
D. would like to drink the cup of wine
8. " She smiled, no doubt,/ Whene'er I passed her.../... This grew; I gave
commands; / Then all smiles stopped together." The quoted lines imply that
she ________.
A. obeyed his order and stopped smiling at everybody, including the duke
B. obeyed his order and stopped' smiling at anybody except the duke
C. refused to obey the order and never smiled again
D. was murdered at the order of the duke
9. A contemporary of Alfred Tennyson, _________ is acknowledged by
many as the most original and experimental poet of the time.
A. Thomas Carlyle B, Thomas B. Macaulay
C. Robert Browning D.T.S. Eliot
10. Most of Hardy's novels are set in ________, the fictional primitive and
crude rural region that is really the home place he both loves and hates.
A. Yorkshire B. Wessex C. London
D. Manchester
11. "The floating pollen seemed to be his notes made visible, and the
dampness of the garden the weeping of the garden's sensibility." The
quoted sentence is suggestive of __________.
A. the richness of the music in the garden
B. the beauty of the scenery in the garden
C. the great power of the music in affecting the environment
D. the harmony and oneness of the music, the garden and the heroine Tess
12. In the statement "--oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the
grave?" the term "soul" apparently refers to _________.
A. Heathcliff himself B. Catherine C. one's spiritual life D. one's ghost
13. "I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in-with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind." Here in the quoted
passage, Jane is really saying that she has talked face to face with
__________.
A. God who appears in her dreams
B. the reverent priest
C. Mr. Rochester
D. Miss Ingrain
14. In the clause "As Mr. Gamfield did happen to labor under the slight
imputation of having bruised three or four boys to death already... ", the
word "slight" is used as a(n) _______________.
A. simile B. metaphor C. irony D. overstatement
15. Dickens takes the French Revolution as the background of the novel
______ .
A. Great Expectations B. A Tale of Two Cities
C. Bleak House
D. Oliver Twist
16. The Victorian Age was largely an age of ___________,
eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.
A. poetry B. drama
C. prose D. epic prose
17. The title of Alfred Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" reminds the reader
of the following except ____________.
A. the Trojan War B. Homer C. quest D. Christ
18. The character Rochester in Jane Eyre can be well termed as a
_________.
A. conventional hero
B. Byronic hero
C. chivalrous aristocrat D. Homeric hero
19. Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield and Sam Well in Pickwick
Paper are perhaps the best _________ characters created by
Charles Dickens.
A. comical B. tragic C. round D. sophisticated
20. The typical feature of Robert Browning's poetry is the
_________.
A. bitter satire
B. larger-than-life caricature
C. Latinized diction
D. dramatic monologue
21. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy resolutely makes a seduced girl his
heroine, which dearly demonstrates the author's _________ of the Victorian moral
standards.
A. blind fondness
B. total acceptance
C. deep understanding
D. mounting defiance
22. In Hardy's Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the heroine's tragic ending is due to ______.
A. her weak character
B. her ambition
C. Angel Clare's selfishness
D. a hostile society
23. "The dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life" are
the right words to sum up the main theme of ________.
A. David Copperfield
B. A Tale of Two Cities
C. Oliver Twist
D. Bleak House
24. "For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for
more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had
been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. "
In the above passage quoted from Oliver Twist, Dickens uses the words "wisdom"
and "mercy" ________.
A. ironically B. carelessly
C. nonchalantly D. impartially
25. "... and then how they met I hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he
caught her, and they were locked in an embrace ..." In the quoted passage, Emily
Bronte tells the story in __________ point of view.
A. first person
B. second person
C. third person limited D. third person omniscient
B. Blank-filling:
(Complete each of the following statements with proper words or
phrases.)
1. Dickens' best-depicted characters are those innocent,
virtuous, helpless ________ characters, those horrible and
grotesque characters and those broadly humorous or
________ ones. child comical
2. Charlotte Bronte's works are famous for the depiction of
the life of the middle-class working women, particularly
________. governess
3. Wuthering Heights is the ________ novel written by Emily
Bronte. only
4. A contemporary of Alfred Tennyson, ________ is
acknowledged by many as the most original and
experimental poet of the time. Robert Browning
5. ________, Tennyson's greatest work, is presumably an
elegy on the death of a dear friend. In Memoriam
6. In her study of human life, George Eliot paid particular
attention to the relationship between the individual
personality and the ______.
social environment
7. Thomas Hardy is often regarded as a ________ writer,
in whose works we see the influence from both the past
and the present, both the traditional and the modern.
transitional
8. The major novelists of the Victorian period made bitter
and strong _______ of the inhuman social institutions
and the decaying social morality. criticism
9. The Victorian Age in English literature was largely an
age of prose, especially of the ________. novel
10. The typical feature of Robert Browning's poetry is the
_______.
dramatic monologue
Define the literary terms listed below:
1. George Eliot's determinism
2. Chartist Movement
3. Dramatic Monologue
4. Naturalism
Reading comprehension:
(For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the
author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then
briefly interpret it.)
1. "Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the
system', that during the period of his solitary
incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of
exercise, the pleasure of society, or the
advantages of religious consolation."
2. "Do you think, because I am poor, obscure,
plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? --You
think wrong! --I have as much soul as you--and full
as much heart... I am not talking to you now
through the medium of custom, conventionalities,
or even of mortal flesh:--it is my spirit that
addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed
through the grave, and we stood at God's feet,
equal--as we are!"
3. "He flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching
hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed at me, and
foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy
jealousy. I did not feel as if I were in the company of a creature of
my own species..."
4. "Tho'/We are not now that strength which in old days/Moved earth
and heaven; that which we are, we are;/One equal temper of heroic
hearts, /Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to
seek, to find, and not to yield."
5. "Marriage, which was to bring guidance into worthy and
imperative occupation, had not yet freed her from the
gentlewoman's oppressive liberty; it had not even filled her leisure
with the ruminant joy of unchecked tenderness.“
6. "I repeat, /The Count your master's known munificence/Is ample
warrant that no just pretense/Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
/Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed/As starting, is my
object."
Essay questions :
(In this part you are asked to write a short essay on each of the given
topics. You should write no more than 150 words on each one.
Therefore, you should concentrate on those most important points, try
your best to be logical in your essay, and keep your writing clear and
tidy.)
1. Comment on the superb description of
the extraordinary passion between
Catherine and Heathcliff in the selected
reading.
2. Read the poem "Break, Break, Break"
and comment on Tennyson's poetic art.
3. Comment the theme(s) of Charlotte
Bronte's Jane Eyre.
4. Comment on the use of dramatic
monologue in "My Last Duchess".