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模块一 课后习题
第1部分 古代和中世纪英国文学 (450-1485)
第1章 古英语时期与《贝奥武甫》
(450～1066)
1. Give an account of the history of England from the Celtic settlementto the Norman Conquest.
Key: In about BC 600 Celts, who inhabited the upper Rhineland,started to migrate to the British Isles, and among them the Britons, a branchof the Celts, came to the Isles in BC 400 to BC 300, from whom Britain got itsname. Later, troops led by Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire invaded theBritish Isles, defeated the Celts and ruled there from BC 55 to AD 407,bringing with them the slave system. At the beginning of the 5th century, the Roman Empire declined and in AD 410 all their troops werewithdrawn.
After the Romans, the Teutonic orGermanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes moved to live in the British Isles. This happened in about AD 450. They drovethe Celts to Wales, Scotland and Ireland,settled down themselves and named the central part of the island England, that is the land of Angles.
Starting from the late 8thcentury, the Danes from Scandinavia cameplundering the Isles. They were a strong sea people known as the Vikings and atfirst they mainly invaded the eastern coast of England. But soon they pushedinland to plunder the whole country.
The greatest historical eventthat followed was the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Normanscame from Normandy in northern France to attack Englandand won a decisive victory at the battle of Hastings under the leadership of the Duke ofNormandy, usually known as William the Conqueror.
2. How did Christianity came to England? Name the most importantmonasteries of this period.
Key: It was in the year of597 that Pope Gregory the Great of the Roman Catholic Church sent St. Augustine to England to convert theAnglo-Saxons. King Ethelbert of Kentwas the first to be converted and he founded in Kent the Canterbury Abbey. In thenorth, the earlier Christianised Ireland was engaged in sending missionaries tothe Angles.
The monasteries built by them in Northumbria were the earliest civilizinginfluences, and the well- known Northumbrian School in literaryhistory refers to the learned monks in these monasteries.
3. Namesome representative pieces of the Old English poetry.
Key:“Widsith”,“The Wanderer”, “The Seafarer”, The Wife’sComplaint and The Husband’s Message, Beowulfand so on.
4. Name thetwo most important Christian poets of this period.
Key: The two most important Christian poets of this period were Caedmonand Cynewulf.
5. Analyzethe artistic features of Beowulf, using the quoted passage to illustrate yourpoints.
Key: (1)The most noticeable artistic feature of Beowulf isalliteration. The poem is written in alliterative verse with a caesura in themiddle and two stresses (or accents) in each half. The number of unstressedsyllables in the two halves may vary.
(2)Another peculiar featurecharacteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the frequent use of kennings, topoetically present the meaning of one single word through a compound simile oftwo elements.
(3)The general mood and spirit ofAnglo-Saxon epic poetry is both solemn and animated, the movement of action orevents vigorous, and the descriptions with kennings very picturesque and exact.
(4)There are many other stylisticpoints to notice in Beowulf such as the use of similes, the elevated diction,and the great deal of variation in the style, especially through thesis andantithesis. We also find good use of balance and parallelism.
第2章 中古英语时期与乔叟
(1066-1485)
1. What was the social and class reality of the Anglo-NormanPeriod?
Key: The Normans, who came from the northern part of France,were in origin Scandinavian. They brought with them the French language,customs and culture to England,where they protected their feudal monarchy by a strong military power. Williamthe Conqueror divided the land of England among hisfollowers who became barons, while the defeated Anglo-Saxons worked as serfsand peasants for them and were cruelly exploited and oppressed.
Norman-French was made theofficial language of the state, while English was ignored. But there was no wayto impose a foreign language upon a whole nation without wiping out the greaterpart of the population. The lowly people kept to English and gradually theinvaders were assimilated.
2. Tell thethree divisions of romances according to subject matter and give an example ofthe Matter of Britain.
Key: Romances can be divided according to their subjects intothree groups: Matter of France, Matter of Rome and Matter of Britain.
As the Matter of Britain, one ofits most well-known stories is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a piece writtenin about 1375-1400 by an unknown poet.
3. Name twomore well-known writers of this period and their achievements besides Chaucerand his literary works.
Key: John Ball and John Wyclif (c.1320-1384) were well-knownwriters of this period.
John Ball, as we’ve shownpreviously in this chapter, was mainly remembered for his preaching ofequality. Wyctif translated the Bible into English against the rules of thechurch to benefit the common people. His translation was a great contributionand many later translations consulted his version. In his allegorical poem TheVision of Piers Plowman, a poem in the form of dream vision of more than 7,000lines, Langland protests against feudal tyranny and criticises the corruptionof the church.
4.Say as much as you know about Chaucer’s life and works.
Key: To organize your answer according to the textbook.
5.Comment on the artistic features of The Canterbury Tales.
Key: (1)Not only the characters represent the classes they comefrom, but each also possesses an individual personality. The characters are asimportant a part of the poem as the tales told by them. The poet tries to givea comprehensive picture of the English society of his time and arranges topresent a colorful gallery of pilgrims that covers a great range of sociallife.
(2)He is well-skilled in mild andsubtle irony to create humorous effects. He was a broad-minded humanist and hadsympathy for people at large. He treats his characters kindly on the whole,using gentle satire and irony to criticise vanity, ill-manners, deceptivetricks and all sorts of follies and human weaknesses.
(3)Although the story-tellers arevery different and the stories are diverse, a unity is achieved through thedevice of the framed story that is Chaucer’s invention of a pilgrimage as theoccasion of all the story-telling and thus makes it realistic. The pilgrimageframe offers the possibility for comparison and contrast of characters andtheir interplay.
(4)The metrical scheme of The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s chiefcontribution to English poetry. He is the poet who introduced to Englandthe rhymed stanzas of many kinds from French poetry, especially the heroiccouplet. He changed the alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxons to metricalverse which has since been used and developed by generation after generation ofEnglish poets till today.
6.Sum up Chaucer’s achievements and contributions.
Key: Chaucer’s greatest achievements rest with his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer learned from both Frenchand Latin poetry and then worked out a unique style for the English poetry thathad absorbed nourishments from the more advanced European poetry of the timeand at the same time reserved its Anglo-Saxon poetic features. And the realismand humanistic concerns demonstrated in his works looked forward to the comingEnglish Renaissance. Chaucer’s literary career was also closely related withthe development of English. There were several dialects in the spoken Englishof Chaucer’s time. But because he used the English of the London dialect to compose poetry, it became aliterary language that is a language rich and expressive enough to use forliterary purposes. Today, we call the English used and developed by Chaucer andhis contemporaries Middle English, which was the foundation of modern English.
Quiz
I. Fill in the blanks: (30%)
1. Thefirst settlers of the British Isles were _____, and Britaingot its name from a branch of this people called _____. But later they were driven to live in _____, _____ and _____.
Key: Celts, Britons, Scotland, Wales, Ireland
2. The _____, _____and _____ were _____tribes originally living on the Continent .They movedto the British Isles and became the ancestors of the _____ people.
Key: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Germanic/Teutonic, English
3. The most important event of the Old English Period was _____,which took place in the year
Key: Norman Conquest, 1066
4. TheRoman Catholic Church sent _____ to England in 597 _____ the English people to Catholicism.
Key: St. Augustine, to convert
5. Name two poems of this period apart from Beowulf: _____ ,and _____.
Key: Any two of the poems of the period mentioned in the text, e.g. Widsith, The Seafarer, The Wanderer,etc.
6. Beowulf is an epic of _____ ines,and it tells the events that took place on _____ before they moved to the British Isles.
Key: Alliterative, the Continent
7. After the Anglo-Saxon English took in loan words from_____ and _____ andlost most of its _____and many of its grammar rules, it was called.
Key: French, Latin, feclions (flexions), Middle English
8. Romancecan be divided into three kinds according to subject matter. They are _____ ,and _____.
Key: Matter of France, Matter of Rome, Matter of Britain
9. Romances of the English subject are tales about _____and his _____ .
Key: King Arthur, Round-Table Knights
10. John Wyclifwas a translator of _____ , William Langland wrote _____ and the most famous English ballads are those about _____.
Key: The Bible, [TheVision of] Piers Plowman, RobinHood
Ⅱ. Mark the following statements as true (T) or false (F):(10%)
1. The two centers of Christian culture in the Old English Periodwas in Canterbury and Northumbria.
【答案】T查看答案
2. Caedmonbelonged to Northumbrian School, whereas the Venerable Bede was a member ofthe Canterbury Abbey in south England.
【答案】F查看答案
3.The first English national epic poem is Widsith.
【答案】F查看答案
4. Old English poetry is distinguished by its use of alliterationand kennings.
【答案】T查看答案
5. Chaucer is the greatest lyrical poet of the Middle EnglishPeriod.
【答案】F查看答案
6. The CanterburyTales is Chaucer’s masterpiece, but it is unfinished with only 24 taleswritten.
【答案】T查看答案
7. ModernEnglish is developed from the Londondialect of the Middle English Period, which is a great contribution made byChaucer to the English language.
【答案】T查看答案
8. Most of the English popular ballads have their origin in theFrench folklore.
【答案】F查看答案
9. The Normans were interested in the Cycle of King Arthurbecause they wanted to prove they were lawful heirs to the Celtic ancestors of Britain.
【答案】T查看答案
10.Chaucer’s humanistic ideas anticipate the English Renaissance.
【答案】T查看答案
Ⅲ. Explain the followingliterary terms: (15%)
1.epic
Key: epic: A long narrative poem recounting in elevated style the deeds ofa legendary hero, especially one originating in oral folk tradition.
2.alliteration
Key: alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds in each verseline, usually two alliterating words in the first half-line and one in thesecond half-line or vise versa, e.g. “True is the tale (caesura) I tell of mytravels, / Sing of my seafaring (caesura) sorrows and woes.”
3.iambic pentameter
Key: iambic pentameter: A common meter in poetry consisting ofan unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccentedsyllable and an accented syllable.
4.romance
Key: romance: a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love andadventures, or a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved inheroic, adventurous, or mysterious events remote in time and place
5.ballad
Key: ballad: a short narrative poem in rhythmic verse, often sung byminstrels to the accompaniment of music of the exploits of warriors, theadventures of lovers, mysteries of fairyland, and various humorous incidents
Ⅳ. Choose one from each of thefollowing two groups of questions and write a short essay of about 300 words tothe first and about 500 words to the second: (45%)
Group one: (20%)
1. Give a historicalreview of the Old English Period
2. Say something about the transitionfrom Old English to Middle English and the historical elements that had broughtabout the transition.
Key: 1. The Britons
In about BC 600 Celts, whoinhabited the upper Rhineland, started to migrate to the British Isles, andamong them the Britons, a branch of the Celts, came to the Isles in BC 400 toBC 300, from whom Britain got its name. At the time of migration, the Celticswere tribal people at the early stage of the Iron Age.
2. The RomanConquest
Troops led by Julius Caesar ofthe Roman Empire invaded the British Isles, defeated the Celts and ruled therefrom BC 55 to AD 407, bringing with them the slave system. The Roman reign overBritainwent on for four and a half centuries, but the Britons never ceased fightingagainst them. At the beginning of the 5th century, the Roman Empire declined and in AD 410 all their troops were withdrawn.
3. The EnglishConquest
After the Romans, the Teutonic orGermanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes moved to live in the British Isles. This happened in about AD 450. They drovethe Celts to Wales, Scotland and Ireland,settled down themselves and named the central part of the island England, that is the land of Angles.They became the masters of Englandand the ancestors of the English people. By the end of the 6th century therehad been established seven Saxon kingdoms in England, and a feudal societygradually replaced the primitive tribal life. And the three dialects spoken bythem naturally grew into a singal language called Anglo Saxon, or Old English,which is quite different from the English we know today.
4. ReligiousBelief
Both the earliest Celtic settlersand the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came to England as heathens. Theyworshipped their own gods that were related to the mythology of Northern Europe. It was in the year of 597 that PopeGregory the Great of the Roman Catholic Church sent St. Augustine to Englandto convert the Anglo-Saxons. King Ethelbert of Kentwas the first to be converted and he founded in Kent the Canterbury Abbey.
Group one: (25%)
1. Analyse the theme(s)and artistic features of Beowulf
2. Comment on Chaucer’sachievements and contributions with examples from his works.
Key: 1) Geoffrey Chaucer’s Literary Achievements
Geoffrey Chaucer, the greatEnglish writer, was born in around 1340 in London.He is regarded as the Father of English literature. His literary career can bedivided into three periods. The first period is the works in French; the secondis in Italian; and the third is in English.
In the phase of French influence,he did translations from French authors, e.g.the famous Romance of the Rose,and experimented with rhythm and structure though mostly following theconventional images and ideas. He favored and wrote allegorical visions andsatires in the manner of the middle Ages. The most significant work of thisperiod is The Book of Duchess (1370),an elegy in which Chaucer uses the vision in a dream as his vehicle to lamentthe death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, and to console her husband andChaucer’s patron, John of Gaunt, the Duke.
In the phase of Italianinfluence, he showed an effort to learn from the Italian great poets such asDante. But the Italian poet who influenced him most is Boccaccio, the author ofDecameron. The House of Fame, TheParliament of Fowls and Troilus andCriseyde (c.1385) are poems of this phase. Among them, Troilus and Criseydeis the most representative, which is a 5-book poem tellingthe tragedy of a young Trojan hero Troilus, who fell in love with Criseyde. Butshortly after they became lovers, Criseyde was returned by the Trojans to herfather, a traitor who had left Troy for the camp of the Greeks. Criseyde fell inlove with the Greek warrior Diomede and Troilus died in a fight with theGreeks.
The English phase, or the phase ofrealism, in which his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales was created. TheCanterbury Tales is the most important and famous one, which was written in therest time of his life. The poem is a collection of stories told by pilgrims whowere going to Canterburyfor pilgrimage and it covers all the major types of medieval literature such asthe courtly romance, folk tale, beast fable and so on. Chaucer describedcharacters of different classes. We can view the whole British society at thattime from these stories. All his works help to shape English literature.
2) Chaucer’s contribution:
Chaucer learned from both Frenchand Latin poetry and then worked out a unique style for the English poetry thathad absorbed nourishments from the more advanced European poetry of the timeand at the same time reserved its Anglo-Saxon poetic features. And the realismand humanistic concerns demonstrated in his works looked forward to the comingEnglish Renaissance.
Chaucer’s literary career wasalso closely related with the development of English. There were severaldialects in the spoken English of Chaucer’s time. But because he used theEnglish of the Londondialect to compose poetry, it became a literary language that is a languagerich and expressive enough to use for literary purposes. Today, we call theEnglish used and developed by Chaucer and his contemporaries Middle English,which was the foundation of modern English.
