Drills Flashcards
first emperor of China instituted the unified system of writing, legal system, ideological and
defense system
Ch’ in Dynasty contributed the greatest structure made by man – the
Great Wall of China.
Shih Huang-Ti
Great Wall of China was built to keep away the invading Hsiung-nu from the north or the:
Huns
China experienced its golden age during the:
Tang Dynasty
national language of the Chinese, the Standard Mandarin, is based on the dialect of:
Peking
common Chinese literary idiom unites the different dialects in the country.
wenyen
Chinese create words by combining characters
100,000
Book of History, Book of Songs, Book of Ritual, Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn
Annals
5 Classics
The Analects, Book of Mencius, and the two chapters from the Book of Ritual (Doctrine of the Mean &
Great Learning)
4 Books
shortest form of Chinese poetry, the chueh chu (“ cut short” ), is composed of:
4 lines
lu shih which is composed of contrasted intonation in each pair of lines.
8 lines
Chinese likewise have a free-verse type of poetry.
san ch’ u
Japanese writing is an adaptation of
Chinese
How old is Japanese literature?
1200 years old
Japanese drama is the most austere and ceremonial. It uses slow-motion dancing and
creates a hypnotic effect
No
flashier and more popular type of Japanese drama where all the characters are played by
men.
Kabuki
oldest surviving Japanese book is the Record of Ancient Matters
Kojiki
poetry is composed of 31 syllables grouped in 5-7-5-7-7 lines.
tanka
masterpiece of all Japanese literature tells the story of a prince with irresistible appeal.
Tales of Genji
Author of the Tale of Genji
Lady Murasaki Shikibu
Considered to be the world’s first true novel
The Tale of Genji
Japanese poetry, the “ linked verse” has alternating verses of 17 and 14 syllables (5-7-5 and 7-7).
renga
most popular type of Japanese poetry has 17 syllables 5-7-5
haiku
most famous haiku poet
Matsuo Bashō
31-syllable “ mad poems”
tongka
17 syllable senryu is pungent, satirical and still popular in Japan
secret lives
frivolous, illustrated books used in school are the kibyoshi
blue covers
more serious and intellectual books in school are the yomihon
reading books
forms the bedrock of all Jewish literature.
Hebrew bible
giving of the 10 Commandments to the Jews
Exodus
Jewish religious leader taught the law and applied it to current situations.
rabbi
greatest flowering of Jewish literature took place during
Dark Ages
main tradition of Hebrew literature
liturgical
Sacred Jewish poetry
piyyut
encouraged the dispersed Jews from all over the world to go back to the “ promised land” after World War II.
Zionism
national language of the Hindu
Hindi
Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu’ s universal scripture, is a part of
Mahabharata
sruti or the divine scriptures, and the smriti or the human
works. The former is written wholly in:
Sanskrit
major sruti work is divided into:
4 books
Veda, which is the major sruti work, is composed of hymns for the gods, rituals, incantations and
spells. Veda means:
Wisdom
book details the sacrificial rites made for the Hindu gods
Brahmanas
book explains the meanings of Hindu concepts and ideas.
Upanishads
smriti literature, most common are the short and easy-to-memorize sutras
aphorisms
shastras are another smriti form of literature which is more lofty and intellectual. They are;
treatises
Veda is composed of many parts. The first part is the:
Rig Veda
most famous collection of Arabian stories is the Alf layla wa-layla otherwise known as the One
Thousand and One Nights
Arabian Nights
One of the simplest and oldest tales in The Thousand and one Nights is
“The Fisherman and the Jinnee.”
1001 Nights stories:
- Alibaba
- Aladdin
- Sinbad
Sinbad’ s profession
sailor
magic words in the story of Ali Baba
Open Sesame
book represents the most perfect literary achievement in Arabic history
Koran
most famous writer of quatrains in the Arab world
Omar Khayyam
mystic poems of the Arabs
sufi
four-stanza love poem with a refrain
ghazal
“ Marco Polo of the Arabs” because of his travel exploits and writings
Ibn Batuta
1001 Nights was written by:
many authors
wrote the famous biography of Muhammed
Ibn Ishaq
author of “ The Prophet” :
Gibran
three Hindu gods (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva) collectively
Trimurti
earliest firsthand account of the English settlement of America was “ A Description of New
England.”
John Smith
led the Jamestown colony and wrote the famous story of the Indian maiden, Pocahontas.
Captain John Smith
American folktales, who planted all the apple trees in the US?
Johnny Appleseed
first book printed in America also contained some of the worst Puritan poetry.
Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre
Bay Psalm Book
perfect embodiment of the Enlightenment in America was
Benjamin Franklin
America’s “first great man of letters,”
Benjamin Franklin
pseudonym Poor Richard or Richard Saunders in Poor Richard’s Almanack
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin’ s most famous literary work
Poor Richard’ s Almanack
first comedy written in America was the “ Contrast” in 1787 by:
Royall Tyler
first American to make a living out of writing alone was:
Charles Brown
group of literary amateurs collaborated to produce political satires in the final decades of the
18th century?
Hartford Wits
pseudonym was Dietrich Knickerbocker, the inspiration of the Knickerbockers
Washington Irving
two best-remembered stories of Washington Irving
Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
“ Rip van Winkle” and “ Legend of Sleepy Hollow” were of which book?
The Sketch Book
character created by James Fenimore Cooper appeared in many of his works like “ Deerslayer” and “ The Last of the Mohicans” ?
Natty Bumppo
earliest of the American Romantics
Edgar Allan Poe
master of the macabre short story was:
Edgar Allan Poe
first detective story in the US was “ The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by:
Edgar Allan Poe
The Scarlet Letter by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
“ Sage of Concord” and the spokesman for the New England Romantics was:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mahatma Gandhi’ s ideas on pacific resistance were influenced by whose work?
Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau’ s most influential essay was:
Civil Disobedience
He said that “ government is best which governs not at all”
Henry David Thoreau
Nathaniel Hawthorne’ s works reflected his puritanical obsession with sin and redemption.
The Scarlet Letter
In “ The Scarlet Letter” , Hester, who had an affair with the reverend, wears which letter emblazoned on her clothes?
A
Herman Melville wrote mostly about stories of the sea because:
he was once a sailor
Melville’ s “ Moby Dick” is acknowledged as the:
greatest book of the sea ever written
end of Moby Dick?
everybody drowns except the narrator, Ishmael
most influential book about slavery was “ Uncle Tom’ s Cabin” by:
Harriet Beecher Stowe
book indirectly caused the civil war?
Uncle Tom’ s Cabin
greatest poet of the 19th century was:
Walt Whitman
Known for his poem “ O Captain! My Captain!” , he was called the “ Seer of Democracy” and the “ Good Gray Poet” , and sometimes “ The Poet of America” .
Walt Whitman
recognized as an elegy on Abraham Lincoln’ s death.
O Captain! My Captain!
most natural lyricist America has ever produced was:
Dickinson
Mark Twain was a pseudonym for:
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
a master of colloquial American Speech, a shrewd observer of life, and a skilled raconteur
Mark Twain
America’ s greatest humorist and spokesman of the Wild West.
Samuel Clemens
Author of Tom Sawyer and Life on the Mississippi
Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer’ s best friend?
Huck Finn
story of two boys who looked alike and who decided to exchange lives is:
The Prince and the Pauper
Fables in Slang” is the most acute literary example of the language of the common American.
George Ade
Josh Billings, Petroleum Nasby, John Phoenix, Squibob and George Ade were humorists who
employed ridiculous spellings, deformed grammar, monstrous logic, puns and incongruous juxtaposition
of ideas in the 19th century. Among them was:
- David Ross
- Chales Farra
-Artemus Ward
the greatest American novel:
The Adventures of Huck Finn
“the only reason for the existence of the novel is that it does attempt to represent life” ?
Henry James
greatest horror story ever penned in America:
Turn of the Screw
Henry’ s brother who wrote “ Pragmatism” and “ Meaning of Truth” became an important
psychologist and philosopher.
William James
came out with the dictionary
Noah Webster
shocked readers with his detailed depictions of the brutal side of American life but was
considered as the most influential American novelist of the early 20th century:
Theodore Dreiser
first American poet to be widely read since Longfellow and Whitman
Robert Frost
Mending Wall & Birches author
Robert Frost
movement in the 20th century was founded by T.E. Hulme and believed in the idea that “poetry is no more nor less than a mosaic of words, so great exactness is required for each one”?
Imagist movement
poet supported fascism, was tried as a traitor, and adjudged as mentally insane
Ezra Pound
T.S. Eliot wrote the most important poem in modern literature
The Waste Land
most thorough pessimist and nihilist in modern American literature:
Robinson Jeffers
novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald bout a bootlegger’ s attempts to be accepted in Long Island society:
Great Gatsby
wrote about “ tough” people who were disillusioned, cynical and hopeless in “ For Whom the
Bell Tolls” , “ Old Man and the Sea” and “ The Sun Also Rises” .
Ernest Hemingway
'’The poet’ s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars, to help him endure and prevail.’’
William Faulkner
novel by Faulkner, which is his masterpiece, centers on a 33 year old retardate:
The Sound and the Fury
The book that summed up the despair of the 1930’ s was:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
“ Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell has for its background
Civil War
The protagonists in “ Gone With the Wind” are:
Scarlet and Rhett
JD Salinger novel is about a citified Huck Finn?
Catcher in the Rye
first known black writer in the US was:
Lucy Terry
He was a high school English teacher when he sold his first novel “ Carrie”
King
author of “ Jurassic Park” and “ ER” is a licensed doctor:
Michael Crichton
all-time best selling young children’ s book is:
Charlotte’ s Web
best novel of the 20th century is by James Joyce. It is:
Ulysses
Lucy, Linus and Charlie Brown are characters created by:
Charles Shultz
“ Green Eggs and Ham” , “ The Cat in the Hat” and “ Are You My Mother?” are books by:
Dr. Seuss
principal source of early English history
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The earliest English poet known by name was a monk named:
Caedmon
greatest English epic
Beowulf
King Hrothgar of Denmark invites which hero to slay the monster Grendel?
Beowulf
Who killed Beowulf?
A dragon
Who commissioned the translation of Latin texts to English during the Middle Ages?
King Alfred
Most Arthurian legends centered on the knights’ quest for the:
Holy grail
The greatest Middle English Arthurian romance is which 14th century poem?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The best example of the romance of the Middle Ages attributed to the Pearl Poet (14th century)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Avalon and Camelot
King Arthur
Who killed Arthur?
Mordred
Why were the people telling tales in Chaucer’ s story?
to pass the time
The first English printer was:
Caxton
anonymous narrative songs, orally transmitted, which make use of repetition and refrain.
ballads
rebirth of interest in classical learning and languages.
renaissance
In Platonic fashion, Thomas More wrote about his concept of the ideal society in:
Utopia
During the Elizabethan Age, the major long poem was Edmund Spenser’ s:
Fairie Queene
greatest patron of literature during the Elizabethan Period?
Queen Elizabeth
The father of the essay was:
Francis Bacon
The best diarist in England’ s history was:
Samuel Pepys
Who wrote the novel War and Peace?
Leo Tolstoy
