Introduction
to Western Literature, Fall, 1999
Examination on Fiction Doris' Class
I. Vocabulary Exercise: In the following, please pick up five words and make complex sentences with these words. 10%
1. pious 2. exhilarate 3.perplexity 4.impunity
5.delicate 6. delirium7.poignant 8.juvenile
9.insidious 10.connoisseur 11.sheepish 12.vigorously
II. Explain the following terms about Fiction and discuss their functions with examples you learn from the stories we have read so far. 10%
Conflict
Narrative point of view
Characterization
Setting
Verbal Irony
III. Identification Questions 30%
1. Please 1) Identify the author and the title of the quoted passage.
2)Discuss your response to the passage. 3)What is the mother's
long cherished wish?
The gray-green surface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once. And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.
2. Please 1) Identify the author and the title of the quoted passage.
2)Explain what kind of revenge is taken here in the story and how
successful this revenge is taken. 3)Discuss whether you agree with
the narrator's reason for revenge or not.
At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled--but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
3. Please 1) Identify the author and the title of the quoted passage.
2)Discuss the point of view in the story, what is achieved here with
such a point of view. 3)Who is "he"? What does the description of
his physical state tell you about the man's situation in the story?
How is it related to the story's plot arrangement?
His neck was in pain, and lifting his hand to it, he found it horribly swollen. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them. His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relieved its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cool air. How softly the turf had carpeted the untravelled avenue! He could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet!
