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II. Reading comprehension ( 16 points, 4 for each)
Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answer in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
41. "Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander' st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the poem from which this part is taken.
Shakespeare; "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day"/"Sonnet 18"
B. What does the word "this" in the last line refer to?
"This" refers to the poem
C. What idea do the quoted lines express?
When you are in my eternal poetry, you are even with time.A nice summer's day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last forever.
42. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the story from which this part is taken.
James Joyce, Araby
B. What figure of speech is used in this passage?
Personification
C. What tone does the quoted passage set for the whole story?
This passage sets a tone of melancholy. The scene is drab, desolate and lifeless.
43."I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made the difference. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the poem from which the quoted lines are taken.
Robert Frost; "The Road Not Taken"
B. What additional meaning do the two roads have?
Life is here compared to a journey. The two roads stand for the choice one has to make at a critical moment in his life.
C. What dilemma is the speaker facing?
Since where the road leads to is uncertain, one has to wait to see the result of the choice until one's life in coming to an end. Then it will be too late. The speaker acknowledges the limits of life, yet he indulges himself in notion that we could be really different from what we have become, because life is unpredictable.
44. "….Only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores."
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the story from which the quoted lines are taken.
William Faulkner; "A Rose for Emily" .
B. What is the meaning "an eyesore among eyesores"?
The meaning of “an eyesore among eyesores” is the most unpleasant thing to look at.
C. What does this quoted passage indicate?
The house is a perfect mirror image of the owner who is stubborn and coquettish and deliberately detaches herself from the communal life in this small town.
Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answer in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
41. "Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander' st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the poem from which this part is taken.
Shakespeare; "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day"/"Sonnet 18"
B. What does the word "this" in the last line refer to?
"This" refers to the poem
C. What idea do the quoted lines express?
When you are in my eternal poetry, you are even with time.A nice summer's day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last forever.
42. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the story from which this part is taken.
James Joyce, Araby
B. What figure of speech is used in this passage?
Personification
C. What tone does the quoted passage set for the whole story?
This passage sets a tone of melancholy. The scene is drab, desolate and lifeless.
43."I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made the difference. "
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the poem from which the quoted lines are taken.
Robert Frost; "The Road Not Taken"
B. What additional meaning do the two roads have?
Life is here compared to a journey. The two roads stand for the choice one has to make at a critical moment in his life.
C. What dilemma is the speaker facing?
Since where the road leads to is uncertain, one has to wait to see the result of the choice until one's life in coming to an end. Then it will be too late. The speaker acknowledges the limits of life, yet he indulges himself in notion that we could be really different from what we have become, because life is unpredictable.
44. "….Only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores."
Questions:
A. Identify the author and the title of the story from which the quoted lines are taken.
William Faulkner; "A Rose for Emily" .
B. What is the meaning "an eyesore among eyesores"?
The meaning of “an eyesore among eyesores” is the most unpleasant thing to look at.
C. What does this quoted passage indicate?
The house is a perfect mirror image of the owner who is stubborn and coquettish and deliberately detaches herself from the communal life in this small town.