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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP American Literature
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Characterized by: Ordinary Language - Free Verse - Concentrated Word Pictures - Very specific words and phrases - Advanced by Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell; also utilized by Robert Frost
Mayflower Compact
Thomas Paine
Imagist Poetry
Determinism
2. Wrote 'Daddy' and 'The Bell Jar' - Confessional Poet
Erica Jong
James Weldon Johnson
Sylvia Plath
Sonnet
3. Created new poetic forms and subjects to fashion a distinctly American type of poetic expression. Rejected conventional themes - traditional literary references - allusions - and rhymes. Used long lines to capture rhythms of natural speech - free ver
William Byrd
Saul Bellow
Broadside
Walt Whitman
4. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Henry David Thoreau
Drama
James Fenimore Cooper
William Bradford
5. New England local color writer - is known primarily for her two collections of stories. 'A Humble Romance' and 'A New England Nun'
The Declaration of Independence
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Iambic Pentameter
Emile Zola
6. The repeated use of identical sounds.
Genteel Tradition
Darwinism
Rhyme
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
7. Written by Michael Wigglesworth - the most famous poem of 17th Century - proceeds from judgement day to hell and then to paradise. First American Best Seller.
Loaded Words
The Day of Doom
Robert Lowell
Ralph Ellison
8. Unorthodox writers who hung around the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco's North Beach.
Countee Cullen
Beat Writers
John Smith
Henry James
9. Won the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize - Works focused on the South - Wrote 'As I Lay Dying -' 'Sanctuary -' and 'The sound and the Fury.' Experimented with Stream of Consciousness writing. Considered the most innovative novelist of his time.
Stephen Crane
William Faulkner
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Polemic
10. (Colonial Period) One of colonial New England's most eminent clergyman. Greatest achievement was as an historian of the Puritan experience. 'Diary of Cotton Mather' - Account of Mather wrestling with sexual temptation to marry a much younger women di
William S. Burroughs
Thomas Morton
Cotton Mather
Polemic
11. Chicago School - Wrote 'Lucinda Matlock' - Created 'Spoon River Anthology' - Spoon River poems are characterized by: An unpoetic - colloquial style - frank descriptions of sex - a very critical view of small town life - and a description of he inner
American Adam
Edgar Lee Masters
Ralph Ellison
Theodore Dreiser
12. (Colonial Period) Wrote Of Plymouth Plantation (First Thanksgiving) - Chronicled the Pilgrim experience from the religious considerations that caused them to leave England for Holland and then for America.Style is dignified and Grave - and events are
William Bradford
Walt Whitman
Gwendolyn Brooks
Jean Toomer
13. Key intellectual and philosophical voice of 19th-century America. Key player in the transcendentalist movement. First to define what made American poetry American - it is verse that celebrates ordinary experience rather than the epic themes of the pa
John Winthrop
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Epic Story
James Weldon Johnson
14. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist
The Declaration of Independence
Saul Bellow
Stephen Crane
Jack London
15. People who sang lyrics as they played string-like instruments.
Lyres
Verse
Henry David Thoreau
Naturalism
16. Use of medieval - wild - or mysterious elements in literature. Features gloomy settings and horrifying events. Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as the American Master of Gothic writing.
Gothic
Richard Wright
Thomas Morton
Rhythm
17. Coined the term 'Beat Generation' - Wrote 'On the Road' - All of his books are Autobiographical
Jack Kerouac
William S. Burroughs
Determinism
Broadside
18. Words that carry a strong emotional overtones.
Gothic
Free Verse
Loaded Words
Washington Irving
19. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Blank Verse
Ballad
Atavism
20. Wrote 'The Red Badge of Courage' and 'Maggie: A Girl of the Streets -' and 'The Open Boat.' Red Badge of Courage is considered the first modern war novel. Work is celebrated for its images and symbolism. Work is often described as impressionist due t
Toni Morrison
Stephen Crane
Darwinism
Ralph Ellison
21. Produced a number of sketches - poems - and a one-act pay titled 'Cane.'
Henry David Thoreau
Jean Toomer
Dorthy Parker
Jack Kerouac
22. Clever - memorable sayings.
Transcendentalism
Allegory
Aphorisms
Jack London
23. Local Colorist Wrote 'The Awakening' Writing is memorable for its : Vivid and economical style - Rich Local Dialect - and Penetrating view of the culture of South Louisiana.
Polemic
Kate Chopin
Emily Dickinson
Lyres
24. (Colonial Period) First writer of American Literature. Wrote 'The Generall Historie of Virginia - New England - and The Summer Isles.' Archetypal American.
John Smith
Transcendentalism
Edgar Allen Poe
Mary Wilkins Freeman
25. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Meter
Foot
Kate Chopin
26. Pattern of five feet (groups of syllables) - each having one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable.
Henry David Thoreau
Iambic Pentameter
Lyres
T.S Eliot
27. Genius; called the 'Black Keats' - Worked within traditional poetic forms rather than jazz rhythms. Wrote ' Copper Sun -' and 'The Ballad of the Brown Girl.'
Countee Cullen
Langston Hughes
Lyric Poem
Zora Neal Hurston
28. Naturalist - Wrote 'McTeague - a Story of San Francisco'
Frank Norris
Willa Cather
Walt Whitman
Edgar Allen Poe
29. All events follow natural laws.
William Bradford
Determinism
Carl Sandburg
Thomas Morton
30. An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th Century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature - emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination - departure from the attitudes and forms of
Romanticism
Broadside
William Faulkner
Jack London
31. Local Colorist Wrote 'The Country of the Pointed Firs' Famous for use of idiomatic language - conservative values and imagery and vivid descriptions of rural New England.
Rhyme
Sarah Orne Jewett
The 3 primary literary genres
Anne Sexton
32. Local Colorist Great Niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
Allegory
Maya Angelou
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Jean Toomer
33. Wrote gold-rush stories like 'The Luck of Roaring Camp' and 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'; never matched up to his previous fame local colorist
T.S Eliot
Transcendental Club
Bret Harte
Cotton Mather
34. Recluse - agoraphobic - Didn't title her poems. All are designated by numbers. Paved the way for the Imagist movement of the 1920s. Considered on of the founders of Modern American Poetry. Concrete imagery - forceful language - and unique style usher
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stephen Crane
Verse
Emily Dickinson
35. A literary mask a writer assumes for the purpose of creating a character in a poem.
Realism
Persona
e.e cummings
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
36. A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's - in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature - and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter - intuiti
Transcendentalism
W.E.B Du Bois
Nietzscheism
James Thurbur
37. (Colonial Period) 1. God is King and Ruler. 2. Our duty in this world is to see that God's will prevails.3. Man is depraved from birth. 4. Few will be saved. Damned are damned despite their best efforts. Belief in Covenant Theology : God's covenant w
Abigail Adams
Romanticism
William Byrd
Calvinism
38. First Black woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Novel focus on black cultural identity in contemporary America. Wrote 'The Bluest Eye -' 'Tar Baby -' and 'Beloved'
Countee Cullen
Toni Morrison
Aphorisms
Scan
39. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
Rhyme Scheme
Jack London
Gothic
Mayflower Compact
40. 'The Old Man and the Sea -' 'The Sun Also Rises -' 'A Farewell to Arms -' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Writing style emphasizes: Short sentences - brief paragraphs - active verbs - authenticity - compression - clarity - and immediacy. Produced some
Stanza
Rhyme Scheme
Sonnet
Ernest Hemmingway
41. Famous Poet and Novelist - 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'
William Bradford
Abigail Adams
Bret Harte
Maya Angelou
42. Wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk' - Founder of the NAACP
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
W.E.B Du Bois
Toni Morrison
Cotton Mather
43. An organization of the leading transcendentalists living around Boston. They were interested in new developments in theology - philosophy - and literature. Major writers: Ripley - Emerson - Alcott - Fuller - Hawthorne - Thoreau - Channing - Hedge - P
Transcendental Club
Determinism
Lyric Poem
John Adams
44. Ranked as top American novelist - even though few of his contemporaries recognized his genius. Moby Dick is considered to be America's greatest prose epic. It is also top contender for best American novel. Wrote the first great romance about the Sout
Ezra Pound
Herman Melville
Erica Jong
William Bradford
45. The process of reading a poem to figure out it's meter.
James Baldwin
Ernest Hemmingway
Kate Chopin
Scan
46. Confessional Poet - Won a Pulitzer for 'Live or Die'
Jack Kerouac
Anne Sexton
Rhyme
Nathaniel Hawthorne
47. A group of lines in a poem. - Lines of poems are grouped into _______s - just as sentences of prose are grouped into paragraphs.
Refrain
Booker T. Washington
Nativism
Stanza
48. Well-known humorists.
Epic Story
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Saul Bellow
Loss of Traditional Values
49. Credited with creating: the modern short story and the detective novel - and the entire genre of mystery. Wrote 'The Philosophy of Composition' - 'The Raven' - 'Tell-Tale Heart -' 'The Cask of Amontillado -' and 'The Gold Bug.' (The first detective
Rhythm
Edgar Allen Poe
Determinism
Sarah Orne Jewett
50. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.
Jack London
Lyres
Abigail Adams
Allegory