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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. 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.
Flannery O'Connor
Sarah Orne Jewett
Prose
James Thurbur
2. That America's unique identity transcends ethnic - cultural - or religious backgrounds. Idea given by St. Jean de Crevecoeur
American Adam
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Melting Pot
The Day of Doom
3. Ben Franklin paid his passage to America. First Pamphlet was Common Sense : credited with getting the colonists to see the 'advantage - necessity - and obligation' of breaking with Britain. Followed by a series of pamphlets - collectively called 'An
Thomas Paine
The Day of Doom
Henry James
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
4. Unorthodox writers who hung around the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco's North Beach.
William Byrd
Scientism
Beat Writers
Aphorisms
5. (Colonial Period) Primarily written to set forth orthodox Calvinist Christianity. Not considered the best representation of poetry during the whole period. Rarely approached excellence of English models. Too much of an emphasis on heavenly values and
Frank Norris
Free Verse
Puritan Poetry
Benjamin Franklin
6. Wrote Catcher in the Rye
Ralph Ellison
Jonathan Edwards
J.D Salinger
Puritan Poetry
7. 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
William Bradford
Emily Dickinson
Beat Writers
Phillip Roth
8. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
Thomas Paine
Prose
Blank Verse
Booker T. Washington
9. Considered the greatest humorist of 19th century American Literature. Wrote 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' Master of 'Local Color' writing. Used vernacular - exaggeration and deadpan narrator to create humor.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Benjamin Franklin
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Jean Toomer
10. People who are best adapted to survive are chosen through the process of natural selection.
Alice Walker
Darwinism
Kate Chopin
The Day of Doom
11. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
Prose
Kate Chopin
Realism
Rhyme Scheme
12. Wrote 'Songs of Jamaica' - Poetry and 'Harlem Shadows' (first great literary achievement of the Harlem Renaissance. Much of his poetry evokes the rich heritage of Jamaica.
Edgar Allen Poe
Claude McKay
Langston Hughes
Sarah Orne Jewett
13. Typically referred to as the greatest American novelist (next to Mark Twain) of the second half of the 19th century. Main theme of his work was the innocence and exuberance of America compared to the corruption and wisdom of Europe. Wrote 'The Portra
Jack Kerouac
Henry James
Wonders of the Invisible World
John Winthrop
14. Wrote 'The Invisible Man' - Considered a landmark achievement in American literature
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Wonders of the Invisible World
Rhythm
Ralph Ellison
15. Well-known humorists.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Edgar Allen Poe
Sarah Orne Jewett
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
16. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ballad
The 3 primary literary genres
Erica Jong
17. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Ralph Ellison
Verse
Cotton Mather
Drama
18. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
Wonders of the Invisible World
Toni Morrison
Realism
Phillip Roth
19. Best-known and most influential early Naturalist. Rougon-Marcquart
Kate Chopin
Frank Norris
Emile Zola
James Thurbur
20. Third US President Referred to as the 'Sage of Monticello'Drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Ernest Hemmingway
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Imagist Poetry
Thomas Jefferson
21. 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
Robert Lowell
J.D Salinger
Naturalism
Edgar Lee Masters
22. Major theme of 20th Century literature.
Toni Morrison
Jack London
Richard Wright
Loss of Traditional Values
23. First Black female poet to win a Pulitzer. Best known for her poems 'The Bean Eaters' and 'We Real Cool.'
Gwendolyn Brooks
Foot
Phillip Roth
Countee Cullen
24. Literary movement of the 19th century that traced the effects of heredity and environment on people who ere helpless to change their situations. Also called Determinism for its belief in the effects of environment - heredity - and chance on human fat
American Adam
Naturalism
James Baldwin
Henry David Thoreau
25. A single sheet of paper printed on one or both sides. 'The Dying Redcoat'
Beat Writers
Persona
Jack London
Broadside
26. Clever - memorable sayings.
Aphorisms
Wonders of the Invisible World
Emily Dickinson
American Adam
27. Wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' - first American novel to sell a million copies. The most influential book of the 19th century. Credited with starting the Civil War. Most famous American woman of her day.
Three main colonial era poets
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Ezra Pound
Cotton Mather
28. Imagist Poet - Wrote 'In a Station of the Metro -' ' The Pisan Cantos -' 'Hugh Selwyn Mauberly -' and 'Mauberly.' Modeled 'Cantos' after Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' - Infamous traitor; Staunch supporter of Mussolini during WWII. Didn't speak for the
Ezra Pound
Dorthy Parker
W.E.B Du Bois
Calvinism
29. 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
Persona
Stephen Crane
Cotton Mather
Henry David Thoreau
30. Brief - musical poems that convey a speaker's feelings.
Lyric Poem
Verse
Stanza
Allen Ginsberg
31. (Colonial Period) Began 'The History of New England' aboard the Arbella in 1630. Lead 2 -000 English emigrant to Massachusetts Bay. Made daily journal-style entries until his death. Intended it to be an account of his long governorship. Style is pla
Rhyme Scheme
Toni Morrison
Blank Verse
John Winthrop
32. A 14-line poem with a set rhythm and rhyme scheme.
Washington Irving
Romanticism
Sonnet
Dorthy Parker
33. Confessional Poet - Wrote 'Lord Weary's Castle' and 'In Life Studies'
Loss of Traditional Values
Puritan Poetry
Kate Chopin
Robert Lowell
34. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.
Anne Sexton
American Adam
John Smith
Sylvia Plath
35. Autobiography is considered the one of the greatest ever written. Wrote Poor Richard's Alamanac
William Faulkner
Benjamin Franklin
Prose
Jack Kerouac
36. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language
Wonders of the Invisible World
Stanza
The Declaration of Independence
Henry James
37. 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
Bret Harte
Claude McKay
The Declaration of Independence
William S. Burroughs
38. End : occurs when words at the ends of lines of poetry rhyme. Internal: occurs when words within a sentences share the same sound - such as 'Each narrow cell in which we dwell.'
Booker T. Washington
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Theodore Dreiser
Melting Pot
39. Wrote 'Richard Cory' - Created poems dealing with historic myths and characters. Known primarily for short - ironic characteristics of ordinary individuals. Won 3 Pulitzers : 'Collected Poems -' 'The Man Who Died Twice -' and 'Tristram'
Ezra Pound
Countee Cullen
Emily Dickinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson
40. Written by Cottonn Mather - to justify the execution of 19 women during the Salem Witch Trials.
Zora Neal Hurston
Wonders of the Invisible World
Maya Angelou
Edgar Lee Masters
41. A line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Refrains reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
Jack London
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Carl Sandburg
Refrain
42. 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
Erica Jong
Transcendental Club
F. Scott Fitzgerald
W.E.B Du Bois
43. She holds a unique place in American history as both the wife of one president and the mother of another. In her own right - she was an ardent American patriot. Her perseverance during the American Revolution kept her family together and enabled her
Jack London
Washington Irving
Edgar Lee Masters
Abigail Adams
44. Produces ribald - exuberant - feminist poems - novels and essays. Most famous novel is 'Fear of Flying.'
Imagist Poetry
Erica Jong
John Smith
Zora Neal Hurston
45. Resisted materialism and chose a life of simplicity - close to nature. Walden is a guidebook for life - showing the reader how to live wisely in a world designed to make wise living impossible. 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience' has become a primer
Genteel Tradition
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Henry David Thoreau
Blank Verse
46. Wrote 'Native Son -' and 'Black Boy' - First Black Best-Seller - Staunch Communist : Believed it was black America's best hope for equality.
Lyric Poem
Richard Wright
Romanticism
Kate Chopin
47. Movement in the early part of the 20th Century where writers experimented with new themes such as fragmentation - stream of consciousness - and imagery.
Robert Lowell
Jonathan Edwards
W.E.B Du Bois
Modernism
48. 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
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Theodore Dreiser
Nietzscheism
Herman Melville
49. Greatest poet of American colonial period. Influenced T.S Elliot - Ezra Pound - and other modern-day metaphysical poets. Defined 'American'
John Smith
Emile Zola
Robert Frost
Edward Teller
50. The reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some distant ancestor that have not been present in intervening generations - such as hand like a hairy paw.
Poetry
Kate Chopin
Blank Verse
Atavism