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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. Best-known and most influential early Naturalist. Rougon-Marcquart
John Winthrop
Emile Zola
Emily Dickinson
Modernism
2. That America's unique identity transcends ethnic - cultural - or religious backgrounds. Idea given by St. Jean de Crevecoeur
Modernism
Melting Pot
John Steinbeck
Lyres
3. Poetry that does not have a regular beat - rhyme or line length. Walt Whitman
John Smith
Free Verse
Alice Walker
Determinism
4. 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
Darwinism
Transcendentalism
Imagist Poetry
Lyric Poem
5. 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
Gothic
Imagist Poetry
Three main colonial era poets
Emile Zola
6. (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
Calvinism
Jonathan Edwards
Refrain
Iambic Pentameter
7. Created the first American adventure story. First successful American novelist. 'Father of the American novel.' Very litigious - cranky and vain. Most famous for the 'Leatherstocking Tales': A series of five novels about the frontiersman - Natty Bump
James Thurbur
Thomas Paine
William Byrd
James Fenimore Cooper
8. America's most popular humorist in the 30s and 40s. Frequently explored the battle of the sexes. Wrote 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
The Declaration of Independence
e.e cummings
James Thurbur
Stephen Crane
9. Leader of naturalism in American writing. Wrote 'An American Tragedy'
Rhyme
Theodore Dreiser
Nietzscheism
Melting Pot
10. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
Phillip Roth
Genteel Tradition
Theodore Dreiser
James Thurbur
11. The repeated use of identical sounds.
Jean Toomer
Rhyme
Rhyme Scheme
Persona
12. (Colonial Period) Only person to publicly repent his part in the Salem Witch Trials. Published America's first anti-slavery tract.
William Byrd
William Bradford
Samuel Sewall
Washington Irving
13. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.
Calvinism
Allegory
Transcendentalism
Monologue
14. A single sheet of paper printed on one or both sides. 'The Dying Redcoat'
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Broadside
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Lowell
15. 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
Walt Whitman
Frederick Douglass
Stanza
Edgar Lee Masters
16. 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
Edward Teller
John Adams
Aphorisms
Naturalism
17. A 14-line poem with a set rhythm and rhyme scheme.
Sonnet
William Faulkner
Poetry
Carl Sandburg
18. Wrote 'Grapes of Wrath -' 'Of Mice and Men -' and 'East of Eden -' and 'Winter of Our Discontent.' Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature - Pulitzer and and the National Book Award.
Realism
John Steinbeck
The Declaration of Independence
Edith Wharton
19. A literary mask a writer assumes for the purpose of creating a character in a poem.
Persona
John Smith
Iambic Pentameter
William Faulkner
20. Book of feline poems - 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats -' formed the basis of the Broadway hit 'Cats.' Wrote 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - Published 'The Waste-Land' which became the most famous poem of the first half of the 20th Centur
Sonnet
William Byrd
T.S Eliot
Free Verse
21. Genius; called the 'Black Keats' - Worked within traditional poetic forms rather than jazz rhythms. Wrote ' Copper Sun -' and 'The Ballad of the Brown Girl.'
American Adam
The 3 primary literary genres
Three main colonial era poets
Countee Cullen
22. Pattern of five feet (groups of syllables) - each having one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable.
Erica Jong
Sylvia Plath
James Baldwin
Iambic Pentameter
23. 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
Gwendolyn Brooks
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Melting Pot
Willa Cather
24. 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
Persona
Frank Norris
Herman Melville
Scan
25. A false science that argued tat different human races possessed distinguishing traits that determined their particular behavior and achievement in society.
Allegory
Carl Sandburg
Emile Zola
Racialism
26. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'
Mayflower Compact
Norman Mailer
Emile Zola
Rhythm
27. Words that carry a strong emotional overtones.
John Winthrop
Loaded Words
Maya Angelou
Iambic Pentameter
28. The process of reading a poem to figure out it's meter.
Scan
Atavism
Edwin Arlington Robinson
James Fenimore Cooper
29. 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
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Calvinism
Robert Lowell
Transcendental Club
30. (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
Zora Neal Hurston
Sonnet
Puritan Poetry
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
31. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.
Allen Ginsberg
Racialism
Genteel Tradition
Nativism
32. Father of American Literature - First American writer to achieve an international reputation. Rip Van Winkle (antihero). Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Devil and Tom Walker. Was 50 years old before his real name appeared on any of his books. Used alias
Washington Irving
Theodore Dreiser
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Determinism
33. Wrote 'since feeling is first -' 'somewhere i have never traveled - gladly beyond -' and 'The Enormous Room' - Experimented with : form - punctuation - spelling - typography - grammar - imagery - rhythm - and syntax.
Washington Irving
e.e cummings
Walt Whitman
Monologue
34. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
Blank Verse
Calvinism
Claude McKay
Vachel Lindsay
35. (Colonial Period) Stands in direct opposition to the principles - personalities and literary styles of William Bradford and John Winthrop. Did not come to settle the land and establish God's Kingdom - but to trade beaver pelts and live pleasantly. Es
Dorthy Parker
Lyres
Thomas Morton
Puritan Poetry
36. 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.
James Thurbur
Free Verse
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Day of Doom
37. Well-known humorists.
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Theodore Dreiser
The Day of Doom
Edgar Allen Poe
38. '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
Lyric Poem
Romanticism
Ernest Hemmingway
Mary Wilkins Freeman
39. 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
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edgar Allen Poe
Ralph Ellison
Allegory
40. People who sang lyrics as they played string-like instruments.
Jack Kerouac
Jack London
Lyres
Loss of Traditional Values
41. Produces ribald - exuberant - feminist poems - novels and essays. Most famous novel is 'Fear of Flying.'
Aphorisms
Erica Jong
Lyric Poem
John Steinbeck
42. A group of lines in a poem. - Lines of poems are grouped into _______s - just as sentences of prose are grouped into paragraphs.
Stanza
Blank Verse
Verse
Foot
43. In the 1920s - became the symbol of the liberated woman for her wit and independence. Known for her caustic and clever poems and short stories.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Dorthy Parker
John Smith
Saul Bellow
44. The primacy of science over religious - mythical - or spiritual interpretations of life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Allen Ginsberg
Scientism
Calvinism
45. Third US President Referred to as the 'Sage of Monticello'Drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson
Rhyme Scheme
Poetry
Realism
46. Prose - Poetry - Drama
James Fenimore Cooper
J.D Salinger
Thomas Paine
The 3 primary literary genres
47. Involves a speaker who addresses an unseen audience. Usually takes place at a crucial moment in the speaker's life.
Erica Jong
Iambic Pentameter
T.S Eliot
Monologue
48. First vice president and second president. Member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Husband of Abigail Adams.
Darwinism
Kate Chopin
Frank Norris
John Adams
49. 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
Polemic
Gwendolyn Brooks
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
50. Wrote 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man' and 'Lift Every Voice and Sing -' (The Black National Anthem)
James Fenimore Cooper
Nativism
Ballad
James Weldon Johnson