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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. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
Ezra Pound
Rhyme Scheme
Jack London
Rhythm
2. (Colonial Period) Only person to publicly repent his part in the Salem Witch Trials. Published America's first anti-slavery tract.
John Steinbeck
Puritan Poetry
Toni Morrison
Samuel Sewall
3. 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
Kate Chopin
Edgar Allen Poe
Gothic
T.S Eliot
4. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
Phillip Roth
Wonders of the Invisible World
Abigail Adams
Mayflower Compact
5. 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
Loaded Words
The Day of Doom
Edgar Lee Masters
Monologue
6. 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.
Determinism
The Day of Doom
Langston Hughes
Stanza
7. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist
Jack London
Walt Whitman
Flannery O'Connor
Gwendolyn Brooks
8. The repeated use of identical sounds.
Scan
Carl Sandburg
Rhyme
Foot
9. A 14-line poem with a set rhythm and rhyme scheme.
Aphorisms
Poetry
Sonnet
Flannery O'Connor
10. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.
Maya Angelou
American Adam
Persona
Social Darwinism
11. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language
The Declaration of Independence
John Smith
Sonnet
Epic Story
12. A line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Refrains reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
Darwinism
Alice Walker
Benjamin Franklin
Refrain
13. Pilgrim's constitution. Shaped the politics - religion - and social behavior of the first settlers. Eventually influenced the shape - style and content of the U.S Constitution. William Bradford was famous for being one of the authors and signers.
Mayflower Compact
Maya Angelou
Abigail Adams
Edith Wharton
14. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
J.D Salinger
Edgar Allen Poe
Drama
Blank Verse
15. 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.
Langston Hughes
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Calvinism
James Weldon Johnson
16. 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
Loss of Traditional Values
Wonders of the Invisible World
Booker T. Washington
Abigail Adams
17. 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.
Claude McKay
Gothic
Broadside
Alice Walker
18. Wrote 'The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.' Escaped slave that became one o f the most effective orators of his day - an influential newspaper writer - a militant abolitionist - and a famous diplomat.
Frederick Douglass
William Faulkner
Jonathan Edwards
Melting Pot
19. Major theme of 20th Century literature.
Imagist Poetry
Wonders of the Invisible World
T.S Eliot
Loss of Traditional Values
20. Third US President Referred to as the 'Sage of Monticello'Drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Edgar Lee Masters
Nietzscheism
Thomas Jefferson
T.S Eliot
21. Chicago School - Work bridges folk poetry and modernist poems. Used music and strong rhythm - Wrote 'The Congo'
Abigail Adams
Vachel Lindsay
Benjamin Franklin
Ralph Ellison
22. (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
Abigail Adams
Epic Story
William Bradford
Emile Zola
23. 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
Gwendolyn Brooks
Refrain
Prose
24. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'
Social Darwinism
Norman Mailer
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
John Steinbeck
25. (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
Puritan Poetry
Sonnet
William S. Burroughs
Thomas Paine
26. Clever - memorable sayings.
Determinism
Frederick Douglass
Herman Melville
Aphorisms
27. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.
William Faulkner
Genteel Tradition
Maya Angelou
Willa Cather
28. New England local color writer - is known primarily for her two collections of stories. 'A Humble Romance' and 'A New England Nun'
Erica Jong
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Prose
William Byrd
29. Southern Gothic writer. Creates stories that simultaneously shock readers and reflect her strong Catholic faith.
30. American novelist - essayist - social critic - painter and spoken performer. Most of his works are autobiographical. Frequently experimented with drugs. He wrote the 'Naked Lunch' and the 'Cities of Red Night'
William S. Burroughs
Ballad
Transcendental Club
Bret Harte
31. First great writer of psychological fiction; obsessed with sin and guilt. 'The Scarlet Letter' - 'Young Goodman Brown' - Claimed his work was romance and therefore not required to be realistic.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Frederick Douglass
Vachel Lindsay
T.S Eliot
32. Movement in the early part of the 20th Century where writers experimented with new themes such as fragmentation - stream of consciousness - and imagery.
Allegory
Robert Lowell
Robert Frost
Modernism
33. (Colonial Period) Best-known Southern colonial writer. Famous for 'The History of the Dividing Line' and 'The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover'
Edith Wharton
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Darwinism
William Byrd
34. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Nativism
Walt Whitman
Darwinism
Drama
35. Poetry that does not have a regular beat - rhyme or line length. Walt Whitman
Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Declaration of Independence
Sonnet
Free Verse
36. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
William Faulkner
Rhythm
Foot
Transcendentalism
37. Work did not have a political agenda. Wrote 'Their Eyes Were Watching God -' 'Mules and Men -' and 'Jonahs Gourd Vine.' Considered one of the key black writers of the 20th Century.
Zora Neal Hurston
Three main colonial era poets
Narrative Poem
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
38. The Bard of Harlem; most successful black writer in America during the Harlem Renaissance. Wanted to capture the dominant oral traditions of black culture in written form. Best known for his poetry: 'The Weary Blues -' 'Fields of Wonder -' and 'The D
Richard Wright
Langston Hughes
Frank Norris
Kate Chopin
39. Well-known humorists.
Mayflower Compact
John Adams
Drama
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
40. 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
Thomas Morton
Iambic Pentameter
Henry James
Ralph Ellison
41. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.
Allegory
Imagist Poetry
Edith Wharton
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
42. Won 4 Pulitzers - Top 20th Century Poet - Wrote 'The Road Not Taken -' ' Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -' and 'Mending Wall'
Rhythm
Robert Frost
Wonders of the Invisible World
Sarah Orne Jewett
43. Wrote Catcher in the Rye
Booker T. Washington
James Weldon Johnson
Beat Writers
J.D Salinger
44. Best-known and most influential early Naturalist. Rougon-Marcquart
Booker T. Washington
Emile Zola
Monologue
Ballad
45. Writings interweave sexual and racial concerns; what it means to be black and homosexual in America in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.
Jonathan Edwards
James Baldwin
Alice Walker
Richard Wright
46. 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
Flannery O'Connor
Richard Wright
T.S Eliot
Claude McKay
47. (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
Richard Wright
Robert Frost
Thomas Morton
Ezra Pound
48. Chicago School : Verses often concern ordinary - everyday people; realistic poems and dramatic emphasis attract a large audience. Wrote 'Chicago -' and a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Poems describe everyday Americans - have a positive tone - use sim
Edgar Lee Masters
Carl Sandburg
William S. Burroughs
Lyres
49. A false science that argued tat different human races possessed distinguishing traits that determined their particular behavior and achievement in society.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stanza
Racialism
Cotton Mather
50. (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
Henry James
Monologue
Meter