SUBJECTS
|
BROWSE
|
CAREER CENTER
|
POPULAR
|
JOIN
|
LOGIN
Business Skills
|
Soft Skills
|
Basic Literacy
|
Certifications
About
|
Help
|
Privacy
|
Terms
|
Email
Search
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. The primacy of science over religious - mythical - or spiritual interpretations of life.
Drama
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Scientism
Sonnet
2. Involves a speaker who addresses an unseen audience. Usually takes place at a crucial moment in the speaker's life.
Atavism
James Baldwin
Monologue
Stanza
3. A false science that argued tat different human races possessed distinguishing traits that determined their particular behavior and achievement in society.
Edgar Lee Masters
Claude McKay
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Racialism
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
James Baldwin
Robert Frost
Transcendentalism
Gothic
5. Friedrich Nitezche's belief in the 'will to power' as the primary force of society and the individual.
Nietzscheism
Cotton Mather
Foot
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. (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
Beat Writers
Epic Story
William Bradford
The Declaration of Independence
7. Well-known humorists.
Melting Pot
Theodore Dreiser
Loaded Words
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
8. (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
Jack Kerouac
Thomas Morton
Imagist Poetry
Mary Wilkins Freeman
9. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language
Genteel Tradition
The Declaration of Independence
Nativism
Jonathan Edwards
10. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
Atavism
Cotton Mather
Rhyme Scheme
Prose
11. Anne Bradstreet - Michael Wigglesworth - Edward Taylor
Jean Toomer
Bret Harte
Drama
Three main colonial era poets
12. Produced a number of sketches - poems - and a one-act pay titled 'Cane.'
Sarah Orne Jewett
Imagist Poetry
Jean Toomer
Allegory
13. 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.
Frederick Douglass
Gothic
The 3 primary literary genres
William Faulkner
14. People who sang lyrics as they played string-like instruments.
Lyres
Verse
Kate Chopin
Herman Melville
15. Unorthodox writers who hung around the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco's North Beach.
John Smith
Thomas Morton
Beat Writers
Jack Kerouac
16. First vice president and second president. Member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Husband of Abigail Adams.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Dorthy Parker
John Adams
Rhyme
17. America's most popular humorist in the 30s and 40s. Frequently explored the battle of the sexes. Wrote 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
Poetry
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edgar Allen Poe
James Thurbur
18. 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
Naturalism
Nietzscheism
Toni Morrison
William Bradford
19. 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
Emile Zola
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Emily Dickinson
Jack Kerouac
20. First Black female poet to win a Pulitzer. Best known for her poems 'The Bean Eaters' and 'We Real Cool.'
Gwendolyn Brooks
e.e cummings
Rhythm
John Adams
21. 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
Erica Jong
Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Lee Masters
22. 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
Racialism
Henry James
Refrain
Alice Walker
23. 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.
Genteel Tradition
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Flannery O'Connor
Zora Neal Hurston
24. Greatest poet of American colonial period. Influenced T.S Elliot - Ezra Pound - and other modern-day metaphysical poets. Defined 'American'
Verse
Jonathan Edwards
Carl Sandburg
Edward Teller
25. 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'
Loss of Traditional Values
Refrain
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Gothic
26. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
Jack London
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Refrain
Phillip Roth
27. 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
Richard Wright
Jonathan Edwards
Abigail Adams
28. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'
Norman Mailer
Calvinism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thomas Jefferson
29. Clever - memorable sayings.
Aphorisms
Frank Norris
Bret Harte
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
30. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
Maya Angelou
Ballad
Stephen Crane
Carl Sandburg
31. 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.
Blank Verse
Frederick Douglass
Thomas Paine
Richard Wright
32. 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
Edith Wharton
Ezra Pound
Puritan Poetry
James Thurbur
33. Wrote 'My Antonia' and 'Death Comes for the Archbishop' Won a Pulitzer for her novel 'One of Ours'
Determinism
Willa Cather
Edgar Lee Masters
Emile Zola
34. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.
James Baldwin
Edward Teller
American Adam
Social Darwinism
35. A literary argument that aims to change public opinion rather than entertain.
Verse
Thomas Jefferson
Polemic
Sylvia Plath
36. A long narrative that represents characters in a high position who take part in a series of adventures of significance.
Nietzscheism
Epic Story
American Adam
Loss of Traditional Values
37. 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
Edgar Allen Poe
J.D Salinger
W.E.B Du Bois
Saul Bellow
38. A stanza.
Verse
Frederick Douglass
Frank Norris
Lyres
39. New England local color writer - is known primarily for her two collections of stories. 'A Humble Romance' and 'A New England Nun'
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Frank Norris
Thomas Morton
Harriet Beecher Stowe
40. Coined the term 'Beat Generation' - Wrote 'On the Road' - All of his books are Autobiographical
The 3 primary literary genres
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Refrain
Jack Kerouac
41. The beat or rhythm of a poem - created by a pattern of stressed an unstressed syllables.
Blank Verse
Beat Movement
Meter
Thomas Morton
42. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
Foot
Henry David Thoreau
Nietzscheism
William Byrd
43. Naturalist - Wrote 'McTeague - a Story of San Francisco'
Frank Norris
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Persona
Gothic
44. Wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk' - Founder of the NAACP
W.E.B Du Bois
Kate Chopin
Maya Angelou
Thomas Morton
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
Benjamin Franklin
Poetry
Lyric Poem
Henry David Thoreau
46. 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
Theodore Dreiser
Henry David Thoreau
Free Verse
47. 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.
John Steinbeck
Rhyme Scheme
Thomas Paine
Imagist Poetry
48. Wrote 'The Invisible Man' - Considered a landmark achievement in American literature
Transcendentalism
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Imagist Poetry
49. Confessional Poet - Won a Pulitzer for 'Live or Die'
Ballad
Robert Lowell
Epic Story
Anne Sexton
50. Major theme of 20th Century literature.
Maya Angelou
Determinism
Loss of Traditional Values
Monologue