世新大學八十七學年度轉學考試

年級	系(組)別	考試科目
二	英語系	西洋文學概論

I. Identification 40% (Identify the following passages. Write down the author’s name and the title of each work from which the passages are quoted.)

1. “…Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by a idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

2. “A: How comes it, then, that thou art out of hell?

B: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it:

Thinkst thou that I who saw the face of God

And tasted the eternal joys of heaven

Am not tormented with ten thousand hells

In being deprived of everlasting bliss?

O ____, leave these frivolous demands

Which strike a terror to my fainting soul!”

3. “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray

from the straight road an woke to find myself

alone in a dark wood. How shall I say

what wood that was! I never saw so drear,

so rank, so arduous a wilderness!

Its very memory gives a shape to fear.”

4. “For, sir,

Ir is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.

In following him, I follow but myself;

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,

But seeming so, for my peculiar end;

For when my out ward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, ‘tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at; I am not what I am.”

5. There was a also a nun, a Prioress,

Whose smile was modest and sweet.

Her greatest oath was only “By Saint Loy!”

She was called Madame Eglantine.

She sang the divine service well,

entuning it in her nose in a most seemly way;

and she spoke French well and properly…”

6. All, Jesus, is all come hereto?

Lo, fair words maketh fools fain;

They promise, and nothing will do,

certain.

My kinsmen promised me faithfully

For to abide with me steadfastly,

And now fast away do they flee:

Even so Fellowship promised me.

What friend were best me of to provide?

I lose my time here longer to abide.

7. “Lay upon the sinner his sin,

Lay upon the transgressor his transgression,

Punish him a little when he breaks loose,

Do not drive him too hard or he perishes;

Would that a lion had ravaged mankind

Rather than the flood,

Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind

Rather than the flood,

Would that famine had wasted the world

Rather than the flood,

Would that pestilence had wasted mankind

Rather than the flood

8. “If someone knows the murderer to be an alien

From foreign soil, let him not be silent;

I will give him a reward, my thanks besides.

But if you stay in silence and from fear

For self of friend thrust aside my command,

Hear now from me what I shall do for this;

I charge that none who dwell within this land

Whereof I hold the power and the throne

Give this man shelter whoever he may be,

Or speak to him, or share with him in prayer

Or sacrifice, or serve him lustral rites.

But drive him, all, out of your homes, for he

Is this pollution on us, as Apollo

Revealed to me just now in oracle.

I am there fore the ally of the god And of the murdered man.”

9. “There was obviously no time to lose. We women met in immediate

convention and passed a Peace in Greece We have valuable advice to impart,

and if you can possibly deign to emulate our silence, and take your turn as

audience, we’ll rectify you-- we’ll straighten you out and set you right.”

10. “Deeply troubled he spoke to his own great-hearted spirit:

‘Ah me! If I go now inside the wall and the gateway,

Poulydamas will be first to put a reproach upon me,

since he tried to make me lead the Trojans inside the city

on that accursed night when brilliant Achilleus rose up,

and I would not obey him, but that would have been far better.

Now, since by my own recklessness I have ruined my people,

I feel shame before the Trojans and the Trojan women with trailing

robes, that someone who is less of a man than I will say of me:

Hektor believed in his own strength and ruined his people.’

II. Comprehension question (Answer the following questions as briefly as possible.) 30%

1. What is the Torah?

2. What does the word “Bible” mean?

3. According to the Bible, what is the first sentence that God said to create the world?

4. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden very happily, and God asked only one thing of them, and that was to obey.

What was the “rule of the game”?

5. According to the Bible, why was Joseph sent to Egypt?

6. According to the Greek mythology, who is Prometheus?

7. Who is Dionysus?

8. Briefly tell the story of Psyche.

9. Briefly tell the story of Tantalus.

10. Briefly describe Jason’s quest for the golden fleece.

III. Eassay questions 30% (Answer only TWO of the following question.)

1. Why is “The Book of Job” considered a “good play (drama)”? What is the theme of this book? Did you find something to defend for Job? Do you think the ending is a happy one?

2. Who is Sappho? Why were most of Sappho’s lyrics banned at her time?

What is the theme of her lyrics? Please give at least one example.

3. Summarize “The Story of Pyramids and Thisbe” based on Ovid’s

Metamorphoses, and explain the symbols in the story: the wall and the mulberry tree near the tomb.

4. It seems Chaucer have a different viewpoint toward courtship and marriage from his contemporary writers. Please use the Wife of Bath’s tale and the Miller’s tale as an example and discuss his treatments of the two themes.