PART  TWO
Ⅱ.Reading Comprehension (16 points in all, 4 for each)
Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
41. “The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave.
 Awaits the inevitable hour.
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
 Questions:
Identify the author and the title of the poem from which this passage is taken.
What does the phrase “inevitable hour” mean?
Write out the main idea of the passage in plain English.
42. “A violet by a mossy stone
  Half hidden from the eye!
  －Fair as a star, when only one
  Is shining in the sky.”
Questions:
Identify the author and the title of the poem from which this stanza is taken.
Pick out the metaphor used in this stanza.
What quality does the author intend to show by using the metaphor?
43. “We passed The School, where Children strove
 At Recess－in the Ring－
 We passed The Fields of Gazing Grain
 We passed The Setting Sun－”
 Questions:
Who is the author of this stanza taken from the poem “Because I could not stop for Death－?
What do the underlined parts symbolize?
Where were “we” heading toward?
44. “It was you that broke the new wood.
  Now is a time for carving.
  We have one sap and one root－
  Let there be commerce between us.”
  Questions:
Whom does the “us” refer to?
What does the phrase “broke the new wood” mean here?
What is the intention of the poet in writing the poem “A Pact” from which these lines are taken?

Ⅲ.Questions and Answers (24 points in all, 6 for each)
Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.

 45.In Chapter 15 of Wuthering Heights, Heath cliff said to Catherine: “Why did you betray your own, Cathy?... You loved me－then what right have you to leave me?... I have not broken your heart－you have broken it－and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
  Taking the whole novel into consideration, do you think Heathcliff’s above accusation of Catherine’s betrayal can be justified? If you think so, what reasons does Catherine have to betray Heathcliff and their love?
  
 46.John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is generally regarded as a religious allegory. What does the work symbolically concern? What is the predominant metaphor that is carried on through the whole work? And what is the author’s purpose in writing such a book?
 47. The following passage is taken from The Merchant of Venice. Read it carefully and find the dramatic it contains. Use it as an example to illustrate what dramatic irony is.
 “Bassanio: Antonio, I am married to a wife
            Which is as dear to me as life itself;
      But life itself, my wife, and all world,
      Are not with me esteem’d above thy life;
      I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
      Here to this devil, to deliver you.
    Portia:   Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
     If she were by to hear you make the offer.”
 48. What is the most famous theme in Henry James′s fiction? And what is his favourite approach in characterization, which makes him different from Mark and W. D. Howells as realists? Give two titles of his works in which this theme and this approach are employed. 
 
 Ⅳ.Topic Discussion (20 points in all, 10 for each)
    Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
    
 49.In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen explored three kinds of motivations of marriage the middle-class people had in the second half of the 18th century. Try to make a brief discussion about them with specific examples from the novel. Make comments on Austen’s attitude towards these motivations.
 50.Retell in a few sentences the story of the last chapter (Ch, 135) “The Chase－Third Day” of Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. Discuss the meaning of the ending of the story.