GRE Literature in English (REA) (36 page)

221.

222.

223.

224.

225.

226.

227.

228.

229.

230.

1. (B)
   
2. (D)
   
3. (A)
   
4. (D)
   
5. (A)
   
6. (E)
   
7. (D)
   
8. (C)
   
9. (D)
   
10. (E)
    
11. (D)
    
12. (E)
    
13. (A)
    
14. (C)
    
15. (B)
    
16. (A)
    
17. (C)
    
18. (A)
    
19. (D)
    
20. (D)
    
21. (A)
    
22. (C)
    
23. (E)
    
24. (C)
    
25. (C)
    
26. (A)
    
27. (E)
    
28. (C)
    
29. (B)
    
30. (D)
    
31. (A)
    
32. (B)
    
33. (E)
    
34. (D)
    
35. (B)
    
36. (C)
    
37. (B)
    
38. (C)
    
39. (D)
    
40. (B)
    
41. (E)
    
42. (A)
    
43. (B)
    
44. (A)
    
45. (E)
    
46. (D)
    
47. (A)
    
48. (D)
    
49. (B)
    
50. (C)
    
51. (D)
    
52. (C)
    
53. (D)
    
54. (E)
    
55. (C)
    
56. (A)
    
57. (D)
    
58. (C)
    
59. (C)
    
60. (B)
    
61. (D)
    
62. (E)
    
63. (B)
    
64. (E)
    
65. (D)
    
66. (A)
    
67. (C)
    
68. (D)
    
69. (A)
    
70. (A)
    
71. (E)
    
72. (C)
    
73. (E)
    
74. (C)
    
75. (D)
    
76. (B)
    
77. (B)
    
78. (D)
    
79. (D)
    
80. (B)
    
81. (C)
    
82. (B)
    
83. (E)
    
84. (B)
    
85. (A)
    
86. (E)
    
87. (B)
    
88. (C)
    
89. (C)
    
90. (E)
    
91. (D)
    
92. (B)
    
93. (E)
    
94. (B)
    
95. (D)
    
96. (C)
    
97. (A)
    
98. (E)
    
99. (C)
    
100. (E)
     
101. (D)
     
102. (C)
     
103. (E)
     
104. (B)
     
105. (C)
     
106. (B)
     
107. (E)
     
108. (B)
     
109. (C)
     
110. (A)
     
111. (A)
     
112. (A)
     
113. (B)
     
114. (D)
     
115. (D)
     
116. (A)
     
117. (E)
     
118. (D)
     
119. (D)
     
120. (B)
     
121. (A)
     
122. (A)
     
123. (D)
     
124. (C)
     
125. (C)
     
126. (B)
     
127. (C)
     
128. (E)
     
129. (D)
     
130. (B)
     
131. (A)
     
132. (D)
     
133. (D)
     
134. (A)
     
135. (B)
     
136. (E)
     
137. (E)
     
138. (C)
     
139. (D)
     
140. (B)
     
141. (E)
     
142. (A)
     
143. (D)
     
144. (C)
     
145. (E)
     
146. (C)
     
147. (A)
     
148. (D)
     
149. (B)
     
150. (A)
     
151. (B)
     
152. (D)
     
153. (A)
     
154. (C)
     
155. (B)
     
156. (C)
     
157. (C)
     
158. (D)
     
159. (B)
     
160. (B)
     
161. (A)
     
162. (D)
     
163. (B)
     
164. (C)
     
165. (C)
     
166. (B)
     
167. (E)
     
168. (D)
     
169. (C)
     
170. (B)
     
171. (E)
     
172. (E)
     
173. (B)
     
174. (B)
     
175. (E)
     
176. (A)
     
177. (A)
     
178. (A)
     
179. (E)
     
180. (C)
     
181. (D)
     
182. (C)
     
183. (C)
     
184. (A)
     
185. (C)
     
186. (E)
     
187. (A)
     
188. (C)
     
189. (B)
     
190. (B)
     
191. (C)
     
192. (E)
     
193. (C)
     
194. (D)
     
195. (B)
     
196. (A)
     
197. (D)
     
198. (A)
     
199. (D)
     
200. (B)
     
201. (C)
     
202. (B)
     
203. (B)
     
204. (B)
     
205. (E)
     
206. (A)
     
207. (B)
     
208. (C)
     
209. (D)
     
210. (A)
     
211. (B)
     
212. (D)
     
213. (D)
     
214. (D)
     
215. (B)
     
216. (D)
     
217. (A)
     
218. (C)
     
219. (D)
     
220. (B)
     
221. (C)
     
222. (E)
     
223. (A)
     
224. (D)
     
225. (C)
     
226. (B)
     
227. (E)
     
228. (C)
     
229. (E)
     
230. (D)
     

1.
(B)

This is Coleridge's four-line poem, “On Donne's Poetry.” Donne had not been popular during the eighteenth century. Coleridge's terse commentary reveals his admiration, albeit qualified, for Donne's mastery of the metaphysical style.

 

2.
(D)

This is from Shelley's “To Wordsworth,” in which Shelley expresses his disillusionment with Wordsworth's abandonment of the liberal social causes that he formerly supported in his poetry.

 

3
. (A)

This is Swift's comment on himself in “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift,” which he says he wrote in order to correct man's folly.

 

4.
(D)

In order to answer this question, it is necessary to be somewhat familiar with the backgrounds of the authors. Plath's autobiographical novel,
The Bell Jar
, relates experiences from her early adult life, including a period of intense psychiatric therapy. “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through” is from a poem entitled “Daddy,” one of several that expose the attitudes and personalities of her German father and Austrian mother. Although Woolf (A) did commit suicide, her relationship with her parents is not an issue in her works. Sexton (C) also explored similar themes in her poetry, but did not write an autobiographical novel.

 

5.
(A)

These are concluding lines from Matthew Arnold's “Dover Beach,” in which the poet contrasts pleasing appearances (of both world and sea) with harsher realities.

 

6.
(E)

Herrick's poem, like many others that have a “seize the day” motif, emphasizes that life is short and time is fleeting in urging the pursuit of present pleasure.

 

7.
(D)

Parnell's “Night-Piece on Death” (A), Blair's “The Grave” (B), Young's “Night-Thoughts” (C), and Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (E) are all associated with the graveyard school. Parnell is an early exemplar or forerunner; Gray's “Elegy” is the most famous poem produced by the group; and the poems of Blair and Young are perhaps most typical of the graveyard school.

 

8.
(C)

A sonnet is a poem consisting of fourteen lines, three quatrains and a couplet. The poems in
In Memoriam
form a sequence, but they are not sonnets. Rather, Tennyson's poem consists of quatrains.

 

9.
(D)

The excerpt is from the Yeats poem “Leda and the Swan.” Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus upon his return from Troy; his murder was later avenged by his son Orestes.

 

10.
(E)

In Greek mythology, Zeus visited Leda in the form of a swan. The offspring of their union were Helen and Clytemnestra.

 

11.
(D)

When dealing with questions of this type, do not despair if you are not sure about the speaker of the passage. You may be able to discern who the author of the passage is by thinking of the character archetypes associated with that author. This passage is from Shaw's
Major Barbara.
Barbara has turned from the Salvation Army to the saving of another order of souls.

 

12.
(E)

This is Lady Bracknell's reaction, in
The Importance of Being Earnest
, to the news that Jack's first home was a handbag in a railroad station. The satiric portrayal of the upper class in the passage is an easily recognizable trait of Wilde's works.

 

13.
(A)

This is from the “marriage contract” scene in Congreve's
The Way of the World,
in which Millamant establishes conditions of her marriage to Mirabel. Her demands underscore the desire of heroines in the Restoration comedy of manners to maintain independence and individuality after marriage.

 

14.
(C)

Rosalind urges Orlando to hire someone else to die in his place rather than die himself from unrequited love. In the world's history, Rosalind says, no man has ever died for love.

 

15.
(B)

Rosalind's account of Leander's death is highly anti-romantic; in her account, Leander drowned from a cramp after going to cool off on a hot summer evening in the Hellespont, not while swimming across it to visit Hero, as other accounts claim.

 

16.
(A)

The dialogue is from Shakespeare's
As You Like It,
set in the Forest of Arden.

 

17.
(C)

The passage reflects such transcendental notions as the presence of truths that are beyond the reach of man's limited senses, the usefulness of intuition as a guide to universal truth, and nature as an image in which the divine can be perceived.

 

18.
(A)

Emerson's belief that God is all-loving and all-pervading underlies his assertions that nature is “beautiful” and “good” in the second paragraph. Materialism (B) and nihilism (D) are antithetical to Emerson's ideas, while existentialism (E) focuses on the individual. Utilitarianism (C) is a reason-based method of thinking and does not fit the passage.

 

19.
(D)

This excerpt is from Emerson's
The Poet
(1844). He wrote
Self-Reliance
, his celebration of individualism, somewhat earlier. Emerson is perhaps the leading spokesman of transcendentalism in America. Be careful not to choose Thoreau, even though the tone of the passage is similar to
Walden
(B), this passage is clearly not from Thoreau's other famous essay,
Resistance to Civil Government.

 

20.
(D)

The word's meaning can be determined from its similarity to the word “venom.” Age poisons all, including the speaker, whose beauty has been taken from her by the passage of time.

 

21
. (A)

Her “pith” has been taken by age; the flour is gone, leaving her only the “bran,” the seed husk, which she will now sell as best she can.

 

22.
(C)

Unto this day, she says, it makes her heart glad that she had her fling earlier in life. When she thinks about her “youthe” and “jolitee,” it does her “herte boote” (heart good).

 

23.
(E)

Although she is not happy about losing her beauty, she accepts the ravages of time, realistically appraises what she has left (and what its value might be if marketed properly), and is determined to make the most of what she has.

 

24.
(C)

The Wife of Bath gives this account of herself in the prologue to her tale in Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales
. Choice (D) can be eliminated because the speaker is clearly feminine, but “The Wife of Bath's Tale” is perhaps the best known of the Canterbury Tales, and should be recognized by the reader.

 

25.
(C)

A general critical precept underlying the essay is the author's belief that “nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.” Shakespeare has pleased many and pleased long; the reason, according to the author, is that Shakespeare is the preeminent painter of general nature. Milton (B) and Spenser (E) did not write tales based on historical figures, while the reference to a European prince eliminates Sophocles (A).

 

26.
(A)

Shakespeare is always careful to preserve the essential characteristics of men, the author says, but is less careful with additional and chance distinctions (that is, characteristics that are accidental, deriving merely from social position or place of abode, as opposed to those that derive from nature and are inherent). This is less a criticism of Shakespeare than an assertion that he gave more attention to what is important than to what is unimportant.

 

27
. (E)

Since this author is dismissive of all three critics, (E) is the only correct choice. All concentrate on “accident” rather than “nature”; hence, they focus on the unimportant at the expense of the significant. Consequently, the author says their objections are “the petty cavils of petty minds.”

 

28.
(C)

Since the differences between men are “casual,” Shakespeare rightly focuses on the universal rather than the specific. Like the artist who “neglects the drapery,” Shakespeare ignores the inessentials of nationality and custom.

 

29.
(B)

The passage is from Johnson's preface to his edition (in eight volumes) of Shakespeare's plays.
The Preface to Shakespeare
has been praised highly; a later Shakespearean editor called it “perhaps the finest composition in our language.”

 

30.
(D)

The dark, damp setting of the passage immediately identifies its author as Poe. Poe's narrator, Montresor, finishes building a tomb containing his living “friend,” Fortunato, in the catacombs under Montresor's residence. Montresor lures Fortunato there on the pretext of looking at a cask of amontillado, but then chains him to a wall inside a vault.

 

31.
(A)

The passage reflects the youthful determination and distinctive voice of Welty's narrator, who moves to the post office to “get even” with her family.

 

32.
(B)

Ironically, while this passage has found its way into our popular speech, its origin is definitely less well-known. This is Jaques' melancholy portrait of the stages of man's life in As
You Like It.

 

33. (
E)

The portly Falstaff complains of having to walk any distance, and vows to give up theft if thieves cannot be true to one another. The passage is from
Henry IV
,
Part I.

 

34.
(D)

The angry tone of the passage is a clue as to its speaker. This is Caliban's reply to Miranda, who has tried to “civilize” the savage by, among other things, teaching him speech in
The Tempest.

 

35.
(B)

An elegy is a formal and sustained poetic lament for the dead. The pastoral elegy is a species of the elegy that represents both the mourner and the one he mourns as shepherds. The pastoral elegy developed elaborate conventions, including an invocation of the muses, nature joining in the mourning for the dead shepherd, a procession of appropriate mourners, a closing consolation, and so forth. Johnson's poem is a meditation on, as the title makes clear, the futility of ambition that leads to discontent; it is not a pastoral elegy.

 

36.
(C)

This exchange between the hero and heroine of Sir George Etherege's
The Man of Mode
is typical of many such exchanges in the Restoration comedy of manners. Its meaning depends on the audience's recognition of the speakers' use of an extended metaphor, which is sometimes similar to metaphysical wit. The two seem to be speaking of one thing, but the meaning refers to something else. In this instance Dorimant and Harriet appear to be talking about gaming; in fact, Harriet lets Dorimant know that she will engage in innocent diversions but will not submit to him sexually. Each tests the other to see what the terms and conditions of their relationship might be.

 

37.
(B)

Dorimant lets Harriet know that he can be content with less than sexual conquest (the meaning depends on a pun in “deep play”) if he likes his partner well enough; implicit in his remark is the notion that he
does
like Harriet well enough.

 

38.
(C)

The exchange is characteristic of the wit present in the battle of the sexes in the Restoration comedy of manners. Such exchanges are based on extended conceits, often with sexual undertones. One of the yardsticks by which a character's “worth” is measured in Restoration comedy is the ability to handle language, which is a reflection of social grace, intellect, and the ability to manipulate others. The most admirable use language as a form of power, rather than being controlled by language. Wit in this sense is not a primary virtue in the other choices offered (for example, the language of heroic drama is noted for bombast; that of sentimental comedy avoids sexual innuendo).