Chapter 2
Literature of Reason and Revolution

I．Fill in the blanks.

1．The War of Independence lasted for eight years till _____.

2．The United States of America was founded in _____.

3．Benjamin Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called The General _____.

4．Benjamin Franklin's best writing is found in his masterpiece _____.

5．Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriately born into an age of _____.

6．On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet _____ Sense appeared.

7．A series of sixteen pamphlets by Thomas Paine was entitled The American _____.

8．Thomas Paine's second most important work The _____ of Man was an impassioned plea against hereditary monarchy.

9．The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was Philip _____.

10．Philip Freneau's famous poem "The British _____ Ship" was written about his imprisoned experience.

11．Philip _____ was considered as the "poet of the American Revolution".

12．_____ Freneau has been called the "Father of American Poetry".

13．In 1791, probably with Thomas Jefferson's support, Philip _____ established in Philadelphia the National Gazette.

14．In American literature, the 18th century was an Age of _____ and Revolution.

15．The Calvinist beliefs brought about the Great Awakening during the 1730s and 1740s. Jonathan _____ was the most influential among the believers.

16．Jonathan Edwards's work Images or Shadows of Divine Things anticipated the nature symbolism of _____ in the 19th century.

17．If Jonathan Edwards is said to represent the upper levels of the American mind, Benjamin _____ represents the lower levels.

18．The War for Independence lasted for eight years and ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic, that is, the United States of _____.

19．American poetry of the 18th century has an imitative character, imitating the reigning _____ models of the 18th century.

II．Choose the best answer for each blank.

1．In American literature, the 18th century was the age of the Enlightenment. _____ was the dominant spirit.

A．Humanism

B．Rationalism

C．Revolution

D．Evolution

2．In American literature, the Enlighteners were opposed to the following except _____.

A．the colonial order

B．religious obscurantism

C．the Puritan tradition

D．the secular literature

3．The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the Continental Congress adopted _____ in 1776.

A．the Declaration of Independence

B．the Sugar Act

C．the Stamp Act

D．the Mayflower Compact

4．Which of the following statements about Benjamin Franklin is not true?

A．He instructed his countrymen as a printer.

B．He was a scientist.

C．He was a master of diplomacy.

D. He was a Puritan.

5．The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of _____.

A．Thomas Hood

B．Benjamin Franklin

C．Thomas Jefferson

D．George Washington

6．The following except _____ stirred the world and helped form the American Republic.

A．The American Crisis

B．The Federalist

C．Declaration of Independence

D．The Waste Land

7．Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the _____.

A．American Enlightenment

B．Sugar Act

C．Chartist movement

D．Romanticist

8．From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous _____, an annual collection of proverbs.

A．The Autobiography

B．Poor Richard's Almanac

C．Common Sense

D．The General Magazine

9．Which of the following works is not connected with Thomas Paine?

A．Common Sense

B．The American Crisis

C．The Rights of Man

D．The Autobiography

10．It was _____ who famously declared: "Where liberty is, there is my country."

A．Thomas Jefferson

B．Benjamin Franklin

C．Thomas Paine

D．Alexander Hamilton

11．The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is _____.

A．The Rights of Man

B．Common Sense

C．The American Crisis

D．Declaration of Independence

12．"These are the times that try men's souls", these words were once read to George Washington's troops and did much to shore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?

A．Benjamin Franklin

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．Thomas Paine

D．George Washington

13．Which statement about Philip Freneau is not true?

A．He was a satirist.

B．He was a pamphleteer.

C．He was a poet.

D．He was a novelist.

14．Which poem is not written by Philip Freneau?

A．The British Prison Ship

B．The Wild Honey Suckle

C．The Indian Burying Ground

D．The Day of Doom

15．Who was considered as the "Poet of American Revolution"?

A．Michael Wigglesworth

B．Edward Taylor

C．Anne Bradstreet

D．Philip Freneau

16．It was not until January 1776 that a widely heard public voice demanded complete separation from England. The voice was that of _____, whose pamphlet Common Sense, with its heated language, increased the growing demand for separation.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．George Washington

D．Patrick Henry

17．At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the _____ Movement.

A．Chartist

B．Romanticist

C．Enlightenment

D．Modernist

18．Thomas Jefferson's attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of the period we now call _____.

A．Age of Evolution

B．Age of Reason

C．Age of Romanticism

D．Age of Regionalism

19．_____ carries the voice not of an individual but of a whole people. It is more than writing of the Revolutionary period; it defined the meaning of the American Revolution.

A．Common Sense

B．The American Crisis

C．Declaration of Independence

D．Defence of the English People

20．Benjamin Franklin shaped his writing after _____ of the English essayists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.

A．Spectator Papers

B．Walden

C．Nature

D．The Sacred Wood

21．The 18th century, in Europe as in America, is also known as the Age of _____ and Enlightenment.

A．Reason

B．Revolution

C．Rationalism

D．Romanticism

22．The emergence of _____, a more intellectualized and liberalized religion, in the 18th-century America came directly from the Enlightenment.

A．Utilitarianism

B．Deism

C．Rationalism

D．Romanticism

23．_____, an antidote to Puritan tenets, became institutionalized after the American Revolution.

A．Utilitarianism

B．Deism

C．Rationalism

D．Romanticism

24．Literature in the period of American _____ was predominantly public and utilitarian.

A．Rationalism

B．Revolution

C．Realism

D．Romanticism

25．At the initial period, the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely due to _____.

A．journalism

B．pamphlets

C．political poems

D．satirical novels

26．_____ seemed to represent the Age of Reason and Revolution in his paradoxical faith in both social order and in natural rights, in love of stability and devotion to revolutionary change.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．George Washington

D．Benjamin Franklin

27．_____ was a prose stylist whose writing reflected the neoclassic ideals of clarity, restraint, simplicity, and balance.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．George Washington

D．Benjamin Franklin

28．_____ was the epitome of the Enlightenment, the versatile, practical embodiment of rational man in the 18th century.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．George Washington

D．Benjamin Franklin

29．In Philadelphia, _____ edited Pennsylvania Magazine, and contributed to Pennsylvania Journal.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．George Washington

D．Benjamin Franklin

30．_____ boldly advocated a Declaration of Independence.

A．Common Sense

B．The American Crisis

C．The Rights of Man

D．Defence of the English People

31．For the pamphlet _____, Thomas Paine was charged with treason and fled to France, where he was made a citizen.

A．Common Sense

B．The American Crisis

C．The Rights of Man

D．Defence of the English People

32．_____ also edited the first colonial magazine The General Magazine.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．Philip Freneau

D．Benjamin Franklin

33．Philip Freneau wrote impassioned verse in support of the American _____.

A．Enlightenment

B．Revolution

C．Rationalism

D．Romanticism

34．_____ was noteworthy first because of the nature of his poems. They were truly American and very patriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．Philip Freneau

D．Benjamin Franklin

35．_____ was neoclassical by training and taste yet romantic in essential spirit.

A．Thomas Paine

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．Philip Freneau

D．Benjamin Franklin

36．Most American literature in the 18th century was _____.

A．political

B．pastoral

C．satirical

D．romantic

III．Find the relevant match from column B for each item in column A.

Column A

（　　）1．Benjamin Franklin

（　　）2．Philip Freneau

（　　）3．Thomas Paine

（　　）4．Jonathan Edwards

（　　）5．Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

Column B

a．Letters from an American Farmer

b．The Wild Honey Suckle

c．American Crisis

d．Poor Richards Almanac

e．The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended

IV. Answer the following questions.

1．Give a brief analysis of The American Crisis.

2．Give a brief analysis of Declaration of Independence.

3．Give a brief analysis of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.