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The Introduction of European Culture- English Terms
Division One Greek Culture and Roman Culture
1. Iliad（《伊利亚特》）: 1) It is one of the two great ancient Greek epics by Homer. 2) It deals with the alliance of the states of the southern mainland of Greece, led by Agamemnon in their war against the city of Troy probably in the period 1200-1100 B. C. 3) The heroes are Hector on the Trojan side and Achilles and Odysseus on the Greek. 4) In the final battle, Hector was killed by Achilles and Troy was sacked and burned by the Greeks.
2．Herodotus（希罗多德）: 1) He is one of great ancient Greek historians. 2) He is often called “ Father of History. 3) He wrote about the wars between Greeks and Persians. 4) His history, full of anecdotes and digressions and lively dialogue, is wonderfully readable.5) His object in writing was “ that the great and wonderful deeds done by Greeks and Persians should not lack renown.”
3． Socrates: 1) He was the philosopher of ancient Greece in the 5th and 4th century. 2) He was considered one of the three greatest names in European philosophy. 3) He hold that philosophy took the aim to reach the conclusion of oneself and virtue was knowledge. 4) His thoughts were recorded in Dialogues by Plato. 5) He devised the dialectical method.
4. Dialectical method（辩证法）: 1) It was devised by ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. 2) It is a method of argument, by questions and answers.
5. Plato: 1) He was the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, pupil of Socrates. 2) His Dialogues are important not only as philosophical writing but also as imaginative literature. Of the Dialogues he wrote, 27 have survived, including: the Apology, Symposium and the Republic. 3) Plato built up a comprehensive system of philosophy. 4) His philosophy is called idealism.
6. Diogenes（狄奥艮尼）（北京市2002年自考真
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名词解释）: He was one of the Cynic’s leaders in ancient Greece, who decided to live like a dog. 2) The word “cynic” means “dog” in Greek. 3) He rejected all conventions, advocated self-sufficiency and extreme simplicity in life.
7．Stoics（斯多咯派）: 1) It was one of four ancient Greek schools of philosophers in the 4th century B. C. 2) To them , the most important thing in life was “duty”. 3) It developed into the theory that one should endure hardship and misfortune with courage. 4) The chief Stoic was Zeno.
8．Doric Style（陶立克柱）: 1) It is one of three ancient Greek architecture styles. 2) It is also called the masculine style. 3) It is sturdy, powerful, severe-looking and showing a good sense of proportions and numbers. 4) The Doric style is monotonous and unadorned.
9．Pax Romana（罗马和平）（北京市2001年自考真题名词解释）: 1）In the year 27 B.C. Octavius took supreme power as emperor with the tile of Augustus. 2) Two centuries later, the Roman empire reached its greatest extent in the North and East. 3) The emperors mainly relied on a strong army-the famous Roman Legions and an influential bureaucracy to exert their rules. 4) Thus the Roman enjoyed a long period of peace lasting 200 years. This remarkable phenomenon in the history is know as Pax Romana.
10. Virgil（维吉尔）: 1) He was the greatest of Latin poets. 2) He wrote the great epic, the Aeneid. 3) The poem opened out to the future, for Aeneas stood at the head of a rce of people who were to found the first the Roman republic and then the Roman Empire.
Division Two The Bible and Christianity
1. The Bible: 1) The Bible is a collection of religious writings comprising two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The former is about God and the laws of God; the latter, the doctrine of Jesus Christ.
2. The Old Testament: 1)The Bible was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The Old Testament is about God and the Laws of God. 3)The word “Testament” means “agreement”, the agreement between God and Man.
3. The New Testament: 1) The Bible was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The New Testament is about the doctrine (教义) of Jesus Christ. 3)The word “Testament” means “agreement”, the agreement between God and Man.
4. Pentateuch（摩西五经）: 1) In the Old Testament, the oldest and most important are the first five books, called Pentateuch.2) Pentateuch contains five books: Genesis (创世记), Exodus (出埃及记), Leviticus(利未记), Numbers (民数记), Deuteronomy (申命记).
5．Genesis： 1） Genesis is the first one of the five books in Pentateuch in Old Testament. 2) It tells about a religious account of the origin of the Hebrews people, including the origin of the world and of man, the career of Issac and the life of Jacob and his son Joseph.
6. Exodus: 1) Exodus is the second one of the five books in Pentateuch in the Old Testament. 2) It tells about a religious history of the Hebrews during their flight from Egypt Led by Moses. 3) During the period they began to receive God’s Law.
7. Noah’s Ark（挪亚方舟）: 1) For many hundred years after Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, the family of man multiplied and spread over the earth, but they became more and more corrupt 2) Thus God decided to destroy all life on earth in a great flood. 3) Because Noah always kept his faith in God, God spoke to him about His intention and told him to build an ark to protect him and his kin from the waters. 4) .Noah followed God’s instructions. 5) For 40 days it rained, the whole earth was covered with water, those sheltered in the ark being the only survivals.
8. The Prophets (先知)：1）For more than a thousand years in the Middle East there had been a class of people known as “Prophets” or the spokesmen of God.2） Earlier prophets lived in groups as temple officials. Later on there appeared in dependent prophet. 3）The Prophets can be grouped into the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets.（分为大小先知）
9．The Book of Daniel（《但以理书》）： 1）The Book of Daniel belongs to The Old Testament of the Bible. 2)The book appeared in the early days of Jews’ revolt against the Syrian King Antiochus IV. 3) It is a story mixed with vision, describing how Daniel and his friends were taken prisoner to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem and how they refused to compromise their faith.
10．The Edict of Milan（米兰赦令）: 1) Roman emperor Constantine believed that God had helped him in winning the battle for the throne, so he issued the Edict of Milan in 313. 2) It granted religious freedom to all, made Christianity legal.
11． The four accounts in the New Testament（四福音书）: 1) The four accounts are the first four books in the New Testament. 2) They were believed to have been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four of Jesus’ early followers. 3) They tell of the birth, teaching, death and Resurrection of Jesus.
12．King James’ version of Bible（钦定版本圣经）: 1）As the most important and influential of English Bible, it is also called the “Authorized” version. 2) It was produced by 54 biblical scholars at the command of King James, and was published in 1611. 3) With its simple, majestic Anglo-Saxon tongue, it is know as the greatest book in the English language.
Division Three The Middle Ages
1．the Middle ages（中世纪）（北京市2002年自考真题名词解释）: 1) In European history, the thousand-year period from the 5th century to 15th century following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century is called the Middle Ages.2)The middle ages is so called because it came between ancient times and modern times. 3) During the Medieval times there was no central government to keep the order. The only organization that seemed to unite Europe was the Christian church.4) Christianity took the lead in politics, law, art, and learning for hundreds of years. It shaped people’s lives. That is why the Middle Ages is also called the “Age of Faith”.
2．Feudalism（封建主义）：1）Feudalism in Europe was mainly a system of land holding — a system of holding land in exchange for military service. 2）The word “feudalism” was derived from the Latin “feudum”, a grant of land.
3．Fiefs（封地，采邑）：1）In Feudalism, the ruler of the government redivided the large lands into small pieces to be given to chancellors or soldiers as a reward for their service. 2）The subdivisions were called fiefs.
4. vassals（诸侯）: 1)In Feudalism, the ruler of the government redivided the large lands into small pieces to be given to chancellors or soldiers as a reward for their service. 2)The subdivisions were called fiefs.3) The owners of the fiefs w call vassals.
5. Code of Chivalry (骑士制度): 1) In the Middle Ages of western Europe, as a knight, he were pledged to protect the weak, to fight for the church, to be loyal to his lord and to respect women of noble birth. 2) These rules were known as code of chivalry, from which the western idea of good manners developed.
6. dubbing (骑士头衔加冕仪式) : After a knight was successful in his trails and tournaments, there was always a special ceremony to award him with a title, knight. This special ceremony is called dubbing.
7. The Manor (庄园)： 1） The centre of medieval life under feudalism was the manor. 2）Manors were founded on the fiefs of the lords. 3）By the twelfth century manor houses were made of stone and designed as fortresses. They came to be called castles.
8．The Catholic Church(天主教): 1) In the medieval “ age of faith”, almost all Europeans belonged to the Catholic Church. 2) The word “catholic” meant “universal” 3) The Catholic Church was highly centralized and disciplined international organization and the Pope was the head of the Church. He not only ruled Rome and parts of Italy as a king, he was also the head of all Christian churches in western Europe. Those who opposed the Pope lost their membership and their political right. 4) The Church even set up a church court-the Inquisition to stamp out so-called heresy. 5) Latin was the accepted official language in the Roman Catholic Church. 6) This Church had great influence on people’s daily life and the western thinking.
9．Monasticism (修道院制度): 1）Heeding the spiritual message of Christianity, between 300 and 500 A.D., many men withdrew from worldly contacts to deserts and lonely places. 2) This movement developed into the establishment of monasteries（修道院）and convents (女修道院) for monks and nuns. 3）Some of the hermits were great scholars known as “Father of the Church”, whose work is generally considered orthodox.. 4) Three representatives were St. Jerome, Augustine of Hippo and St. Benedict.
10.Benedictine Rule(本尼迪克特教团)： 1) It was founded by St. Benedict, a great monk in 529 A. D. 2) The monks who followed Benedict’s rule promised to give up all their possession before entering the monastery. 3) wore simple clothes and ate only certain simple foods. 4) They could not marry and had to obey without question the orders of the abbot. 5) They had to attend service seven times during the day and once at midnight.6) In addition, they were expected to work five hours a day in the fields surrounding the monastery.
11. holy communion（圣餐）: 1) It is one of most important sacraments. 2) It helps to remind people that Christ has died to redeem man.
12．The Crusades（十字军东征）（北京市2001年自考真题名词解释）: 1) In 1071 Palestine fell to the armies of the Turkish Moslems who attacked the Christian pilgrims, killing many of them and sold many others as slaves. 2) News of this kink roused great indignation among Christians in western Europe. 3) The result was a series of holy wars called the Crusades which went on about 200 years. 4) All the soldiers going to Palestine wore a red cross on the tunics as a symbol of obedience to God. 5) There were altogether eight chief Crusades from 1096 to 1291. 6) Aothough the Crusades did not achieve their goal to regain the Holy land, they had an important effect on the future of both the East and the West. They brought the East into closer contact with the West. And they greatly influenced the history of Europe.
13. Carolingian Renaissance（加洛林复兴）： 1） In early medieval period, the Emperor of the Romans, Charlemagne, encouraged learning by setting up monastery schools, giving support to scholars and setting scribes to work copying various ancient books. Because the scribes performed their tasks well, few of the ancient works that had survived until that time were ever lost. 3) The result of Charlemagne’s efforts is usually called the “Carolingian Renaissance”. 4)The term is derived from Charlemagne’s name in Latin, Carolus. 5) The most interesting side of this rather minor renaissance is the spectacle of Frankish or Germanic state reaching out to assimilate the riches of the Roman Classical and the Christianized Hebraic culture.
14. Alfred the Great（阿尔弗雷德大王）（北京市2003年自考真题名词解释）: 1) As the ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, he contributed greatly to the medieval European culture. 2) He worried about the disappearance of learning and made Wessex the Anglo-Saxon cultural centre by introducing teachers and scholars, founding new monasteries, and promoting translations into the vernacular from Latin works. 3)He also inspired the compilation of the Anglo Saxon Chronicles.
15．National Epic(民族史诗)：1）The epic was the product of the Heroic Age. It was an important and mostly used form in ancient literature.2） “National epic” refers to the epic written in vernacular languages—that is, the languages of various national states that came into being in the Middle Ages. 3）Literary works were no longer all written in Latin.4） It was the starting point of a gradual transition of European literature from Latin culture to a culture that was the combination of a variety of national characteristics.
16．Beowulf（《贝奥武甫》）：1) It is an Anglo-Saxon epic in 8th century. 2) It originates from the collective efforts of oral literature. 3) The story is set in Denmark or Sweden and tells how the hero, Veowulf, defeats the monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother, a sea monster, but eventually receives his own death in fighting with a fire dragon. 4) It marks the beginning of English literature.
17. Song of Roland （《罗兰之歌》）： 1）It is the most well-known of a group of French epics known as La Chanson de Gestes. 2) It tells how Roland, one of Charlemagne’s warriors, fights in Spain and dies defending a pass in the Pyrenees.
18. The Divine Comedy（《神曲》）：1）It was written by the greatest poet of Italy, Dante. 2) It is one of the landmarks of world literature. 3) The poem itself is the greatest Christian poem with a profound vision of the medieval Christian world, and expresses humanistic ideas which foreshadowed the spirit of Renaissance. 4) It was written in Italian rather than in Latin, which influenced decisively the evolution of European literature away from it origins in Latin culture to a new varied expression.
19. The Canterbury Tales（《坎特伯雷故事集》）： 1) The Canterbury Tales was written by English poet Chaucer. 2) The book contains twenty-four tales bold by a group of pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury. 3) Most of the tales are written in verse which reflects Chaucer’s innovation by introducing French and Italy writing into the English native alliterative verse(头韵). 4)The Canterbury Tales is the best representative of the middle English, paving the way to Modern English.
20. Gothic（哥特式建筑）(北京市2001自考真题名词解释)： 1）The Gothic style started in France and quickly spread through all parts of western Europe. 2) It flourished and lasted from the mid-12th to the end of 15th century and, in some areas, into the 16th. 3) More churches were built in this manner tan in any other style in history. 4) The Gothic was an outgrowth of the Romanesque, but it reflected a much more ordered feudal society with full confidence. 5) Gothic cathedrals soared high, their windows, arches and towers reaching heavenward, flinging their passion against the sky. The were decorated with beautiful stained glass windows and sculptures.
Division Four Renaissance and Reformation
1．Renaissance（文艺复兴）：1） As a period in western civilization, generally speaking, Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th century. 2 Renaissance started in Florence and Venice with the flowering of paintings, sculpture and architecture.3) The word “Renaissance” means revival, specifically in this period of history, revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture. 4)Renaissance, in essence, was a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman church authorities.5. During the period of Renaissance, old sciences revived and new sciences emerge, national languages and national cultures free from the absolute control of the Papal authority in Rome took shape and art and literature flourished as never before.
2． Humanism (人文主义)：1）Humanism is the essence of Renaissance. 2) Humanists in Renaissance believed that human beings had rights to pursue wealth and pleasure and they admired the beauty of human body. 3) This belief ran counter to the medieval ascetical idea of poverty and stoics,, and shifted man’s interest from Christianity to humanity, from religion to philosophy, fro heaven to earth, from the beauty of God to the beauty of human in all its joys, senses and feelings. 4) Theologically, the humanists were religious. But they began to look at the problems of God and Providence with a view to understanding man’s work and man’s earthly happiness. 5) The philosophy of humanism is reflected in the art and literature in Italy and the rest of Europe, to pass down as the beginning of the history of modern man, who, instead of brooding about death and the other world, lives and works for the present and future progress of mankind.
3. Leonard da Vinci（北京市2004年自考真题名词解释）: 1) He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, an engineer and a scientist, who was born in Florence in Italy. 2) He was a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. 3) He had profound understanding of art, which exerted great influence among the painters of his own generation, and generations to follow.4） His major works are Last Super and Mona Lisa.
4. Michelangelo（米开朗基罗）: 1) Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. 2) he was a towering figure of the Renaissance. 3) By art, he expressed his vision of man, man’s beauty, man’s nobility, his own anguish and his own energy, a means by which he made inquiry into the reality.3) his major works are David , Moses and Sistine Chapel.
5. Raphael（拉斐尔）: 1) Raphael was one of major painters during the Renaissance. 2) In his work, there is the exquisite harmony and balance of the High Renaissance. 3) Raphael was best know for his Madonna(Virgin Mary). He painted his Madonnas in different postures. 4) Because of his Madonnas with sweet expressions, he came to be known as the elegant Raphael.
6．High Renaissance（文艺复兴全盛时期）: 1) The Renaissance in Italy reached its height in the 16th century with its center moving to Milan, then to Rome, and created High Renaissance(1490-1530). 2) meantime by the beginning of the 16th century, Venetian art had come into being in full glory. 3) the representatives in this period were da Vinci, Michelangelo. Raphael and Titian.
7．Reformation（宗教改革）（北京市２００１年自考真题名词解释）：１）The Reformation was a 16th century religious movement as well as a socio-political movement. ２）It was led by Martin Luther and wept over the whole Europe. 3) This movement was aimed at opposing the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic Church and replacing it with the absolute authority of the Bible. 3) The Reformists believed in direct communication between the individual and God, engaged themselves in translating the Bible into their mother tongues, urged the Church to have institutional reforms and were interested in liberation national economy and politics from the interference of the Roman Catholic Church and carrying out wars in the interests of peasants and revolution of the bourgeoisie. 4) The Reformation dealt the feudal theocracy a fatal blow and shattered Medieval Church’s stifling control over man, thus paving the way for capitalism.
８．Martin Luther（马丁•路德）:1）He was the German leader of the Protestant Reformation. 2) His doctrine marked the first break in the unity of the Catholic Church. 3) His doctrines were: men are redeemed by faith and not by the purchase of indulgence; Bible was the supreme authority and man was only bound to the law of the word of God, not the word of the clergy; all believers were priests, and all occupations were holy.
9. John Calvin（约翰•加尔文）: 1) He was a French theologian who put his theological thoughts in his Institues of the Christian Religion, which was called as Calvinism. 2) He rejected the papal authorities and devoted himself to the work of reformation in Geneva, where he set himself the task of constructing a government based on the subordination of the state to the church, a type of government which later came to be know as the Presbyterian government. 3) Calvin’s influence was widespread, particularly in England and Scotland, and the Netherlands.
10. Calvinism（加尔文主义）（北京市２００３年自考真题名词解释）: 1)Calvinism was established by Calvin in the period of Renaissance. 2)Calvinism held that the absolute authority of the God’s will, holding that only those specially elected by God are saved, and that any form of sinfulness was a likely sigh of damnation whereas hard work and thrifty way of life could be a sign of salvation. 3) This belief serves so well to help the rising bourgeoisie on its path that many historians have suggested that Calvinism was one of the main courses the capitalist spirit.
11. Counter-Reformation（反宗教改革）: 1)By late 1520 the Roman Catholic Church had lost its control over the church in Germany and the movement against the Roman Catholic Church had swept over the whole of Europe, shaking the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church. 2) The Roman Catholic Church did not stay idle. They gathered their forces to examine the Church institutions and introduce reforms and improvements, to bring back its life. 3) In time, the roman Catholic Church did re-establish itself as a dynamic force in European affairs. 4) This recovery of power is often called by historians the Counter-Reformation.
12. Jesuits/The Society of Jesus（耶酥会）: 1) In the Counter-Reformation, a Spaniard Ignatius and his followers called themselves the Jesuits, members of the Society of Jesus. 2) The Jesuits went through strict spiritual training and organized their own colleges to train selected youth who would be centre of their influence in the next generation.3) The Jesuits made it their life long work to spread the orthodox faith.
13. Don Quixote（《堂吉珂德》）:1) Don Quixote is the greatest work by Spanish novelist Cervanes..2) The novel depicts the various adventures of Don Quixote and his servant Sancho Panza and offers a picture of Spain in the 17th century with various characters and landscapes. 3) it was a parody satirizing a very popular type of literature at the time, the romance of chivalry. 4) This book is recognized as the father of the modern European novel.
14. William Shakespeare（莎士比亚）:1) Shakespeare is the greatest poet and dramatist in English literature. 2) He was a man of the late Renaissance who gave the fullest expression to humanist ideals. 3) He produced a lot of works, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, which exerted great impact on the world literature and was regarded as one of the two reservoirs of modern English language.
15. Columbus（哥伦布）:1) He was a Italian navigator. 2) Under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, He sailed west to reach the orient. 3) He left Palos in 3 August, 1492 with three ships and reached the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, which was claimed to be the New World.
16. Copernicus（哥白尼）: 1) He was a Polish astronomer who put forward revolutionary ideas in astronomy in 17th century. 2) He believed that the earth and other planets orbit about the sun and that earth is not at the centre of the universe. 3) He set forth his beliefs in the book The Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs and came to be known as father of modern astronomy. 4) He was also the forerunner of modern science.
Division Five The Seventeenth Century
1. Kepler’s Laws（开普勒定律）: 1) The first important astronomer after Copernicus to adopt the heliocentric theory was the German scientist Kepler. 2)Kepler is best known for his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion, the three laws being called Kepler’s Laws. 3) They may be stated as follows each planet moves in an ellipse, with sun at one focus; each planet moves more rapidly when near the sun than farther from it; the distance of each planet from the sun bears a definite relation to the time period of its revolution around the sun. 4. :They formed the basis of all modern planetary astronomy and led to Newton’s discovery of the laws of gravitation.
2. the laws of gravitation（万有引力定律）：1） The law of the universal gravitation is considered to be one of the most important discoveries in the history of science. 2) It was discovered by English scientist, Isaac Newton. 3) It states that the sun, the moon, the earth, the planets, and all the other bodies in the universe move in accordance with the same basic force, which is called gravitation.4) From his law of universal gravitation Newton was able to deduce the orbits of comets, the tides, and even the minute departures from elliptical orbits on the part of the planets.
3. the Great Instauration（伟大的复兴）: 1) To expect any great advancement in science, English philosopher Francis Bacon held, we must begin anew. 2) The fresh start required the mind to overcome all the preconceptions, all the prejudices, all the assumptions, sweep away all the fallacies and false beliefs. In a word it is to break with the past, and to restore man to his lost mastery of the natural world. This was what Bacon called the Great Instauration.
4．Inductive method（归纳法）： 1） Inductive method was established by English philosopher Francis Bacon in 17th century. 2) Induction means reasoning from particular facts or individual cases to a general conclusion.3). Induction was put over against deductive method.
5. Thomas Hobbes’s political thought（霍布斯的政治思想）（北京市2004年真题名词解释）: 1) Thomas Hobbes held that men are enemies and at war with each other. 2) In odrder to get men out of the miserable condition of war, there should be a common power or government backed by force and able to punish. 3) He preferred monarchy.
6. Lock’s Social Contract（洛克的社会契约论）：1）He believed that political society and government rest on a rational foundation. 2) He emphasized that the social contract must be understood as involving the individual’s consent to submit to the will of the majority and that the will of the majority must prevail. 3) Absolute monarchy is contrary to the original social contract and dangerous to liberty. 4) The ruler of government is one partner of the social contract. 5) The people shall be judge when circumstances render rebellion legitimate.
7. The English Revolution: 1) The English Revolution took place in the middle of the 17th century. 2) Among the causes of this revolution were the growth of capitalism,, the break-up of serfdom and the Puritan Movement. 3) 1in 1642, the Civil War broke out between the king and the Parliament. Led by Cromwell, the English bourgeoisie won the victory, and Charles I was captured and beheaded in 1649 and a republic was born.
8.The Glorious Revolution（光荣革命）: 1) During the restoration in England, many revolutionary leaders and those who had supported the Revolution were persecuted and Charles II was planning to turn England into a Catholic country. 3) In 1688, the representatives of the Parliament went to Holland to negotiate with the Dutch king William and his wife Mary, who was a member of the English royal family and a Protestant. Thus the English throne was offered to William and Mary, and the short-lived restoration ended. 4) There was no bloodshed in this event of 1688, so it was called the Glorious Revolution.
9. The Bill of Rights（权利法案）: 1) In 1889, the Bill of Rights was enacted by the English Parliament. 2) It established the supremacy of the Parliament and put an end to divine monarchy in England. 3) The bill of Rights limited the Sovereign’s power in certain important directions: ①the power of suspending the laws by royal authority was declared to be illegal; Parliament was responsible for all the law making. ②The king should levy no money except by grant of Parliament. ③The king should not keep a standing army in time of peace without consent of Parliament; ④.No Roman Catholic, nor anyone marrying a Roman Catholic should succeed to the throne. 4) The Bill is the foundation on which the conditional monarchy of England rests.
10. Descartes’ Theory of Knowledge（笛卡儿的认知论）: 1) Descartes employed methodic doubt with a view to discovering whether there was any indubitable truth. 2) His motto is “I doubt, therefore I think: I think, therefore I am”. 3) Doubting is thinking, thinking is the essence of the mind. 4) Descartes concluded that all tings that we conceive very clearly and distinctly are true, and that knowledge of things must be by the mind.
11. French Classicism（北京市2003年自考真题名词解释）: Classicism implies the revival of the forms and traditions of the ancient world, a return to works of old Greek literature from Homer to Plato and Aristotle. 2). It intended to produce a literature, French to the core, which was worthy of Greek and classical ideals. 3)This neoclassicism reached its climax in France in the 17th century. 4) Three characteristics were: ①In The French Classical literature, man was viewed as a social being consciously and willingly subject to discipline; ②Rationalism was believed to be able to discover the best principles of human conduct and the universal principles of natural laws. French classicism was fond fo using classical forms, classical themes and values.
12．Baroque Art（巴洛克艺术） ： 1）The term “baroque” was first applied to the architecture of the period, with its proliferation of ornament, and then extended to its elaborate paintings and music.2) Baroque Art, flourished first in Italy, and then spread to Spain, Portugal, France in south Europe and to Flander and the Netherlands in the North. 3)It was characterized by dramatic intensity and sentimental appeal with a lot of emphasis on light and color.
Division Six The Age of Enlightenment
1.Enlightenment(启蒙运动)(北京市2004年自考真题名词解释):1)Enlightenment was an intellectual movement originating in France, which attracted widespread support among the ruling and intellectual classes of Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century. 2） It characterizes the efforts by certain European writers to use critical reason to free minds from prejudice, unexamined authority and oppression by Church or State. 3）Therefore the Enlightenment is sometimes called the Age of Reason.
2．Deism（自然神论）：1) Deism was prevalent in the Enlightenment. 2) It holds that the universe is set in motion by God as a self-regulation mechanism and that everything operates according to natural laws, which can be understood by the human mind.
3. The First Industrial Revolution: 1) The First Industrial Revolution took place in England between 1760 and 1840. 2) It began with the invention of the steam engine and rapidly changed the face of the world, ushering in a completely new age. 3) The revolution is marked by the following developments: ①the introduction of machines which reduced the need for hand labor in making goods;② the substitution of steam power for water, wind and animal power;③ the change from manufacturing in the home to the factory system; ④new and faster method of transportation on land and on water;⑤ the growth of modern capitalism and the working class.
4. French Revolution: 1) Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, the three great philosophers and thinkers of France in the 18th century prepared theoretically for the French revolution. 2) In 1789, the people in Paris seized the Bastille. This event marked the end of the French monarchy. 3) The first French Republic was born in 1792. 4) Guiding the revolution is a document called Declaration of the Rights of Man.5) It established bourgeois democracy with its slogans of liberty, equality and universal brotherhood.
5. The Spirit of the Laws（《论法的精神》）: 1) It was written by French philosopher Montesquieu in 18th century. 2) It is one of the great works in the history of political theory and in the history of jurisprudence. 3) It is an investigation of the environmental and social relationships that lie behind the laws of civilized society. 4) Montesquieu redefined law as “ the necessary relationships which derive from the nature of things”. 5) He believed that the legislative, executive and judicial powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies, acting independently. 6) The book was well accepted by the philosophers of the Enlightenment and his theories and has a great influence in the Western world even to this day.
6． Rousseau’s The Social Contract: 1) 1) Rousseau expressed his views in his most important work, the Social Contract. 2) It Proposed a society able to cultivate the individual’s moral stature without injuring his freedom. 3) He believed that a social contract is established when each individual gave his rights to a general will. 4) Then he was as free after this contract as he had been in the state of nature. 5) he sacrificed his natural freedom for a civil freedom. 6) The book ended with a claim for social democracy.
7. Henry Fielding（亨利•费尔丁）: 1) He was an English novelist, dramatis and essayist, and was called by Sir Walter Scott the “Father of the English novel”. 2) He was instrumental in the creation and development of the modern novel- a new art form which is realistic, comic, unsentimental, showing contemporary life and manners. 3) He was also the first person to approach the genre with a fully worked-out theory of the novel.4) His masterpiece was Tom Jones.
8．Faust（《浮士德》）：1）It is not only Goethe’s own masterpiece but the greatest work of German literature. 2) It is a tragedy chiefly in verse. 3) It utilizes a broad variety of styles to underscore its theme of total human experience. 4) In Faust, Goethe draws on a immense variety of cultural material-theological, mythological philosophical, political, economic, scientific, aesthetic, musical, and literary.
9. Wilhelm Tell（《威廉•退尔》）（北京市2002年自考真题名词解释）: 1) It was German dramatist Schiller’s last completed play. 2) It deals with the justifiability of violence in political action. 3) It has become popular at folk festivals in both Germany and Switzerland.
10. The Viennese School（维也纳乐派）: 1) The three great composers of the Classical Period, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, are known as the Viennese School. 2) It was through the achievements of these three men that the sonata for solo instruments for orchestra came to occupy the position of first importance that had formerly belonged to the opera. 3) Beethoven, leaning much of his work towards the romantic Movement occupied a pivotal position of the three.
Division Seven Romanticism
1. Romanticism: 1) Romanticism was a movement in literature, philosophy, music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 2)Starting from the ideas of Rousseau in France and from the Storm and Stress movement (狂飙运动) in Germany. Romanticism emphasized individual values and aspirations above those of society. 3) As a reaction to the industrial revolution, it looked to the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature for inspiration5) Romanticism gave impetus to the national liberation movement in 19th century Europe.
2. Lakers（湖畔诗人）: The two great English Romantic poets Wordsworth and Coleridge were known as Lakers because they were living in the Lake District.
3．Byronic hero（拜伦式英雄）：1）Byronic hero was created by Byron in the Romantic period of the English literature. 2）The Byronic hero is characterized by ardent love of liberty and a fierce hared of tyranny. Don Juan was the representative of such a hero. 3) It became an idol of the young.
3. Les Miserables（《悲惨世界》）: 1) Les Miseralbes is considered one of Hugo’s masterpiece. 2) This novel is packed with exciting incidents and is a sociological study of poverty and slum life. 3) The core of this long novel is the life story of man called Jean Valjean. 4) Love of humanity is one of the themes of the book.
4．Engene Onegin(《叶甫盖尼•奥涅金》):1) It is generally recognized as the masterpiece of the Russian poet Pushkin. 2) It is a verse-novel based on Byron’s model Don Juan. 3) In the book Tatyana embodies all the Slavic virtues while Onegin sets up the type of the “superfluous man” for ht numerous Russian novels come. 4) What stands in the way of their love seems to be a conflict between Onegin’s dissatisfaction with the imperfect Russian society and his cynic. 5) It reflects upon the impact of western decadence and corruption on Russian youths with progressive thinking.
5. Romantic Music: 1) The Romantic Movement in music dominated the period about 1830 to about 1900. 2) It was merely part of a general movement, which, all over Europe, especially in Germany and France, affected all arts. 3)The Romantic Music is divided into two periods: The early Romantic Music represented by Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and the later Romantic Music represented by Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
6. Three B’s: Brahmas belongs with Bach and Beethoven in the mighty triumvirate of the “Three B’s”.
Division Eight Marxism and Darwinism
1.Hegelian dialectics（黑格尔辩证法）：1) Hegel was a German philosopher. 2) He maintained that the universe is subject to a constant progress of change and that activity is basic; progress is rational and logic is the basic of world progress. 3) Such thoughts were in his book Phenomenology.
2.Utopian Socialism（空想社会主义）: 1) When modern capitalist society appeared in Europe, various socialist doctrines began to arise as a reflection of and protest against the new form of oppression. 3) This early socialism was utopian in nature. It criticized capitalist society; it condemned it and damned it; it dreamed of its destruction; it indulged in fancies of a better order and endeavored to convince the rich the immorality of exploitation. 4) But they failed to observe the antagonism between the interests of the bourgeoisie and the interests of the proletariat. They would not even admit the idea that the workers should act as an independent social force. They only dreamed of socialism without a struggle. 5) The representatives are Owen, Saint-Simon and Fourier. 6) Their thoughts are the source of Marx’s scientific socialism.
3. Scientific Socialism: 1）Marx and Engels developed utopian socialism to scientific socialism. 2）They declared that socialism would be realized through class struggle, and that only the proletariat was a really revolutionary class.
4．Darwinism: 1) Darwinism mainly refers to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the essence of which is natural selection. 2) The idea of evolution had been touched upon by several scientists, rom whom Darwin inherited much. 3) These scientists are Lamarck, Lyell, Marx, etc. 4) Darwinism exerted great influence on biology, theology, and social science.
5. Social Darwinism: 1) Darwin’s demonstration of evolution by natural selection made a great impression on English philosopher Spencer with unfortunate results. 2) For the term” natural selection” Spencer substituted the “survival fo the fittest”. 3) Spencer’s term, however, became a slogan for those who sought to apply to society the principle by which Darwin had shown that biological evolution had occurred. 4) The result was so-called social Darwinism. This theory advocated free play for all processes involved in the struggle for existence.
Division Nine Realism
1. Realism:1) In art and literature the term realism is used to identify a literary movement in Europe and the United States in the last half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. 2) In Europe, the Realist movement arose in the 50s of the 19th century and had its origin in France. 3) The realists wanted a truthful representation in their works of contemporary life and manners. They thought of their method as observational and objective. 4) By the 1850s the term “realism” was applied to the art of Courbet, who used everyday scenes for his subject matter. 5) In art and literature realism came as a protest against the falseness and sentimentality which realists thought they saw in romantic fiction. 6) Realism means more than a literary method; it defines a particular kind of subject matter-the surface details, the common-place actins and the tragedies of the ordinary people constitute the chief matter of the realist movement.7) Its language was usually simple, clear and direct, while the tone was often comic, frequently satiric.
2. The Human Comedy: 1) Balzac is particularly celebrated for his monumental The Human Comedy inspired by that of Dante’s Divine Comedy. 2) It is the title given by Balzac to the whole collection of his 90 novels. 3) His project was to present in a series of books, a comprehensive picture of contemporary French society. 4) Among the best-known individual novels of the series are Eugenie Garndet, Le Pere Goriot and La Cousinee Bette. 5) Their detailed settings, minute descriptions, and analyses of such dominating passions as social climbing and money-making mark the beginnings of French realism. 6) In these 90 novels and short stories, The Human Comedy realistically studies every social class and touches on most fields of knowledge.
3. Naturalistic Novel: 1) The naturalistic novel is not only a record of men and manners. To the naturalists, the novel is a demonstration of social law. The novelist is not an historian who observes merely; he is a scientist, a biologist, who observes, and on the basis of his observation, draws a general theory of human conduct. The novel is thus the experiment which demonstrates the truth of his general theory. 2) Naturalism changed the technique of the novelist. The naturalist was not permitted to invent. 3) The language he used must be the actual language used by the people he was describing. 4) He must not only collect all the possible facts, but must present these facts as exactly as they had occurred.
4. Ibsen（易卜生）: 1) Ibsen was a great Norwegian dramatist. 2) he looked to ordinary social and domestic relationships and situations for the subject-matter of his plays. His work is sharply critical of the hypocrisy and seamy politics of Norwegian provincial life. 3) The success of Ibsen’s problem plays was international.4) His plays are viewed as the fountainhead of much modern drama.5) His major works include A Doll’s House, An Enemy of the People, The Visionary.
5．Impressionism in Art: 1) The term “ impressionism” was taken directly from the title Monet’s Impression: Sunrise. The chief characteristics of the impressionist style were first seen in Monet’s landscapes in which the forms are broken by loose brushstrokes and the colors of objects are reflected into other objects throughout the painting. By about 1880 a pervasive colored atmosphere was dissolving objects into hovering and shimmering images. 2) The artists frequented the scenes they portrayed: seaside resorts, forests and rivers, sidewalk cafes, race tracks, and the theatre and ballet.3) Generally speaking, the impressionists aimed at capturing the fleeting image of a scene taken in by the eye in real life and recreating the transitory experience with brushstrokes which are eventually transformed into a web of infinitely varied, tiny units that dissolve solid objects into a dense, colored atmosphere.
Division Ten Modernism
1. Modernism: Modernism was a complex and diverse international movement in all the creative arts, originating about the end of the 19th century. It provided the greatest creative renaissance of the 20th century. 2) It was made up of many facets, such as symbolism, surrealism, cubism, expressionism, futurism, ect.
2. Id(本我)： 1）Freud divided human personality into three functional parts — Id, Ego and Superego. 2） The Id is the container of the instinctual urges.3） It is the unconscious part of mind, which seeks immediate satisfaction of desires.4） Id is concerned with what a person wants to do.
3．Ego（自我）：1） Freud divided human personality into three functional parts — Id, Ego and Superego. 2）Ego is the rational, thoughtful, realistic personality process.3） It is characterized by a desire for independence, autonomy and self-direction. Ego is concerned with ability.
4．superego（超我）:1)Freud divided human personality into three functional parts — Id, Ego and Superego. 2)Superego is the idealized image that a person builds of himself in response to authority and social pressures.
5. Oedipus Complex（北京市2003年自考真题）: 1) Oedipus Complex is a Freudian term originating from a Greek tragedy, in which King Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. 2) According to Freud’s psychosexual development theory, children are born with powerful sexual urges. From 3 to 5, they become especially aware of the differences between themselves and members the opposite sex. In this period, a child becomes a rival for the affections of the parent of the opposite sex. The boy wants to win his mother for himself, so the tends to be hostile to his father. The girl does exactly the opposite. 3) However, neither the parent nor their children are aware of this. It is an unconscious process.
6. The Waste Land: 1) It is a long poem by great English modernist poet T.S. Eliot. 2) It is a rich and complex poem about spiritual emptiness and emotional impoverishment common to both dying genteel world and the new urban materialist world. 3）In this poem, Eliot brings in allusions to mythology, classical literature, such as the Bible and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
7. Ulysses: 1) Ulysses is the masterpiece of Irish novelist James Joyce. 2) It is considered the single best fiction ever written since the beginning of the 20th century. 3) The book’s title alludes to Homer’s epic “Odyssey”. 4) He describes the events a single day in Dublin. 5) In it Joyce used the steam of consciousness skill profusely to depict the three main characters in great detail. 6) Thematically, the Odyssey myth is employed to show modern man’s voyage and adventures in life. 7) Hue to his innovations in narrative technique, the book is difficult to read.
8. The Lost Generation:1) The Lost generation refers to a group of young intellectuals who came back from WWI, were injured both physically and mentally. 2)They lived by indulging themselves in the Bohemian way of life.3) Their American dream was disillusioned.4) The best representative of the lost generation was Ernest Hemingway.
9. Hemingway: 1) Hemingway, American novelist short story writer, was one of the most celebrated and influential authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Noble Prize in 1954 for mastery of the art of modern narration. 2) Hemingway helped to accomplish a revolution in literary style and language;. He tried to cut out all words that were not strictly necessary. 3) His style is characterized by short and simple sentences with very few adjectives and adverbs. But they are full of emotion. 4) Hemingway rote quite a few works of fiction, most of which are well-know today. Among them are The sun Also Rises, A farewell to Arms, for whom the Bell Tolls, the Old Man and the Sea.
10 The Beat Generation(垮掉的一代): 1)The Beat Generation in America refers to a group of American youngsters who refused to accept “respectability” and conventional social behaviors and who cultivated a rootless manner of living. 2)The distinctive features of the Beat Generation is that they used a special slang language and loved jazz. 3) The Beat Generation was represented by Ginsberg’s Howl and Jack Keroual’s On The Road.
10. Angry Young Men: 1) Angry Young Men was a term referring to a group of English writers who found themselves to be social misfits. 2)They felt they were socially stateless, even though they were university graduates. 3)They were very sensitive to the undesirable things of the society. 4)Angry Young Men was represented by John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger and Amis’ novel Lucky Jim.
11. Nouveau Roman（新小说派）：1）Nouveau Roman refers to some 20th –century French novels. 2）The term Nouveau Roman came into being with the publication of some essays by Grillet, a French writer.3）The New Novel tends to be objective. 4）Human characters are on an equal footing with things. 5）The New Novelists try to avoid taking sides when they come to the description of characters, making no distinction between good and bad or between important and trivial. 6)Therefore, their characters are often shapeless and sometimes even nameless
12. Existentialism(北京市2002年自考真题名词解释)：1）Existentialism is a philosophy that became a self-conscious movement in the 20th century. 2）Its basic concern is human existence。3）. A key concept of existentialism is that man is only what he makes of himself. 4） Existentialism in literature was represented by Bernard Shaw’s problem plays and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (存在与虚无).
13. The Theatre of the absurd(荒诞剧): 1)The Theatre of the absurd is a term referring to the works of some European, particularly French, playwrights of the 1950s and 60s. 2)The word “absurd” originated from the works of Camus. 3)The play writers of the Theatre of the absured employed many techniques used by the popular theatre such as: acrobatics. 4) Their language is very often dislocated, with plenty of jargon, clichés and repetitions. 5)The Theatre of the Absurd of represented by Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (等待戈多).
14．Black Humor ：1）Black Humor is a term derived from Black Comedy. Its origin can be traced back to Shakespeare’s time. But now the term is usually used to refer to some Western, especially American Post-World WarⅡ writers. 2） Black humor is kind of desperate humor. 3） In Black humor, man’s fate is decided by incomprehensible powers. 4） Black humor was represented by Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
15．Catch-22（第二十二条军规）: 1) It is American writer Joseph Heller’s best-selling novel, which has been considered the major work of Black Humor. 2) Catch-22 is, according to the novel, an army regulation designed to trap the pilots of the Air Force into flying more missions. 3) It says an officer can only be sent away from war when he is mad. But if he says he is mad, the doctor will say no madman will admit he is mad. There the has to fly more missions. 4) This book is a bitter attack on the dehumanizing military institutions in the U.S.A.
16.Fauvism（野兽派）：1)The Fauvism expressed their emotional reaction to the subject in the boldest colour and strongest pattern of lines. 2) They preferred this to objective representation. 3)In this way the Fauves freed colour from its tradition.
17. Expressionism: 1) Expressionist art is marked by the expression of reality by means of distortion to communicate one’s inner vision. 2)The artists of this school used bright colours to bring out their pessimistic views on life. 3) They showed a world of subconsciousness.
18. Cubism(立体主义):1)Cubism is a type of abstract painting which aims to penetrate beyond surface appearances and single vision and depict persons and objects from varying angles simultaneously and three-dimensionally 2)The Cubism was represented by Picasso (毕加索).
19. Futurism: 1) The works of futurism portray the dynamic life of the 20th century. They glorify war, danger, machine age and attack museums and academies. 2) They are interested in expressing the speed, progress and even the violence of modern life..
20. Dadaism: 1) Dadaism created works that were anti-war, anti-modern life, and indeed, anti-art. 2)When they held exhibitions the Dadaists sometimes encouraged the public to destroy their displays. 3) They thought that the world had become insane and art too serious. 4) One of the most important ideas to develop out of the movement was automatism—the automatic production of art.
21.Surrealism: 1) Surrealism was a which combined the Dada idea of automatism with the psychology of Sigmund Freud. 2) The surrealists felt that the job of the artist was to show an unconscious world.
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