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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What examples does Burke use to prove that people agree upon sensory observations?
(a) Sudden, loud sounds as opposed to quiet, soft sounds.
(b) The pleasantness or unpleasantness of certain thoughts.
(c) The tastes of sweet, bitter, and sour.
(d) Feelings of sharp or soft.

2. What does Burke term the "creative power" of the mind?
(a) Emotion.
(b) Judgment.
(c) Will.
(d) Imagination.

3. What natural powers in man does Burke say relate to external objects?
(a) The senses, passions, and the will.
(b) The imagination, passions, and the senses.
(c) The judgment, emotions, and the will.
(d) The senses, imagination, and judgment.

4. What example does Burke offer to show his ideas on the effects of tragedy?
(a) London being destroyed by an earthquake.
(b) A mass-murderer terrorizing the city.
(c) A mother and father losing their infant to an early death.
(d) The shocking regicide of the monarch.

5. What is Burke's argument that infinity exists in pleasing objects?
(a) The only truly pleasing object is the night sky, which is truly infinite.
(b) Pleasantness is a feeling that goes on forever within our minds.
(c) Humans are pleased by the unlimited potential of these objects.
(d) Infinity itself is a pleasant concept, so an infinite object must be pleasant.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why are the cries of animals sublime, according to Burke?

2. How does Burke define "grief?"

3. What example does Burke give for a sublime sound?

4. What does Burke want "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" to accomplish?

5. Which method of teaching does Burke think best?

Short Essay Questions

1. What qualities of sound produce the sublime, according to Burke?

2. Why, according to Burke, are the principles of reason and taste the same in all humans?

3. Describe Burke's idea of beauty.

4. What is the difference between taste and knowledge, according to Burke?

5. What is the cause of a wrong taste, and what are examples of it?

6. What motivated Burke to write "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

7. What is the main problem with creating prescribed definitions, especially of taste, according to Burke?

8. How does Burke describe sympathy?

9. What types of colors are productive of the sublime, and which colors are not, according to Burke?

10. Describe the passions belonging to society, as Burke introduces them.

(see the answer keys)

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