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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 causes hearing in humans, according to Burke?
(a) Vibrations in the ear.
(b) Alterations in the ether.
(c) Waves floating through the air.
(d) Pulsations caused by physical movement.

2. How does this body part produce the sense of the sublime, according to Burke?
(a) By contracting and relaxing due to electrical stimuli.
(b) By vibrating more or less depending on the sublimity of the object.
(c) By becoming full and corpulent with the immensity of the sublime.
(d) By stretching to its fullest extent in response to fear.

3. According to Burke, what is the mechanical reason darkness is terrible?
(a) The eye's compensation for darkness causes pain.
(b) The skin becomes less sensitive and reduces feeling.
(c) The brain's ability to think is much reduced.
(d) The body's processes slow down.

4. To what does Burke compare human listening methods?
(a) Children tossing and turning in sleep.
(b) Animals pricking up their ears.
(c) Fish darting through the water.
(d) Birds flying away at sudden noises.

5. How does Burke define "beauty?"
(a) As those qualities which inspire love or a similar passion.
(b) As a necessary ingredient of the sublime.
(c) As a worthless obsession of a vapid society.
(d) As the ultimate object of human desires.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Burke envision would be the result of fitness trumping beauty in the human species?

2. According to Burke, who is most capable of beauty?

3. What example does Burke use in his argument that perfection is not the cause of beauty?

4. What is Locke's general theory of language, as related by Burke?

5. What body part's workings does Burke describe in detail?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are small objects more suited to the beautiful and large objects more suitable to the sublime, according to Burke?

2. What does Burke propose to study in Part IV? What caveat does he offer his readers?

3. Paraphrase Burke's definition of beauty and the distinction he makes between love and lust or desire.

4. Why, according to Burke, are humans readily affected by the passions of others?

5. Why, according to Burke, is proportion not the cause of beauty in vegetation and animals?

6. What are the physical effects of fear and pain, and what is the difference between fear and pain, as observed by Burke?

7. To what effect does Burke use the example of Campanella?

8. What types of sounds, smells, and tastes can be considered beautiful, according to Burke?

9. What example does Burke use to demonstrate that perfection is not the cause of beauty?

10. How does Burke define deformity?

(see the answer keys)

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