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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why are the cries of animals sublime, according to Burke?
(a) Because they convey great ideas of pain and danger.
(b) Because they reassure listeners of their own reasoning capacities.
(c) Because they instill a feeling of sympathy in listeners.
(d) Because they remind people of their humanity.

2. Burke believes that "taste" arises from:
(a) Nature.
(b) Reflection.
(c) Passion.
(d) Knowledge.

3. What attracts people to one another, argues Burke?
(a) Personality.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Wealth.
(d) Intelligence.

4. Which of the following is one of the general privations Burke lists?
(a) Hunger.
(b) Darkness.
(c) Insanity.
(d) Sleep.

5. What are sources of the "sublime?"
(a) Anything that promotes pleasure.
(b) Anything that causes the subject to think deeply.
(c) Anything that excites terror, pain, or danger.
(d) Anything of beauty.

6. What example does Burke use to demonstrate that differing tastes stem from the same basic root?
(a) The comparison of two historical moments.
(b) A comparison of two breeds of a horse.
(c) The description of pretty ladies in a drawing room.
(d) Two different types of poetry.

7. What example does Burke give for a sublime sound?
(a) Running water.
(b) Lapping waves.
(c) Childish laughter.
(d) Artillery booming.

8. Which method of teaching does Burke think best?
(a) Testing the learner on the subject.
(b) Referring obliquely to the subject in conversation with the learner.
(c) Allowing the learner to investigate the subject.
(d) Lecturing the learner on the subject.

9. Burke asserts that vastness of dimension is as sublime as:
(a) Vivid, intense color.
(b) Lightly textured surfaces.
(c) Minuteness of size.
(d) Regular, even sounds.

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

11. Which two ideas does Burke often find confused with one another?
(a) Fear and terror.
(b) Picturesque and picaresque.
(c) Liberty and patriotism.
(d) Sublime and beauty.

12. Which example does Burke use in his discussion in Section VIII about infinity?
(a) The ocean.
(b) Madmen.
(c) Cropland.
(d) The military.

13. How does Burke define "grief?"
(a) As the most desirable of the sensibilities because it is strong.
(b) As that feeling when an object is so lost that one can never enjoy it again.
(c) As one of many types of positive pain.
(d) As the natural state of relationships between all people.

14. What term does Burke use to reflect uncertainty relative to the sublime?
(a) "Random."
(b) "Steady."
(c) "Harsh."
(d) "Intermitting."

15. When might the sublime be delightful?
(a) When one experiences it from a safe distance.
(b) When it fills the entirety of one's being.
(c) When one considers it intellectually.
(d) When it truly threatens one's safety.

Short Answer Questions

1. What, according to Burke, is responsible for common deviations in natural taste?

2. What does Burke hope will be the result of his "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

3. Which idea is more effective over the other in affecting the imagination, according to Burke?

4. Why, according to Burke, is the idea of God sublime?

5. What does Burke use as an example of difficulty as greatness?

(see the answer keys)

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