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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Burke warn his readers about in the Second Preface?
(a) His book will challenge their core values.
(b) His book will contain faults.
(c) His book may be construed as unpatriotic.
(d) His book may make them angry.

2. In which instance are feelings productive of the sublime?
(a) When the feelings are of pain or anguish.
(b) When the feelings are of delight and joy.
(c) When the feelings are of confusion and depression.
(d) When the feelings are of love and desire.

3. In Burke's opinion, at what depiction do painters most notably fail?
(a) The depiction of hell.
(b) The depiction of nobility.
(c) The depiction of lovers.
(d) The depiction of the sea.

4. Which medium does Burke feel arouses the passions most effectively?
(a) Poetry.
(b) Sculpture.
(c) Architecture.
(d) Painting.

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

6. What does Burke say is the primary passion ignited by the sublime?
(a) Anger.
(b) Astonishment.
(c) Joy.
(d) Confusion.

7. What does Burke mean by the word "Taste?"
(a) The notions of personal style that refined, elegant people display when in public.
(b) Those faculties of the mind which form judgments upon the work of the imagination and the elegant arts.
(c) The sense of distinction that the higher social classes have above the lower social classes.
(d) The sense of taste located on the tongue, which distinguish sweet, salty, bitter, and sour flavors.

8. According to Burke, what is more powerful than light at representing the sublime?
(a) Water.
(b) Fire.
(c) Darkness.
(d) Humanity.

9. What two aspects comprise Burke's "artificial infinity?"
(a) Terror and greatness.
(b) Strength and power.
(c) Succession and uniformity.
(d) Curiosity and desire.

10. How, according to Burke, can light and dark be equal?
(a) If one experiences light and dark for equal periods of time.
(b) Because according to science, there is no difference between light and dark.
(c) Only when quantities balance each other.
(d) When the overpowering nature of one creates the effect of the other.

11. Why are certain drugs enjoyable, according to Burke?
(a) Because people can get them for a low cost.
(b) Because the users have no idea of the potential harm of the drug.
(c) Because the users only take them for their healthy properties.
(d) Because people become accustomed to their pleasurable effects.

12. How does Burke define "magnificence?"
(a) As a great profusion of things that are splendid or valuable in and of themselves.
(b) As the power and might of a strong warrior or noble king.
(c) As that which requires magnification due to its miniscule size.
(d) As all that delights the eye by shimmering and glittering.

13. To what effect does Burke use the example of the Turkish emperor?
(a) To demonstrate the barbarity of the Turks.
(b) To question the validity of theories on sculpture.
(c) To illustrate the difference between taste and knowledge.
(d) To prove the existence of innate knowledge.

14. What large part of text has Burke added between the First and Second editions?
(a) A Publisher's Foreword.
(b) An Autobiographical Epilogue.
(c) An Afterword on Terror.
(d) An Introduction on Taste.

15. What kind of colors are unfit to produce what Burke terms "grand images?"
(a) Jewel tones.
(b) Bold colors.
(c) Earth tones.
(d) Cheerful colors.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is one of the general privations Burke lists?

2. What passion does Burke identify as most effectively robing the mind of reasoning?

3. What set of animals does Burke use as examples of power and the sublime?

4. Which two ideas does Burke often find confused with one another?

5. Why is suddenness sublime, according to Burke?

(see the answer keys)

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