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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What caveat does Burke offer to his readers about "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) He can only study the immediately sensible qualities of the sublime and the beautiful.
(b) He chooses to omit most of what he truly thinks and feels regarding the sublime and beautiful.
(c) He is writing for political reasons geared to sway minds.
(d) He bears no resemblance to any kind of contemporary scientific method.

2. Burke contrasts smoothness to __________ in his discussion of beauty.
(a) Opacity.
(b) Roughness.
(c) Stickiness.
(d) Softness.

3. To what does Burke tie his own opinion of darkness and the sublime?
(a) Self-preservation.
(b) Desire.
(c) Intellectualism.
(d) Judgment.

4. Which of the following passions show the same effects as pain?
(a) Lust and desire.
(b) Depression and grief.
(c) Fear and terror.
(d) Joy and delight.

5. What type of poetry operates by imitation?
(a) Lyric poetry.
(b) Epic poetry.
(c) Dramatic poetry.
(d) Elegiac poetry.

6. What is the sole difference Burke identifies between the passions mentioned in question 7?
(a) One works on the mind through the body, and the other works on the body through the mind.
(b) One is a manifestation of the public sphere, but the other is solely a private passion.
(c) One is recognizable in men only, and the other is recognizable in women.
(d) One is a relic of the past, whereas the other is present in Burke's time.

7. What body part's workings does Burke describe in detail?
(a) The eye.
(b) The heart.
(c) The liver.
(d) The joints.

8. What is Burke's general opinion of linking beauty to virtue?
(a) Doing so is a proper approach to the social construction of virtue.
(b) Doing so cements our imaginative and reasoning faculties together.
(c) Doing so endangers social morality because so few things are actually beautiful.
(d) Doing so corrupts our morality and taste by removing our reasoning and judgment.

9. What type of word are man, castle, horse, etc., as defined by Burke?
(a) Imagistic words.
(b) Aggregate words.
(c) Compounded abstract words.
(d) Simple abstract words.

10. How does Burke define "proportion?"
(a) It is the measure of relative quantity.
(b) It is an average of height, breadth, and width.
(c) It refers to the amount of food a healthy person eats.
(d) It illustrates the properties of geometries.

11. What does Burke envision would be the result of fitness trumping beauty in the human species?
(a) Individuals would find it difficult to get married and begin families.
(b) All people would be healthy, regardless of their looks.
(c) The general intelligence quotient would rise dramatically.
(d) Men would be considered more beautiful than women.

12. What is one of the primary causes of words influencing the passions?
(a) Our sympathizing with and identifying with the passions of others.
(b) Our forceful imaginations' shaping of our emotions and desires.
(c) Our reliance on judgment and will to shape our passions.
(d) Our skepticism of and disdain for the emotional state of others.

13. What is another word for the "fitness" of objects about which Burke writes?
(a) Condition.
(b) Aptitude.
(c) Utility.
(d) Health.

14. What is John Locke's theory concerning darkness?
(a) Darkness is not naturally terrifying.
(b) Darkness must be feared.
(c) Darkness is necessary to our ideas of death.
(d) Darkness represents human sin.

15. How does Burke define the beautiful in feeling?
(a) That which is roughly textured.
(b) That which is pleasant to the touch.
(c) That which highly arouses the emotions.
(d) That which can be simultaneously seen and smelled.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does descriptive poetry operate, according to Burke?

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

3. Where, besides in humans, has Burke observed the effects of the passions mentioned in question 133?

4. To what does a "strong" expression relate?

5. How does beauty act upon the human mind?

(see the answer keys)

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