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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How should the eye move, in order to qualify as beautiful, according to Burke?
(a) Suddenly and jerkily.
(b) Rapidly and avidly.
(c) Slowly and languidly.
(d) Upward and to the right.

2. How does Burke separate natural and artificial objects?
(a) By separating the effects which they have on a person.
(b) By categorizing properties of nature and artifice in a long treatise.
(c) By claiming to distinguish nature and artifice as it pertains to humans.
(d) By asserting that the natural always prevails over the artificial.

3. To what does Burke oppose delicacy and fragility?
(a) Dignity and fortitude.
(b) Whining and crying.
(c) Courage and honor.
(d) Robustness and strength.

4. What is Locke's general theory of language, as related by Burke?
(a) Locke opines that language stems from the animalistic desire of our brains to overcome adversity.
(b) Locke describes language as a cohesive system in which the meaning of words never varies from context to context.
(c) Locke argues that children are taught words before they are taught the actual meaning of words, which can confuse them.
(d) Locke illustrates the superficiality of language, arguing that it is a specious method of communication.

5. What does Burke term "simple abstract" words?
(a) Those words which represent human emotions.
(b) Those words which stand for one straighforward idea.
(c) Those words which comprise oaths and curses.
(d) Those words which indicate political affiliations.

6. What does Burke consider darkness to be?
(a) The least imposing natural phenomenon.
(b) Something with which all people are comfortable.
(c) Terrible in its own nature.
(d) The highest level of the sublime.

7. What example does Burke use to show that pain can be a source of pleasure?
(a) Indolence and exercise.
(b) Drunkenness and being hungover.
(c) Hunger and fulfillment.
(d) The thrill of fighting.

8. What visual example does Burke FIRST offer in his explanation of succession and the sublime?
(a) A colonnade of pillars.
(b) A large cathedral.
(c) A field of grain.
(d) A grove of trees.

9. What example does Burke cite in his discussion of how people may convey ideas of things which they do not know?
(a) A deaf musician.
(b) A crippled politician.
(c) A sickly child.
(d) A blind poet.

10. To what is deformity opposed, according to Burke?
(a) To the common or complete form.
(b) To the magnificence of the sublime.
(c) To the ideal of beauty.
(d) To perfect proportionality.

11. What has Burke observed in himself regarding the passions and the body, in Section IV?
(a) That he has never been inclined to allow his emotions to influence his actions.
(b) That he relates well to others who are in the same frame of mind as he.
(c) That he is particularly susceptible to the physical effects of a refined sensibility.
(d) That he found his mind in a certain state when he adopts a certain facial expression.

12. According to Burke, why is sweetness pleasing?
(a) Because sweetness produces much saliva in the mouth.
(b) Because of the regularity and smoothness of the form of sugar.
(c) Because the first milk of infancy is sweet, and accustoms us to the taste.
(d) Because sweetness is a rare, and thus satisfying, sensation.

13. What are the first examples Burke cites to demonstrate his argument about beauty and proportion?
(a) Certain literary texts.
(b) Several kinds of animals.
(c) People he knows.
(d) Various types of flowers.

14. Which kinds of words do not produce mental images, according to Burke?
(a) Aggregate words.
(b) Compounded abstract words.
(c) Simple abstract words.
(d) Foreign words.

15. What does Burke expressly wish to discuss in this part of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) The different cultural concepts of the beautiful in countries other than England.
(b) The connections between the thoughts in the mind and emotions produced in the body.
(c) The various manifestations of the sublime and the beautiful in early-modern England.
(d) The usefulness of the sublime in formulating theories of art.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Burke refer when he introduces physiognomy as part of beauty?

2. How does this body part produce the sense of the sublime, according to Burke?

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

4. According to Burke, what is the mechanical reason darkness is terrible?

5. How does Burke define "gradual variation?"

(see the answer keys)

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