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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, according to Burke, is responsible for common deviations in natural taste?
(a) Confusion of the mind.
(b) Humankind's natural curiosity.
(c) Custom and habit.
(d) A willingness to deceive others.

2. Why, as Burke argues, are humans "more inclined to belief than to incredulity?"
(a) Because believing makes it easier to get along with others in the social-contract model of society.
(b) Because belief engages the imagination pleasantly, while incredulity is naturally negative.
(c) Because believing something is easy, whereas not believing is more difficult.
(d) Because God is born in all of us, so we have a natural inclination to believe in him.

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

4. What will be Burke's focus in "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) The full meanings and social impacts of the beautiful and sublime.
(b) The beautiful and sublime as they relate to contemporary politics.
(c) The origins of our ideas of the beautiful and sublime.
(d) The beautiful and sublime as they appear in Milton's _Paradise Lost_.

5. What, according to Burke, is most striking to this creative power of mind?
(a) The quality of laughter in human communication.
(b) Comparing resemblances between or imitations of two distinct objects.
(c) Arguments of fairness in disagreements among social unequals.
(d) The potential value of an object.

Short Answer Questions

1. What example does Burke give for a sublime sound?

2. In Burke's opinion, at what depiction do painters most notably fail?

3. What kinds of sounds does Burke say can be sublime?

4. Which medium does Burke feel arouses the passions most effectively?

5. Which method of teaching does Burke think best?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of power in Burke's Enquiry, and what is one example he gives of power?

2. What types of colors are productive of the sublime, and which colors are not, according to Burke?

3. What does Burke identify as the central tension between the imagination and the judgment?

4. What does Burke argue about tastes that deviate from causes other than habit or use?

5. What kind of infinity exists in "pleasing objects," according to Burke, and what is an example he uses to support his claim?

6. What is the main problem with creating prescribed definitions, especially of taste, according to Burke?

7. Describe the types of dimensional greatness Burke notes are part of the sublime.

8. What is the significance of the imagination, to Burke?

9. What is the difference between taste and knowledge, according to Burke?

10. What qualities of sound produce the sublime, according to Burke?

(see the answer keys)

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