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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. According to Burke, what will the result be of the long, close study of an object?
(a) An increased sense of anxiety.
(b) A decreased interest in the object.
(c) An increased sensibility of taste.
(d) A decreased feeling of pleasure.

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

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

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

5. What is Burke's argument that infinity exists in pleasing objects?
(a) The only truly pleasing object is the night sky, which is truly infinite.
(b) Humans are pleased by the unlimited potential of these objects.
(c) Infinity itself is a pleasant concept, so an infinite object must be pleasant.
(d) Pleasantness is a feeling that goes on forever within our minds.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Burke assert is present in every religion, to some degree?

2. What example does Burke offer to show his ideas on the effects of tragedy?

3. What, according to Burke, affects the passions and most incites admiration?

4. What kind of colors are unfit to produce what Burke terms "grand images?"

5. What problem does Burke find with merely defining a term like "taste?"

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the cause of a wrong taste, and what are examples of it?

2. What significance do obscurity and clarity have to the sublime?

3. Describe the main difference between light and dark relative to the sublime.

4. Why, according to Burke, are the principles of reason and taste the same in all humans?

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

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

7. Describe Burke's idea of beauty.

8. Briefly describe the significance of human judgment to the faculty of taste.

9. What is Burke's idea of "artificial infinity?"

10. What motivated Burke to write "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

(see the answer keys)

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