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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 example does Burke use to demonstrate that differing tastes stem from the same basic root?
(a) The comparison of two historical moments.
(b) A comparison of two breeds of a horse.
(c) The description of pretty ladies in a drawing room.
(d) Two different types of poetry.

2. Which method of teaching does Burke think best?
(a) Testing the learner on the subject.
(b) Lecturing the learner on the subject.
(c) Allowing the learner to investigate the subject.
(d) Referring obliquely to the subject in conversation with the learner.

3. How does Burke use the word "delight?"
(a) To demonstrate his feelings.
(b) To describe the natural state of humanity.
(c) To describe the feeling one gets when pain is removed.
(d) To equate that feeling with pleasure.

4. How does Burke define "grief?"
(a) As that feeling when an object is so lost that one can never enjoy it again.
(b) As one of many types of positive pain.
(c) As the natural state of relationships between all people.
(d) As the most desirable of the sensibilities because it is strong.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Burke assert is necessary for the success of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

3. What, according to Burke, is the cause of wrong "taste" in a person?

4. What are sources of the "sublime?"

5. What does Burke say is the primary passion ignited by the sublime?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is "magnificence," according to Burke?

4. According to Burke, why can grief be considered pleasurable?

5. Describe the passions belonging to society, as Burke introduces them.

6. What, according to Burke, is sublime about religion?

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

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

9. Describe Burke's definition of the sublime.

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

(see the answer keys)

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