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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 two main passions connect with this creative power of the mind?
(a) Pain and pleasure.
(b) Curiosity and understanding.
(c) Love and hate.
(d) Lust and desire.

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

3. Burke believes that "taste" arises from:
(a) Knowledge.
(b) Nature.
(c) Passion.
(d) Reflection.

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

5. What literary example does Burke give as representative of magnificence?
(a) A passage from Shakespeare's _Henry IV_.
(b) A folk ballad from Scotland.
(c) An excerpt from Milton's _Paradise Lost_.
(d) One of Donne's Holy Sonnets.

Short Answer Questions

1. When might the sublime be delightful?

2. To which other passions is the idea of power closely related, according to Burke?

3. What is the state between pleasure and pain, according to Burke?

4. In which instance are feelings productive of the sublime?

5. What does Burke note about youth, as related to taste?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Summarize Burke's section about the role of smells and tastes relating to the sublime.

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

5. What is astonishment, according to Burke, and why is it important?

6. What causes Burke to offer a second edition of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

7. What are some of the cautions or caveats Burke offers to his readers in the Second Preface?

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

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

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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