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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, must be utilized regularly lest it/they fall into disrepair?
(a) Dancing, fencing, and painting.
(b) The passions and the understanding.
(c) The art of social conversation.
(d) The skill of speaking another language.

2. What is NOT a property of the beautiful in music?
(a) Sweet, quiet sounds.
(b) Light, feathery notes.
(c) Shrill, harsh sounds.
(d) Slow, sonorous tones.

3. How does Burke define "blackness?"
(a) As "potentially dangerous."
(b) As "increased darkness."
(c) As "partial darkness."
(d) As "necessarily evil."

4. 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 various manifestations of the sublime and the beautiful in early-modern England.
(b) The usefulness of the sublime in formulating theories of art.
(c) The different cultural concepts of the beautiful in countries other than England.
(d) The connections between the thoughts in the mind and emotions produced in the body.

5. How does beauty act upon the human mind?
(a) Logically, through consideration of utility.
(b) Mechanically, through the five senses.
(c) Imaginatively, through dreams and fantasies.
(d) Spiritually, through the soul.

Short Answer Questions

1. What example does Burke use in his argument that perfection is not the cause of beauty?

2. How does Burke define the beautiful in feeling?

3. How does Burke describe "delightful horror?"

4. What does Burke consider darkness to be?

5. What sense does Burke use to illustrate the artificial infinite?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Burke, why is the taste of sweetness pleasant, and how does he decide this?

2. Briefly summarize the three classes of words that Burke identifies.

3. What does Burke identify as the three effects of words?

4. Why are small objects more suited to the beautiful and large objects more suitable to the sublime, according to Burke?

5. What are the physical effects of fear and pain, and what is the difference between fear and pain, as observed by Burke?

6. According to Burke, how does the human eye work?

7. What does Burke propose to study in Part IV? What caveat does he offer his readers?

8. What is the "real" cause of beauty, according to Burke?

9. How does Burke use women as examples to demonstrate some of the aspects of beauty?

10. What, according to Burke, is the primary strength of poetry?

(see the answer keys)

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