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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does law have authority?
(a) Laws have authority because of the threat of violent punishment.
(b) Citizens have an interdependence on laws, and so give them authority.
(c) Laws are inherently good.
(d) Laws are inherently just.

2. Why does Socrates believe obedience to the law could not represent disrespectful behavior?
(a) Law is a great authority on earth, and should be respected.
(b) The law is based upon the good, without question.
(c) Prisoners serving their sentence with honor have a certain nobility about them.
(d) Respecting one's death sentence is respecting death itself.

3. What relationship is Strepsiades to Pheidippides?
(a) Son to father.
(b) Uncle to nephew.
(c) Friend to friend.
(d) Father to son.

4. Where is Socrates kept prior to his sentence being carried out?
(a) Crito's home.
(b) Plato's home.
(c) Prison.
(d) He is under house arrest at his school.

5. Why is The Clouds so memorable today?
(a) For its powerful portrayal of Socrates.
(b) Because of its affirmation of Socrates' ideals and principles.
(c) For its powerful portrayal of Plato.
(d) Because it was the first play that used talking animals.

6. What relationship is Crito to Socrates?
(a) Friend.
(b) Detractor.
(c) Legal counsel.
(d) Student.

7. What does Crito think Socrates displayed during his trial?
(a) Betrayal.
(b) Cowardice.
(c) Wisdom.
(d) Nobility.

8. What is the state of Socrates' reputation in Athens after the trial and sentencing?
(a) It has improved somewhat.
(b) Officially, no one may ever speak of him again.
(c) He has proven everyone wrong and emerged with a sterling reputation.
(d) It is as worse as ever.

9. What does Socrates try to teach Strepsiades?
(a) Just argumentation.
(b) Just theology.
(c) Just astronomy.
(d) Most everything.

10. When is an expert undermined?
(a) When a law is broken.
(b) When laws are followed.
(c) When knowledge wins out over power.
(d) When the gods are angered.

11. What position does Strepsiades have in society?
(a) Youth.
(b) Playwright.
(c) Philosopher.
(d) Elder.

12. Who replaces Strepsiades in his training with Socrates?
(a) Pheidippides.
(b) The cloud goddess.
(c) Prytaneum.
(d) Crito.

13. What is Socrates' stance with respect to his sentence?
(a) He will not resist his sentence.
(b) He will fight his sentence aggressively.
(c) He will find a way to avoid his sentence.
(d) He will ask his friends to appeal to the court for mercy.

14. At the end of Clouds, what does Strepsiades believe about Zeus?
(a) Zeus does not exist.
(b) Zeus exists to destroy and ruin human lives.
(c) Zeus is important in holding the community together.
(d) Zeus exists, but does not meddle in the affairs of man.

15. What does Strepsiades think about the education Socrates offers him?
(a) Strepsiades finds it fascinating and invaluable.
(b) Strepsiades is too intellectually weak to make use of it.
(c) Socrates' knowledge is rudimentary and beneath him.
(d) Strepsiades is made immoral by Socrates' teachings.

Short Answer Questions

1. Aristophanes is known for using what kind of rhetoric?

2. What would happen if Socrates fled to a city that was poorly-governed?

3. In The Clouds, why does Socrates reject tradition?

4. How many years after The Clouds did the trial of Socrates happen?

5. Which is the third and final Socratic dialogue written by Plato?

(see the answer keys)

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