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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. 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.

2. How does Pheidippides justify his violent action toward Strepsiades?
(a) He had no reason; he just did it for fun.
(b) He claims he did it only accidentally.
(c) The wise should make the foolish suffer to improve them.
(d) Strepsiades mocked Pheidippides' mother, and Strepsiades deserved it.

3. Who wrote The Clouds?
(a) Plato.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Aristophanes.
(d) Aristotle.

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

5. What makes a law just, according to Socrates?
(a) Objective goodness.
(b) The authority of a city.
(c) Popular opinion.
(d) Piety.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Socrates, why should experts be obeyed?

2. What is the name of Socrates' institute in The Clouds?

3. Why does Socrates believe obedience to the law could not represent disrespectful behavior?

4. Why does Socrates eventually refuse to help Strepsiades?

5. Which is NOT one of the benefits of law, according to Socrates in Crito?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Socrates offer such a meek defense and go to prison and his death so willingly?

2. How does Pheidippides enter the Thinkery? What does he learn there?

3. How does Strepsiades react to Socrates' course of study in the Thinkery? How does Socrates in turn respond to Strepsiades?

4. What represents the "last straw" in Strepsiades' relationship with his son? Why does he refuse to speak to him in the end?

5. What is the nature of the fight Strepsiades and Pheidippides have when Strepsiades throws a party for his son?

6. According to Socrates, why must one not commit injustices?

7. By the end of The Clouds, how has Strepsiades changed? What are his beliefs?

8. What does Aristophanes accuse Socrates of in The Clouds?

9. What gives law authority, according to Socrates?

10. How does Socrates' conception of the law and justice in Crito compare to his conception of law and justice in Apology?

(see the answer keys)

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