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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Cephalus say to Socrates about old age?
(a) Old age is the same as youth, it just depends on one's perspective.
(b) Aging takes the life out of one's body.
(c) Most people think it is a curse, but one can enjoy freedom from youth's passions.
(d) Wisdom is not worth death.

2. Why is Socrates worried about literature which contains wayward characters?
(a) Socrates is not worried about such fictional characters.
(b) He wants every story for have a moral.
(c) He thinks that people will imitate such characters.
(d) Socrates hates fiction.

3. What counter-example does Socrates employ as evidence that a state is flawed?
(a) Poor doctors exist where there are poor statesmen.
(b) Diplomats make more money than labors in problematic regions.
(c) "Rich" soldiers in other cities make poor soldiers and poor leaders.
(d) When innocent men are sentenced to death, a state is flawed.

4. According to Socrates, what happens when "one [is] mistaken in his judgment, and harms his friends, and helps his enemies, unknowingly"?
(a) He is unjust.
(b) It doesn't matter; one would never do this.
(c) He claims to know justice, but doesn't.
(d) He is just.

5. When Meno arrives in Athens, who is accompanying him?
(a) Nobody, he is alone.
(b) A small militia unit.
(c) His wife.
(d) A large group of slaves.

6. How does Socrates plan to keep the soldiers of the republic from fighting?
(a) He reasons that if they make the most money, they will always be happy.
(b) He reasons that if they belonged to the same family, they would not fight.
(c) Socrates does not have a measure for ensuring peace among the guardian-class.
(d) He trusts that anyone who becomes a solider would put his state before his personal emotions.

7. Complete the comparison: philosophers have wisdom whereas common men have _______
(a) Expertise.
(b) Obligation.
(c) Judgment.
(d) Opinions.

8. From which poet does Polemarchus derive his definition of justice?
(a) Aristophenes.
(b) Simonides.
(c) Homer.
(d) Pindar.

9. How does Polemarchus define justice?
(a) Being fair in all contexts.
(b) Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
(c) Doing good to one's friends and evil to one's enemies.
(d) Allowing each man to live his life freely.

10. According to Socrates, the goal of his ideal city is__________________.
(a) To conquer the world.
(b) To find perfect knowledge.
(c) To ensure the happiness of a particular class.
(d) To make a well-organized, perfect society.

11. Who is Socrates walking with when he is stopped by a group of men urging him to come to Cephalus' house?
(a) Thrasymachus.
(b) Meno.
(c) Glaucon.
(d) Plato.

12. How does Meno respond to Socrates' question: "Do bees differ as bees, because there are many different kinds of them; or, are they not rather to be distinguished by some other quality, as for example beauty, size, or shape?"
(a) "I should answer that bees do not differ from one another, as bees."
(b) "I don't understand your question."
(c) "They're just bees. Who cares?"
(d) "I should say that bees must differ from one another, as bees."

13. Who gives the first speech at the symposium?
(a) Agathon.
(b) Eryximachus.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Phaedrus.

14. What are "the three"?
(a) The diagram that Socrates uses to prove the soul is immortal.
(b) The constitution of the city's government.
(c) Religious temples in Socrates' ideal republic.
(d) The members of the dialogue.

15. By the end of Book IV Socrates has still not proved _______________.
(a) Laws affect the flow of life.
(b) Justice is preferable to injustice.
(c) Courage comes from education and fear comes from ignorance.
(d) Justice manifests on earth.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Socrates' interlocutors object to in the beginning of Book V?

2. What are the soldiers of the republic explicitly forbidden to do, according to Socrates?

3. According to Socrates, what are the two ways of training the soul?

4. According to Socrates, woman can____________.

5. Why does Glaucon continue conversing with Socrates?

(see the answer keys)

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