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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The common man is not concerned with beauty itself, but ___________.
(a) He concerns himself with only practical matters.
(b) He is concerned with beautiful things.
(c) He is concerned with more abstract notions.
(d) He is concerned for his soul.

2. What definition of virtue do Meno and Socrates borrow from "the poets"?
(a) Virtue, like other abstract notions, resists our best attempts to define it.
(b) Virtue is the desire and power to obtain good things.
(c) Virtue is different for every person.
(d) Virtue is the unmoved mover of all things.

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

4. At whose house does the Symposium take place?
(a) Alcidbides.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Phaedrus.
(d) Agathon.

5. Whose stories does Socrates think dangerous for the moral turpitude of his city's citizens?
(a) Aristotle's Poetics.
(b) Heretical poetry by Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.
(c) Various works by Pindar.
(d) Hesoid's Theogeny.

6. Before Socrates delivers his speech, he cross- examines Agathon about which of the following?
(a) How one can know that he is truly in love.
(b) Agathon's poetic license.
(c) Whether loves is necessarily possible.
(d) Whether love is necessarily beautiful.

7. What is a symposium?
(a) An outdoor gathering of philosophers near a nobleman's residence.
(b) A small club of Sophists.
(c) An ancient restaurant.
(d) An all- night drinking party where various elite Greeks discuss the meaning of love.

8. How does Socrates defend the point that men and women are equal?
(a) Though they have different natures, they can perform the same tasks.
(b) Men need women to exist (and vice-versa), so man and woman are better regarded as parts of a whole rather than individuals.
(c) Though men are physically stronger, women are emotionally stronger.
(d) Though they have different external organs, their internal ones are similar.

9. To illustrate one facet of his argument, Socrates employs the help of which character?
(a) A nearby slave boy to whom he teaches simple geometry.
(b) A nearby guard who speaks about virtuous people he knows.
(c) Plato to clarify Socrates' words for a perplexed Meno.
(d) Meno's wife.

10. In Socrates' ideal city, poets and soothsayers:
(a) Would not be allowed to speak falsely about the gods.
(b) Would be considered useless and expelled.
(c) Would lead religious ceremonies.
(d) Would be rich while the workers would be poor.

11. Who gives the last formal speech at the symposium?
(a) Agathon.
(b) Pausanias.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Appolodorus.

12. Who is Glaucon?
(a) One of the interlocutors.
(b) Not philosophically ambitious.
(c) The ideal solider.
(d) Socrates' son.

13. When Socrates meets Ion, Ion has just returned from which of the following?
(a) A poetry recital contest in Epidarus.
(b) Agathon's drinking party.
(c) A game at the Coliseum.
(d) Socrates' trial.

14. How does Thrasymachus first define justice?
(a) "Making laws to one's own disadvantage."
(b) "Nothing other than the advantage of the stronger."
(c) "Being impartial and unbiased in all decisions."
(d) "Acting selflessly, so that the kingdom may prosper."

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is courage found in Socrates' republic?

2. Socrates claims that he learned about love from which of the following?

3. Where is wisdom found in Socrates' ideal republic?

4. According to Socrates' insinuation, artistic knowledge is characterized as which of the following?

5. What is the major point of Aristophanes' speech?

(see the answer keys)

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