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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What type of story does Aristotle define as "episodic"?
(a) A particularly poor story.
(b) A sad story.
(c) A great story.
(d) A dramatic story.

2. Per Aristotle, the unity of plot is what to the unity of a character's actions?
(a) Influential, but not important.
(b) Irrelevant.
(c) Equivalent.
(d) Not equivalent, but often closely related.

3. When one character realizes that another character has fewer morals than he once thought, what does Aristotle say is happening?
(a) Recognition.
(b) Growth.
(c) Bad judgment.
(d) Opportunity.

4. Aristotle asserts that men who find poetry very attractive find great pleasure in what?
(a) Sleeping.
(b) Learning.
(c) Cleaning.
(d) Eating.

5. What does Aristotle identify as the most essential element of tragedy?
(a) Rhyme.
(b) Plot.
(c) Irony.
(d) Character.

6. What are the ways Aristotle explains in regard to how poets differ in their representation of the object?
(a) Poets can portray the objects as worse, better, or the same as they are
(b) Poets can portray the objects as worse or the same as they are.
(c) Poets can portray the object as better or worse, but never the same as they are.
(d) There is no difference in the way poets portray the objects.

7. In the context of poetry and according to Aristotle's teachings, why is man naturally attracted to imitation?
(a) It is through imitation that man most easily learns.
(b) Imitation is a form of acting.
(c) It is a lot of fun.
(d) Imitation is less expensive.

8. In order for a plot to be truly effective in achieving the desired emotional response from its readers or audience, Aristotle says that the poet must do what?
(a) Pick characters whose relationships to one another make the actions of the plot more interesting.
(b) Infuse irony throughout the story.
(c) Write a tragedy with a sad ending.
(d) Pick characters that the audience can easily pity.

9. The object poetry portrays is what, according to Aristotle?
(a) Other poets.
(b) Tragic events.
(c) Men in action.
(d) Various places around the world.

10. What type of action does Aristotle say occurs without "Recognition" or "Reversal of Situation"?
(a) Good.
(b) Sad.
(c) Simple.
(d) Incongruent.

11. Per Aristotle, in which of the following ways does poetry NOT differ from history?
(a) Poetry tells the future, and history tells the past.
(b) History is concerned simply with facts.
(c) Poetry depicts what happens according to the "laws of probability and necessity."
(d) Poetry is a higher pursuit than history.

12. What does Aristotle call the individual episodes of a story with an episodic plot?
(a) Interesting.
(b) Dependent stories.
(c) Isolated stories.
(d) Funny.

13. In what three ways does Aristotle differentiate various art forms from one another?
(a) According to the artist, era, and artistic effort.
(b) By the medium, objects, and manner of imitation.
(c) Era, objects, and manner of imitation.
(d) Manner of imitation, artist, and era.

14. Aristotle teaches that the beginning of a well-written tragedy starts at what point?
(a) Where the narrative has no dependence upon events that happened prior to it.
(b) In the middle and uses the method of flashback to tell what preceded.
(c) Where the narrative has dependence upon events that happen prior to it.
(d) With the end and uses the method of flashback to tell the rest.

15. In art, Aristotle defines the medium as what?
(a) The artist's spiritual inspiration.
(b) A middle state or condition.
(c) The average.
(d) The manner in which the art is produced.

Short Answer Questions

1. Aristotle explains that tragedy is not only concerned with the depiction of just any action, but of actions that inspire what?

2. In poetry, Aristotle says that in the "Odyssey" recognition comes about how??

3. In an episodic plot, Aristotle explains that the individual episodes of the story bear what to one another?

4. What men does Aristotle consider to be "lower" types?

5. Concerning the "laws of probability and necessity," what statement below is NOT correct according to Aristotle's teachings in "Poetics"?

(see the answer keys)

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