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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Aristotle differentiate poetry from prose?
(a) Poetry uses rhythm in the form of meter.
(b) They are the same.
(c) Poetry uses language alone.
(d) Prose uses pictures and music.

2. Aristotle defines poetic work as what?
(a) A philosophical undertaking.
(b) A bad imitation.
(c) A love affair.
(d) A spiritual journey.

3. According to Aristotle, how should the plot of a well-written tragedy be structured?
(a) It should leave the reader guessing until the end.
(b) With the end that makes readers want more.
(c) With a logical beginning and end.
(d) A structured plot makes bad poetry.

4. In an episodic plot, Aristotle explains that the individual episodes of the story bear what to one another?
(a) Irony.
(b) A lot of similarity.
(c) Little or no relation to one another.
(d) Opposition.

5. Aristotle states that poetry depicts what?
(a) Things that happen based on fact and fiction.
(b) History.
(c) The future.
(d) Things that happen according to the "laws of probability and necessity."

6. What, as Aristotle states, are good poets forced to do when they write stories with episodic plots?
(a) To write better.
(b) To shorten their stories.
(c) To write poorly.
(d) To lengthen their stories.

7. Concerning the "laws of probability and necessity," what statement below is NOT correct according to Aristotle's teachings in "Poetics"?
(a) The poet portrays what events could possibly happen in the world.
(b) The poet implies his notion of justice.
(c) The poet implies his vision of how the world should be.
(d) The poet implies his understanding of how the world works.

8. What type of poetry does Aristotle say focuses on serious and important actions?
(a) Tragedy.
(b) Greek poetry.
(c) None of the answers is correct.
(d) Roman poetry.

9. In art, what does Aristotle believe to be the object?
(a) What the art imitates.
(b) Usually an animal.
(c) Something solid.
(d) Usually a person.

10. What is history according to Aristotle?
(a) Accounts that may or may not have happened.
(b) Lies.
(c) Concerned simply with facts.
(d) Rumors promoted as truth.

11. Like any art, poetry is defined by Aristotle as what?
(a) A kind of imitation.
(b) A funny story.
(c) A theatrical play.
(d) A rhyme with more than four sentences.

12. What type of action does Aristotle say occurs with "Recognition" and/or "Reversal of Situation"?
(a) Congruent.
(b) Complex.
(c) Happy.
(d) Bad.

13. What reason does Aristotle give for Homer excluding many things that Odysseus does on his voyage home in the "Odyssey"?
(a) Aristotle explains that Homer prefers to keep the reader guessing.
(b) Aristotle says that Homer excludes things because they do not relate well to the overall plot that is being constructed.
(c) Aristotle says that Odysseus does some embarrassing things that are better left unsaid.
(d) Nothing is excluded.

14. In poetry, Aristotle says that in the "Odyssey" recognition comes about how??
(a) The suitors recognize him by his face.
(b) Penelope recognizes his walk.
(c) None of the answers is correct..
(d) Odyssues's nurse recognizes him from his scar.

15. What two things does Aristotle require to be present in a well-written story?
(a) Birth and death.
(b) Rhythm and harmony.
(c) Conflict and pain.
(d) Irony and foreshadowing.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Aristotle define "Recognition"?

2. What type of situation does Aristotle explain occurs more frequently in tragedy?

3. What are the ways Aristotle explains in regard to how poets differ in their representation of the object?

4. What type of action does Aristotle say occurs without "Recognition" or "Reversal of Situation"?

5. According to Aristotle, why do good poets sometimes write stories using episodic plots?

(see the answer keys)

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