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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. According to Aristotle, why do good poets sometimes write stories using episodic plots?
(a) They never write stories using episodic plots.
(b) For the challenge.
(c) Because episodic plots are considered more interesting.
(d) To showcase their skills in contests.

2. Aristotle says that at most, episodic plots involve what?
(a) Disconnected foreshadowing.
(b) Strange irony.
(c) The same characters.
(d) Sad middle and happy ending.

3. A character attempting to save his friend but accidentally killing him instead is an example Aristotle gives for what?
(a) Bad luck.
(b) Recognition.
(c) Second degree manslaughter.
(d) Reversal of Situation.

4. In poetry, Aristotle explains that the "Recognition" is almost always what?
(a) The end of the poem.
(b) Between two characters.
(c) A surprise.
(d) A tragedy.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Aristotle states that poetry depicts what?

2. According to Aristotle, how should the plot of a well-written tragedy be structured?

3. What is history according to Aristotle?

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

5. What reason does Aristotle give for Homer excluding many things that Odysseus does on his voyage home in the "Odyssey"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is the unity of plot the same as the unity of a character's actions? Explain.

2. Aristotle points out that good poets may also write episodic stories. What reason does he give?

3. How does Aristotle define tragedy as a type of poetry?

4. Why does Aristotle consider poetic work to be a philosophical undertaking, and, therefore, a higher pursuit than history, which is concerned simply with facts?

5. What does Aristotle say about the the beginning and end of a tragic plot?

6. How does Aristotle differentiate the arts from one another?

7. Based on Aristotle's teachings, what does it mean when a plot is unified?

8. How does Aristotle classify or divide actions? Explain.

9. Aristotle explains that the object which poetry portrays is men in action. How may poets differ in how they represent these men?

10. How does Aristotle say that poetry differs from history?

(see the answer keys)

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