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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Boorstin say Moses introduced into Western culture?
(a) The notion of eternal reoccurrence.
(b) The idea of human sacrifice.
(c) The idea of a single omnipotent creator.
(d) The idea of original sin.

2. What does Thoreau say, in the epigraph to Part 7, it takes to speak the truth?
(a) A commitment to make people see it.
(b) One to speak and one to listen.
(c) Eyes to perceive it.
(d) An understanding of what the consequences will be, for the people who don't want to hear it.

3. What does Boorstin say upturned stones signify?
(a) Man's desire to live forever.
(b) Man's determination to find origins.
(c) Man's attempt to measure and regulate his environment.
(d) Man's determination to find food sources.

4. For what does Boorstin say the Pyramids were built in Egypt?
(a) Proclaiming the Egyptians' power as a people.
(b) Housing the dead pharaohs.
(c) Challenging the gods.
(d) Measuring the progress of the heavens.

5. What does Boorstin see in men making images of men?
(a) Self-discovery.
(b) The beginning of language.
(c) The beginning of religion.
(d) Consciousness.

6. What does Boorstin say is the difference between tragedy and comedy?
(a) Tragedy was for intimate gatherings, comedy for large audiences.
(b) Tragedy dealt with kings, comedy with commoners.
(c) Tragedy dealt with long-ago events, comedy with the present.
(d) Tragedy ended in death, comedy in marriage.

7. What does Boorstin say the Renaissance offered to Shakespeare?
(a) New problems in human experience.
(b) New technology to react against and to use in his plays.
(c) Historically new material for his plays.
(d) A community of spectators.

8. How does Boorstin characterize the nature of Gothic art?
(a) Playful.
(b) Obscene.
(c) Morbid.
(d) Terrifying.

9. Why are Muslims prohibited from making lasting images of human figures according to Boorstin?
(a) Because only God can make eternal images.
(b) Because it takes attention away from living figures.
(c) Because of a general proscription of idolatry.
(d) Because creativity is a divine right, not to be usurped.

10. What does Virginia Woolf say, in the second epigraph to Part 7, about writing?
(a) That written accounts are only valuable in settling disputes between people.
(b) That writing is just the poor afterimage of a lived reality.
(c) That writing is a weak man's refuge from the tyranny of events.
(d) That a thing has not happened until it has been described.

11. Why is Dante described as the founder of modern literature in Boorstin's opinion?
(a) Because the Divine Comedy represents a new cosmogony.
(b) Because the Divine Comedy was the first printed book after the Bible.
(c) Because the Divine Comedy externalized a dialogue that would normally have remained internal.
(d) Because the Divine Comedy is autobiographical.

12. When did men begin to make images of themselves?
(a) Mesolithic period.
(b) Upper Paleolithic period.
(c) Middle Paleolithic period.
(d) Early Paleolithic period.

13. What does Boorstin say man seeks in making art?
(a) Rebellion against God.
(b) Immortality.
(c) Gain.
(d) Fame.

14. In what does Boorstin say Rabelais' book was an act of faith?
(a) Culture.
(b) God.
(c) Literary history.
(d) Language.

15. Why does Boorstin say people see artists as godlike?
(a) Because they are mystified by the power to create.
(b) Because they repeat the divine act of bringing things into existence.
(c) Because they live forever in their work.
(d) Because artists are so often unruly.

Short Answer Questions

1. What governs the relationship between mankind and Moses' God?

2. Of what is Dionysus the god according to Boorstin?

3. Of what are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales comprised?

4. What does Byron say a sculptor should do in the epigraph to Part 4?

5. What was Boccaccio's inspiration for the Decameron?

(see the answer keys)

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