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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What size of objects does Burke consider "beautiful?"
(a) Large and imposing.
(b) Small or diminutive.
(c) Proportionate to the accepted standard.
(d) Moderate and common.

2. What are the three effects of words Burke identifies?
(a) Image, motion, and thought.
(b) Sound, picture, and affection.
(c) Wishing, hoping, and praying.
(d) Knowledge, desire, and response.

3. What recognizable figure does Burke term a "forced analogy?"
(a) A sketch of a man outstretched within a circle.
(b) A painting of a mysterious, smiling woman.
(c) An ornate cathedral built in the Renaissance.
(d) A reproduction sculpture of a wounded gladiator.

4. Which principle fits the image of a long, bare wall, according to Burke?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Proportion.
(c) Perspective.
(d) Vastness.

5. How does this body part produce the sense of the sublime, according to Burke?
(a) By vibrating more or less depending on the sublimity of the object.
(b) By stretching to its fullest extent in response to fear.
(c) By becoming full and corpulent with the immensity of the sublime.
(d) By contracting and relaxing due to electrical stimuli.

6. Why does Burke include a section on the effect of words in "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) He indicates that not enough literary criticism is worthwhile, and wishes to demonstrate quality writing.
(b) He desires to refute all the claims of visual artists in order to place written art on a pedestal.
(c) He includes this section as a way to generate interest in his own poetical publications.
(d) He believes that words affect us differently than images or objects, and wants to discuss them.

7. What passage does Burke offer as an example of the effect of words?
(a) A monologue from a dramatic production.
(b) A travel account of Syria.
(c) A description of the Danube river.
(d) A satirical essay about religion.

8. What does Burke term "compounded abstract" words?
(a) Those words which determine scientific nomenclature.
(b) Those words which indicate natural phenomena.
(c) Those words which represent complex ideas.
(d) Those words which stand for literary ideas.

9. What is John Locke's theory concerning darkness?
(a) Darkness must be feared.
(b) Darkness represents human sin.
(c) Darkness is necessary to our ideas of death.
(d) Darkness is not naturally terrifying.

10. How does Burke define "proportion?"
(a) It is an average of height, breadth, and width.
(b) It illustrates the properties of geometries.
(c) It is the measure of relative quantity.
(d) It refers to the amount of food a healthy person eats.

11. What is the effect of opiates or liquors, according to Burke?
(a) They force the body to yield to the superior power of the mind.
(b) They harm both the mind and the body to a tragic degree.
(c) They suspend the passions by inciting a different reaction in the body.
(d) They strengthen the connection and clarity between mind and body.

12. How does Burke define "beauty?"
(a) As those qualities which inspire love or a similar passion.
(b) As the ultimate object of human desires.
(c) As a worthless obsession of a vapid society.
(d) As a necessary ingredient of the sublime.

13. To what does Burke tie his own opinion of darkness and the sublime?
(a) Intellectualism.
(b) Self-preservation.
(c) Judgment.
(d) Desire.

14. Which is one of the examples Burke cites to demonstrate the sublime in poetry?
(a) A ballad about the battle of Culloden.
(b) An elegy on the death of Milton.
(c) A love poem to Aphrodite.
(d) A description of Helen of Troy.

15. What, according to Burke, must be utilized regularly lest it/they fall into disrepair?
(a) The art of social conversation.
(b) The passions and the understanding.
(c) The skill of speaking another language.
(d) Dancing, fencing, and painting.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Burke describe "delightful horror?"

2. Where, besides in humans, has Burke observed the effects of the passions mentioned in question 133?

3. What does Burke criticize about the patrons of proportion?

4. Which kinds of words do not produce mental images, according to Burke?

5. What are the first examples Burke cites to demonstrate his argument about beauty and proportion?

(see the answer keys)

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