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

2. What example does Burke cite in his discussion of how people may convey ideas of things which they do not know?
(a) A blind poet.
(b) A crippled politician.
(c) A sickly child.
(d) A deaf musician.

3. What is Burke's argument about the relation of danger to the sublime?
(a) Danger does not physically need to be present or real for an object to be sublime.
(b) Danger and terror are the same thing and are equal portions of the sublime.
(c) Danger is absolutely necessary to the sublime and must be present.
(d) Danger is never a part of any sublime object.

4. Which of the following passions show the same effects as pain?
(a) Fear and terror.
(b) Lust and desire.
(c) Joy and delight.
(d) Depression and grief.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. To what is deformity opposed, according to Burke?

2. Which principle fits the image of a long, bare wall, according to Burke?

3. To what does Burke refer when he introduces physiognomy as part of beauty?

4. What examples does Burke use to prove that human proportionality does not necessarily equal human beauty?

5. What is another word for the "fitness" of objects about which Burke writes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, according to Burke, is the primary strength of poetry?

2. Briefly summarize the three classes of words that Burke identifies.

3. According to Burke, why is the taste of sweetness pleasant, and how does he decide this?

4. Paraphrase Burke's definition of beauty and the distinction he makes between love and lust or desire.

5. How does Burke use women as examples to demonstrate some of the aspects of beauty?

6. How does Burke define proportion, and under which human faculty does it fall?

7. What does Burke identify as the three effects of words?

8. How can pain be a cause of delight, in everyday life and in effecting the sublime?

9. What is the "real" cause of beauty, according to Burke?

10. According to Burke, how does the human eye work?

(see the answer keys)

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