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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 did Gibbon add to the genre of human comedy according to Boorstin?
(a) The saga of empire.
(b) The historical novel.
(c) The biography of kings.
(d) The fairy tale of history.

2. How did Benjamin Franklin innovate in the autobiographical form?
(a) His Autobiography gave an account of his soul and sins, in addition to his relationship with God.
(b) His Autobiography was focused solely on himself and his family.
(c) His Autobiography described his most intimate thoughts and actions.
(d) His Autobiography introduced the success narrative.

3. What was startling about Leaves of Grass in Boorstin's account?
(a) Whitman's indiscriminate subject matter.
(b) Whitman's excessive metaphors.
(c) Whitman's discontent with the modern world.
(d) Whitman's apocalyptic prophecies.

4. In what tradition was Cristabel written according to Boorstin?
(a) Gothic Romance.
(b) Modernism.
(c) Classical symmetry.
(d) Baroque ornamentation.

5. What does Chaucer say in the epigraph to Part 8?
(a) That life is short and craft is hard to learn.
(b) That history is made on the backs of common men.
(c) That the lives of the common people are themselves art.
(d) That a liar is the most honest of men.

Short Answer Questions

1. What made Lyrical Ballads revolutionary according to Boorstin?

2. In Boorstin's account, Michelangelo changed man from an imitation of nature to what?

3. Mozart composed eight symphonies, four divertimentos and some sacred works in a few months at what age?

4. What did Bondone create according to Boorstin?

5. On what did Melville reflect in Moby Dick according to Boorstin?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boorstin characterize Johann Sebastian Bach's contribution to human imaginative work?

2. Where does Boorstin put Kafka in his portrait of imaginative thinkers?

3. What, in Boorstin's opinion, is calligraphy's place in the history of human culture?

4. What does Boorstin say is William Wordsworth's contribution to imaginative culture?

5. How did Beethoven change the nature of music according to Boorstin?

6. How does Boorstin characterize Milton's contribution to imaginative culture?

7. How does Boorstin characterize Dickens' contribution to imaginative culture?

8. How does Boorstin characterize Monet's accomplishment?

9. What innovation does Boorstin say Leonardo da Vinci made in imaginative art?

10. How did dance change during the transition into modernity?

(see the answer keys)

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