View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sedlmayr explores the theme of the lost center through the changes in what over the years?

2. Eco suggests that it is the creative interplay of the signs that is what, in "Language, Power, Force"?

3. When classmates sent a naked girl into St. Thomas Aquinas' room when he was trying to become an abbot, what did he do?

4. When were the earliest American blue jeans made?

5. Who directed Casablanca?

Short Essay Questions

1. What conclusions does Eco come to regarding the definition of power in "Language, Power, Force"?

2. What criticisms does Eco demonstrate over the theories of Hans Sedlmayr?

3. What does Eco assert about sports in the beginning of "Sports Chatter"?

4. How does Eco define "motif"? What word does he choose to use instead?

5. Whose lecture does Eco discuss in "Language, Power, Force"? Why?

6. Why was St. Thomas revolutionary, according to Eco?

7. How does Eco refute the theory of communication by Marshall McLuhan?

8. How does semiotics assist in understanding language and communication, according to Eco?

9. What books and authors does Eco cite in "Cogito Interruptus"? What conclusion does he come to of their theories?

10. How and from whom did St. Thomas unlock the secrets of reason, according to Eco?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Jim Jones, the establishment of the People's Temple, and how Millenarian dynamics played a role in Jones' power. What other cult leaders have exhibited the same traits as Jones?

Essay Topic 2

What does Eco use Superman as a metaphor for in Section I - Chapter 1? What is a "Fortress of Solitude"?

Essay Topic 3

Compare contemporary American culture with that of the Middle Ages. In what ways does Eco suggest we are similar? How are we different?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 855 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample