MIDTERM EXAM

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Submit to your Assignments Folder no later than 12th April 2014 (12 midnight)

 

SECTION I – MULTIPLE CHOICE (40 POINTS)

1. ___ What statement best describes the significance of the ancient site of Göbekli Tepe, in modern-day Turkey?

a. the capital of a powerful Assyrian king

b. the oldest megalithic shrine yet discovered

c. the location of brilliantly painted caves

d. a complex of gigantic pyramidal altars

2. ___ Hammurabi’s Code would be most relevant to a discussion of what topic in the development of ancient civilization?

a. the transmission of secret knowledge or “mysteries”

b. the sculptural representation of the human form

c. the worship of an ancient Mother Goddess

d. the development of ancient legal systems

3. ___ Which of these structures functioned as an elaborate tomb for god-like rulers?

a. ziggurat of Ur-Nammu

b. Stonehenge

c. pyramid at Giza

d. Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro

4. ___ The great cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were discovered in what ancient region or empire?

a. in the Indus Valley

b. the Persian empire

c. on the island of Crete

d. along the banks of the Nile

5. ___ The prayers and hymns of the Vedas were the creation of what ancient civilization?

a. Persian

b. Andean

c. Egyptian

d. Indian

6. ___ In which of these civilizations or sites would one expect to find a mythic tiger carved of precious jade?

a. Babylon

b. Shang

c. Lascaux

d. Amarna

7. ___ What term or topic would be most relevant to a discussion of the earliest American civilizations?

a. the cave paintings of Lascaux

b. the Vedas and Upanishads

c. the cultivation of maize and cotton

d. the court of Akhenaten

8. ___ Which qualities best characterize the Minoan civilization of ancient Crete?

a. pleasure-loving and skilled in craft

b. fascinated with death and the afterlife

c. dominated by a god-like ruler

d. aggressive and warlike

9. ___ In what work would one expect to learn of the exploits of Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus?

a. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

b. Homer’s Iliad

c. Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics

d. Hesiod’s Theogony

10. ___ What Greek thinker or philosophical group first asserted that a mathematical harmony could be found in the universe’s underlying structures?

a. Aristotle

b. the Pythagoreans

c. the Epicureans

d. Socrates

11. ___ What work best illustrates the moment in Greek art when the stiff symmetry of the Archaic style was being softened by a new human interest and naturalism?

a. the Zeus of Artemision

b. Laocoön and his Sons

c. the Kritios Boy

d. the Dying Gaul

12. ___ Which statement best describes the Delian League, an alliance of Greek city-states in the classical era?

a. resisted the conquests of Alexander

b. attacked Troy and the cities of Asia Minor

c. spread Greek culture across the Eastern world

d. transformed into an Athenian empire

13. ___ What does the philosopher Aristotle describe with the term catharsis?

a. the poetic structure of Greek tragic drama

b. the fatal error committed by a tragic hero

c. the circular area where the chorus danced and sang

d. the cleansing of the theater audience’s fear and pity

14. ___ What best characterized Hellenistic-era architecture, as distinct from classical Greek architecture

a. use of the somber and simple Doric order

b. lavish decoration of buildings with exterior sculpture

c. integration of different buildings into a unified complex

d. use of the arch to build multi-story structures

15. ___ As adopted by the Romans in their early history, how is the form of government called ‘a republic’ best described?

a. Important decisions are made by a direct vote of the citizens.

b. Power is shared between a hereditary ruler and elected representatives.

c. The people choose representatives to govern in their interests.

d. Patricians and plebeians alternate in holding government power.

16. ___ Which of these works is the best example of propaganda designed to glorify the person and power of the Roman emperor?

a. Pont du Gard

b. Augustus of Primaporta

c. Apollo of Veii

d. Basilica of Constantine

17. ___ Which statement best describes the Rome’s distinctive contribution to architecture?

a. built classical temples on a massive scale

b. showed great originality in sculptural decoration

c. invented post-and-lintel construction

d. developed the arch as a flexible form

18. ___ Virgil’s greatest poetic work, the Aeneid, most closely resembles what Greek model?

a. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

b. Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations

c. Homer’s epic, the Iliad

d. Sappho’s lyric poems

19. ___ The art of mosaic was most useful in the pursuit of what Roman art?

a. pictorial decoration

b. musical entertainment

c. constructing arches

d. portrait sculpture

20. ___ According to the Buddha, what was the purpose of human knowledge?

a. the extinction of all selfish striving and desire

b. the historical redemption of the Hebrew nation

c. blissful union with a heavenly father

d. obedience to the revealed scriptures of God

21. ___ What best describes a principal achievement of the emperor Diocletian?

a. He overthrew the Etruscan kings and founded the Republic

b. His reforms momentarily halted the late Empire’s decline

c. He sponsored the Pantheon and other architectural projects.

d. His rule resolved a long and violent civil war

22. Which of these is associated with the reign of David as king of the Israelites?

a. the conquest of Egypt and Persia by Israelite armies

b. the foundation of St. Peter’s in Rome

c. the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem

d. the composition of psalms in praise of God

23. ___ In the year 70, a generation after the life of Jesus, what event devastated the Jewish nation?

a. a massive earthquake that destroyed Near Eastern capitals

b. destruction of its temple by a Roman army

c. exile to the imperial city of Babylon

d. the death of its beloved King Solomon

24. ___ Which work would best serve as an example of Christians’ adaptation of pagan motifs and symbols for their own religious art?

a. the Second Temple in Jerusalem

b. Gregorian chant

c. The Good Shepherd

d. Mosque of Córdoba

25. ___ Which topic or concept is most closely associated with the ideas of Augustine of Hippo, an early “father” of the Christian church?

a. original sin

b. the One or the Good

c. apocalypse

d. the Torah

26. ___ Who was the sixth-century Byzantine emperor who temporarily reunited eastern and western Roman empires and revised the Roman law code?

a. Abraham

b. Justinian

c. Constantine

d. Augustine of Hippo

27. ___ To what ancient city would you travel to see the Muslim shrine called the Dome of the Rock, built on the former site of the Jewish Temple?

a. Mecca

b. Constantinople

c. Ravenna

d. Jerusalem

28. ___ Which statement is best associated with the Viking age?

a. Europe blossomed with a “white mantle of churches”

b. an age of tolerance was instituted in Muslim Spain

c. Norse raiders plundered much of Christian Europe

d. pilgrims traveled the great “roads” to reach Santiago de Compostela

29. ___ What work would teach you most about the campaign of William the Conqueror to defeat the English king?

a. the reliquary of Ste. Foye

b. the epic poem Beowulf

c. the Bayeux Tapestry

d. the Song of Roland

30. ___ What organization or institution played a key role in transmitting the wisdom of Arabic civilization to Europe’s Christian intellectuals?

a. School of Toledo

b. the Court of Lions

c. Holy Roman Empire

d. Abbey of Cluny

31. ___ What kind of scene would most likely be depicted in a stone mural of the Classic Maya period?

a. the birth of the Buddha

b. the crucifixion of Christ

c. Norman cavalry in battle

d. ritual blood sacrifice

32. ___ Which statement best describes the abbey church of Ste.-Foy in Conques, France?

a. site of Charlemagne’s coronation by the pope

b. an influential example of Romanesque architecture

c. served as chapel for the three generations of Roman emperors

d. based on the floor plan of San Vitale in Ravenna

33. ___ Which statement most accurately describes the clef?

a. a song usually accompanied by an organ

b. a medieval system of four-note chords

c. established the key note of a musical staff

d. first arose in the Muslim Spain

34. ___ What phenomenon is best described as a feature of the Gothic awakening?

a. the vigorous growth of Europe’s towns and cities

b. the dominance of Venice’s navy in the Mediterranean

c. the successful defense against Viking attacks

d. the resurgent power of the pope in European politics

35. ___ Where were the rose windows of a Gothic church located?

a. decorating the lintels

b. above the three portals

c. decorating the buttress

d. along the door jambs

36. ___ What best defines the term tenor?

a. melody of a courtly love song

b. supporting pier of a ribbed vault

c. melodic line based on traditional plainchant

d. central post of a door on a Gothic cathedral

37. ___ What was depicted in a typical morality play, such as Everyman?

a. the vivid life and death of a Christian saint

b. a scene from the Old or New Testaments

c. the reenactment of Christ’s death and resurrection

d. the struggle between vice and virtue over a sinner’s soul

38. ___ Which figure benefited most directly from the “new Aristotle”—writings rediscovered through Arabic scholarship and translation?

a. Thomas Aquinas

b. Dante Alighieri

c. Giotto

d. Léonin

39. ___ What term or topic is best associated with the rise of a well-trained and ambitious class of professional warriors in late medieval Europe?

a. scholasticism

b. terza rima

c. chivalry

d. lais

40. ___ What best describes Geoffrey Chaucer’s most significant achievement?

a. composing medieval England’s greatest poem

b. decorating the Scrovegni Chapel

c. perfecting the International Gothic style

d. writing a philosophical dialogue praising women

 

SECTION II – FILL IN THE BLANKS (6 POINTS)

1. The ___________________ were the first people to develop writing, in the form of marks on clay tablets.

2. The ancient Egyptians’ belief in many gods is an example of ________________, the most common religious attitude of the ancient world.

 

3. The early Greek philosophers who speculated that everything in the natural world was derived from a primal stuff, such as water or air, were called _________________.

 

4. The Roman writers Horace and Juvenal are known for their works of literary ___________________, the art of wittily ridiculing of human folly or vice.

 

5. Around the time of Jesus, many Jews came to expect the ___________________, a moment in which God’s will would be revealed and Israel redeemed.

6. The invention of ______________________, a form of sacred polyphony, was primarily the achievement of the Notre Dame School of Music.

 

SECTION III – PICTURE ID (4 POINTS)

1. The Pont du Gard (still standing in southern France) is a Roman structure which demonstrates one of their primary achievements in architecture.

a. What important architectural technique is demonstrated by this structure?

This technique is called the ____________________.

b. What is the name of this type of structure?

This type of structure is called an _________________________.

 

2. This statue of Hermes, said to be by the great classical Greek sculptor, Praxiteles, demonstrates a specific posture, intended to represent human naturalism.

a. What is the technical term for this posture?

The technical term for this posture is ___________________.

b. Which of the two principal techniques of sculpture does this statue demonstrate?

This statue demonstrates the technique of ______________________ or ________________ sculpture.

 

3. The insert above shows a piece of literature with a very particular structure, which demonstrates both the general category of literature to which it belongs and the specific composition of one of its sub-categories.

a. To what general category of literature does this piece belong?

This piece of literature belongs in the general category of _______________.

b. In what specific form was this piece composed?

This piece was composed in the specific form of a ________________.

 

4. The musical instrument illustrated above belongs to a particular group of instruments which all operate on the same principle.

a. What is the name of this instrument?

This instrument is called a __________________.

b. To what category of instruments does this one belong?

This instrument belongs in the category of ________________ instruments.

 

 

EXTRA CREDIT (1 POINT)

Who wrote the piece of literature referred to in Section III, Question 3?

____________________________________________________________

 

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