Cultural Studies Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Cultural Studies explores the ways in which culture shapes and reflects social realities, identities, power structures, and historical contexts. This interdisciplinary course examines various forms of cultural expression, such as media, art, literature, music, and everyday practices, and analyzes how these forms both influence and are influenced by politics, economy, and society. Students will critically engage with theories and methodologies from fields such as sociology, anthropology, literary studies, and communication, developing the tools to investigate issues of race, gender, class, ideology, globalization, and cultural change. Through readings, discussions, and projects, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics that drive cultural production and consumption in contemporary and historical settings.
Recommended Textbook
The Humanities Culture Continuity and Change Volume 1 3rd Edition by Henry M. Sayre
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Rise of Culture: From Forest to Farm
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Q1) The Olmec's giant mounds where the priests dwelled are thought to have possibly represented A)volcanoes.
B)pregnant wombs,
C)mountains.
D)female breasts.
Answer: A
Q2) The Great Serpent Mound differs from most Hopewell mounds in its A)spiral shape and raised embankments.
B)alignment with the sun at the equinoxes.
C)absence of burial sites.
D)mysterious abandonment.
Answer: C
Q3) Among prehistoric paintings,what is distinctive about the painting of a bird-headed man,a bison,and a rhinoceros in Lascaux Cave?
A)It includes a representation of a large animal.
B)It is one of the few cave paintings to depict a human.
C)It is painted on limestone.
D)It demonstrates a rejection of naturalistic representation.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Mesopotamia: Power and Social Order in the
Early Middle East
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Q1) The reliefs on the stairway leading to Darius's Hall of One Hundred Columns represent A)Darius conquering the Greeks and the Egyptians.
B)visitors from 23 nations bringing tribute to Darius.
C)huge winged bulls standing guard.
D)Darius passing the crown to his son,Xerxes.
Answer: B
Q2) The Mesopotamian ziggurat,with its crowning temple,might have symbolized
A)an entrance to the earth's womb.
B)the triumph of good over evil.
C)a bridge between heaven and earth.
D)the sanctity of water.
Answer: C
Q3) What is the term for endowing the gods and the forces of nature that they represent with humanlike traits,a characteristic of Mesopotamian religion?
A)monotheism
B)hieratic scale
C)social perspective
D)anthropomorphism
Answer: D
Page 4
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Chapter 3: The Stability of Ancient Egypt: Flood and Sun
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Q1) Which god did Akhenaten declare to be supreme?
A)Isis
B)Aten
C)Horus
D)Ammit
Answer: B
Q2) Why did the ancient Egyptians call their land Kemet,or "Black Land"?
A)Black was the color associated with Osiris.
B)Egypt contained rich deposits of coal.
C)The Nile's annual floods deposited black silt.
D)Narmer,the first king,was a Nubian.
Answer: C
Q3) Egyptian artists painted human faces,arms,legs,and feet in profile,but human eyes and shoulders frontally because they believed this to be the A)favored format of the gods.
B)best way to fit a large number of figures into a scene.
C)most efficient way to align these body parts.
D)most characteristic view.
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: The Aegean World and the Rise of Greece: Trade,War,and Victory
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Q1) Whom did the Athenians view as the founding father of their polis's democracy?
A)Draco
B)Solon
C)Sappho
D)Pisistratus
Q2) In 508 BCE,who instituted the first Athenian democracy by establishing a Council of Five Hundred?
A)Cleisthenes
B)Hippias
C)Pisistratus
D)Solon
Q3) Among the classical Greek architectural orders,the heaviest and most massive is the A)Corinthian.
B)Doric.
C)Hellenistic.
D)Ionic.
Q4) Compare life in early Sparta with that in early Athens,bearing in mind that the two city-states later would conflict (the Peloponnesian Wars,434-404 BCE).
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Golden Age Athens and the Hellenic World: The
School of Hellas
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Q1) Sophocles's Antigone opposes her uncle,Creon,because she believes that A)burying her brother is her democratic right.
B)Creon has denied her rights because she is female.
C)Creon unrightfully banished her father,Oedipus.
D)Creon has seized her father's throne unlawfully.
Q2) The Parthenon's 40-foot ivory-and-gold statue of Athena was intended to represent A)the Delian League's wealth.
B)the cult of the body.
C)Pericles's mistress,Aspasia.
D)Athens's political power.
Q3) The Sophists differed from the pre-Socratics in their focus on A)the natural universe.
B)the actions of the gods.
C)the actions of human beings.
D)the basis of reality.
Q4) Consider the role drama-both comedy and tragedy-played in the Greeks' understanding and pursuit of eudaimonia,"the good or flourishing life."
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Chapter 6: Rome: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty
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Q1) Why,by the end of the third century,were the Romans justified in feeling politically and culturally threatened by the Christians?
A)Christians made up nearly one-tenth of the empire's population.
B)Constantine was conspiring with the Christians to stage a coup.
C)Christian churches were outnumbering Roman temples in Rome.
D)Christians were staging terrorist acts against Roman institutions.
Q2) Why did the Roman baths come to signal a decline in values and morals?
A)Prostitutes established their businesses in them.
B)They came to symbolize material excess.
C)They distracted Romans from the affairs of the state.
D)They symbolized waste of labor and precious water.
Q3) A column in the Tuscan order differs from one in the Doric order in its
A)unfluted shaft.
B)geometric simplicity.
C)Inclusion of pedestal.
D)Inclusion of a capital.
Q4) List and explain three examples of Etruscan influence on Roman culture.
Q5) A theory about the Aeneid is that Virgil wrote it as an instruction manual for Augustus Caesar.If this idea is true,what do you think Virgil hoped the new emperor would learn from this work?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Emerging Empires in the East: Urban Life and
Imperial Majesty in China and India
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Q1) The stupa's three supporting discs-chatras-represent
A)Buddha's three different identities.
B)Buddhism's three levels of consciousness.
C)Buddhism's three domes of heaven.
D)Buddha's three signs of authority.
Q2) Compare the symbolism of Qin Shihuangdi's burial with that of Buddha's.
Q3) The yin-yang symbolizes the
A)harmonious merging of the Shang and the Zhou dynasties.
B)perpetual interplay and mutual relation among all things.
C)moment of transition that ultimately leads to wisdom.
D)five elements and the five powers of creation.
Q4) Of the three primary deities of Hinduism,Vishnu is believed to assume human form most often because of his A)great love for humankind.
B)insatiable lust for women.
C)duty to serve as a warrior.
D)need to help people discover nirvana.
Q5) Compare Hinduism's beliefs with Buddhism's.
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Q6) Discuss the portrait of society that ranking in the Indian caste system provides.
Chapter 8: The Flowering of Christianity: Faith and the
Power of Belief in the Early First Millennium
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Q1) Which sect is associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls?
A)the Essenes
B)the Pharisees
C)the Philistines
D)the Sadducees
Q2) List and explain three ways that Constantine's council at Nicea defined the Christian religion.
Q3) Why is Venice home to a vast amount of Byzantine art?
A)Wealthy residents of Constantinople fled to Venice after their city fell to the Muslims.
B)Most of the Constantinople's artists and skilled laborers came from Venice.
C)Venetian mercenaries looted Constantinople's art during the Fourth Crusade.
D)During Leo III's purge,the people of Constantinople smuggled art to Venice to save it.
Q4) Argue for or against a radical Bible revision to include the Gnostic texts.
Q5) The Jerusalem temple was considered corrupt by the A)Essenes.
B)Pharisees.
C)Philistines.
D)Sadducees.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The Rise and Spread of Islam: a New Religion
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Q1) All of the following are included among Islam's five pillars EXCEPT A)prayer.
B)fasting.
C)education.
D)pilgrimage.
Q2) List Islam's five pillars and discuss the ways they fit with the claim that Islam is a religion of practice.
Q3) The word "hadith" refers to A)the history of Islam.
B)Islam's five pillars.
C)Muhammad's sayings.
D)the verses in the surahs.
Q4) In the poems of Sa'di,Rumi,and Jami,pursuit of the beautiful represents A)pursuit of the beauty that is God.
B)mastering the art of calligraphy.
C)navigating the intricate path of the soul.
D)understanding the differences between men and women.
Q5) Even when it is outlawed,art finds a means of expression.Explain this statement in terms of Islamic mosque decoration.
Page 11
Q6) List and discuss three reasons Islam spread so rapidly in Africa.
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Q1) The main task of Christian missionaries in England was to A)transfer the people's allegiance from their king to God.
B)build churches for the people.
C)copy the gospels for widespread distribution.
D)establish schools and hospitals for the people.
Q2) The space created by Romanesque churches' barrel vaults had the effect of A)raising churchgoers' eyes,directing their thoughts toward heaven.
B)reminding churchgoers of the Church's beginnings in Rome.
C)inspiring humility in churchgoers.
D)dazzling churchgoers with the divine light shining through the arches.
Q3) The monsters in Beowulf seem to be metaphors for A)the Anglo-Saxon warlords.
B)fate and the destructive forces of nature.
C)the monks who were settling in Britain. D)attacks against the feudal system.
Q4) Discuss the changes in sacred music that occurred during the Middle Ages.
Q5) Explain the connection between the courtly love literature and Christianity,using Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot as the main example.
Q6) List and explain medieval women's contributions to the arts.
Q7) Compare Beowulf's and Roland's sacrifice for the greater good. Page 12
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Chapter 11: Centers of Culture: Court and City in the Larger World
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Q1) Japan's capital was moved to Heian-ko between 784 and 794 to
A)distance the secular court from Buddhist influence.
B)accommodate a larger,more elaborate palace.
C)be closer to the thriving seaports.
D)escape the threat of Chinese invaders.
Q2) Song painters valued landscape above other subjects because it
A)possessed a vastness that,to them,reflected China itself.
B)offered a constantly changing subject.
C)possessed a beauty that,to them,symbolized the Chinese people.
D)embodied the principle behind all things in their belief system.
Q3) Compare the grid layout of the Tang city Chang'an with that of the Mesoamerican Teotihuacán.
Q4) In the exiled Song scholar-painters' art during Mongol rule,bamboo symbolized
A)Chinese peoples' dominance of the land.
B)the theft of Chinese soil by Mongol invaders.
C)Chinese peoples' ability to bend and not break.
D)the unifying principle of the Chinese world.
Q5) Identify and explain the contradictions concerning women and education in the beliefs of the Heian Japanese.
Q6) Describe the appearance and construction of the Ethiopian rock churches. Page 14
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Chapter 12: The Gothic Style: Faith and Knowledge in an Age of Inquiry
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why,in 1179,did the cathedral school of Notre-Dame in Paris start admitting nonclerical students?
A)France had an excess of clergy.
B)A papal decree ordered their admittance.
C)The Church withdrew funding of the school.
D)Enrollment of clerical students was shrinking.
Q2) A large number of French cathedrals were called Notre Dame ("Our Lady"),because they were dedicated to
A)France's Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.
B)France,personified as "our lady."
C)Mary Magdalene,who was regarded as the "Bride of Christ."
D)the Virgin Mary,who was regarded as the "Queen of Heaven."
Q3) Discuss the advancement from the stylized Romanesque sculptures to the growing sense of naturalism portrayed by Gothic statuary,using as at least one of your examples the jamb statues at Reims Cathedral.
Q4) Compare Gothic cathedral architecture with Sainte-Chapelle's Radiant style.
Q5) Summarize and explain Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica argument on the existence of God.
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Q6) Explain how the Gothic cathedral influenced musical composition and performance.
Toward a New Humanism
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Q1) Discuss the social realism of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Q2) Buon fresco has the advantage of A)creating a completely non-porous surface,allowing total impermeability to water.
B)drying relatively slowly,allowing artists to work methodically.
C)being less likely to flake than fresco secco.
D)being able to accept oil paint as an additive.
Q3) Dante Alighieri composed his Divine Comedy in the vernacular to A)appeal to a wider lay audience.
B)protest the formal language of the Church.
C)avoid heresy charges from the Church.
D)emphasize his alliance with the Guelphs.
Q4) Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes include the first instance since antiquity of the depiction of A)people from behind.
B)a nude female.
C)a figure posed with contrapposto.
D)flying angels.
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Q5) Explain Dante's use of numbers in the Divine Comedy,focusing on their symbolism.
Chapter 14: Florence and the Early Renaissance: Humanism in Italy
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Q1) Explain the Medici family's contributions to humanist scholarship and art.
Q2) Summarize Castiglione's concept of l'uomo universale,connecting that concept with duty to government.
Q3) Piero Della Francesca painted Federigo de Montefeltro,duke of Urbino,in profile because
A)he wanted to imitate ruler Egyptian portraits.
B)the profile view was considered the most attractive.
C)Federigo was missing an eye and part of his nose.
D)he wanted to emphasize his subject's aristocratic nose.
Q4) The humanists in Lorenzo's court have viewed Venus in Botticelli's Primavera as A)the personification of carnal desire.
B)an allegory for the highest moral qualities.
C)the symbol of the Florentine republic.
D)a threat to man's free will.
Q5) Cosimo de' Medici founded Florence's Platonic Academy to A)prevent Marsilio Ficino from moving to Rome.
B)give the artists he patronized a studio in which to work.
C)provide a place for the study and discussion of Plato's works.
D)educate his children and the children of other nobles.
Q6) Compare Donatello's David with Michelangelo's. Page 18
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Chapter 15: The High Renaissance in Rome and Venice:
Papal Patronage and Civic Pride
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Q1) As inspiration for The Prince,Niccolò Machiavelli studied
A)Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
B)Roman rulers and citizens.
C)Alexander the Great's campaigns.
D)Virgil's Aeneid.
Q2) In the School of Athens,Aristotle directs his palm down to
A)call attention to Diogenes the Cynic on the step below him.
B)manipulate the viewer's gaze to the vanishing point at his feet.
C)indicate that knowledge comes from study of the natural world.
D)emphasize his Nicomachean Ethics,which conflicts with Plato's Republic.
Q3) Villa La Rotunda is considered by many to be Andrea Palladio's masterpiece because its
A)design is perfectly symmetrical.
B)ratio is the same as that of the Parthenon.
C)monumental facade projects authority and power.
D)asymmetry creates a light,airy effect.
Q4) Discuss Pope Julius II's rationale for including two Classical pagan scenes and two Christian scenes on the walls of the Stanza della Segnatura,located in the Vatican Palace.
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Q5) Explain the symbolism in Titian's Reclining Nude (Venus of Urbino).
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Chapter 16: The Renaissance in the North: Between Wealth and Want
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Q1) Explore the irony exhibited during the Northern Renaissance,for example,the slapstick amusement of Morris dancing and madrigals appealing to the pessimistic Northern imagination and the use of the crucifixion in art to refer not to the promise of the glory of an afterlife but to the inevitability of pain and suffering.
Q2) The frontal pose,bearded face,and intense gaze of Albrecht Dürer's Self-Portrait recall
A)traditional images of Christ.
B)traditional images of John the Baptist.
C)portraits by Piero della Francesca.
D)portraits on Roman coins.
Q3) Explain the tension between the clergy and those without money represented in the Heptameron's tale of the Spanish widow.
Q4) The abundant symbolic elements in Jan van Eyck's Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami have significance that is A)secular.
B)religious
C)unique to this work.
D)universal.
Page 21
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Chapter 17: The Reformation: a New Church and the Arts
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Q1) Albrecht Dürer's popular and much reproduced The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can be viewed as symbolizing the events of late-fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Western Europe.List the four horsemen,and describe at least two of that period's events that correspond with the horsemen.
Q2) Martin Luther rejected the Church's doctrine that good deeds and work lead to salvation,because he believed that
A)God elected people at birth to be saved or damned.
B)infant baptism guaranteed salvation.
C)faith alone would provide salvation.
D)shunning evil and being moral brought salvation.
Q3) The Church excommunicated Martin Luther in 1521 for
A)not appearing at the Diet of Worms.
B)translating the Bible into German.
C)marrying a former nun.
D)heresy.
Q4) In Adam and Eve,Dürer includes a cat at Eve's feet ready to pounce on a mouse at Adam's feet.Explain the symbolism of that small portion of his engraving in relation to the entire work's theme.
Q5) Describe life in sixteenth-century Geneva under John Calvin's direction.
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Chapter 18: Encounter and Confrontation: the Impact of Increasing Global Interaction
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Q1) In decorating the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan's palace,the Moguls used the technique of
A)pietra dura.
B)buon fresco.
C)fresco secco.
D)Tesserae.
Q2) Describe the plan of Zhu Di's Forbidden City,emphasizing the symbolism used in its design and construction.
Q3) Europeans were very eager to colonize America to A)establish trade with the native peoples.
B)relocate people from their crowded cities.
C)acquire gold,silver,and other treasure.
D)bring Christianity to a new land.
Q4) The Benin equated their sacred mudfish with the Portuguese,because both A)could swim and walk on land.
B)were poison to their enemies.
C)brought great gifts to the Benin.
D)had beards or beard-like growths.
Page 23
Q5) Name the two schools of Chinese painting,and describe the characteristics of each.
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Chapter 19: England in the Tudor Age: This Other Eden
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Q1) In the skull of The Ambassadors,Hans Holbein uses A)linear perspective.
B)atmospheric perspective.
C)foreshortening.
D)anamorphic projection.
Q2) Compare Marlowe's character Dr.Faustus to Shakespeare's Hamlet as protagonists,focusing on their reasons for and means of achieving their goals.
Q3) Identify at least three objects that Holbein includes in The Ambassadors,and explain their inclusion and their symbolism.
Q4) Hamlet is the most desired role and the most often performed character in the history of the English stage because of A)multiple soliloquys.
B)dramatic death.
C)openness and complexity.
D)tormented love affair.
Q5) Describe the layout of an Elizabethan public playhouse such as Richard Burbage's The Globe.Then compare it to a modern playhouse or theater.
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Chapter 20: The Early Counter-Reformation and Mannerism:
Restraint and Invention
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Q1) Describe the subject,content,and location of Michelangelo's Last Judgment,and explain the reasons it almost immediately provoked controversy.
Q2) List and explain three reforms the Council of Trent mandated.
Q3) The overarching theme of Bronzino's Allegory with Venus and Cupid is
A)sensual indulgence.
B)the force of wrath.
C)the illusion of faith.
D)the power of memory.
Q4) From Titian to El Greco to Anguissola to Gentileschi,hands (mano)command special attention in Mannerist art.Describing specific examples,explain what the artists were doing by calling attention to their subjects' hands.
Q5) In The Madonna with the Long Neck,Parmigianino paints Mary withdrawing from the Christ child to demonstrate that she
A)is in awe of his power.
B)knows his tragic fate.
C)feels unworthy to hold him.
D)is pulled away by the angels.
Q6) Identify at least three characteristics of Mannerist style in visual art.
Page 25
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