Wednesday, November 29, 2006
THE SCORES ARE IN: Practice Final, Western Civ., Intro to Medieval Europe
Here's 15 questions pulled from a freshmen-level 100-question multiple guess test. I always hated multiple choice, but logistically it's the only way to pump undergrads through their Western Civ. requirement. The test is inside, and I'll wait until everyone has had at least a day to give it a go [Pepe beat everyone to the punch; AA has just completed it; AI opted out; where's JJ...]:
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15 comments:
Circle the correct answer and hand 'em in:
1.) Often considered a thug and mentally unstable, what Roman Emperor ordered the construction of large public baths early in the 3rd century AD?
a.) Nero
b.) Caracalla
c.) Elagabalus
d.) Augustus
2.) Who was the 18th century Enlightenment thinker who authored, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?
a.) Voltaire
b.) David Hume
c.) Edward Gibbon
d.) Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3.) Who was the angel purported to dictate the entire Qu’ran to Mohommad?
a.) Michael
b.) Gabriel
c.) David
d.) Barachiel
4.) In Islam, what is the name of the religious community that is supposed to transcend all other secular bonds?
a.) Umma
b.) Caliph
c.) Imam
d.) Ayatollah
5.) What does Islam mean in Arabic?
a.) “belief”
b.) “divine”
c.) “Allah”
d.) “submission”
6.) Who was the monk who, in the early 6th century, devised and established new monastic rules that emphasized obedience, humility, manual labor, and studiousness, and that spread quickly throughout Europe and Ireland?
a.) St. Gregory
b.) Benedict of Nursia
c.) Augustine of Hippo
d.) St. Ambrose
7.) What means “boy” in Gaelic?
a.) vassal
b.) peasant
c.) squire
d.) Celt
8.) Who is the evil demon in the epic, Beowulf?
a.) Lothar
b.) Frig
c.) Hrothgar
d.) Grendel
9.) What was the term used to denote Medieval brain surgery?
a.) tracheotomy
b.) trepanation
c.) cranium decompressing
d.) tryptophan
10.) Who was the King who, in the Medieval period, created a new coinage system based on a division of the silver pound into two hundred forty pennies, lasting until the 1970s in Great Britain?
a.) Charles Martel
b.) Constantine
c.) Pepin the Short
d.) Charlemagne
11.) Who was the Viking warrior sentenced to die in a snake pit by the Northumbrians?
a.) Thör
b.) Oden
c.) Leif
d.) Ragnar
12.) What was characteristic of the Carolingian Renaissance?
a.) the promotion of classical learning and Christian wisdom
b.) the standardization of Latin writing
c.) original Latin poetry
d.) all of the above
13.) Who was the 6th century Byzantine writer who authored Secret History during the reign of Justinian?
a.) Thucydides
b.) Polybius
c.) Marcellinus
d.) Procopius
14.) What Roman Emperor saw a shining figure of Jesus in a dream and subsequently declared that the entire Empire converted to Christianity?
a.) Dioclecian
b.) Constantine
c.) Trajan
d.) Theodosius
15.) In the latter half of the 4th century AD, the eastern Roman Emperor battled in Civil War with the western Roman Emperor. What was another name for this battle mentioned in class?
a.) Peloponnesian War
b.) Gothic Wars
c.) Frigid River
d.) Emperors’ War
1b
2c
3b
4a
5d
6d
7?
8?
9b (had one myself)
10?
11d
12a
13a
14b
15a
OK, will take a stab from memory. But first let me sip a little coffee....ah, there, ok. Note, * (?) means, I guess but am not sure. Whereas (?) alone means, "not the foggiest". Of course, a full answer which is wrong is simply "Ignorant Idiot at Work".
1. b, Caracalla
2. c, Edward Gibbon
3. b, Gabriel
4. a, Ummah
5. d, Submission
6. b (?) Benedict of Nursia [hey, sounds plausible]
7. c (?) Squire
8. d, Grendel
9. b, Trepanation
10. (?) (?)
11. c, (?) Leif. [Yes, a guess based only on the fact that Leif was a common Viking name, and so improves the odds when chosen randomly. Ragnar sounds cool, sounds like it is worthy of snakes in a pit, but then I think of "Ragnarok" and I perceive a devious North Dakotan trickster at work....Of course his trickery might yet have succeeded!]
12. d, All of the Above.
13. b (?)
14. b, Constantine
15. c, Frigid River (?). [Of course "Emperor's war" leaps out, but you call it a "battle", and so "war" should not be attached to it. Besides, I can imagine a brutal battle on some cold winter's day on the shores of a river in the Balkans, where Splitters and Uniters collided.]
There, the reasons for my not being on Jeopardy revealed.
Sounds too difficult for me, MFT. Are you sure those students know any of this? (Well, perhaps except 2), which is a giveaway.)
It's okay, AI. This is (of course) optional, and there's no way I'd ever think of trying to take one of you guys' math or stats classes.
Not even History of Math?
Yes, I'd take a history of math course, AA. It takes me long enough to "get" the historical trends that characterize the intellectual tradition. I'd just need more time to figure out the equations.
Thanks for the modifier.
Did JJ opt to bone up on his medieval history before taking the quiz? Or did he decide not to take it?
Pepe, you had a trepanation? Why?
JJ gets till this afternoon to respond. I'll post the answers this evening.
JJ is boning up, real hard -- that's for sure.
It's more fun just to wing it from memory....or at least I tell's myself until MFT gives me my grade
I might curve it a bit. The actual test was curved pretty substantially. I'll give you the raw scores and then the curve.
Is JJ still cramming?
1.) b, Caracalla
2.) c, Ed Gibbon
3.) b, Gabriel
4.) a, Umma
5.) d, "submission"
6.) b, Benedict of Nursia
7.) a, vassal
8.) d, Grendel
9.) b, trepanation
10.) d, Charlemagne
11.) d, Ragnar
12.) d, all of the above
13.) d, Procopius
14.) b, Constantine
15.) c, Frigid River
Pepe = 8/15, or 53%
AA = 11/15, or 73%
AI = withdrew from course
JJ = 0/15 (too busy with porn and booze?)
It looks as though Pepe could use some brushening up on his Norske literature (you ever read Beowulf Pepe? It's pretty good, lot's of blood-letting). AA needs a re-education in Norske and Vikingarna history, at least as far as Ragnar is concerned. After sentenced to the Northumbrian snake pit, and just before leaping to his death, he said something to the effect of, "The pigletts will be furious when the hear what's happened to the boar!!!" With Ragnar in Valhalla, Ragnar's sons proceeded to beat the living shit out of the British Isles. I guess it was brutally spectacular. AI decided to drop the course, and we can presume that JJ still thinks the humanities is a complete waste of time.
These papers were marked knowing, of course, that you haven't set foot in the lecture hall of 120+ students. Nor the syllabus, or the course books. The curve in the actual class would have put Pepe with something in the neighborhood of a "B-," and AA with an "A" — yeah, it was pretty brutal. Then again, and like I said, I can't stand multiple guess. Good work fellahs.
Don't worry Pepe, there's still a final with essay and identification. You have a chance to rebound.
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