Final Test Questions

Anyone reading--Are you there, Linda? (Shehla's also taken a look-finding my sister's childhood  memories of Mom's warning not to take advantage of the men in the basement of the movie theatre--might think I'm referring to something philosophical when I use "Final Test Questions" in my title.  How have we lived life, for example.  But no, I'm really facing five tests next week, and I have some "guiding questions" for some of them. 

First, for Demystifying the Middle East we have these:

Except for the take home portion of this exam, the final will be entirely closed note and book. The final exam will consist of four parts:

Part 1 (20 points) Take home short essay. Due in class on the day of the Final Exam-Th 12/15 10:30am. Answer the following prompt:

Write a 1-2 page typed essay that compares and contrasts one specific theme common to the novel that you read for your essay and Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun.

Part 2 (30 points) Multiple choice. Answer a series of thirty multiple choice questions based on notes, discussion and readings that cover Arabic literature and literary culture, Men in the Sun, feminist thought and Arab feminisms, “Understanding the Other Sister,” Feminisms in the Aftermath of September 11th,” Iran (Is Not the Problem) “Iran,” and “Political Islam and the West.”

Part 3 (20 points) Multiple choice. Answer 20 out of 25 multiple choice questions covering the in class “Women’s Organizing in the Middle East” chart and the student final presentations (I will only grade the first 20 questions that you answer).

Part 4 (30 points) Short written responses. Answer 3 out of 5 short answer questions. The main topics to study for this section and from which the questions will be drawn are:

• Feminisms (based on the two readings and lecture notes)
• Charting Women’s Organizations (based on the in-class presentations and lecture notes)
• Iran (based on the video screening and the Vijay Prashad article)
• Student presentations (based on in class notes)

Then for Humanities 41 A, Western Culture and Values:   

1.  At the center of the medieval universe was God, not human beings.  Human life was judged by divine standards.  Comment. 

Consider the world view of Classical Greece before answering the question:  The world is rational.  Man can use his intellect to discover the laws of nature.  Man is beautiful.  There is a good life, and it can be achieve through balance, order, and harmony.  The purpose of life is to have a life.  Education is the path to a well-ordered society.

2.  In what way is the Gothic cathedral the highest achievment of the medieval mind?  (339-350)

Consider:  What was it built to glorify?  What is depicted in its stained glass windows and its statuary?  What kind of beauty does the bulding possess?  Characterize the proportions of the building.  What are the characteristics of the Gothic style?  What are the four functions a Gothic cathedral served?

3.  Look carefully at Crucifixion.  (9.7) pg 198 How is it not Classical?

Consider:  What artistic values are at work here?  What needs does a work like this serve?  Compare and contrast the Ara Pacis of Augustus (4.10, 4.11)

4.  What makes the Song of Roland a non-classical work of art?

Consider both its form and its content to answer this question.  Consider the fact that the medieval artist "found himself drawn inexorably away from natural things which live in time and occupy space, and into a stylized world of abstracion."


5.  In what way is Francesca de Rimini in her own version of paradise and not in Hell at all?

6.  The Parthenon is meant to be most appreciated from the outsisde.  The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (7.5) pg 157 is meant to e most appreciated from the inside.  Why?

7.  Why do the figures in the Book of Kells look so different from Zeus 2.2?  pg 33


But before I start "considering," I've got to finish my essay "Was I an Orientalist?"  for tomorrow night's class on Intro to Islam.  I'm going  back to some letters I wrote from Algeria between 1974 and 1976 to review my perspective then.  I also need to read more of the articles on Sufism for that class.  In Comparative Religion, we're now on Daoism and Confucianism, and in Politics and Government of the Middle East, we're reading Jimmy Carter's Palestine:  Peace, Not Apartheid and we're supposed to see the movie Occupation 101.  This time it's not Wall Street.

Viewing Questions for Occupation 101:

1.       What are the settlements?  What is life like under occupation?

2.      What is the biggest myth about the conflict between Arabs and Israeli Jews?

3.      What are root causes of the conflict as described in the documentary?

4.      What are the three contradictory promises that the British made during the mandate period?  What was the King-Crane report?  What was the White Paper?

5.      What was the UN Partition Plan of 1947?  What happened in 1948?  What happened in 1967?  What is intifada and what happened during it?

6.      What is the US role in the occupation and what are the reasons that a policy of support for Israel continues?

This has been a very stimulating sabbatical.