
1. Which of the following symbolic representations of cats is NOT mentioned in the text?
~ Cats as an expression of peace is NOT a symbolic representation of cats mentioned in the text.
@ Cats as an expression of peace is NOT a symbolic representation of cats mentioned in the text.
a. an expression of sexuality
*b. an expression of peace
c. an expression of occult power
d. an expression of bourgeois power

2. The most obvious symbolic meaning of the cat massacre is
~ The most obvious symbolic meaning of the cat massacre is an oblique attack on the bourgeois class. A clear social discrepancy existed between the workers and the master who owned the cats.
@ The most obvious symbolic meaning of the cat massacre is an oblique attack on the bourgeois class. A clear social discrepancy existed between the workers and the master who owned the cats.
*a. an oblique attack on the bourgeois class.
b. a representation of the French Revolution.
c. a call for more unionization opportunity within print shops.
d. a nostalgic appeal for a time when masters and apprentices worked as friends.

3. Darnton explores the possible cultural meanings behind the cat massacre. Darnton is utilizing
~ Darnton explores the possible cultural meanings behind the cat massacre. Darnton is utilizing thick description. Thick description is a technique pioneered by Clifford Geertz.
@ Darnton explores the possible cultural meanings behind the cat massacre. Darnton is utilizing thick description. Thick description is a technique pioneered by Clifford Geertz.
a. a semiotic concept of culture.
*b. thick description.
c. post-modernism.
d. cultural materialism.

4. In Darnton's _Great Cat Massacre_, hen the workers held a trial for the cats, 
~ When the workers held a trial for the cats, they were symbolically trying the bourgeois. The manner in which they approached the trial (symbolically) was not explicit enough to justify any punishment from the master.
@ When the workers held a trial for the cats, they were symbolically trying the bourgeois. The manner in which they approached the trial (symbolically) was not explicit enough to justify any punishment from the master.
a. they made sure to hang the mistress’s favorite cat first.
b. they decided to let the cats live.
c. they were mocking the relationship between the master's mistress and the priest.
*d. they were in symbolically trying the bourgeois.

5. Even if Nicolas Contat fabricated the "Great Cat Massacre" incident, 
~ Even if Nicolas Contat fabricated the "Great Cat Massacre" incident, understanding Condat's narrative can aid in an understanding of the culture of the time. Even if we apply the ideas of Roland Barthes and consider historical narrative as fiction, we can still derive information about cultural context from the text.
@ Even if Nicolas Contat fabricated the "Great Cat Massacre" incident, understanding Condat's narrative can aid in an understanding of the culture of the time. Even if we apply the ideas of Roland Barthes and consider historical narrative as fiction, we can still derive information about cultural context from the text.
*a. historians can still analyze Contat's text to gain an understanding of the culture of the time.
b. there is evidence to suggest that his character Jérôme really existed. 
c. historians' analyses show that the text foreshadowed the September Massacres.
d. anaylsis of the text is still necessary in order to seek an objective understanding of past.

6. "When you realize that you are not getting something--a joke, a proverb, a ceremony--that is particularly meaningful to the natives, you can see where to grasp a foreign system of meaning in order to unravel it." What does this quotation from the text imply for the historian?
~ "Not getting the joke" suggests that the learning how to "get" that joke might provide a window of understanding into the culture. Historians can obtain a greater understanding of a culture by studying aspects of it that they do not understand. 
@ "Not getting the joke" suggests that the learning how to "get" that joke might provide a window of understanding into the culture. Historians can obtain a greater understanding of a culture by studying aspects of it that they do not understand. 
a. Historians will never be able to truly understand any culture but their own.
b. Historians can understand parts of culture they do not "get" by examining how that part of the culture relates to power hierarchies.
*c. "Not getting the joke" suggests that the learning how to "get" that joke might provide a window of understanding into the culture.
d. Historians can use semiotics and thick description to gain insight into jokes that have lost relevance today.

7. A shorthand form of expression in which a thing is not called by its own name but rather by the name of something intimately associated with it is
~ A shorthand form of expression in which a thing is not called by its own name but rather by the name of something intimately associated with it is a metonym. "French folklore attaches special importance to the cat as a sexual metaphor or metonym."
@ A shorthand form of expression in which a thing is not called by its own name but rather by the name of something intimately associated with it is a metonym. "French folklore attaches special importance to the cat as a sexual metaphor or metonym."
a. a syllogism.
b. a enthymeme.
c. a symbol.
*d. a metonym.

8. Which of the following quotations shows the influence of Roland Barthes on Darnton's work?
~ "The only version of the cat massacre available to us was put into writing long after the fact, by Nicolas Contat. He selected details, ordered events, and framed the story in such a way as to bring out was meaningful for him."
@ "The only version of the cat massacre available to us was put into writing long after the fact, by Nicolas Contat. He selected details, ordered events, and framed the story in such a way as to bring out was meaningful for him."
*a. "The only version of the cat massacre available to us was put into writing long after the fact, by Nicolas Contat. He selected details, ordered events, and framed the story in such a way as to bring out was meaningful for him."
b. "By seeing the way a joke worked in the horseplay of a printing ship two centuries ago, we may be able to recapture that missing element--laughter, sheer laughter, the thigh-slapping, rib-cracking Rabelaisian kind, rather than the Voltarian smirk with which we are familiar."
c. "Yet it strikes the modern reader as unfunny, if not downright repulsive. Where is the humor in a group of grown men bleating like goats and banging with their tools while an adolescent reenacts the ritual slaughter of a defenseless animal?"
d. "Mikhail Bakhtin has shown how the laughter of Rabelais expressed a strain of popular culture in which the riotously funny could turn to riot, a carnival culture of sexuality and sedition in which the revolutionary element might be contained within symbols and metaphors or might explode in a general uprising."

9. Which of the following is a type of source Darnton used as evidence for his anaylsis?
~ Folklore is a type of source Darnton used as evidence for his analysis and aid his understanding of the symbolic meaning of cats to the print shop workers.
@ Folklore is a type of source Darnton used as evidence for his analysis and aid his understanding of the symbolic meaning of cats to the print shop workers.
a. Prior structuralist work
*b. Folklore
c. Annals
d. Anatomical cat studies

10. According to Darnton, the ritual killing of cats
~ The ritual killing of cats was not unusual in premodern Europe.
@ The ritual killing of cats was not unusual in premodern Europe.
a. was frowned upon by the journeymen of the print shop.
b. was not accepted by society at the time and often punishable by death.
c. was never mentioned again by the print shop workers.
*d. was not unusual in premodern Europe.