Final Examination  (template for directions and format)

{check the Registrar's listing for this year's date & time of the exam}

[Click here for details on the scope of the exam.]

GENERAL DIRECTIONS: 

1)This examination is in three sections; Section III (identifi­cations) has two parts.

2)The time allotted for each question reflects its relative weight in the examination.

3)Read over the whole examination carefully before picking the ques­tions to which you can give the most complete answers.

4)Both this examination and your bluebooks must be turned in to receive credit, but all answers must be written in your bluebooks, not on the exam itself.

5)Answer in any order, but please label all answers.  Also, number your blue­books (e.g., "1 of 3," "2 of 3," etc.), as appropriate.  Please use one set of bluebooks for your essays and a second set for your quotation and term IDs.

6)Please mark your choices on the attached grading sheet.

7)Budget some time for thinking about the focus of your essays, and breathe deeply before you begin to write.

8)The usual advice about showing the significance of your facts through general statements and about backing up your generali­zations with specific examples certainly applies here.

9)In arguing a particular point of view, you should also show why you reject opposing viewpoints; feel free, also, to challenge the implicit assumptions of a question, but in general, answer the question, the whole question, and nothing but the question.

10)Always bear in mind the Fairbankian[1] caveat:  "China is a big country...."  In other words, broad generalizations may be so vague as to be useless; people in different classes, strata, or areas may have acted, felt, or responded differently at different times.

11)Chinese names are given in Pinyin romanization.

I. ESSAY #1 (50 minutes) Choose one (1) of the following three questions:

A.

B.

C.

II. ESSAY #2 (30 minutes) Choose one (1) of the following two questions:

A.

B.

III. IDENTIFICATION (40 minutes) Answer both A and B:

A. Choosing three (3) of the following five quotations, please:

a) indicate as closely as you can the date and the speaker/ author/ subject/ philosophic school (of the passage itself, not the collection in which you found it); and...

b) give a sentence or two explaining the context and significance of this particular quotation (not of the larger selection from which it is taken or of the school/philosophy/movement which it represents).  There may be cases where "***" stands for the name of a person you should identify.
 
 

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)
 
 

B. Choose one item from each of the following five numbered groups (for a total of five answers) and give:

a) a brief identification (i.e., including chronological, cultural, administrative, philosophical, and/or geographical context where appropriate), and

b) a succinct statement of the historical significance.

1)
 

a)

b)

c)

a)

b)

c)
 

a)

b)

c)
 

a)

b)

c)
 

a)

b)

c)