SparkNotes: The Clouds: Quiz

Why does Strepsiades wake up in the middle of the night?

(A) Because he hears a noise

(B) Because his debts weigh upon his mind

(C) Because he hears a slave practicing the Wrong Argument

(D) Because he has sleep apnea

(E) Because he has a vision of the Clouds

What is Pheidippides's expensive hobby?

(A) Owning and racing horses

(B) Betting on horses

(C) Eating whole horses

(D) Whores

Who wanted to name Pheidippides after horses?

(A) Strepsiades

(B) Socrates

(C) Chaerephon

(D) His aristocratic mother

What does Strepsiades think the sophists consider the sky?

(A) A balloon-basket

(B) A gnat

(C) A baking cover for bread

(D) The back of a giant tortoise

What are the students at the "Thinkery" studying when they bend over?

(A) Geology and astronomy

(B) History and gastroenterology

(C) Philology and philosophy

(D) Entymology and escatology

When Strepsiades asks Pheidippides to change his expensive ways, by whom does he swear first?

(A) Hermes

(B) Dionysus

(C) Artemis

(D) Socrates

(E) Poseidon

By whom does Pheidippides swear second?

(A) Poseidon

(B) Dionysus

(C) Epiglottus

(D) Chaerephon

(E) Hephaestus

What insects does the Student say that Socrates and Chaerephon are studying?

(A) Centipede and millipede

(B) Ladybug and katydid

(C) Flea and gnat

(D) Worm and slug

According to Socrates, who causes the rain?

(A) Zeus

(B) Dionysus

(C) The Clouds

(D) Poseidon

(E) Rainman

What does Socrates steal from Strepsiades?

(A) His wallet

(B) His horses

(C) His debts

(D) His coat

In the "parabasis," the Chorus speaks on behalf of Aristophanes, calling him what?

(A) A gnat

(B) An unwed mother

(C) A sophist

(D) A politician

What does Socrates call a male chicken?

(A) A chicken

(B) A chickadee

(C) A chick

(D) A chicker

What does Socrates call a female chicken?

(A) A chickeness

(B) A chick

(C) A chicker

(D) A chicken

What does Socrates call a female trough?

(A) A trivet

(B) A triffen

(C) A troughelette

(D) A trollop

Where does Socrates demand that Strepsiades go in order to properly think and philosophize?

(A) To bed

(B) To the kitchen

(C) To the horse-races

(D) To the library

When he is fresh out of the "Thinkery," what is the first argument Pheidippides has?

(A) Why it is right to beat one's parents

(B) How many flea's feet are in a flea's jump

(C) Whether Heracles took hot or cold baths

(D) That the day of "Old and New" cannot exist because it is nonsensical

What does Strepsiades demand of the First Creditor?

(A) The difference between female and male troughs

(B) The difference between female and male chickens

(C) The impossibility of a day of both "Old and New"

(D) Who makes the rain

What does Strepsiades ask the Second Creditor?

(A) The cost of horses

(B) Whether the sky is a baking-cover for bread

(C) Who makes the rain

(D) How a gnat hums

Whom does Pheidippides beat?

(A) Strepsiades

(B) His slave

(C) Chaerephon

(D) Socrates

What does Strepsiades wish to hear recited at dinner?

(A) Anaxagoras or Protagoras

(B) Aristophanes

(C) Simonides, Aeschylus, or Euripides

(D) Sophocles

How does Strepsiades take his revenge?

(A) He burns down the school and drives off its occupants with stones

(B) He takes them to court and trumps their Wrong Argument with his Right Argument

(C) He burns down the barn full of Pheidippides's horses

(D) He convinces the Chorus of Clouds to rain on his court date

What two philosophers reside at the "Thinkery"?

(A) Aeschylus and Euripedes

(B) Homer and Socrates

(C) Cleon and Socrates

(D) Socrates and Chaerephon

Who helps Strepsiades burn down the school?

(A) Xanthias, his slave

(B) Socrates

(C) Chaerephon

(D) The Chorus of Clouds

The Athenians based their calendar on what natural occurrence?

(A) The rising and setting of the sun

(B) The patterns of shooting stars and comets

(C) The movements of birds

(D) The cycles of the moon

Right and Wrong Argument debate over what?

(A) Whether Strepsiades should pay his debts

(B) The proper model of education for young men and boys

(C) What kind of horse is the fastest in a chariot race

(D) Whether a gnat can jump farther than a flea