CLEP Humanities case studies
CLEP Humanities · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The CLEP Humanities exam is a College Board credit-by-examination test that measures general knowledge of literature, art, music, and the other performing arts from classical antiquity to the contemporary period. It is aimed at students who already read widely, visit museums, attend concerts, or have taken survey courses, and who want to earn college credit toward a distribution or general-education requirement without sitting through a full course. The CLEP Humanities case studies are 5 cases and about 1,978 words.
1Cutting the Final Scene of a Revenge Tragedy
The Riverside Playhouse is mounting a 1613 revenge tragedy in a 220-seat thrust theater. The play survives in two substantive versions: a 1607 quarto and a 1623 folio that runs 90 lines longer.
438 words, about 2 min2Three Drafts of a Punning Line
A small press is publishing a facing-page anthology of nineteenth-century sonnets and has received three drafts of line 7 of the same poem. The original line is octosyllabic and ends on a pun: the word for 'fire' and the word for 'mad' differ by a single vowel.
406 words, about 2 min3Dating an Undocumented Panel Painting
A regional museum receives a bequest: an undated panel, 58 by 41 cm, on poplar, with a gold-leaf background and egg tempera, showing a half-length mourning figure. Pigment analysis finds azurite, not ultramarine, in the mantle.
375 words, about 2 min4An Addition to a 1927 Bank Lobby
A 1927 neoclassical bank lobby-18 by 12 meters, with two-story Corinthian columns, a coffered plaster ceiling, and pink marble wainscot-has been converted into a community arts center. The center needs 200 square meters of studio space and has two schemes on the table.
388 words, about 2 min5Tuning and Tempo on a Mixed-Period Album
A chamber orchestra is recording an album pairing a 1785 piano concerto with a 1910 string quartet, and the label requires a single tuning standard. The fortepiano is strung and tuned for A=430; the modern strings are set up for A=440.
371 words, about 2 min