View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sarajevans were angered by a photography exhibit which featured photographs of their suffering alongside images of which other country's people?
(a) Somalia.
(b) Bulgaria.
(c) Rhodesia.
(d) Bosnia.

2. According to Sontag, if one feels sympathy for the victims of suffering, it helps ensure that one cannot be ___________.
(a) An objective observer.
(b) A heartless bystander.
(c) A sadistic voyeur.
(d) Responsible for or complicit in the suffering.

3. Sontag writes that provocative images may have which of the following effects on viewers?
(a) Provocative images of suffering may enable a deep sense of human empathy.
(b) Provocative images of suffering may incite humanitarian actions to end exploitative actions.
(c) Provocative images may spur viewers to examine how their own privileges are possible through the suffering of others.
(d) Provocative images of suffering may compel viewers to stop subscribing to newspapers for fear of seeing more disturbing photographs.

4. Which of the following poets expressed concerns about the effect of national-scale events on human sensibility in 1800?
(a) Eliot.
(b) Wordsworth.
(c) Hemingway.
(d) Pound.

5. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?
(a) An obnoxious overstatement.
(b) An accurate perception.
(c) A regrettable truth.
(d) An illusion.

6. Sontag argues that many people thought that which of the following makes war seem "real"?
(a) Movies.
(b) Photographs.
(c) Books.
(d) Proximity.

7. According to Sontag, the idea that less people are reacting to news of atrocity is probably which of the following?
(a) Not true.
(b) Painfully true.
(c) Somewhat true.
(d) Regrettably true.

8. Sontag suggests that, for the most part, photographs received more serious attention when placed in which of the following scenarios?
(a) Newspapers.
(b) Museums.
(c) Galleries.
(d) Books.

9. Discussing the common person's ability to feel sympathy, Sontag argues which of the following?
(a) People will naturally feel empathy, but will quickly distance themselves because society has programmed them to avoid involvement.
(b) People will automatically feel sympathy for victims of atrocity.
(c) People will instinctually distance themselves from suffering.
(d) People will do anything to keep from being moved by what they see.

10. Sontag claims that shock used for rhetorical purposes can become _________.
(a) Dangerous.
(b) Familiar.
(c) New.
(d) Damaging.

11. Sontag corrects her earlier argument by claiming that which of the following is eroded by modern media saturation?
(a) Human empathy.
(b) Human decency.
(c) Sense of urgency.
(d) Sense of reality.

12. Which of the following thinkers argued that people take "no small" delight in witnessing the suffering of others?
(a) Edmund Burke.
(b) Plato.
(c) Renee Descartes.
(d) Aristotle.

13. Which of the following best describes the "CNN effect" as discussed by Sontag?
(a) Extensive media coverage directly affected local politics.
(b) Distorted media coverage misleads the public.
(c) Outrageous media coverage lead to a backlash against the media.
(d) Media coverage lead to the sentiment that something must be done.

14. Which of the following works does Sontag site as containing the first recognition of the human fascination with mutilated bodies?
(a) Plato's "The Republic."
(b) Socrates' "Apologia."
(c) Homer's "The Iliad."
(d) Virgil's "The Aeneid."

15. Sontag claims that the model for public space in modern society is which of the following?
(a) The memorial.
(b) The mega-store.
(c) The classroom.
(d) The debate hall.

Short Answer Questions

1. Diorama, tableaux and wax exhibits served which of the following purposes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

2. Sontag suggests that Plato anticipated which of the following psychological models?

3. What is the primary message carried by images of atrocity?

4. Underneath feelings of apathy, Sontag contends are which of the following feelings?

5. Which two things does Sontag say seem to go together?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 604 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample