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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In 1959, how many American homes had television?

2. What was North Carolina's rank in the nation in terms of SAT scores, achievement tests, and dropout rates?

3. How long did it take the telephone to reach 75 percent of American households?

4. How long had studies been conducted that showed that small schools tended to outperform large schools?

5. What percent of the decline of engagement might have been caused by electronic entertainment:

Short Essay Questions

1. How did commentators like Michael Schudson and Alan Wolfe view the change in social capital from the 1950s to the 1960s?

2. What is generally accepted as the most reliable index of the incidence of crime?

3. Why had civic life been graying in the last forty years of the twentieth century?

4. What characteristics did criminologist Robert J. Sampson see in communities that had increased crime and violence?

5. How did the school integration busing issue illustrate the trade-offs between bridging and bonding social capital?

6. When people said that television was their main form of entertainment, what activities did these people participate in less often?

7. What were some inventions that transformed American life after 1870?

8. How does social capital affect child abuse rates?

9. What did the most systematic study of civic skills in contemporary America suggest?

10. What did Putnam see as a trend in newspaper readership?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Social change is produced by some combination of intracohort and intercohort changes. Discuss intracohort and intercohort social changes and their importance.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the value and problems of social networks. What areas of life benefit from these networks? Do the benefits outweigh the problems?

Essay Topic 3

New developments in telecommunications seemed to affect social connectedness. Discuss how telecommunications, specifically the telephone and the Internet, affected social connectedness.

(see the answer keys)

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