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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do products with toxic materials end up getting sold to consumers in the United States?
(a) Parts of products that contain toxic materials are not removed by the government.
(b) Components of products that contain toxic chemicals can be imported into the United States.
(c) Companies purchase products abroad, import them, and resell them in the United States.
(d) Companies in the United States do not sell products with toxic chemicals.

2. Why is eco-efficiency not possible as stated by the author?
(a) It is impossible to use materials in a resourceful way and make products consumers want.
(b) It is not possible to create an industry that makes money off the environment.
(c) It is not possible to meet the demands of commerce and use less resources and create less toxic materials at the same time.
(d) It is impossible to design a product that is 100 percent beneficial to the environment.

3. Why is the Titanic a good metaphor for the industrial age?
(a) The Titanic is as big and successful as the industrial age.
(b) Both the Titanic and the industrial age are symbols of strength.
(c) Both the Titanic and the industrial age appear to be a promising endeavor but are doomed to fail in the end.
(d) The Titanic is as productive and efficient as the industrial age.

4. Which chemical is forbidden to use in the United States in rubber products?
(a) Nitrogen.
(b) Lithium.
(c) Benzene.
(d) Petroleum.

5. What statement best describes how the authors feel about consumerism?
(a) It is not completely the consumer's fault for the mass production of environmentally dangerous products.
(b) We can blame uneducated consumers for the state of the environment.
(c) We can blame our children for our own consumerism.
(d) It is the fault of an education system that does not teach good consumerism.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the goal of Bill and Michael's new company?

2. How have companies responded to the concerns of the public over the decades?

3. When can PVC, a commonly used plastic in children's playground equipment, be toxic?

4. Which product is NOT considered dangerous in the environment?

5. Which statement is NOT an example of recycling as we know it?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the vision that both Bill and Michael have for the future of the environment.

2. Describe why books are traditionally difficult to recycle and how this book itself is a more positive design.

3. Explain and give an example of how the Industrial Revolution intended to make more and more money.

4. Explain one example of how recycling is really downcycling of materials.

5. Explain how recycling is problematic and a poor solution to positive design.

6. List three examples of how a focus on efficiency in design can have negative consequences.

7. Describe Bill's experience in Jordan as a student and what he is inspired by.

8. Describe the idea of eco-efficiency and how it proposes to solve the industry, consumer, and environment problems.

9. Describe how the authors use soap as an example of designing products for "worst-case" scenarios.

10. What do both Bill and Michael conclude about trying to improve products and industry?

(see the answer keys)

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