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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 old was Gladwell’s powerful Hollywood friend, when he started a snow-shoveling business with other students?
(a) 18.
(b) 16.
(c) 12.
(d) 10.

2. What did the best paintings get at the Paris Salon?
(a) Financial awards.
(b) Medals.
(c) Patrons.
(d) Purchased.

3. Which of the impressionists does Gladwell describe as the “easygoing urchin” (64)?
(a) Manet.
(b) Cézanne.
(c) Degas.
(d) Renoir.

4. Why does Gladwell say Goliath said that David was coming at him with multiple sticks?
(a) Because Goliath was dizzy from the altitude.
(b) Because he had double vision and saw two of David’s shepherd’s staff.
(c) Because David was carrying several staffs as weapons.
(d) Because David was moving too quickly to be seen in detail.

5. How does Gladwell characterize the building the Paris Salon was held in?
(a) A commodious hall.
(b) An intimate gallery.
(c) A sprawling complex.
(d) An enormous barn.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does David’s stone hit Goliath?

2. What kind of improvement in outcomes does Caroline Hoxby correlate class size to?

3. What danger does Gladwell say T. E. Lawrence’s men encountered along the way to Aqaba?

4. Who was most likely to be in Harvard’s “happy bottom quarter” (90)?

5. How did Gary Cohn get his big break?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Gladwell say is the conventional wisdom about class size in schools?

2. What are the three kinds of warriors whom Baruch Halpern says balance each other?

3. What is Vivek Ranadivé’s qualification to coach basketball?

4. Where were the Philistines expanding into, when they encountered the armies of the Israelites?

5. Why does Gladwell say that Caroline Sacks should have gone to University of Maryland instead of Brown University?

6. What is the lesson Gladwell wants us to take from his parable of David and Goliath?

7. What does Gladwell say leads people to adopt David’s strategies?

8. What is Harvard’s theory of the “happy bottom quarter” (90)?

9. What does Gladwell say is Gary Cohn’s emotional relationship with the daring leaps he took, to get himself into trading, from selling aluminum siding?

10. What is “relative deprivation” (77)?

(see the answer keys)

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