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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. Why does Gladwell say Goliath wanted David to come to him?

2. When do dyslexics typically get a diagnosis, according to Gladwell?

3. What does Gladwell say the Cognitive Reflection Test measures?

4. What modern weapon does Gladwell compare David’s slung stone to?

5. How does Gladwell characterize the building the Paris Salon was held in?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the moral of the parable Gladwell tells about the Impressionist painters?

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

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

4. What is Gladwell’s hierarchy of professions?

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

6. 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?

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

8. How does Gladwell say dyslexia helped prepare David Boies to be a trial lawyer?

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

10. What was the strategy Ranadivé used so effectively?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Malcolm Gladwell uses one particular mechanism to great effect in David and Goliath: He says This phenomenon is exactly the same as That phenomenon, then pulls out the law or reason or pattern that unites them. Sometimes this is highly effective, but sometimes it creates some unusual comparisons or elisions. Where in David and Goliath is this similarity effect most illuminative, and where is it most troublesome to whatever point it is that Gladwell is trying to make at the time?

Essay Topic 2

Time and again, Gladwell tells a complex personal or historical story and then simplifies it down to extrapolate a simple lesson, such as the simple lesson that the British Army had not properly established its authority to govern the residents of Belfast. In many cases, anyone with a sense of history will say, “it’s a little more complicated than that.”

This raises the question of what purpose Gladwell is serving, by telling such simple stories, and leaving out so many confounding variables. What do you think Gladwell believes he is doing for his audiences, and what do you think his readers like about his books?

Essay Topic 3

Identify the most important points in David and Goliath. How is the book organized? How does this differ from how a novel is organized with plot points?

(see the answer keys)

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