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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. How old was Gladwell’s powerful Hollywood friend, when he started a snow-shoveling business with other students?

2. Who was the king of the Israelites when David fought Goliath?

3. What does Gladwell say makes parenting more difficult for wealthier parents?

4. What did the best paintings get at the Paris Salon?

5. Where is Shepaug Valley Middle School?

Short Essay Questions

1. Gladwell seems to want it both ways, valuing poverty and celebrating wealth. Does Gladwell acknowledge or try to resolve this contradiction?

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

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

4. What does Gladwell say causes dyslexia?

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

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

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

8. How does Gladwell explain Ikea’s success through “disagreeableness” (118)?

9. What was the strategy Ranadivé used so effectively?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

What are Gladwell’s intellectual blind spots? What are the kinds of behavior or complexity he tends not to see?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,071 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample