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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. Who helped Derksen get over the resentment she felt about her daughter’s killer’s sexual sadism?

2. What does Gladwell say was the result when Montreal police went on strike for 16 hours in 1969?

3. What unexpected reaction does Gladwell describe London residents having to the Blitz?

4. According to researchers Dina Rose and her colleague, what is the threshold for incarceration in a neighborhood, beyond which the “effect on crime starts to reverse” (246)?

5. How does Gladwell characterize the Saigon government?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Gladwell credit Bill Hudson’s photo of Walter Gadsden being attacked by the police dog in Birmingham with having done?

2. How dos Gladwell distinguish between geniuses and prodigies?

3. What was Mike Reynolds’ reaction when his daughter Kimber was shot and killed by a meth addict?

4. How did the women of Ballymurphy break the curfew in Lower Falls?

5. Why does Gladwell say that it took the British so long to understand that they were applying too much force in northern Ireland?

6. What was the effect of the Three Strikes law in California?

7. What was Leon Gouré’s approach to American strategy the war in Vietnam?

8. In what way does Gladwell say Hudson’s photo is “trickery” (192)?

9. How does Gladwell see Wyatt Walker setting up the photo of the dog attack as evidence of the same law he see in dyslexics succeeding in spite of their condition?

10. How does Gladwell say André Trocmé subverted the laws in Vichy France?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the ending of David and Goliath. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 2

Write a character sketch of the author based on her style and content. What can we tell about him, based on the choices she makes in terms of description, characterization and plot? What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 3

In many of Gladwell’s stories, Gladwell attributes a person’s success to the one trait he (Gladwell) is talking about—but this approach blinds us to the thousands of other variables that affect people’s careers and decisions, which in many cases are tied to other factors like the times, or simple luck, or the privileges of class and race that kept Dr. Freireich from being jailed for DWI, for instance (137).

How are Context and Privilege eclipsed in Gladwell’s stories, how does he try to account for them, and how successful is he? Does his refusal to include compounding variables ultimately compromise his examples to two-dimensionality?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,063 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample