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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What prominent talent agency did Zelman Moses found?
(a) William Morris.
(b) CAA.
(c) Abrams.
(d) Bret Adams.

2. Which group in the book was undone by the Superman radio show?
(a) The Chicago Public School system.
(b) The Ku Klux Klan.
(c) The Sumo Wrestling League.
(d) The Black Gangster Disciple Nation.

3. Where does most of the data regarding children's names come from?
(a) Texas.
(b) California.
(c) Illinois.
(d) New York.

4. To what technology do the authors compare the system they use for determining regression analysis?
(a) An assembly line.
(b) A computer spreadsheet.
(c) A graphing calculator.
(d) A switchboard.

5. What often catalyzes a big-city mayor's decision to hire more police?
(a) A large public event.
(b) A high-profile murder.
(c) A visit from the President.
(d) An upcoming election.

6. What is the main reason that the price of crack cocaine began to drop in the Nineties?
(a) Its potency began to deteriorate.
(b) Junkies began to switch to heroin.
(c) Dealers undercut each other's prices.
(d) Tainted shipments arrived in the US.

7. What term did James Alan Fox use to describe the spike in crime he predicted in the mid 1990s?
(a) Bloodbath.
(b) Armageddon.
(c) Cataclysm.
(d) Free-for-all.

8. According to child-mortality statistics, what is ten times more dangerous than a gun?
(a) A plastic bag.
(b) A swimming pool.
(c) A television set.
(d) A squirt gun.

9. According to child-rearing "expert" L. Emmett Holt, what is a baby's daily exercise?
(a) Crying.
(b) Rolling on the floor.
(c) Breastfeeding.
(d) Sleeping.

10. What do the authors acknowledge that objective thinking will not do?
(a) Lead to interesting conclusions.
(b) Be profitable.
(c) Make friends.
(d) Improve one's life.

11. What name did Ms. Bledsoe intend to give her daughter, Temptress?
(a) Septima.
(b) Tempestt.
(c) Tamera.
(d) Metress.

12. What does Levitt credit with the rise of distinctly black names in the twentieth century?
(a) The Voting Rights Act.
(b) The Black Power movement.
(c) The rise of hip hop.
(d) The northern migration.

13. Which of the following factors is revealed to have a correlative effect on a child's school performance?
(a) The child's parents regularly read to him.
(b) The child is regularly spanked.
(c) The child is adopted.
(d) The child's parents regularly take him to museums.

14. For what year are the authors attempting to forecast when they list possible future popular names at the end of the chapter?
(a) 2050.
(b) 2025.
(c) 2040.
(d) 2015.

15. At the beginning of the Epilogue, the authors reiterate what point made in the Prologue?
(a) Conventionally wisdom is often wrong.
(b) Objectivity is key to understanding the world.
(c) The book has no unifying theme.
(d) Experts follow a personal agenda.

Short Answer Questions

1. What child's name does Roland G. Fryer, Jr., say would indicate alienation from the black community?

2. What was the well-publicized theory that informed the new policing strategies in New York in the Nineties?

3. Which pop singer do the authors mention as an example of a celebrity whose name has not caught on?

4. The correlative educational effect seen in children whose mothers were over 30 at the birth is contingent upon what?

5. Who was the hypothetical black boy in the Chapter 5 comparison?

(see the answer keys)

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