View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 3: Chapter 9, "Living the News" through Chapter 12, "That Is So Last Year".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 3, "The Power of the Prologue," what does Foster give as the basic meaning of "preface," "prologue," and "foreward"?
(a) First word.
(b) Ahead of.
(c) Leading.
(d) In front.

2. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," Foster discusses primary and secondary sources. Which of the following would be a secondary source about World War Two?
(a) An editorial in the New York Times opposing American involvement in the war.
(b) A collection of English WWII military maps and charts discovered many years after the war.
(c) A 1942 letter from an overseas American soldier to his parents.
(d) A historical account in a 2020 textbook about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

3. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Whome does Foster say is "our greatest living thinker about writing nonfiction" (81)?
(a) Malcolm Gladwell.
(b) Michael Pollan.
(c) John McPhee.
(d) Bob Woodward.

4. In Chapter 5, "It May Just Be Me, But..." what does Foster say is usually the difference between quoted anonymous sources and sources speaking "on background"?
(a) Background sources tend to be highly-placed officials, while anonymous sources tend to be leakers.
(b) Quoted anonymous sources are more likely to be accurate than information obtained "on background."
(c) The only difference is actually whether the information is quoted or paraphrased.
(d) Reporters are not usually asked to verify information obtained in a quote, but they are supposed to double-check information given "on background."

5. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster makes what point about newspaper articles?
(a) Almost all of them incorporate at least some cause and effect structure.
(b) They often use a cause and effect structure.
(c) They are often deviate from strict chronology in order to make a point.
(d) Almost all of them are written in strict chronological order.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 3, "The Power of the Prologue," why is "foreward" spelled with an "e" instead of as we usually see it, "forward"?

2. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," Foster says that an author of a history about long-ago events is not really so much a reporter as a what?

3. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster says that which type of nonfiction is usually better off starting at the beginning chronologically?

4. According to Foster in Chapter 9, "Living the News," what is McPhee's purpose in comparing geological change over time to a road trip?

5. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," what advantage does Foster say elapsed time gives to historical accounts?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 502 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample