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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," what does Foster suggest that Ambrose loses by choosing to focus on Lewis?
(a) Information about what happened after Lewis's death.
(b) The chance to engage a wider audience of readers.
(c) The reader's trust.
(d) A variety of perspectives.

2. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," Foster refers to ARPANET. What is ARPANET?
(a) The governmental body that regulates the internet.
(b) An early government computer network.
(c) A writer's group that works toward accuracy on the web.
(d) The first computer browser.

3. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," what advantage does Foster say elapsed time gives to historical accounts?
(a) Objectivity.
(b) Accuracy.
(c) Perspective.
(d) Immediacy.

4. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," what type of nonfiction writing does Foster refer to as "soggy" (141), and "soul-deadening" (142)?
(a) The political essay.
(b) The essays of the Enlightenment.
(c) The philosophical essay.
(d) The five-paragraph academic essay.

5. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," Foster refers to White House staff as "denizens" (190). What is the best definition of this word in this context?
(a) Children.
(b) Horrors.
(c) Occupants.
(d) Caretakers.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," why does Foster introduce the example of Malcolm Gladwell?

2. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," which author does Foster say is at the opposite "pole" of New Journalism from Hunter S. Thompson?

3. According to Foster in Chapter 9, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is an example of what type of nonfiction?

4. In "Interrogating the Text," Foster says that source material should be "apt." He means that source material should be what?

5. Based on Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what would Foster call a journalist writing about a biologist and her discoveries?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what are the three categories that Foster says outsider exposés fall into, and why does he say that they are more reliable than insider's writings?

2. In Chapter 12, "That Is So Last Year," what difference does Foster explain between primary and secondary sources?

3. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what does Foster say motivates antiscientific beliefs?

4. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what criticism does Foster level at Fox News?

5. In "Interrogating the Text," where does Foster suggest that readers focus their interrogative effort, and why?

6. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what qualities does Foster say a genuine expert will have?

7. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," why does Foster say that Hunter S. Thomson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is really a roman à clef?

8. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," what does Foster list as the three criteria of Ezra Pound's criticism?

9. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," why does Foster spend time describing the contents of Cardinal Newman's autobiography?

10. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," what two main types of subjective nonfiction does Foster define, and what four categories does he break these main types into?

(see the answer keys)

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