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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 11, "Life from the Inside," what does Foster tell us begins Ben Franklin's autobiography?
(a) The dramatic moment when the Declaration is signed.
(b) A letter to his son.
(c) A description of Franklin's childhood.
(d) Excerpts from a speech Franklin gave while serving as Ambassador to France.

2. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what criticism does Foster level against Malcolm Gladwell?
(a) That he does not try to engage the reader.
(b) That he does not examine data critically enough.
(c) That he tries to write outside of his own field.
(d) That he offers so much data it can be difficult to follow his arguments.

3. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," which writer does Foster credit with originating the essay?
(a) Virginia Woolf.
(b) Michel de Montaigne.
(c) George Orwell.
(d) Rene Descartes.

4. In "Interrogating the Text," Foster says that readers should beware of ad hominem arguments. What he means is that readers should be suspicious when writers do what?
(a) Portray the opposition argument as much weaker than it actually is.
(b) Appeal to emotion rather than to logic.
(c) Attack the people making arguments instead of the arguments themselves.
(d) Contend that because something is new it must be better or more correct.

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?
(a) Amateur profiles.
(b) Expert testimony.
(c) Interrogation of text.
(d) Journalistic compilation.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what does Foster say is true about contemporary America?

2. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," Foster points out that Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me begins similarly to which other work?

3. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what does Foster seem to admire most about Neil deGrasse Tyson's writing?

4. Whose Apologia Pro Vita Sua is discussed in Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," why does Foster say that Woodward and Bernstein do not belong in the category of New Journalism?

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

4. Explain why, in Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," Foster says that the narrators of nonfiction can be just as unreliable as the narrators of fiction.

5. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," what does Foster admire about the writing of John McPhee?

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

7. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," why does Foster say that the process newspapers follow to assure balanced treatment in opinion pieces creates a false dichotomy?

8. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what does Foster say is problematic about the internet and web?

9. Which of the three writers that Foster discusses in Chapter 13, "On the Stump," does Foster find to be least reliable, and which does he find to be most reliable? Why is this?

10. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what concern does Foster say that other journalists have about Wolff's work?

(see the answer keys)

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