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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Great Indoors, Death Watch, In Praise of Diners, Shopping Madness, The Fat of the Land, Your New Computer, How to Rent a Car, The Wasteland, The Flying Nightmare and Enough Already.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Bryson says there are three types of stores. The first is where you cannot get anyone to help you, and the second is full of clerks who will not leave you alone. What does he say about the third type?
(a) When you ask about something, the clerk has to ask the manager, who is never around.
(b) All the clerks have just started working there and do not know a thing.
(c) No matter what you ask about, they say it's in "aisle seven."
(d) The clerks spend all their time talking to each other.

2. How was the first "drive-in" movie shown in New Jersey in the 1930's?
(a) In a deserted baseball park.
(b) In a tennis court.
(c) On Richard Hollingshead's garage door.
(d) On a school's outside wall.

3. Which American tourist attraction does Bryson describe as a "Total Indoor Environment"?
(a) Las Vegas.
(b) Opryland.
(c) Disney World.
(d) Yellowstone Park.

4. Why does Bryson have to buy a whole new computer and fax system when he returns to the United States?
(a) He'd never owned a computer but now needed one for work.
(b) All his electronics got lost on the way.
(c) The British have a different electrical system.
(d) His kids were tired of using the family's 1980s model.

5. In "The Numbers Game," what does Bill say is beyond the comprehension of everyone?
(a) Why government workers get so many holidays.
(b) How much money huge sums really represent.
(c) How the government manages to get anything done.
(d) How tax money is spent.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which decade saw the idea of the drive-in really take off?

2. What New Hampshire town did the Bryson family settle in during 1995?

3. What does Bill discuss at the beginning of his essay on design flaws?

4. Bill is amazed that thousands of Americans end up in the emergency rooms every year from using certain things. What are they?

5. What product first reveals the popularity of toll-free hotline phone numbers to Bill?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 347 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample