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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Langan display at a very young age?

2. Where does Langan earn a scholarship to college?

3. With whom does Bill Gates found Microsoft?

4. What computer language does Joy help create?

5. Why does Langan lose his scholarship?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Robert Oppenheimer and what does he accomplish?

2. What table of data does Gladwell insert in his book at this point?

3. What are the unusual circumstances in the timing of Bill Joy's career in computer programming?

4. What does Gladwell say Langan does not seem to be able to do?

5. What does Gladwell assert about intelligence and what analogy does he use?

6. What does Wolf investigate and what does he learn?

7. With what definition does Gladwell open his book?

8. What makes Roseto an "outlier" town and how does this fact come to light?

9. What experiment does Lewis Terman carry out beginning in the 1920s?

10. Why is the local physician's claim unusual, and what does Wolf decide to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Outliers belongs to the non-fiction genre. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary term "genre" and give several examples of three other genres in addition to the non-fiction genre.

2. Discuss two reasons why it might be useful to label a text by genre and two reasons it might be disadvantageous to label a text by genre.

3. What do you think is the difference between a non-fiction and a novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful work of non-fiction?

2. Analyze and discuss Outliers based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if Outliers is a successful work of non-fiction/memoir.

3. Is Outliers a book you would recommend to a friend? Why or why not? Explain.

4. Can a non-fictional book be successful and yet many readers not enjoy it? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

Gladwell gives the reader an overview of his ideas about success in Outliers. Discuss one of the following:

1. Discuss Gladwell's opinions of three topics he discussed in relation to success. Do you agree or disagree with him? Why? Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Compare and contrast Gladwell's opinions from Outliers with what you might imagine Gladwell's opinion might be had he lived 100 years ago. How do you think his opinions would change? Would they remain the same? Explain fully. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Discuss how you think Gladwell's view on several topics from this essay informs his life as a researcher. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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