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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 Gladwell say Roseto, Pennsylvania is an example of?

2. Where does Langan end up living?

3. Who is Bill Joy?

4. How is Langan's family situated financially?

5. What data does the table that Gladwell consults to theorize the success of some of the best hockey players in the country include?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Langan working on and when does he expect to publish it?

2. What does Anders Ericcson learn in a study he makes of musicians?

3. Who is Chris Langan?

4. When are most of Canada's best hockey players born, and why does Barnley think that is so?

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

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

7. What does having a high IQ give a person?

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

9. With what definition does Gladwell open his book?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Gladwell has cited a number of people in this book. Discuss he following:

1. Choose three people whom Gladwell mentions positively and give a brief idea of his opinions about those three people (or stereotypes). Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Choose three people whom Gladwell mentions negatively and give a brief idea of his opinions about those three people (or stereotypes). Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Judging what Gladwell says about different people in his text, how would you characterize him as a friend? As a colleague? Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Gladwell gives the example of Harlan, Kentucky to introduce a discussion of how a person's cultural legacy can affect their success.

1. Define cultural legacy in your own words and give an example of it that is not in Outliers.

2. Discuss two examples of cultural legacy that are beneficial to an individual. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Define, according to the values of honor, integrity, hard work, response to authority and honesty what you think your cultural legacy is. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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