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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 do farmers of the Middle Ages do in the summer in Europe?

2. What is one type of work Joe Flom does when he is just out of college?

3. What is not unique in Harlan?

4. What do the pilot and co-pilot of a Colombian airplane that crashes fail to effectively communicate?

5. What does a feudal lord take from his farmers?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the students at KIPP Academy differ from those of other public schools?

2. How does Harlan gain notoriety in its early days?

3. What is the third lesson of Joe Flom?

4. Describe the plane crash of Korean Airlines Flight 801 in 1997.

5. What is entailed in growing rice?

6. Where is Harlan, and who settled it?

7. What evidence is there that summer vacations may be hindering the success of many students?

8. How does understanding math relate to growing rice?

9. How does PDI explain the crash of the Colombian airliner?

10. What does Gladwell say about early American educational theorists?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gladwell in writing about Joe Flom cites anti-Semitism as part of the reason for Joe's success. Discuss one of the following:

1. Define anti-Semitism and give examples of it from both Outliers and other sources.

2. Do you think anti-Semitism still exists in the United States? Explain.

3. Discuss the ways in which racism influenced Malcolm Gladwell's family. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Hostile takeovers become more and more common and Flom and others receive more and more work. Finally, the white shoe firms come around and start to take on the work, but by this time Flom has so much more experience at it that he is able to command a large part of the business and surpass many of the established firms. Had he not been excluded for being Jewish when he first started, he would have lost the advantage, Gladwell explains.

1. Explain irony in the context of Joe Flom's success. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Do you think the way the circumstances changed in the law profession might have made the white Christian lawyers decide prejudice was not in their best interest? Why or why not? Use examples from Outliers and your own life to support your answer.

3. Make up an example of how a minority in your school might be successful at an endeavor because of prejudice. Use examples from Outliers and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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