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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 surprised Lessing regarding human behavior over time?

2. What happened to the miner who returned to work during the miner's strike?

3. Lessing believed people could grow if they only detached from ___________.

4. How did the whites feel about the blacks in Rhodesia?

5. According to Lessing, what word gets people excited to fight?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Lessing believe the tendency to buy into vilification was a form of popular lunacy?

2. What service did Lessing feel that novelists brought to the world?

3. What was the political climate in Lessing's country when she was growing up?

4. What is Lessing's prediction concerning what every viewpoint will become with time?

5. Why was Lessing not surprised by the story of the attack on the British miner who was beaten by his friends?

6. What did Lessing mean when she said that groups will often "vilify their opposition"?

7. Why was Lessing discouraged by the application of behavioral data uncovered through the "soft sciences"?

8. In the anecdote about killing the bull, what did Lessing suggest that the farmer's revenge actions on the bull demonstrated?

9. What ideas do the quotes prior to "When in the Future They Look Back on Us" demonstrate?

10. How did the ruling class in Rhodesia get others to go along with their beliefs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When examining the miner's strike, Lessing noted that onlookers knew both sides of the debate were lying about the issues, yet people took sides in spite of the lack of accurate information.

1) What type of information should people use to come to conclusions?

2) What type of information do people typically use to come to conclusions?

3) What does Lessing say about the tendency of people to come to conclusions in spite of a lack of information?

Essay Topic 2

Support or refute the following statement, citing examples from the text, "The mob mentality has dominated individual thought throughout history."

Essay Topic 3

Mass insanity is a concept Lessing used to describe the tendency of people to accept ideas based on nothing found in reality. What did she mean by this?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 690 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample