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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, according to Lessing, is the biggest problem people in democratic societies face?

2. What pseudonym did Lessing write under?

3. What type of exposure leads the public to feel less for terrible disasters?

4. How many books did Lessing write under a pseudonym?

5. During the Korean War, who confessed to crimes they did not commit?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Jean Rhys? Why did all of her work become popular?

2. Why do most people believe they are not susceptible to brainwashing?

3. What type of wars did Lessing live through?

4. Why would Margaret Thatcher use an advertising agency as a method to get elected?

5. What was the literary community's reaction to Lessing's pseudonym experiment?

6. Why did Lessing believe that insane people are the only ones safe against brainwashing?

7. What is the price an individual might pay if he resists the group mentality?

8. Why did Lessing publish books under a pseudonym?

9. Why do most people not want to hear about brainwashing?

10. When confronted with a group opinion, why is it often difficult to maintain an opposing, individual opinion?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the role of the individual in society, citing examples from the text to support your theory.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Examine one of the following examples, supporting or refuting Lessing's belief that these groups vilified the opposition in order to uphold their cause.

1) The miner who was beaten in Britain.

2) The Christian religion.

3) The political Left.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 585 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample