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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sontag suggests that Plato anticipated which of the following psychological models?
(a) Freud's id, ego and superego.
(b) Skinner's box.
(c) Jung's archetypes.
(d) Pavlov's classical conditioning.

2. Which nation's army was represented in Wall's photograph?
(a) Afghanistan.
(b) United States.
(c) Iraq.
(d) Soviet Union.

3. Which of the following terms does Sontag define as a commonly used term for those whose profession like journalists takes them into war zones?
(a) War voyeurism.
(b) Conflict exploitation.
(c) War tourism.
(d) Atrocity tourism.

4. Sontag argues that many people thought that which of the following makes war seem "real"?
(a) Photographs.
(b) Proximity.
(c) Books.
(d) Movies.

5. The West had a long tradition of viewing war as which of the following?
(a) Spectacle.
(b) Atrocity.
(c) Necessary.
(d) Honorable.

6. Overall, Sontag seems to believe that images are ultimately which of the following?
(a) Dangerous.
(b) Evocative, but limited.
(c) Powerful.
(d) Frightening.

7. _______ is a modern development in camera use.
(a) Simplifying.
(b) Complicating.
(c) Beautifying.
(d) Uglifying.

8. Sontag begins Chapter 9 with which of the following assertions?
(a) Images of war do little to help us understand the circumstances of war.
(b) Anti-war imagery is futile.
(c) Merely naming an atrocity does nothing to remedy the situation or save its victims.
(d) Designating an atrocity merely labels the victims..

9. Sontag suggests that to make peace is to do which of the following?
(a) Forgive.
(b) Understand.
(c) Remember.
(d) Forget.

10. Sontag cites the Japanese narrative "Chushingura" in which the protagonist stops to appreciate the beauty of cherry blossoms one last time before committing ritual suicide as an example of which kind of shocking art?
(a) The type which is only relative to a particular culture, and thus has little effect on outsiders.
(b) The type which is perennially performed, but which achieves less of a reaction with each performance.
(c) The type which is often underestimated for its emotional impact.
(d) The type which, through the narrative form of pathos, continually induces emotional reactions.

11. Sontag argues that journalists who photograph war are often received with resistance. She suggests that the desire to capture images of suffering is often described in which of the following ways?
(a) Vulgar and low.
(b) Cruel and unusual.
(c) Cruel and torturous.
(d) Exploitative and perverse.

12. Sarajevans were angered by a photography exhibit which featured photographs of their suffering alongside images of which other country's people?
(a) Bosnia.
(b) Rhodesia.
(c) Somalia.
(d) Bulgaria.

13. Sontag lists three impulses which may be satisfied by viewing images of atrocities. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
(a) "To force oneself to face taboo".
(b) "To acknowledge the existence of the incorrigible".
(c) "To steel oneself against weakness".
(d) "To make onself more numb".

14. Sontag suggests that photographs do NOT ask which of the following tasks of the viewers?
(a) To work toward peace.
(b) To evaluate the morality of the situation depicted in the image.
(c) To put an end to human cruelty.
(d) To retain specific knowledge about each human atrocity.

15. Discussing the common person's ability to feel sympathy, Sontag argues which of the following?
(a) People will automatically feel sympathy for victims of atrocity.
(b) People will instinctually distance themselves from suffering.
(c) People will do anything to keep from being moved by what they see.
(d) People will naturally feel empathy, but will quickly distance themselves because society has programmed them to avoid involvement.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag cites William Hazlitt's claim that sympathy is no more a part of human nature than is which of the following?

2. Which of the following best describes the "CNN effect" as discussed by Sontag?

3. Recounting a conversation with a Sarajevan woman, Sontag claims that when people are safe, they will feel which of the following toward atrocities committed abroad?

4. Which work of literature does Sontag cite as evidence that war was once seen as part of a man's life?

5. Sontag claims that there is no way to guarantee which of the following?

(see the answer keys)

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