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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?
(a) A regrettable truth.
(b) An accurate perception.
(c) An obnoxious overstatement.
(d) An illusion.

2. Neither compassion nor moral indignation would be enough to do which of the following?
(a) Stop suffering.
(b) Motivate action.
(c) End violence.
(d) Inspire change.

3. 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) Exploitative and perverse.
(b) Cruel and unusual.
(c) Vulgar and low.
(d) Cruel and torturous.

4. 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) Atrocity tourism.
(b) War voyeurism.
(c) Conflict exploitation.
(d) War tourism.

5. Although images were more prevalent, which of the following was NOT also true?
(a) Humanity became oversensitive to images of suffering.
(b) People's understanding of atrocity increased.
(c) The human capacity to absorb the images of suffering increased.
(d) People's reactions to the images were greater.

6. In transforming an event or person into something that can be owned, photographs:
(a) Degrade.
(b) Objectify.
(c) Commoditize.
(d) Elevate.

7. In order to take pleasure in suffering, Sontag argues that one must necessarily have which of the following?
(a) Distance from the source of suffering.
(b) Deep seated feelings of misanthropy.
(c) A sadistic streak characteristic of serial killers.
(d) A sense of moral or intellectual superiority.

8. Which work of literature does Sontag cite as evidence that war was once seen as part of a man's life?
(a) The Iliad.
(b) The Odyssey.
(c) The Republic.
(d) The Aeneid.

9. Sontag discusses another common belief regarding media coverage of an event, and suggested that it may seem to contradict the first common belief she addresses. What is this second idea?
(a) Limited exposure diminishes the impact the images have on an audience.
(b) Repeated images in the media exhaust our ability to prevent new atrocities.
(c) Overexposure to images in the media makes people callous.
(d) The media sensationalizes stories of atrocity.

10. A famous campaign for Benetton used which of the following images in its advertising?
(a) A dead Croatian soldier's bloody shirt.
(b) The barbed wire from Warsaw.
(c) A wounded German soldier.
(d) A concentration camp uniform.

11. Which sense did the ancient Greeks consider superior?
(a) Sight.
(b) Smell.
(c) Touch.
(d) Hearing.

12. Sontag notes that although museums remembering atrocities are common practice, there is no museum in the United States dedicated to which of the following atrocities?
(a) The American slave trade.
(b) The German Holocaust.
(c) The massacre of the Native Americans.
(d) The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

13. Diorama, tableaux and wax exhibits served which of the following purposes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
(a) Forms of history-as-display.
(b) Forms of war protest.
(c) Forms of artistic expression.
(d) Forms of entertainment.

14. Sontag writes that provocative images may have which of the following effects on viewers?
(a) Provocative images of suffering may enable a deep sense of human empathy.
(b) Provocative images of suffering may compel viewers to stop subscribing to newspapers for fear of seeing more disturbing photographs.
(c) Provocative images of suffering may incite humanitarian actions to end exploitative actions.
(d) Provocative images may spur viewers to examine how their own privileges are possible through the suffering of others.

15. Which Dreiser novel does Sontag reference in the final chapter?
(a) "The Crucible."
(b) "Death of a Salesman."
(c) "An American Tragedy."
(d) "Sister of War."

Short Answer Questions

1. Concerned with the public health risk posed by cigarette smoking, officials in which country suggested that images of black lungs, damaged hearts or periodontal disease be included on the warning label for tobacco products?

2. What sentiment concludes the book?

3. Which of the following does Sontag suggest is an ethical act?

4. Which of the following poets expressed concerns about the effect of national-scale events on human sensibility in 1800?

5. Sontag argues that many people thought that which of the following makes war seem "real"?

(see the answer keys)

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