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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. It was generally thought that public awareness was largely guided by which of the following?
(a) Government propaganda.
(b) Educational programming.
(c) Media coverage.
(d) Book industry.

2. Sontag claims that some photographs which are "repulsive" can also ________.
(a) Silence.
(b) Allure.
(c) Impress.
(d) Shock.

3. In portraying horrors, Leonardo da Vinci encouraged artists to be:
(a) Pitiless.
(b) Sensitive.
(c) Cautious.
(d) Restrained.

4. 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 make onself more numb".
(c) "To steel oneself against weakness".
(d) "To acknowledge the existence of the incorrigible".

5. Sontag refutes the possibility of a suggestion she made in "On Photography". Which of the following ideas did she refute?
(a) An ecology of images.
(b) A ban on horrific images.
(c) A placation of the public.
(d) An abating of horrors.

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

7. Sontag claims that no one has a right to which of the following?
(a) Happiness.
(b) Ignorance.
(c) Bliss.
(d) Sympathy.

8. Many of the scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" were based on works by which famous World War I photographer?
(a) Roger Fenton.
(b) Gilles Peress.
(c) Ernst Friedrich.
(d) Robert Capa.

9. Sontag claims that sentimentality is often accompanied by which of the following?
(a) A maudlin reaction to stories of war.
(b) A proclivity for brutality.
(c) A fervid religious commitment.
(d) A tendency toward hypocrisy.

10. _______ is a classic use for the camera.
(a) Simplifying.
(b) Beautifying.
(c) Complicating.
(d) Uglifying.

11. Which two things does Sontag say seem to go together?
(a) Amnesia and trauma.
(b) Trauma and memory.
(c) Death and heartlessness.
(d) Heartlessness and amnesia.

12. 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) The media sensationalizes stories of atrocity.
(b) Overexposure to images in the media makes people callous.
(c) Repeated images in the media exhaust our ability to prevent new atrocities.
(d) Limited exposure diminishes the impact the images have on an audience.

13. What does Sontag claim as our only connection with the dead?
(a) Images.
(b) Love.
(c) Memory.
(d) Graves.

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

15. Sontag cites one of her earlier books published in 1977. Which of the following is it?
(a) "Against Interpretation."
(b) "On Photography."
(c) "Reborn."
(d) "Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors."

Short Answer Questions

1. Although Sontag is pessimistic about the broad effects of atrocity photographs, she did mention one positive outcome. What was it?

2. Contemporary society, at the time Sontag wrote the book, unanimously witnessed a rise of which of the following in the media?

3. Sontag claims that witnessing atrocity through images is not much different than witnessing them in person. What does she say these activities had in common?

4. Sontag claims that Bataille could see extreme pain as a form of __________.

5. Which nation's army was represented in Wall's photograph?

(see the answer keys)

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