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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. Who was granola designed initially to feed?

2. In Downtown Owl, what rumor is spreading concerning Coach Laidlaw?

3. At the beginning of Chapter 11, Klosterman says that all popular ideas are inherently what?

4. According to Klosterman in Chapter 16, what drives bias in journalism?

5. What realization does the protagonist of Waking Life have at the end of the film?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are some cereal icons representative of the pained desire for perfection and acceptance?

2. How does a Dixie Chicks concert reveal a cultural shift to Chuck Klosterman?

3. Why does Klosterman posit that traveling forward in time is less fraught than traveling back?

4. How has the quality of the Star Wars franchise been incorrectly assessed, according to Klosterman in Chapter 12?

5. How is Luke Skywalker's relationship with Darth Vader a familiar relationship to Gen X'ers?

6. What example does Klosterman offer in Eating the Dinosaur to illustrate the loss of origins in time travel?

7. Why is the Pop Music Studies conference that Klosterman attends in Chapter 17 not a rocking place?

8. What does Klosterman think that "what is reality?" films are teaching us?

9. What essential beliefs does Generation X have, according to Chuck Klosterman?

10. What do the 23 questions of this section deal with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In several chapters, Klosterman makes note of a shift that occurred in the film industry with the release of Star Wars. Write an essay about this shift. What types of films were being produced, making money, and winning awards before Star Wars? What new strategy did studios develop to replicate the Star Wars boon? What does Klosterman think about this shift and its effect on films in the 1980s and 1990s?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay exploring the differences Klosterman delineates between soccer people and baseball people. What does each sport emphasize and value? Why is the author certain that soccer will never make inroads as a popular sport in America? How does his attitude toward sports cause him to be embattled as a little league coach?

Essay Topic 3

Music plays an incredibly important role in Chuck Klosterman's writing, particularly as he is a former music critic for Rolling Stone magazine. Write an essay about three musicians that Klosterman clearly believes illuminate some essential truth about life. Why is Klosterman drawn to this particular musician? What does this musician have to say about life, and why does Klosterman believe this profundity has been hidden from public understanding?

Part 1) Guns-N-Roses

Part 2) Billy Joel

Part 3) Trisha Yearwood

(see the answer keys)

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