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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Boorstin writes that critical history and critical biography have reduced heroes to mere pawns of what?
(a) The public.
(b) Social forces.
(c) Chess.
(d) The media.

2. What is the first of the "extravagant expectations" held by Americans, according to Boorstin?
(a) There is always more that the world can provide.
(b) Money can buy anything.
(c) We have unlimited power to fashion the world to our desires
(d) Time is of the essence.

3. What was the name of the plane that Charles Lindbergh made his flight across the Atlantic in?
(a) The Lucky Lindy.
(b) The Lindbergh Jewel.
(c) The Spirit of America.
(d) The Spirit of St. Louis.

4. What term does Boorstin assert has been relegated to the experiences of young children or naïve adults?
(a) Hero.
(b) Celebrity.
(c) Politicians.
(d) Fairy tales.

5. Pseudo-events, according to Boorstin, create distortion through what?
(a) Ambiguity.
(b) Falsehood.
(c) Propaganda.
(d) Complication.

6. In Chapter 1 - Section IV, Boorstin discusses the formation of what as a communication device for government officials?
(a) The wire tap.
(b) The leak.
(c) The FBI.
(d) The mobile phone.

7. Boorstin asserts that the influx of pseudo-events has caused the confusion of participant and what roles?
(a) Catalyst.
(b) Creator.
(c) Instigator.
(d) Viewer.

8. What name referred to Stalin's campaign to purge the Communist Party of people accused of sabotage, terrorism, or treachery?
(a) The Great Cleansing.
(b) The Great Purge.
(c) The Great Famine.
(d) The Grand Inquisition.

9. How many cars were registered in the United States in 1900?
(a) 30,000.
(b) 10,000.
(c) 8,000.
(d) 20,000.

10. In what year did popular publications print articles showing the car was cheaper to operate than the horse?
(a) 1940.
(b) 1895.
(c) 1825.
(d) 1925.

11. In his argument in Chapter 2 - Section IV, what does Boorstin suggest create themselves?
(a) Celebrities.
(b) Heroes.
(c) Pseudo-events.
(d) Politicians.

12. What is the first aspect of a pseudo-event, according to Boorstin?
(a) It is ambiguous.
(b) It is intentionally created.
(c) It is intended as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
(d) Its purpose is to be recreated or reported.

13. What was the familiar hallmark of Baedeker guides?
(a) Green binding.
(b) Blue binding.
(c) Yellow binding.
(d) Red binding.

14. What refers to a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of objective truth and global cultural narrative or meta-narrative?
(a) Pseudo-event.
(b) Nonreality.
(c) Post-modernism.
(d) Hyper-reality.

15. How many people did Thomas Cook claim to have arranged to attend the Great Exhibition?
(a) 50,000.
(b) 200,000.
(c) 100,000.
(d) 150,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote Mein Kampf?

2. What term is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy?

3. In what year was Charles Lindbergh's infant son kidnapped and murdered in the "Crime of the Century"?

4. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in what year?

5. What people does Boorstin assert were able to express, ritualize, and create heroes, in Chapter 2 - Section II?

(see the answer keys)

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