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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Boorstin writes in Chapter 5 that "God himself becomes not a power but" what?
(a) A nonentity.
(b) A myth.
(c) An image.
(d) An advertisement.

2. When does Boorstin say books began to be made cheaper, due to a variety of factors, in Chapter 4 - Section I?
(a) 1850s.
(b) 1890s.
(c) 1840s.
(d) 1910s.

3. Boorstin suggests in Chapter 6 - Section III that Americans live in a sort of what?
(a) Hyperreality.
(b) Pseudo-reality.
(c) Pseudo-consciousness.
(d) Nonreality.

4. What refers to a single complete page, front and back, in a finished book?
(a) Single.
(b) Press page.
(c) Double.
(d) Leaf.

5. What type of book binding begins with the signatures of the book as loose pages which are then clamped together?
(a) Undersew.
(b) Bind-sew.
(c) Oversew.
(d) Cross stitch.

6. Boorstin concludes Chapter 6 - Section V by stating that we must be able to reach beyond into novel experiences and ideas and thus become aware of our what?
(a) Images.
(b) Illusions.
(c) Ideals.
(d) Reality.

7. What editor and co-editor of Publishers' Weekly guided the publication through much of the 20th century?
(a) Frederic Gershom Melcher.
(b) Henry J. Williamson.
(c) Neil Jackson Smith.
(d) Jefferson Andrews.

8. What is the third characteristic of the image, according to Boorstin?
(a) It is ambiguous.
(b) It is synthetic.
(c) It is passive.
(d) It is believable.

9. What major movie studio did Carl Laemmle originate?
(a) Paramount Pictures.
(b) Universal Studios.
(c) General Film Company.
(d) MGM.

10. Who invented the steam powered rotary printing press in 1843 in the United States?
(a) Stephan Michaelson.
(b) Johannes Gutenberg.
(c) Henry Watson.
(d) Richard M. Hoe.

11. Daniel J. Boorstin was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until when?
(a) 1994.
(b) 1979.
(c) 1982.
(d) 1987.

12. What does Boorstin assert arose spontaneously through "tradition, history, or by God,"are not made simple, are direct and active in the sense that they pull people forward?
(a) Ideals.
(b) Images.
(c) Pseudo-events.
(d) Nonevents.

13. What word does Boorstin suggest we created out of the need to express the specialness of that which is real, in Chapter 6 - Section III?
(a) Capitalization.
(b) Arbitration.
(c) Fiction.
(d) Non-fiction.

14. When did P.T. Barnum purchase Scudder's American Museum?
(a) 1905.
(b) 1867.
(c) 1841.
(d) 1859.

15. Boorstin writes that our enemies profit from the fact they are known only, or primarily, through their what?
(a) Politics.
(b) Reality.
(c) Ideals.
(d) Images.

Short Answer Questions

1. Boorstin suggests we are in danger if we forget that the experiences which can't be captured by the camera can still be captured in a what?

2. What refers to something that exists independently of ideas concerning it?

3. Boorstin states, regarding foreign affairs, "I suspect we suffer abroad simply because people know America through" what?

4. What company advertised the fact that the bottles were "steam-sterilized," neglecting to mention the fact that all the other beer companies used the same process?

5. What French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, and photographer is frequently associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism?

(see the answer keys)

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