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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What is the science of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics?
(a) Linguistics.
(b) Anaesthetics.
(c) Media studies.
(d) Aestheics.

4. What refers to something that exists independently of ideas concerning it?
(a) Pseudo-event.
(b) Reality.
(c) Action.
(d) Experience.

5. What is the fifth characteristic of the image, according to Boorstin?
(a) It is synthetic.
(b) It is simplified.
(c) It is ambiguous.
(d) It is believable.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose best-known films are The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, and The Greatest Show on Earth?

2. Boorstin writes that we are left with the "invention of experience" rather than its what?

3. Boorstin suggests that the graphic revolution and what else are mostly responsible for the abridgment and the mass production of art?

4. What does Boorstin describe as a kind of pseudo-event, especially in the sense that they were "more vivid and more impressive than the spontaneous original"?

5. In Chapter 5 - Section IV, Boorstin describes how the appearance of advertising has caused a movement from focusing on truth to focusing on what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boorstin compare domestic and foreign issues in Chapter 6 - Section III?

2. What is the fourth aspect of the image, according to Boorstin in Chapter 5 - Section I?

3. What does Boorstin write of stage and film adaptations in Chapter 4 - Section VI?

4. What does Boorstin assert is the impact of art reproductions?

5. What is the second aspect of "successful advertising" described by Boorstin? How is it defined?

6. How does Boorstin view the impact of advertising on the American psyche?

7. What does Boorstin write of the evolution of linguistics and the pseudo-event in Chapter 6 - Section III?

8. How does Boorstin define "ideal-thinking" and "image-thinking"?

9. What suggestions does Boorstin give to the American people at the close of the book?

10. What was the impact of Muzak, according to Boorstin?

(see the answer keys)

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