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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. Before dipping their brushes into the radium, what action were the dial-painters at Radium Luminous Materials Corporation instructed to take?

2. What did Sabin von Schocky do when he found that radium had gotten into his left index finger?

3. In what year was radium first discovered?

4. Grace Fryer came from a family of how many children?

5. Until 1922, Cecil K. Drinker's department at Harvard was wholly funded by what source?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was the first dial-painter to file a lawsuit against a radium company?

2. What is the significance of the choice by the Radium Luminous Material Corporation to use the term "studio" (3) to mean the worksite?

3. Why did Hazel Kuser's family refuse to allow friends to see her body at her funeral?

4. What was the size of the smallest object the dial-painters at the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation had to paint and what size was the tiniest element of their painting?

5. What is the author's evidence for the claim that radium made an "all-pervasive entry into American life"?

6. How did the Radium Luminous Processes Corporation's postwar strategy differ from their World War I-era business strategies?

7. In 1917, what was the reputation of radium in America?

8. Cecil K. Drinker's tour of the United States Radium Corporation plant took place on the day following what related event?

9. Who coined the term "radium jaw"? (95)

10. Why did radium poisoning victims often need another operation after they had just undergone one?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the author use sensory details in order to paint a vivid portrait of the historical events she depicts within the book? Discuss at least two scenes that include extensive use of sensory details and pull quotes from these scenes to support your claim.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's decision to include a variety of photographs within the text. What purpose did she have in mind when including images of the dial-painters and other subjects? Back up your strong, specific claim about the author's use of photographs with concrete details from the images she includes in the book.

Essay Topic 3

What is the author's treatment of gender within the events of the book? How does she get across to the reader the connection between the dial-painters' treatment by their employers and their status as women in America? Craft a specific and clear claim regarding the author's treatment of gender and use textual details to support your claim.

(see the answer keys)

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