View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did George Marshall refuse to keep a diary?

2. In what situation was Marshall injured during his college years?

3. What company did Randolph work very hard to help unionize?

4. Who remained loyal to Rustin and tried to help him stay involved in the Civil Rights movement?

5. What is arguably Eliot's most famous novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of relationship did Mary Anne Evans (whose pen name was George Eliot) have with her mother?

2. What crisis did Eliot write about concerning women's situation in society in her novel Middlemarch?

3. What was Bayard Rustin's most significant personal flaw?

4. What kind of devotion dominated Eliot's teenage years?

5. What job did Marshall take in 1945 that he did not necessarily want but felt he had a responsibility to accept?

6. In Chapter 7, what does David Brooks say is the difference between self-control and love?

7. What significant event in 1941 was A. Philip Randolph instrumental in organizing, but eventually called off?

8. What sect's teachings did Augustine initially follow and then renounce?

9. What request did Marshall make for his funeral arrangements?

10. What significant event during the Civil Rights era did Rustin help to organize and execute?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Brooks proposes that joy "is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes" (269). Choose two people he profiles in the book and write an essay explaining how their lives demonstrated this idea.

Essay Topic 2

Why does Brooks think that the common commencement address advice for graduates to follow their passion is flawed? Write an essay explaining your answer, citing specific references to the text to support your arguments (21).

Essay Topic 3

How does the football player Joe Namath reflect what Brooks refers to at several points in the book as the ideals of the "Little Me"? Write an essay explaining your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 628 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample