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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. What does Ms. Taylor understand that teenagers are not?

2. What do children lack at an early age?

3. What separates us from animals, according to Brooks in the introduction?

4. What idea for a topic does Harold come up with his first night of writing?

5. As he grows in Chapter 4, Harold develops the ability to always quote an appropriate what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Brooks' stated political reason for writing "The Social Animal"?

2. What does Damasio determine about living without emotion in Chapter 1?

3. Why does Timothy Wilson think that the unconscious mind does the majority of the work in thinking?

4. How does Brooks use the meeting of Julia and Rob to illustrate the surprise of similarities?

5. How does Ms. Taylor guide Harold's reading in Chapter 6?

6. Describe Ms. Taylor.

7. How does Harold's tiger statement in Chapter 4 illustrate a complex human process?

8. What great skill does Harold have in high school?

9. Who is Elliot, and how did he become involved with Antonio Damasio?

10. According to Brooks in the introduction, why are Harold and Erica so successful?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much of the latter half of "The Social Animal" is dedicated to the marriage between Harold and Erica. Write an essay charting the trajectory of this marriage. What attracts Erica to Harold and vice versa? Discuss the conflict that nearly tears them apart and how the two manage to make the marriage work? What is the state of the marriage in the last year of their lives?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout "The Social Animal", Harold and Erica need to face personal struggles in which they have to take stock of their lives. Write an essay about three major crises in which one of the protagonists must take personal stock:

Part 1) Discuss Erica's explosion during a high school tennis match. What does this episode reveal to Erica about herself? How does she feel in its aftermath? Explore the changes she needs to make in her life.

Part 2) How does alcohol play an increasing role in Harold's life as he approaches middle age? What connection does this have to his desire for a child? Discuss how he copes with this disappointment and the addiction it fuels?

Part 3) Discuss the aftermath of Erica's indiscretion with Mr. Make-Believe. What personal disappointments lead her to this act of adultery? How does she feel after it happens, and what changes does she make in her life?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the prenatal and early childhood relationship between Julia and Harold. How is Julia's life different before and after she becomes pregnant? What is Harold's goal from the moment he develops sentience? How does he break down Julia's personality, and how does he rebuild her? Discuss how this process leads to a reinvented Julia who makes caring for Harold her primary concern?

(see the answer keys)

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