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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. Which of the following is a condition that Raymond insists on in Chapter 16 is the group prepares its proposals?

2. According to Brooks in Chapter 14, what is a major issue with the human mind?

3. Why is Harold's advice to Erica initially unhelpful in Chapter 15?

4. In Chapter 15, North Whitehead is quoted as saying history alternated between the simpleminded and what?

5. On the same day Harold meets Erica, his friend, Mark, offers him a job doing what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Amy facing so may problems in Chapter 7?

2. How does Erica come back from her explosion in Chapter 8?

3. In Chapter 9, what does Brooks say is often true ambitious individuals?

4. What impresses Erica about Raymond during their lunches in Chapter 16?

5. How does the success of Erica's business affect her marriage?

6. How do Raymond and Erica play major roles in the rebound of Intercom?

7. How does Erica get into the Academy in Chapter 7?

8. How does Brooks explain the difference between wealthy and poor children's play time in Chapter 7?

9. How is the mind inefficient, according to David Brooks?

10. What different trajectories do Harold and Erica's lives take in Chapter 15?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Seemingly in the name of evenhandedness, David Brooks presents two protagonists with disparate backgrounds. Write a three-part essay comparing and contrasting the early lives of Harold and Erica. How are their lives different? What effect does this background have on the worldview of each? Do you think this is a realist portrayal of this life experience?

Part 1) Racial background.

Part 2) Hometown and neighborhood.

Part 3) Education.

Essay Topic 2

David Brooks intends "The Social Animal" to be a policy treatise of sorts. Part of this treatise is a promotion of charter schools. Write an essay about Erica's childhood education experience. How is she failed by the public school system? What skills does she learn at the Academy? What can it offer her that a public school cannot? What does Brooks promote as important components in a child's education?

Essay Topic 3

In portraying Erica's adolescence and early adulthood, David Brooks creates a case study for how self-control is developed. In an essay, discuss the challenges that Erica faces in high school and how she overcomes them with self-control. How does the marshmallow experiment illustrate these tactics? Why does she fear a life guided by emotion? What connects this fear to the pain of her childhood.

(see the answer keys)

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