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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens as the lower classes are educated and depend on the leisure class?
(a) They become more dependent on ritual.
(b) They become more likely to seize the means of production.
(c) They become more resigned to their class.
(d) They become more restless and aggressive.

2. How does Veblen describe the industrial classes' relationship with sports?
(a) As an addiction.
(b) As a form of warfare.
(c) As a passion.
(d) As an occasional diversion.

3. What does the belief in luck accompany?
(a) Belief in immortality.
(b) Resistance to industrialism.
(c) Development of status.
(d) Loss of faith in religion.

4. In what activity do delinquents rival the leisure class?
(a) Production.
(b) Consumption.
(c) Unproductive leisure.
(d) Fighting.

5. Why, according to Veblen, were women excluded from education?
(a) They were distracting.
(b) They were unprepared.
(c) They were subservient.
(d) They were independent.

6. What does Veblen say is the most serious occupation of the leisure class?
(a) Innovation.
(b) Distribution.
(c) Production.
(d) Government.

7. What does Veblen consider education to be?
(a) A form of vicarious consumption.
(b) A form of vicarious leisure.
(c) A form of conspicuous consumption.
(d) A form of pecuniary waste.

8. What is affected by the institution of a social class?
(a) The character of the social structure.
(b) The character of individuals.
(c) The economic model for society.
(d) The means of production.

9. What does Veblen cite as an example of gambling in organizations designed for devout observances?
(a) Dating nights.
(b) Church raffles.
(c) Donations to charities.
(d) Bingo.

10. How does Veblen say contestants in sporting events demonstrate their belief in luck?
(a) By wearing talismans.
(b) By performing rituals.
(c) By offering sacrifices.
(d) By saying prayers to fortune.

11. Whose theories influenced Veblen's ideas about selective adaptation?
(a) Darwin's.
(b) Marx's.
(c) Lamarck's.
(d) Nietzsche's.

12. What does Veblen say was the center of modern communities during his time?
(a) The guilt inherited from wars.
(b) The inherited triumphs from wars.
(c) Industrial efficiency.
(d) Nostalgia for nature.

13. To what agency does Veblen attribute industrial man's faith in luck?
(a) The spirit of the times.
(b) The unseen hand.
(c) God.
(d) Spirits of a place.

14. What doctrine does education contribute to, in Veblen's opinion?
(a) The doctrine of peace through prosperity.
(b) The doctrine of pecuniary merit.
(c) The doctrine os nonaggression.
(d) The doctrine of laissez-faire government.

15. Who benefits by a scholar's work?
(a) The scholar.
(b) The scholar's colleagues.
(c) The scholar's patron.
(d) The university system.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Veblen, women in the leisure class are partially exempt from what?

2. How does Veblen say people can move from the industrial class to the leisure class?

3. Why do existing institutions foster the propagation of a particular type of person?

4. According to Veblen, ethnic types during his time were variations of what?

5. When, according to Veblen, does the leisure class change most?

(see the answer keys)

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