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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Veblen describe charitable organizations?
(a) As fundamentally economic.
(b) As semireligious.
(c) A somewhat militaristic.
(d) As grounded in competition for status.

2. Natural selection of social structure is influenced by the natural selection of what?
(a) Institutions.
(b) Producers.
(c) Capitalists.
(d) Economies.

3. According to Veblen, women in the leisure class are partially exempt from what?
(a) Familial pressures.
(b) Cultural pressures.
(c) Pecuniary pressures.
(d) Spiritual pressures.

4. In which temperament does Veblen say that gambling originates?
(a) The barbarian sentiment.
(b) The leisure sentiment.
(c) The predatory sentiment.
(d) The agricultural sentiment.

5. What is education's relationship with the supernatural, according to Veblen?
(a) Education provides the agents of growth and individual development that prove the doctrine of divine grace.
(b) Education proves the correctness of church doctrine.
(c) Education gives people knowledge for their devout observances.
(d) Education allows people to live by reason instead of superstition.

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

7. Where did the predatory variant come from?
(a) Evolution from the antepredatory culture.
(b) Evolution from the peaceable culture.
(c) Adaptation from the predatory culture.
(d) Inversion of the antepredatory culture.

8. Why, according to Veblen, do the leisure class's traits survive?
(a) Because the leisure class is sheltered.
(b) Because the leisure class is resistent to adaptation.
(c) Because the leisure class is an open society.
(d) Because the leisure class is cosmopolitan.

9. 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 resigned to their class.
(c) They become more restless and aggressive.
(d) They become more likely to seize the means of production.

10. Where does Veblen say the leisure class lived during his time?
(a) Beyond the industrial community.
(b) Above the industrial community.
(c) Within the industrial community.
(d) Near the industrial community.

11. According to Veblen, ethnic types during his time were variations of what?
(a) Predatory types.
(b) Peaceable types.
(c) Primitive ethnic types.
(d) Antepredatory types.

12. What does Veblen mean by esoteric knowledge?
(a) Knowledge that is applied to industry.
(b) Knowledge that questions the nature of God.
(c) Knowledge that can be developed in an industrial capacity.
(d) Knowledge that has nothing to do with industry.

13. What does Veblen say that the leisure-class and lower-class delinquents have in common, along with their belief in an unseen hand?
(a) An inclination to devout observances.
(b) A refusal to stray from orthodox practices.
(c) An inability to commit to productive labor.
(d) An excessively strong adaptiveness in spiritual matters.

14. According to Veblen, what effect does education have on the leisure class?
(a) It teaches the values of the leisure class and hands them down.
(b) It opens the leisure class to the new rich in each generation.
(c) It preserves the values of the leisure class from the its own apostasy.
(d) It teaches the leisure class the middle class values it will need to survive.

15. How does Veblen say the clothing of worshipers differs from daily clothing?
(a) It is simpler.
(b) It is more devout.
(c) It is less comfortable.
(d) It is more ornate and expensive.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who benefits by a scholar's work?

2. To what agency does Veblen attribute industrial man's faith in luck?

3. What form does Veblen say the pressure to change takes?

4. What doctrine does education contribute to, in Veblen's opinion?

5. To which group does the selection process seem to apply least?

(see the answer keys)

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