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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What effect does Veblen say gambling has on industrial efficiency?
(a) Its effect is unpredictable.
(b) It increases industrial efficiency.
(c) It motivates people by increasing debt.
(d) It is a hindrance.

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

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

5. What factor besides luck affects gambling on sports, according to Veblen?
(a) The ability to turn loss into a gambling victory.
(b) The prestige of the contestants.
(c) The omens that surround the game, such as the weather.
(d) Pride in the strength of the winners.

6. 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.

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

8. 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 excessively strong adaptiveness in spiritual matters.
(b) An inability to commit to productive labor.
(c) A refusal to stray from orthodox practices.
(d) An inclination to devout observances.

9. What is it that Veblen says survives as society changes?
(a) The fittest fashions.
(b) The fittest habits.
(c) Jewels.
(d) The fittest ideas.

10. What aspect of man's character does gambling originate in, according to Veblen?
(a) The peaceable character.
(b) The antepredatory character.
(c) The predatory character.
(d) The religious character.

11. To what does Veblen compare the martial spirit in lower-class delinquents?
(a) Drunkenness.
(b) Youthful impetuosity.
(c) The state of war.
(d) The college spirit in sports.

12. What, in Veblen's description, does education accomplish?
(a) It lays the foundation for inventions.
(b) It drives the expansion of the leisure class.
(c) It opens the leisure class to newly wealthy people.
(d) It forms habits and thoughts.

13. Which organization does Veblen cite as an example of an organization whose existence is related to devout observance?
(a) The Ku Klux Klan.
(b) The Freemasons.
(c) Young Men's Christian Association.
(d) The Chamber of Commerce.

14. What does Veblen say the act of worshiping appeals to?
(a) The desire for order.
(b) The need to be dominated.
(c) The sense of status.
(d) The sense of communal devotion.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which ethnic type does Veblen say has more predatory traits?

2. When, according to Veblen, does a devout or pious organization decline?

3. What does Veblen say about his purposes in describing anthropomorphic cults?

4. Where did the predatory variant come from?

5. Under what conditions is there a quasi-peaceful stage in Western culture, according to Veblen?

(see the answer keys)

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