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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. How much does Gladwell say per-pupil spending increased in the U.S. from 1996 to 2004?

2. According to Gladwell, where did most Salon paintings take their themes from?

3. Gladwell says that 77% of Americans would rather decrease class size than do what?

4. What modern weapon does Gladwell compare David’s slung stone to?

5. What error does Gladwell say we make about Goliath?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the strategy Ranadivé used so effectively?

2. What is the lesson Gladwell wants us to take from his parable of David and Goliath?

3. What were the advantages Lawrence of Arabia’s force had, compared to the Turks?

4. What are the challenges Gladwell’s powerful Hollywood friend experienced, in raising his children?

5. What is Vivek Ranadivé’s qualification to coach basketball?

6. What does Gladwell say leads people to adopt David’s strategies?

7. In what way does Gladwell say Ranadivé’s girls are similar to Lawrence of Arabia?

8. Where were the Philistines expanding into, when they encountered the armies of the Israelites?

9. What is Harvard’s theory of the “happy bottom quarter” (90)?

10. What does Gladwell say is the advantage David has over Goliath?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the most important points in David and Goliath. How is the book organized? How does this differ from how a novel is organized with plot points?

Essay Topic 2

When is David and Goliath most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

Time and again, Gladwell tells a complex personal or historical story and then simplifies it down to extrapolate a simple lesson, such as the simple lesson that the British Army had not properly established its authority to govern the residents of Belfast. In many cases, anyone with a sense of history will say, “it’s a little more complicated than that.”

This raises the question of what purpose Gladwell is serving, by telling such simple stories, and leaving out so many confounding variables. What do you think Gladwell believes he is doing for his audiences, and what do you think his readers like about his books?

(see the answer keys)

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