Outliers Test Study Guide with Certified Answers

Outliers Test Study Guide with Certified Answers Introduction In the introduction to Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell begins by giving the definition of the word outlier as a person, situation, or thing that is different from others. This definition of something that is markedly different from the normal or the average is the foundational principle of his book. Gladwell studies people and situations that are above average or that stand out from the norm, and he looks into all of the different factors that played a role in creating their success. To explain the concept of an outlier in more depth, Gladwell describes the people of an Italian village named Roseto Valfortore. Many of these Italians emigrated and ended up all living in the same small town in Pennsylvania, which they named Roseto. Over time, they remained a close-knit community, closed off from the rest of the world for the most part. What is interesting about their community in Pennsylvania is that hardly any of the men in the city suffer from heart disease. This was Chapter 1 - The Matthew Effect Gladwell begins by quoting a verse from the Bible that states that those who have will be given more while those who have not will lose that which they had. Throughout the chapter, Gladwell describes certain advantages sports players and children in school have simply because of their birth dates. They happened to be born in an advantageous part of the year, and that time of birth led them to have certain advantages that spiraled upwards from that point on. Gladwell explains a rather unique statistic: of players in Canadian professional hockey leagues, 40% were born between January and March, 30% between April and June, 20% between July and September, and only 10% between October and December. The explanation for this unusual statistic is simple: in Canada, the cut-off birth date for trying out for hockey leagues is January 1st. So, if you turn ten on January 1, you are going to be a lot bigger, physically more mature, and more coordinated than a child who turns ten on December 31st. Chapter 2 - The 10,000 Hour Rule All great success stories have similarities, and one of them is that successful individuals spend a lot of time practicing and working on their craft. In fact, Gladwell cites studies and sociologists who claim that for an individual to become an expert in any skill, they need to spend about 10,000 hours practicing or working on it. Overwhelmingly, statistics show that all successful people in their fields had at least 10,000 hours of experience before they made it big. Gladwell makes the point that to get 10,000 hours of practice, which usually takes a decade, you need a lot of luck and extraordinary circumstances. Bill Joy, a renowned computer programmer and pioneer for Internet technology, worked at the University of Michigan, which was one of the few places in the country at the time that was equipped with a computer lab that was capable of time sharing, an invention that allowed programming to go much faster. Additionally, Joy found a way to log hours in the lab for free. From the Chapter 3 - The Trouble With Geniuses (Part 1) Malcom Gladwell describes the incredible genius of Christopher Langan, currently known as the smartest man in America. Langan has an IQ of 195. His genius makes him an outlier because he stands out so much in comparison to the rest of the world. However, has that genius helped Langan be successful in his life? Other than the celebrity it has garnered, has he done well? The interesting thing about Langan is that in traditional terms, he is not very successful. Despite being invited to speak on television and being interviewed a lot, he has not had any publications, has no college degree, and has not impacted the world of academia. He works on a ranch and lives a very low-profile life. Gladwell compares Langan to Einstein, who had an IQ of 130—still in the genius category. Both men were geniuses, but what led one man to succeed and not the other? To answer part of the question, Gladwell summarizes the results of a long-term study done on intelligence by Lewis Terman, a professor of ps Chapter 4 - The Trouble With Geniuses (Part 2) Gladwell describes the background of Chris Langan, who has an IQ of 195 and is considered the smartest man in America. Chris grew up incredibly poor with a working mother and a drunken father. When he went to college, he dropped out. Since then, he has not achieved success in traditional terms. Gladwell contrasts this with Robert Oppenheimer, one of the crucial designers of the nuclear bomb; he, too, was brilliant, but he came from a wealthy family, had a degree from Harvard, and was very successful. Gladwell contrasts Langan with Oppenheimer to ask what was the critical difference between these two geniuses? Part of the answer came in Chapter 3, where Gladwell discussed the "threshold effect" of intelligence: intelligence has a threshold; after that, real-life skills need to kick into gear to help someone succeed. Langan was poorly equipped with those real-world skills, whereas Oppenheimer had the tools necessary to succeed. Gladwell asks why that was. Gladwell summarizes an interest Chapter 5 - The Three Lessons of Joe Flom This chapter begins with the background and history of Joe Flom, who is a lawyer at one of the most successful law firms in the nation. To explain elements of Flom's success that might not be as obvious, Gladwell also describes another successful Jewish lawyer—Alexander Bickel. These lawyers have similar stories: they were children of hard-working Jewish immigrants who came into their lawyer status in the 1950s and 1960s at a time when most successful law firms were not hiring Jewish lawyers. Because of this, many had to start firms on their own and take work other firms would not accept. One such type of work dealt with the dismantling of businesses—corporate takeovers. This work often went to Jewish law firms, and with expanding business and weakened regulations in the 1970s, corporate takeovers became much more common. Because the Jewish firms already had a reputation for doing that kind of work, they got even more. The first lesson of Joe Flom is that what started as a disadva Chapter 6 - Harlan, Kentucky Gladwell describes a feud that occurred between two Appalachian families in the late 1800s in Kentucky. The Howard and Turner families fought a bitter feud in which many people ended up dying. At the same time in other locations in the Appalachians, similar family feuds were breaking out. There was an epidemic of Appalachian family feuds, some lasting for decades. The area became infamous for the feuding, and outside help was often brought in to stop the chaos. The explanation for this behavior is tied back to something called "the culture of honor." Many of these families came from Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England—places that relied on raising and herding animals. Theft of sheep and cattle was common. Because of their fierce drive to protect their animals and right the wrongs caused by thieving, a culture of honor was born; injustice was fought through revenge to maintain one's honor and send a message that you are not to be stolen from. These herdsmen moved to Appalachia, w Chapter 7 - The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes Gladwell describes in great detail Korean Air Flight 801's plane crash that occurred in 1997, killing most of its passengers. This was just one of many crashes Korean Airlines experienced; in fact, the airline was so bad that they were denounced by countries and organizations. However, they turned themselves around and were eventually able to rebound into success. Gladwell outlines some of the things that helped them succeed. To explain, Gladwell uses the 1990 crash of Colombian airliner Avianca, Flight 052. In this crash, the copilot was very passive and used a lot of mitigating speech patterns to downplay his own opinions. In the end, that was dangerous because the pilot and air-traffic controllers did not take his suggestions seriously, and the crash occurred. He used this mitigating language because of the captain-to-copilot dynamic: the captain is the expert, and challenging or questioning him is uncomfortable and potentially humiliating. Psychologists studied this communication Chapter 8 - Rice Paddies and Math Tests Gladwell begins by describing how tending rice paddies is a complicated project that requires constant vigilance and hard work. To have a successful rice paddy, you have to rise before dawn and work hard all day, every day. The amount of work and diligence you put into the paddy directly affects how successful it will be. In contrast, many Western farmers learned to use large farm machinery to reduce their work. But in China and other Asian countries, the rice paddies are so small and on steep mountainsides that would not accommodate such machinery. The result is that rice paddies still require hard, personalized, individualized manual labor to thrive. Gladwell begins discussing how English has words for numbers that take longer to say and are less logical than the words for these numbers in Asian languages. For example, we say "seven" for 7, whereas in Chinese, 7 is pronounced "qi." Because they can say numbers faster, they are able to remember larger blocks of numbers. Additionally, Chapter 9 - Marita's Bargain Gladwell briefly introduces KIPP Academies, privately owned schools started in the 1990s to help lower-income families give their children advantages they needed to succeed. KIPP students have a rigorous schedule and study regime; as a result, they perform better and often receive scholarships and opportunities that students from regular public schools do not. Then Gladwell gives a brief history of the general philosophy of education in America, which in its beginnings centered around two main elements: the harvest season and not overstraining children by pushing them too far. The harvest season influenced the current 9-month school year, with a long, extended break. That break used to be necessary for families because their children were needed to help with the harvest. However, even though that need has diminished in the country, we still follow that model, and it has a negative impact on students' education. Over the summer, many children struggle to retain what they learned the pr Epilogue - A Jamaican Story The epilogue to Outliers is deeply personal to author Malcolm Gladwell because it describes his mother's own story and pathway to success. He starts by describing the history of his grandmother, a schoolteacher named Daisy Nation. She had twin girls who were able to secure scholarships to an elite Jamaican school, which enabled the girls to get into a London college. While there, that one of the girls, Joyce (Malcolm's mother), met her husband. Gladwell gives a bit of history to describe elements that contributed to his mother's ability to succeed and go to school. When his mother was a child, riots and unrest in the region persuaded Britain—their sovereign at the time—to make a series of reforms. One of the reforms was offering scholarships to expensive schools to any good students on the island. Both Malcolm's mother and aunt applied; his aunt got a scholarship but his mother did not at first. However, through pure luck, another girl ended up with two scholarships and the second egalitarian promoting equal rights for all people ethos beliefs or character of a group meritocracy a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement crucible a severe test or trial paradigm a model; an example cohort a group of people from a given time period abstruse difficult to understand cognitive the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. threshold any place or point of entering or beginning subversive intended to undermine or overthrow libidinous showing excessive sexual drive; lustful inquisitive curious or inquiring savvy well-informed; sharp; experienced consequential following as a result or effect submissive meekly obedient or passive brevity shortness of time antecedent a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another credentials qualifications or something that gives confidence WASP White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs); in the United states, are an ethnic group known for forming the dominant social class of powerful white Americans of British Protestant ancestry. purported claimed as true, but probably false; alleged flounder show or feel great confusion subsistence the minimum amount to sustain life imperious assuming power without justification; arrogant consequence the result of an action confederate an ally; an accomplice nonchalant cool, calm, collected, & confident mitigate make less severe, serious, or painful indelible not able to be erased or removed; memorable fundamental of central importance idealist a person who is guided more by ideals than by practical considerations daunting seeming difficult to deal with in anticipation concubine a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives; mistress miscegenation the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types progeny children, descendants, offspring fetish an object that receives respect or devotion what are the six parts of rhetorical situation? • exigence • writer's purpose • reader / audience • writer / speaker • context • message exigence what motivates the writer to write rhetoric the art of using language effectively and persuasively list the rhetorical modes ( memorize at least five ) • narration • cause and effect • comparison-contrast • classification / division • exemplification / illustration • definition • testimony • authority • process analysis definition by negation defines something by telling what it is not what part of rhetorical situation carries meaning? the message