Ways of Social Change, 2nd edition
April 2015
READING QUIZ QUESTIONS
Note to Instructors
Many instructors find a reading quiz to be a useful tool that encourages students to do
assigned reading in a timely fashion. These multiple-choice questions provide a readings
quiz for Ways of Social Change.
The questions are designed to evaluate only the reading activity and memory of your
students. They do not evaluate students’ comprehension, deeper understanding and critical
thinking of the book’s topics. In my experience, these can be better cultivated and evaluated
in discussions and other means of assessment, for example short-answer exams, and by
engaging in the Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study at the end of each
chapter.
Questions to these readings quiz questions are arranged in the order in which the quiz
material appears in each chapter, providing a measure of how far the student has read.
Correct answers are indicated with an asterisk.
As with any multiple-choice question, there could be more than one right answer, but only
one answer is the best answer. Other answers may be interesting, possible, and worth
discussing, but they are not what the students have read in Ways of Social Change.
Chapter 1. The Personal Experience of Social Change
Social change can be understood as the accomplishment of:
a. the passing of time
*b. millions of people, living and dead
c. an unfolding plan of a deity more powerful than any human being
,d. the men and women who made significant contributions to human progress
Who is the woman described in Chapter 1?
a. the author of science fiction novels
b. the CEO of one of the largest global corporations in the world
c. a scientist who was long forgotten but discovered in the 1980s
*d. no one special; just a woman who lived through much of the 20th century
Iris Summers’ children are described as:
*a. Baby Boomers
b. troubled and unable to fit into their time and place
c. a mixture of individuals with very special abilities
d. a soldier, a housewife, a doctor and a carpenter
When was the pace of social change probably the greatest?
a. the years between the founding of the United States and the Civil War
b. between 1492 and 1547
*c. the last half of the twentieth century
d. the years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001
One of the main reasons people adopted their family name was:
*a a government wanted to keep tabs on them, to draft them into war or tax them
b. of their religion and their desire to be identified with it
c. the need to marry “out of their lineage,” that is, in order to avoid marrying a close relative
d. the rise in geographic mobility and the need to keep in touch with those left behind
,What prominent people’s names provide a record of ethnic groups’ gains in the US?
a. Presidents of the United States
b. CEOs of the largest global corporations
c. any city’s telephone directory
*d. boxers or prizefighters
What popular technology was acquired by people of modest means beginning in 1900?
a. an automobile
b. a bicycle
*c. a Kodak Brownie camera
d. a clothes washing machine
Iris Summers grew up:
a.with a silver spoon in her mouth, that is, affluent and privileged
b.before she was ready, having left school after 5th grade and having her first child at 15
c.in a large city and spent her formative years living in the top floor of an old tenement
*d. on a farm, poor, but in a largely self-sufficient family able to provide for most of its
needs
During Iris Summers’ youth and early adulthood, what great transformation was occurring:
a. science discovered the source of life
*b. farm life and agriculture, with millions of rural people and their children become part of
the urban labor force
c. women’s liberation and changing gender relations
d. nuclear weapons altered the balance of international power and the nature of war
, What family relationship was common when Iris Summers was a girl and is again common,
but was more unusual in the middle of the last century?
a. children living with single parents
b. new couples buying homes and living close to their parents
c. blended families, with children of different biological parents forming a family when their
parents divorce and remarry
*d. multi-generational households, especially with adult children and their parents living
under the same roof
When he was an adult, what could Frank Summers, Iris’ husband, not understand about
young people?
*a. why they would marry before they had a good job and why they didn’t marry when they
did have a good job
b. their music and the way they danced without holding on to each other
c. why men and women didn’t wear their hair and dress differently, so he could easily tell
the difference between young men and young women
d. what they could be talking about for so long on the phone, and later why they spent so
much time social networking
Iris Summers’ husband, Frank:
*a. worked as a civilian during World War Two
b. was killed in a highway accident, leaving Iris to raise their children
c. abandoned the family because he was jobless and could not support them
d. served and was seriously wounded in the Second World War
What social change occurred in the US during Iris Summers’ life that was expected to
happen as well throughout the poorest parts of the world?
a. social inequality largely disappeared as equality of opportunity expanded to include
everyone
April 2015
READING QUIZ QUESTIONS
Note to Instructors
Many instructors find a reading quiz to be a useful tool that encourages students to do
assigned reading in a timely fashion. These multiple-choice questions provide a readings
quiz for Ways of Social Change.
The questions are designed to evaluate only the reading activity and memory of your
students. They do not evaluate students’ comprehension, deeper understanding and critical
thinking of the book’s topics. In my experience, these can be better cultivated and evaluated
in discussions and other means of assessment, for example short-answer exams, and by
engaging in the Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study at the end of each
chapter.
Questions to these readings quiz questions are arranged in the order in which the quiz
material appears in each chapter, providing a measure of how far the student has read.
Correct answers are indicated with an asterisk.
As with any multiple-choice question, there could be more than one right answer, but only
one answer is the best answer. Other answers may be interesting, possible, and worth
discussing, but they are not what the students have read in Ways of Social Change.
Chapter 1. The Personal Experience of Social Change
Social change can be understood as the accomplishment of:
a. the passing of time
*b. millions of people, living and dead
c. an unfolding plan of a deity more powerful than any human being
,d. the men and women who made significant contributions to human progress
Who is the woman described in Chapter 1?
a. the author of science fiction novels
b. the CEO of one of the largest global corporations in the world
c. a scientist who was long forgotten but discovered in the 1980s
*d. no one special; just a woman who lived through much of the 20th century
Iris Summers’ children are described as:
*a. Baby Boomers
b. troubled and unable to fit into their time and place
c. a mixture of individuals with very special abilities
d. a soldier, a housewife, a doctor and a carpenter
When was the pace of social change probably the greatest?
a. the years between the founding of the United States and the Civil War
b. between 1492 and 1547
*c. the last half of the twentieth century
d. the years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001
One of the main reasons people adopted their family name was:
*a a government wanted to keep tabs on them, to draft them into war or tax them
b. of their religion and their desire to be identified with it
c. the need to marry “out of their lineage,” that is, in order to avoid marrying a close relative
d. the rise in geographic mobility and the need to keep in touch with those left behind
,What prominent people’s names provide a record of ethnic groups’ gains in the US?
a. Presidents of the United States
b. CEOs of the largest global corporations
c. any city’s telephone directory
*d. boxers or prizefighters
What popular technology was acquired by people of modest means beginning in 1900?
a. an automobile
b. a bicycle
*c. a Kodak Brownie camera
d. a clothes washing machine
Iris Summers grew up:
a.with a silver spoon in her mouth, that is, affluent and privileged
b.before she was ready, having left school after 5th grade and having her first child at 15
c.in a large city and spent her formative years living in the top floor of an old tenement
*d. on a farm, poor, but in a largely self-sufficient family able to provide for most of its
needs
During Iris Summers’ youth and early adulthood, what great transformation was occurring:
a. science discovered the source of life
*b. farm life and agriculture, with millions of rural people and their children become part of
the urban labor force
c. women’s liberation and changing gender relations
d. nuclear weapons altered the balance of international power and the nature of war
, What family relationship was common when Iris Summers was a girl and is again common,
but was more unusual in the middle of the last century?
a. children living with single parents
b. new couples buying homes and living close to their parents
c. blended families, with children of different biological parents forming a family when their
parents divorce and remarry
*d. multi-generational households, especially with adult children and their parents living
under the same roof
When he was an adult, what could Frank Summers, Iris’ husband, not understand about
young people?
*a. why they would marry before they had a good job and why they didn’t marry when they
did have a good job
b. their music and the way they danced without holding on to each other
c. why men and women didn’t wear their hair and dress differently, so he could easily tell
the difference between young men and young women
d. what they could be talking about for so long on the phone, and later why they spent so
much time social networking
Iris Summers’ husband, Frank:
*a. worked as a civilian during World War Two
b. was killed in a highway accident, leaving Iris to raise their children
c. abandoned the family because he was jobless and could not support them
d. served and was seriously wounded in the Second World War
What social change occurred in the US during Iris Summers’ life that was expected to
happen as well throughout the poorest parts of the world?
a. social inequality largely disappeared as equality of opportunity expanded to include
everyone
