The Outliers review questions

Define an "outlier" according to Malcolm Gladwell. (Ch. 1)

- An outlier is something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body

- a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample

What is the Roseto Mystery? (Ch. 1)

the unexplained phenomena of why no one in Roseta died of heart failure

Of what do people in Roseto die? (Ch. 1)

old age

What explains the remarkable health of the people of Roseto? (Ch. 1)

The structure of their community

What, according to Gladwell, what a MISconception about Canadian hockey? (Ch. 1)

It is a pure meritocracy (Merit = Being good/skilled)

What is the purpose of Gladwell using the charts with hockey and soccer players' birth dates? What is he trying to prove? (Ch. 1)

to show that there is a correlation of people who play professional sports and their birthdates

Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey, two economists, did a similar study regarding birthdays/ages in a setting other than athletics. What was the setting of their study? (Ch. 1)

classrooms

What were the results of their study? (Ch. 1)

- They found that among fourth graders, the oldest children scored somewhere between four and twelve percentile points better than the youngest children

- At four-year colleges in the United States—the highest stream of postsecondary education—students belonging to the relatively youngest group in their class are under-represented by about 11.6 percent. That initial difference in maturity doesn't go away with time

What advantage did Bill Gates have during his schooling? (Ch. 2)

A computer terminal in his school

Who, at the time The Outliers was published, was the richest man in history? (Ch. 2)

John D. Rockefeller

What was the ideal birth decade for an American industrial tycoon? (Ch. 2)

1831-1840

A child's opportunity to master a skill by practicing can directly affected by _______________ (Ch. 2)

- parents' work schedules

- parents' financial ability to pay team fees

What was a major turning point in Bill Gates life that led him to his achievements? (Ch. 2)

His parents enrolled him in an exclusive preparatory school

Why is it almost impossible to reach 10,000 hours of practice by the time you're a young adult? (Ch. 2 )

You need to have resources, time and facilities.

What was the ideal birth decade for a Silicon Valley entrepreneur? (Ch. 2)

1960s

What early advantage did Steve Jobs have in his technology career? (Ch. 2)

Grew-up in a neighborhood with Hewlett-Packard scientists

T/F: Malcolm Gladwell asserts/claims that "innate/natural talent" is the biggest factor in a person's success. (Ch. 2)

False

K. Anders Ericsson did a study of the students' practice hours at the Berlin Academy of _______________ (Ch. 2)

Music

Complete the quote: "________________ isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." (Ch. 2)

Practice

What famous band is referenced in Chapter 2 as becoming masters of their music? (Ch. 2)

The Beatles

Gladwell lists the "Seventy-five ________________ people in human history" to illustrate his point about the importance of opportunity. (Ch.2)

richest

Which one of Ericsson's research subjects along with their habits would be most likely to reach the 10,000 hour mastery level first? (Ch. 2)

Chelsea playing the Triangle everyday.

How long did The Beatles play while they were in Hamburg, Germany? (Ch. 2)

8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How does Gladwell define "practicing" in this book? (Ch. 2)

purpose-fully and single-mindedly practicing a skill with the intent to get better

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, geniuses are the ultimate outliers. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: Lewis Terman was a psychologist interested in animal testing. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Lewis Terman's "specialty" was intelligence testing. (Ch. 3)

True

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what did Lewis Terman's study involve? (Ch. 3)

Following high-IQ students over an extended time period

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen could brief a semester's worth of textbooks in two days. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen fell asleep during the SAT and still received a perfect score. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, IQ of 70 is considered average. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, the higher your IQ the longer you'll live. (Ch. 3)

True

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what is considered an average IQ? (Ch. 3)

100

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, above what IQ will there cease to be any real-world advantage? In other words, once you reach this IQ, a person with a higher IQ than your IQ doesn't have a real-world advantage over you. (Ch. 3)

120

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what is Chris Langan's IQ? (Ch. 3)

195

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen's IQ is 30% higher than whose?

Albert Einstein'

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen learned to speak when he was __________________ (Ch. 3)

6 months old

T/F: According to this chapter, people with an IQ of a 70 are considered mentally-disabled. (Ch. 3)

True

The kids that Terman tracked throughout their lives were called ________________ (Ch. 3)

Terman's Termites

T/F: Lewis Terman once said this: "There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ, except possibly his morals." (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: Someone with an IQ of 160 has a better chance of being successful than someone with a 125 IQ. (Ch. 3)

False

What contribution did Robert Oppenheimer make to our country? (Ch. 4)

He headed the American effort to develop the nuclear bomb during World War II.

Describe Oppenheimer's childhood. (Ch. 4)

He was well-traveled, well-schooled, and wealthy.

What was Oppenheimer's punishment for the crime that he committed in graduate school? (Ch. 4)

- He was put on probation.

- He was required to see a psychiatrist.

Describe the role that sociologist Annette Lareau played in the lives of 12 families from this chapter. (Ch. 4)

She was an observer in their lives

T/F: Lareau found that wealthy families were more involved in their children's academic affairs than the poor families. (Ch. 4)

True

T/F: Lareau found that low-income children, when in the presence of an authority figure such as a doctor, would be quiet and submissive, with eyes turned away. (Ch. 4)

True

T/F: Lareau found that poorer children were often better behaved, less whiny, more creative in making use of their own time, and had a well-developed sense of independence. (Ch. 4)

True

This chapter discusses family feuds in the eastern Kentucky counties of _________________ (Ch. 6)

- Harlan

- Perry

- Rowan

When the Howards went to Mrs. Turner to ask for a truce after her son was killed, Mrs. Turner said _______________ (Ch. 6)

"You can't wipe out that blood."

T/F: When Will Turner was shot and was howling in pain, his mother told him to "Die like a man...like your brother did!" (Ch. 6)

True

Gladwell claims that "lots of families fight[ing] in identical little towns..." shows a... (Ch. 6)

pattern

Sociologists studying culture claim that there is a "Culture of ___" in the Appalachian region. (Ch. 6)

Honor

According to this chapter, herdsmen... (Ch. 6)

- are clannish.

- form tight family bonds.

- place a loyalty to blood above all else.

T/F: Chapter 6 claims murder rates in the South are higher than they are in the rest of the country. (Ch. 6)

True

T/F: Chapter 6 claims "stranger crimes" in the South are lower than they are in the rest of the U.S. (Ch. 6)

True

T/F: Chapter 6 claims that "muggings" occur less in the South than in the rest of America. (Ch. 6)

True

Who said this: "He wouldn't of been much of a man if he hadn't shot them fellows." (Ch. 6)

a jury member after a murderer was found not guilty

American backcountry states (including Kentucky) were settled by immigrants primarily from ________________ (Ch. 6)

- England

- Scotland

- Ireland

T/F: Korean airlines crash rate was - at one time - 17 times the crash rate of United Airlines. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: The catalyst for the crash of the Columbian airline "Avianca" was the plane ran out of gas. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: In the Air Florida crash, the co-pilot never hints to the pilot that there is ice on the plane. (Ch. 7)

False

T/F: According to the chapter, planes that come-in "heavy" sometimes dump fuel as they are flying. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: PDI is the Power Distance Index, which is how much a culture values and respects authority. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: Hofstede did a study to see which countries are most likely to stick to rules and procedures. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: The US Army forbade its troops who were stationed in Korea from flying Korean Airlines. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: According to the chapter, the Korean pilot (flight to Guam) was drunk when the plane crashed. (Ch. 7)

False

This excerpt supports the claim that Asians are __ -thus are successful in figuring out problems. (Ch. 8)

"They are kinds of places where, for hundreds of years, penniless peasants, slaving away in the rice paddies three thousand hours a year, said things to one another like "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich."

are persistent

T/F: There is a World Sponsored OFFICIAL Math Olympics held every year. (Ch. 8)

False

Who is Alan Schoenfeld? (Ch. 8)

He teaches a course on problem solving.

According to Chapter 8 in The Outliers, how much is rice a part of life in China? (Ch. 8)

A lot more than 56%

T/F: Persistence correlates with success. (Ch. 8)

True

T/F: A misconception is an opinion that is invalid because it is based on a false premise. (Ch. 8)

True

T/F: Rice farmers get winters off. (Ch. 8)

False

How many hours do rice farmers work annually? (Ch. 8)

3000

According to Chapter 8 in The Outliers, what is 24 in Chinese? (Ch. 8)

Two Tens Four

How important is precision in rice farming? (Ch. 8)

Very, there is a time and place for every aspect of the farming

What is a measure of wealth in Southern China? (Ch. 8)

Rice

Approximately, how big are rice paddies? (Ch. 8)

a hotel room

Studies show that _ has the most students who score high on the Math portion of the TIMSS test. (Ch. 8)

Asia

What math skill was Alan Schoenfeld's experiment testing? (Ch. 8)

slope of a verticle line

T/F: According to Chapter 9 in The Outliers, 92% of Japanese students and only 54% of American students had learned the math content on a given test. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, educational journals, cited in this chapter, have indicated that "overburdening the mind" often blunts a person's natural abilities. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, South Korean and Japanese schools have more school days per year than American schools do. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, Marita DISPROVES the theory that only wealthy kids succeed. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, The KIPP school is most famous for its mathematics program. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, SSLANT stands for SMILE, SIT-UP, LISTEN, NOD when spoken to, ASK questions, & TRACK with eyes. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, rich kids score higher than poor kids do after summer break occurs because they get more academic stimulation over the summer. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 9, kids at KIPP attend school on Saturdays. (Ch. 9)

True

T/F: According to Chapter 9 in The Outliers, 19th-Century American school reformers had conflicting views of education with the Asians . (Ch. 9)

True