Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

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Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz - The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Reading Tightrope

Question A

Is the common wisdom that nobody will read anything past the first page? At least for non-books?

Answer A

Yes.

Question B

Is it also the common wisdom that if it is absolutely necessary to use more than one page, an “Executive Summary” must be provided at the outset?

Answer B

Yes.

Question C

For “cheaters” like Yours Truly when reading a multi-page book that does NOT have an Executive Summary, is it often a good idea to start at the end of the book to ascertain what the author(s) want to prove?

Answer C

Yes.

Question D

Do our authors obligingly provide in their final Chapter 20 (“America Regained”) “some big steps we urge the country to take”?

Answer D

Yes.

Question E

Are those “big steps” --

1. High-quality early childhood programs?

2. Universal high-school graduation?

3. Universal health coverage?

4. Elimination of unwanted pregnancies?

5. A monthly child allowance?

6. An end to homelessness for children?

7. Baby bonds to help build savings?

8. A right to work? (NB: as distinguished from “right to work” laws which permit workers to opt out of union membership)

Answers E

(1) Yes.
(2) Yes.
(3) Yes.
(4) Yes.
(5) Yes.
(6) Yes.
(7) Yes.
(8) Yes.

Question F

Are our authors especially qualified to “make the case” for such “big steps”?

Answer F

Please read on.

Question G

Did Nicholas Kristof grow up on a sheep and cherry farm in rural Oregon? Are we introduced in Tightrope to many of the people with whom he grew up? BTW, despite being sheep/cherry farmers, were both of Kristof’s parents long-time professors at Portland State University?

Answer G

Yes - Yes – Yes.

Question H

Was Kristof a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College?

Answer H

Yes.

Question I

Was Kristof a Rhodes Scholar who, as such, earned a law degree (with a coveted “first”) from Oxford University?

Answer I

Yes.

Question J

After spending another year abroad (1983-4 at the University of Cairo studying Arabic), did he join the New York Times which he has served as their correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo, rising to become a long-time columnist and the Associate Managing Editor responsible for the Sunday Editions?

Answer J

Yes.

Question K

Has he won two Pulitzer Prizes -- the first in 1990 for his coverage of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 and the second in 2006 for his coverage of the Darfur genocide?

Answer K

Yes.

Question L

Is Sheryl WuDunn a third-generation Chinese-American who grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan? Is her father a Vice President of Morse Diesel Inc., a construction management company in Manhattan? Does her mother own an insurance brokerage firm in NYC, the Eng Action Company?

Answer L

Yes - Yes – Yes.

Question M

Did WuDunn earn her BA in European History from Cornell U in 1981, following which she was an international loan officer for Bankers Trust Co?

Answer M

Yes.

Question N

Did she then earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters in Public Administration from Princeton?

Answer N

Yes.

Question O

After working for the Wall Street Journal, did she marry Nicholas Kristof in 1988 and join him in the New York Times’ Beijing Bureau in 1989?

Answer O

Yes.

Question P

Was she the co-recipient with Kristof of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989?

Answer P

Yes.

Question Q

For the New York Times, has she covered such diverse topics as China’s economic growth, technology in Japan (where she also served the NYT for several years with Kristof), Russian oil & gas, and Brazilian alternative energy?

Answer Q

Yes.

Question R

Was she also one of the few people to serve the NY Times who went back and forth between the news and business sides, heading at one point the effort to build the next generation of NY Times readers?

Answer R

Yes.

Question S

Is WuDunn currently a Senior Managing Director at Mid-Market Securities LLC, an investment banking firm specializing in emerging growth, project finance and startup companies?

Answer S

Yes.

Question T

Will the Second Short Quiz comprise a “report card” for how our Reading Liberally - Salt Lake “Six Degrees of Separation” E-mail Campaigns stack up against the “big steps” that our authors urge the country to take?

Answer T

Stay tuned -- it should be interesting.

Question U

And on any glaring holes in their list against which we have campaigned?

Answer U

Stay tuned -- it should be interesting.

Question V

BTW, we always pride ourselves in being a NON-PARTISAN PUBLIC-POLICY STUDY GROUP THAT TAKES EFFECTIVE ACTION. As such, we have quite a few members and participants who would be considered liberal in conventional political terms and quite a few who would be considered conservative in conventional political terms. So a question for which everyone is given permission to reference her/his political views in answering, do you think our authors were effective in illustrating their book with pictures, 35 of which included at least one human being, and 24 of which portrayed solely white people who had encountered tragedy in attempting to walk “the tightrope”? [NB: At least one of the book reviews in the Reference Materials section of our website noted the obvious that our authors were definitely trying to reach and convince readers who are conservative in conventional political terms. And the picture selection may have been purposeful in doing so subliminally.]

Answer V

Well, what do you think???

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