Young: ISS1120 MDC/Kendall Fall 2010 (2010-1)

Half the questions on Exam 1 will be taken from information and opinions found in a 2005
series of New York Times articles, “Class Matters.” These articles can be accessed online--for no
charge--at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html

You are encouraged to read all the articles in the series. Questions will be asked about the
following seven (7) articles. The intent of the exam questions is to assess your understanding of
the basic points made in the article.

 Day 1 Overview: “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide” by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt. Also
look at the multimedia and graphics, and try the interactive graphics yourself to see where
you fit in. The graphic “A Closer Look at Income Mobility” shows how families moved from
one class to another (or stayed in the same class) between 1988 and 1998.
 Day 2: Health: “Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer” by Janny Scott.
 Day 5: Education: “The College Dropout Boom” by David Leonhardt and “No Degree, and
No Way Back to the Middle” by Timothy Egan.
 Day 6: Immigration: “15 Years on the Bottom Rung” by Anthony dePalma.
 Day 7: New Status Markers: “When the Joneses Wear Jeans” by Jennifer Steinhauer.
 Day 10: Class and Culture: “In Fiction, a Long History of Fixation on the Social Gap” by
Charles McGrath.