Malcolm Gladwell, What College Rankings Really Tell Us

What College Rankings Really Tell Us

Malcolm Gladwell 

READING COMPREHENSION QUIZ

Take the quiz below to check your comprehension of the reading selection:

Question 6.12

The way U.S. News ranks universities is the same as how what are ranked?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect. The answer is D.

Question 6.13

What is one thing not taken into account when ranking universities?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect. The answer is C.

Question 6.14

When discussing faculty, what is not taken into consideration?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect. The answer is A.

Question 6.15

What does efficacy mean?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect. The answer is C.

Question 6.16

Rankings are

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect. The answer is C.

READING SUMMARY

Question 6.17

Summarize “What College Rankings Really Tell Us.” Be sure to put the summary in your own words and to avoid using the sentence structure of the reading selection. Remember that your summary should restate the author’s main idea (or thesis) and that it should include only the author’s most important supporting ideas.
Below is an example summary of this reading selection: Gladwell critiques the way that U.S. News ranks colleges because the criteria used are not objective and do not take into account variables that may be important to some people. Gladwell compares college rankings to the kind of rankings done on various autos, which again don’t take into account variables that would be important to many people, such as cost. Your summary will differ from this one in the way it is written, but it should include roughly the same information.

VOCABULARY QUIZ

Explain the meaning of each of the following words as it is used in the reading:

Question 6.18

Heterogeneous (par. 1)
Heterogeneous means varied or diverse.

Question 6.19

Methodology (par. 1)
Methodology means method or system.

Question 6.20

Efficacy (par. 11)
Efficacy means efficiency or usefulness.