Final Exam
ENGL 201-MT3
Spring 2008

Final Exam 10:30-1:15pm on Steven Johnson's Ghost Map.  The exam will have two parts.  The first section will consist of short answer questions on individuals and issues connected to the Cholera epidemic of 1854.  The second section of the exam will ask you to write two longer essays from the list below (choose one from questions 1 & 2 and one from questions 3 & 4).  As we discussed in class, you will write one essay at home and one at the exam.  You will write the short answer questions at the exam.    The exam is open book, so please bring your texts and whatever notes you have made in preparing for the exam.; you cannot bring completed answers to class.  Remember to bring either bluebooks or a card for the printers outside the lab and a flash drive to back up your exam.  Bring a copy of this exam as well in case the power goes out. 

Part I:  IDs on Johnson's Ghost Map as well as background material from lectures and class discussion.  Write a short paragraph on ten items (33%).  Identify and discuss the significance (i.e., why it's important).  We have covered much of this material in class discussion and you can draw on that as well as the relevant text(s): 

  1. Soho
  2. miasma
  3. Joseph Bazalgette
  4. the ecological significance of the work of scavengers in Victorian London
  5. Baby Lewis and the cesspool at 40 Broad St. 
  6. Henry Whitehead
  7. Voronoi diagram
  8. night-soil men
  9. a consilient thinker
  10. three causes of the waste crisis in Victorian London 
  11. 21st century versions of Snow's map
  12. beginnings of anesthesiology in 19th century England
  13.  tea and beer
  14. birds eye view and local knowledge
  15. Filippo Pacini
  16. private water companies
  17. Edwin Chadwick
  18. Vestry Report
  19. Edmund Cooper and Metropolitan Commission on Sewers
  20. asymmetric warfare, biological terrorism and genomic revolution

Part II:  write two longer essays from the list below (choose one from questions 1 & 2 and one from questions 3 & 4).  As we discussed in class, you will write one essay at home and one at the exam.  You will write the short answer questions at the exam.  (33% each).   Make sure to bring your copy of Ghost Map to class.  I will expect you to summarize, paraphrase of quote from specific sections of the book.  YOU CAN USE NOTES but you will only be able to hand in one essay that was written ahead of time.  I have structured the exam as a study aid to guide your reading/viewing.  I have also written it so that you have to make some of your own decisions on the issues and examples you want to address.  Make sure you develop and support a larger point in each of your essays.    In writing your essays, begin with Steven Johnson's account in Ghost Map but try to bring in what you have learned from your other readings in Engl201 and Hist100 this semester.  Be as specific as you can and use details from Johnson in developing your answers.  (Note:  you may also want to consult the websites from UCLA and Michigan State listed on Johnson's Ghost map site but these resources should supplement, not replace, Johnson's book.)  You can either write the in-class section of the exam in a blue book or print it using one of the printers in Innovation Hall. To print in-class writing, you will need to add money to your Mason ID card for printing before the exam by going to http://masonmoney.gmu.edu and clicking on the link “Buy Online.” On the next page, click “Deposit Online Now” at the top. On the next page that opens, enter your G number and your pin. If you have never used the site before, your pin is 1111. You can then use a credit card to add Mason Money to your ID.

  1. What are the similarities and differences between detection as practiced by Sherlock Holmes and the development and use of forensics, epidemiology, and public health during the Cholera epidemics of the mid-19th century?
     
  2. Exactly what role did John Snow's two maps play in resolving the Cholera epidemic of 1854? What longer term contribution did these maps make? How did they combine local knowledge and the "bird's eye view" Johnson talks about?
      
  3. What does Steven Johnson think about the potential fragility of urban industrial life and the role that public health played in enabling cities to expand. Is public health still important today? What role do information technology and the web play in Johnson's hopes for the future?       
     
  4.  What can we learn about dealing with the possibility of nuclear and biological terrorism today by studying the Cholera epidemics of the 1850s? Why is Johnson optimistic about dealing with biological but not nuclear terrorism in the long run?