Using an online database like Lexis-Nexis to search for articles on a topic ________.
A) is not as effective as doing a Google search
B) allows you to search publications not available through a Google search
C) is less expensive but more time-consuming than a Google search
D) leads you to articles that are less reliable than web pages
E) does not allow you access to articles from newspapers and magazines
Answer:
When a message is decoded, the meaning that is attached to it is filtered by ________.
A) the transmission medium
B) the sender’s experience
C) the receiver’s knowledge
D) the sender’s emotional state
E) the dynamic loop
Answer:
You work at a small local bookstore that is losing business to big chain stores as well as
to online booksellers. In order to improve your business, you plan to propose a new
story hour for children to your boss. As you begin to write your proposal you think
about its purpose. In this case, which of the following best articulates the need your
proposal is addressing?
A) the company’s need to effectively handle technology-related issues
B) your need to shorten your working hours
C) the company’s need to get some employees trained for handling technical issues
D) the company’s need to contract with an external vendors
E) your boss’s need to ensure that you are able to get your work done early
Answer:
Lisa wants to learn about the corporate culture of the company where she is going to
appear for an interview. Which of the following must be avoided by Lisa while trying to
understand the company’s corporate culture?
A) directly asking employees how they define it
B) noticing the photos of people the company chooses to display in their annual report
C) observing how employees interact with each other
D) paying attention to what happens during group or action interviews
E) looking at how people dress
Answer:
The chronological résumé format ________.
A) emphasizes work experience
B) emphasizes skills
C) emphasizes professional contacts
D) is the most appropriate for those applicants who have limited work experience
related to the position
E) is most appropriate for those students who are about to start their career
Answer:
________ benefitsare advantages that someone else a third party gains.
A) External
B) Secondary
C) Peripheral
D) Superficial
E) Tangential
Answer:
Denying a request or turning down an invitation ________.
A) is something people must do all the time, so it does not require sensitivity
B) should only be done if you have a prior commitment
C) requires disclosure of all the details behind your refusal
D) should not make the person who made the request feel guilty for asking
E) should be avoided at all costs
Answer:
Dave and his team are creating a proposal to recommend to their supervisor that the
company’s database should be redesigned.
Which of the following statements would be best for Dave to include in his proposal?
A) After the database redesign is approved, the developer will be contacted.
B) The developer will be contacted after the database redesign is approved.
C) After you approve the database redesign, the developer will be contacted.
D) After you approve the database redesign, I will contact the developer.
E) I will contact the developer after the database redesign is approved.
Answer:
Thank-you messages ________.
A) do not express appreciation
B) hamper the goodwill of a business
C) are not professional
D) need not always be handwritten
E) should not be conveyed over the phone
Answer:
________ is the quality of being unambiguous and easy to understand.
A) Appropriateness
B) Representativeness
C) Substitutability
D) Clarity
E) Conciseness
Answer:
________ questions are designed to determine how you would make decisions, solve
problems, or respond to stressful situations.
A) Action
B) Behavioral
C) STAR
D) Demographic
E) Simulated
Answer:
In terms of a logically structured argument, which of the following pieces of evidence
does the least to help your argument?
A) At present, employee absenteeism is up 20%.
B) Our employee turnover rate is steadily increasing.
C) Increased absenteeism costs our company almost 15% of our payroll budget every
quarter.
D) An employee survey conducted in our company revealed that the improvement most
desired by our employees is a flex-time schedule.
E) These days work/life balance is important for everybody.
Answer:
Which of the following is a guideline for checking systematically for errors?
A) Proofread your work immediately after you finish it.
B) Read your work thoroughly only once.
C) Look for your own common errors.
D) Do not read your draft aloud.
E) Do not swap your document with a colleague.
Answer:
________ threaten someone’s sense of personal identity or self-image.
A) Competing goals
B) Faulty assumptions
C) Differences of opinion
D) Ego conflicts
E) Relational differences
Answer:
Lori had a job interview with a recruiter from an Asian company. When she writes her
thank-you letter to the interviewer, she needs ________.
A) to only be polite because a thank-you note is nothing more than just a polite gesture
B) to make her letter less formal than she would if she were writing for an American
reader
C) to keep her letter short and to the point, which is appropriate in a low-context culture
D) to make it personalized and quirky, so that she will stand out
E) to make it appropriate for a culture with high power distance
Answer:
For most business presentations, the main message should ________.
A) never include a solution to the problem discussed in the presentation as that needs to
be discussed at the end
B) never include audience concerns
C) lead your audience to the intended outcome
D) not highlight what the audience will gain from the presentation
E) take the presenter’s rather than the audience’s point of view
Answer:
Which of the following tools is most likely to be used during a presentation if the
content to be presented is lengthy and cannot easily be seen in slide form?
A) podcast
B) document camera
C) handout
D) whiteboard
E) flipchart
Answer:
Which of the following statements is true of primary sources?
A) Primary sources provide raw data.
B) Primary sources exclude surveys and interviews.
C) Primary sources include Wikipedia and various encyclopedias.
D) Primary sources are only qualitative.
E) Primary sources include research reports written by the researchers themselves.
Answer:
The introduction to a report ________.
A) typically includes the headings and the corresponding page numbers
B) is not intended to preview the structure of the report
C) should be written with the assumption that the reader has already read the executive
summary
D) typically explains the problem or issue that motivated the report
E) should avoid mentioning the conclusions of the report
Answer:
You work at a small local bookstore that is losing business to big chain stores as well as
to online booksellers. In order to improve your business, you plan to propose a new
story hour for children to your boss. As you begin to write your proposal you think
about its purpose. In this case, how do you propose to meet the need you are
addressing?
A) by continuing to oversee the technology needs yourself
B) by allowing technology issues to go unaddressed
C) by asking your boss to provide you some additional training so that you can oversee
the technology needs yourself
D) by hiring a technology company to oversee the technology needs
E) by training some employees in the company to handle the technical issues
Answer:
Virtual internships ________.
A) require you to move to a new location for an internship opportunity
B) are decreasing in number due to technology problems
C) allow you to work for a company online
D) make up more than half of the postings at Urban Interns
E) cannot be conducted with the help of the “Skype” application
Answer:
You need to reject a proposal that your employee Amanda drafted. In your message,
________.
A) expressing appreciation is not necessary since drafting such proposals is part of
Amanda’s job
B) you do not need to offer an explanation as to why her proposal was rejected since
you are her supervisor
C) you should tactfully turn down her proposal to ensure Amanda’s contribution for
future projects
D) it is more important to get the point of the rejection across to Amanda than it is to do
so in a tactful manner
E) hint at the refusal and expect Amanda to read between the lines
Answer:
You have lunch with a friend and she tells you that her office recently implemented
flex-time hours. It has been a positive change at your friend’s workplace, and you think
that it would be great to have flex-timing at your office too. You decide to approach
your boss about this possibility. In the context of such a message, the thought that this
change might decrease employee productivity would be seen as ________.
A) a motivating factor for the audience
B) an audience benefit
C) a potential resistance
D) a refutation
E) a concession
Answer:
The final step of the ACE process, evaluating, includes ________.
A) drafting your message
B) analyzing your audience
C) selecting the best medium
D) considering feedback
E) determining your purpose
Answer:
Which statement is most appropriate if you want to emphasize what happened, not who
did it?
A) The deadline was missed.
B) The team met its sales goal.
C) The HR department came up with new personnel guidelines.
D) I found a number of ways to save money.
E) You lost the client.
Answer:
Which of the following terms best describes a process that is designed to ensure that
articles in academic journals are accurate and honest?
A) narrow casting
B) peer-review
C) satisficing
D) social referencing
E) social loafing
Answer:
Julie has been asked to keep the minutes at the next weekly meeting. She hasn’t done
this before and isn’t sure what to include. Which of the following should Julie include?
A) what the team decided to do
B) a copy of presentations and handouts
C) a description of everything that was said
D) pictures of the meeting
E) seating allotments
Answer:
Which of the following is an example of a confirmation?
A) a note thanking a coworker for her assistance on a project
B) an email telling a colleague about a book you think he’d find interesting
C) a card expressing your condolences for an employee whose family member died
D) a phone call congratulating a coworker on her promotion
E) a letter telling a customer that her claim has been registered by the company
Answer:
In today’s digital age, handwritten thank-you notes ________.
A) are inappropriate
B) signal a resistance to new forms of technology and social media
C) convey a more meaningful expression of gratitude
D) mean less to the recipient than a post on Facebook
E) are more common than ever
Answer:
Rob sees an effective slide in a presentation created by a coworker on behalf of the
organization. The next time Rob has to deliver a presentation, he remembers that slide
and wants to use it. In this situation he should ________.
A) not use the slide, as doing so would violate his coworker’s copyright
B) not use the slide, as doing so would be unethical
C) use the slide, without having to acknowledge the source
D) use the slide, only if he purchases a license to do so
E) use the slide, and ensure that he includes a citation
Answer:
Business is bad and you need to cut costs by reducing your employees’ work hours or
by eliminating several positions. You plan a meeting with your employees to discuss
this situation.
Beginning the meeting with a buffer statement ________.
A) is inappropriate since the employees will not be pleased by this news
B) could help encourage your employees to listen to the rest of your message with a
positive attitude
C) which signals that bad news may be coming later in your message may mislead your
employees
D) will prevent the employees from realizing the gravity of the situation
E) should not be done, as it tries to deceive your employees that your message does not
contain bad news
Answer:
________ build goodwill by recognizing someone else’s achievements or important
events.
A) Thank-you messages
B) Congratulatory messages
C) Condolences
D) “For-your-information” messages
E) Confirmation messages
Answer:
In a panel interview ________.
A) make eye contact only with the senior-most person in the group
B) etiquette dictates that you only shake hands if panel members extend their hands first
C) if panel members do not introduce themselves, wait until the conclusion of the
meeting to ask for their names and positions
D) business cards are usually not distributed
E) creating a “map” of the table labeled with each panel member’s information is a good
idea
Answer: