Shock The Puppy: Multiple Choice Grammar Test

When Stanley Milgram published the results of his obedience experiment in 1963, it sent shock-waves (1) _________ the scientific community. Other researchers found it hard to believe that people could be so easily manipulated, and they (2) _________ any mistakes Milgram (3) _________. Charles Sheridan and Richard King theorized that perhaps Milgran’s subjects had merely played (4) _________ with the experiment because they realized the victim(5) _________ his cries of pain. (6) _________ this possibility, Sheridan and King decided to repeat Milgram’s experiment, introducing one significant difference. Instead of using an actor, they would use an actual victim who would really get shocked. Obviously they couldn’t use a human for this purpose, so they used the next best thing — a cute, fluffy puppy.

Sheridan and King told their subjects — volunteers from an undergraduate psychology course — that the puppy (7) _________ to distinguish between a flickering and a steady light. It had to stand either to the right or the left (8) _________ on the cue from the light. If the animal failed to stand in the correct place, the subjects had to press a switch to shock it. As in the Milgram experiment, the shock level increased 15 volts for every wrong answer. But unlike the Milgram experiment, the puppy really was getting zapped.

As the voltage increased, the puppy first barked, then jumped up and down, and finally started howling with pain. The volunteers were (9) _________. They paced back and forth, hyperventilated, and gestured with their hands to show the puppy where to stand. Many (10) _________ wept. Yet the majority of them, twenty out of twenty-six, kept (11) _________ the shock button right up to the maximum voltage.

(12) _________, the six students who refused to go on were all men. All thirteen women who participated in the experiment obeyed right up until the end.