Critical Reading

A key facet of critical reading is the ability to draw inferences. For this section of the exam, please identify each of the following as either an assumption or an inference. Then, explain your choice.

1. In 2009, states across the country began implementing Common Core curriculum. In the years since its adoption, parents, students, and teachers alike have pointed to the needless complexity of instructional methods and resulting confusion for students, parents, and teachers. Earlier this week, the Department of Education announced that, for the first time since 1990 when national testing began, math and reading scores have dropped in multiple grade levels. It's time for us to face the reality that Common Core has proven to be an educational failure.

2. Earlier this week, video emerged of a school safety officer lifting a student's desk until she fell out and physically moving her across the room. The officer is Caucasian; the student is black. This is clearly a racially motivated abuse of power.

3. In 2013, an Amish family fled the country to prevent the state's office of child welfare from removing their daughter from the home. The daughter had previously been diagnosed with cancer. After completing two rounds of cancer treatment (radiation and chemotherapy), the family terminated her cancer treatment, claiming that the treatments only worsened her quality of life. Child welfare workers obtained a court order to remove the child from the family's home, citing doctors' testimony that the child would die without treatment. The family recently returned to the United States, and their daughter is confirmed to be cancer-free. The girl's recovery is clear evidence of the power of prayer.

Section II: Analysis of Rhetorical Appeals

For each of the following passages, analyze the designated rhetorical appeal. Your responses should be structured as formal short-essay exam responses, including: a topic sentence that identifies the source, type of claim, and an assertion as to the effectiveness of the designated rhetorical appeal type in the passage; specific examples from the passage; discussion/explanation regarding your selected examples; a closing sentence that reinforces the assertion contained in your topic sentence. Although there is no required length for each short-essay answer, such answers are typically equivalent to a long paragraph-ranging from one-half to a full page (12-point font, double-spaced). Responses for this section should be computer generated.

Passage 1: In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." (appeal to logos)

Passage 2: An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, and fights as a team. This individual hero stuff is bullshit. The bilious bastards who write that stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real battle than they do about fucking. And we have the best team-we have the finest food and and equipment, the best spirit and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor bastards we're going up against. (appeal to pathos)

Passage 3: Dear Friends, on the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then, out of that silence came, thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same. (appeal to ethos)

Section III: Revision

Revise the following passage to inject appeals to pathos.

Almost one an hour-every sixty-five minutes to be precise-a military veteran commits suicide, says a new investigation by the Department of Veteran Affairs. By far the most extensive study of veteran suicides ever conducted, the report...examined suicide data from 1999 to 2010. Many of the suicides involve older veterans; 69 percent of suicides recorded were by veterans age 50 and older. But another way to look at this is that 31 percent of these suicides were by veterans 49 and younger.