81.
Identify for which claims, if any, support has been given in the following passage; and
state in your own words the reasons that have been offered for these claims.
“Flamenco and the Fiesta (spectacle of bullfighting) are deeply related. This connection is
undeniable, and vital for an understanding of either. Both stem basically from the common
people, and they stir the same basic emotions and passions. Both are given flashes of
erratic genius by gypsies, and a sense of indomitable steadiness and responsibility by the
Andalusians. And they have in common another important factor: they are the two most
probable ways that the commoner can break out of his social and economic level.”
—Donn Pohren,
The Art of Flamenco
Flamenco and the Fiesta are connected, since they share several traits in common, the
most important of which is that they can allow one to rise above one’s economic and
social level if done successfully.
82.
Identify for which claims, if any, support has been given in the following passage; and
state in your own words the reasons that have been offered for these claims.
“What is the best move to begin a game [of chess]? At one time the masters began
automatically with 1 P-K4; then they switched to 1 P-Q4. Paul Morphy, considered by
many critics the greatest chess genius that ever lived,
never
played 1 P-Q4. In contrast,
Ernest Gruenfeld, one of the greatest living authorities on opening play, ventured on 1 P-
K4 only once in his entire tournament career (against Capablanca at Karlsbad 1929).
When asked why he avoided 1 P-K4, he answered, ‘I never make a mistake in the
opening.’”
—Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld,
The Fireside Book of Chess
Beginning a game of chess with 1 P-K4 is a bad idea, since several experts do not do so in
tournament play.
83.
Identify for which claims, if any, support has been given in the following passage; and
state in your own words the reasons that have been offered for these claims.
“A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man. Can
he who has discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to
have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant for his ivory be
said to have ‘seen the elephant’? These are petty and accidental uses; just as if a stronger
race were to kill us in order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything
may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better alive than dead, men
and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life
than destroy it.”
—Henry David Thoreau, “Chesuncook”
You cannot know a living thing by killing it since its utility to us when dead does not reveal
its essential nature.
84.
Identify for which claims, if any, support has been given in the following passage; and
state in your own words the reasons that have been offered for these claims.
“I am a Korean War veteran, and I just want to say that our commander-in-chief is a lying,
cheating, draft-dodging, gay-loving hypocrite who thinks sucking up to the military can
85.
Identify for which claims, if any, support has been given in the following passage; and
state in your own words the reasons that have been offered for these claims.
“I served in Vietnam, and that gives me the right to speak about people who did not do
their duty during that time. And, among others, that includes our current president, who
used family connections to avoid ever going on active duty.”
—Adapted from remarks one hears from time to time
Vietnam veterans’ service gives them the right to criticize those who used family
connections to avoid serving there.
86.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“With little experience in homicide cases, the Greenwich Police Department made a
number of critical mistakes. One was not insisting on a speedy autopsy: because the
forensic examination of Martha’s body was delayed for nearly a day, the time of death is
unusually imprecise. Another was the failure to get a search warrant for the Skakel home.”
—Newsweek
87.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“Luckily, most decisions can be reassessed. Even decisions that seem monumental can
often be altered. Suppose you decided to live off campus because it offered more privacy
and independence as well as a change from campus residential living. However, you
discovered that your expenses were greater, you didn’t like to cook for yourself, and you
got lonely. Or suppose you chose to major in nursing because you thought you would
always be able to find a job in that career. But halfway through your coursework, you
found you didn’t like science, practicum labs interfered with your family time, and the sight
of blood made you ill.”
—D. G. Longman et al.,
Strategic Thinking and Reading
First sentence states main point; the remainder provides examples of (and thus evidence
for) the main point.
88.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“No person can possess an employment either in England or Ireland unless he be ranked
among the faithful, that is, professes himself a member of the Church of England. This
reason, which carries mathematical evidence with it, has converted such numbers of
Dissenters of all persuasions, that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of the pale of
the Established Church. The English clergy have retained a great number of the Romish
ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous attention, their tithes.
They also have the pious ambition to aim at superiority.”
—Voltaire,
On the Church of England
The main point here is to satirize the Church of England, carried off by the master. One
can fill in the blanks and produce an argument of sorts, the unstated conclusion of which
would be something like “The Church of England suffers from hypocrisy, and worse,” but
we think that’s not the best way to see the passage.
89.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“[F]ast food and national restaurant chains… that serve it have long been the object of
criticism by nutritionists and dietitians. Despite the attention, however, fast-food
companies, most of them publicly owned and sprinkled into the stock portfolios of many
striving Americans…, have grown more aggressive in their targeting of poor inner-city
communities. One of every four hamburgers sold by the good folks at McDonald’s, for
example, is now purchased by inner-city consumers who, disproportionately, are young
black men.”
—Greg Critser, “Let Them Eat Fat,” in
Harper’s Magazine
The main point is the targeting of inner-city communities by fast-food chains; the last
sentence is offered in support of that claim. The mention of criticism by nutritionists and
of the publicly-held nature of the companies is not directly relevant to the main point.
90.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“Gun control laws don’t work. What is worse, they act perversely. While legitimate users of
firearms encounter intense regulation, scrutiny, and bureaucratic control, illicit markets
easily adapt to whatever difficulties a free society throws in their way. Also, efforts to
curtail the supply of firearms inflict collateral damage on freedom and privacy interests
that have long been considered central to American public life.”
—Daniel Polsby, “The False Promise of Gun Control,” in The Atlantic Monthly
The passage produces two arguments for the point in the first sentence.
91.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“Ruben Salazar couldn’t possibly have been the victim of a conscious, high-level cop
conspiracy to get rid of him by staging an ‘accidental death.’ The incredible tale of half–
mad stupidity and dangerous incompetence on every level of the law enforcement
establishment was perhaps the most valuable thing to come out of the inquest. Nobody
who heard that testimony could believe that the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department
92.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“Here’s why big animals stay warm easier: An elephant is ten thousand times heavier than
a rabbit and produces body heat one-tenth as rapidly. But still the elephant keeps warmer
because it has much less skin area per pound and much more body heat per square inch
of skin.”
—Adapted from Robert Bakker,
The Dinosaur Heresies
That main point is stated in the first few words; the entire passage is an explanation of
why large animals stay warmer than smaller ones. The explanation is actually used in an
argument in its original context. You can probably figure out what the argument is about.
93.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“Like me, [Alexander Hamilton] usually reads history or philosophy. In private, however (if I
may be allowed to traduce his memory and expose him to all the world), Hamilton was a
devoted reader of women’s novels, as I discovered one day at the New York Society
Library when I came upon a note in his hand asking the librarian to reserve for him
Edward
Mortimer
(by a Lady) and
The Amours of Count Palviano and Eleanora
. I was shocked.”
—Gore Vidal,
Burr
The main point is that Hamilton reads “women’s novels,” and the rest of the passage,
aside from the first sentence, provides an argument for it.
94.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“It is usual for the law to prescribe a lesser penalty for the attempt than for the completed
crime. The reason is plain enough. Doing harm is a more serious matter than simply doing
what might have ended up as that but didn’t. It seems, therefore, that one who does harm
does something that is more wrong than one who does something harmful but with no one
harmed.”
—H. Gross,
A Theory of Justice
The main point is stated in the first sentence; the remainder is an explanation of the main
point. Notice that this one is very easy to mistake for an argument, but the account does
not argue that the law prescribes such-and-such; it explains why it prescribes such-and-
such.
95.
Identify the main point or issue in the following passage, and decide whether the rest of
the passage offers reasons for the main point (such as, whether the passage contains an
argument), whether it illustrates (provides examples for) the main point, whether it
explains the point, is irrelevant to the point, and so on.
“In the last two hundred years, the theoretical landscape of biology has changed
drastically, however. Species and other taxa are not the result of divine creation, but the
products of evolution. Taxa are not static, timeless classes of organisms, but evolving and
temporary entities. The theoretical assumptions of Linnaean system have been replaced
by those of Darwinism and the Modern Synthesis.”
—Mark Ereshefsky, “Species and the Linnaean Hierarchy,” in
Species
, ed. by R. A. Wilson
First sentence states main point; the remainder provides examples of (and thus evidence
for) the main point.
Multiple Choice Questions