A Look at the Fast-Food Industry by Eric Schlosser Answers

0 verified answers1 views
1
Free Preview

The author of Fast Food Nation claims that the fast-food industry prefers to employ teenagers. How does the author best support this claim?

A
by providing evidence that teenagers are the bulk of the workforce in America because many still live at home
B
by providing the counterclaim that teenagers typically leave behind their first jobs at fast-food chains for better opportunities
C
by providing evidence that teenagers are better at smiling and promoting the increased size of an order
D
by providing specific reasons why teenagers are ideal candidates, such as their acceptance of lower wages
2
Free Preview

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. “When management determines exactly how every task is to be done . . . and can impose its own rules about pace, output, quality, and technique,” the sociologist Robin Leidner has noted, “[it] makes workers increasingly interchangeable.” The management no longer depends upon the talents or skills of its workers — those things are built into the operating system and machines. Jobs that have been “de-skilled” can be filled cheaply. The need to retain any individual worker is greatly reduced by the ease with which he or she can be replaced.Which best describes the type of evidence presented in this excerpt?

A
analogical
B
anecdotal
C
statistical
D
testimonial
3

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Instead of relying upon a small, stable, well-paid, and well-trained workforce, the fast food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the perfect candidates for these jobs, not only because they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control.In this excerpt, Schlosser claims that fast food restaurants are

A
taking advantage of people to save money.
B
helping society by hiring unskilled workers.
C
providing valuable training for teenagers.
D
using highly skilled workers in low-paying jobs.
4

Which excerpt from Fast Food Nation best illustrates the use of the rhetorical appeal logos?

A
Teenagers open the fast food outlets in the morning, close them at night, and keep them going at all hours in between.
B
Elisa’s mother usually drives her the half-mile or so to the restaurant, but sometimes Elisa walks, leaving home before the sun rises.
C
The labor practices of the fast food industry have their origins in the assembly line systems adopted by American manufacturers in the early twentieth century.
D
Fast food kitchens often seem like a scene from Bugsy Malone, a film in which all the actors are children pretending to be adults.
5

In Fast Food Nation, the best reason that the author offers for the fast-food industry’s strict regimen for productivity is that

A
once an order is placed, glowing buttons suggest other menu items.
B
company operation manuals can be updated more often.
C
it gives the companies power over their employees.
D
flashing lights can help tell employees what to do.
6

Which excerpt from Fast Food Nation best illustrates the author’s use of the rhetorical appeal logos?

A
Her family’s modest townhouse sits beside a busy highway on the south side of Colorado Springs, in a largely poor and working-class neighborhood.
B
A job at a fast food restaurant became an American rite of passage, a first job soon left behind for better things.
C
English is now the second language of at least one-sixth of the nation’s restaurant workers, and about one-third of that group speaks no English at all.
D
When she finally walks home, after seven hours of standing at a cash register, her feet hurt. She’s wiped out.
7

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. At Taco Bell restaurants the food is “assembled,” not prepared. The guacamole isn’t made by workers in the kitchen; it’s made at a factory in Michoacán, Mexico, then frozen and shipped north. The chain’s taco meat arrives frozen and precooked in vacuum-sealed plastic bags. The beans are dehydrated and look like brownish corn flakes. The cooking process is fairly simple. “Everything’s add water,” a Taco Bell employee told me. “Just add hot water.”The Taco Bell employee’s quote supports Schlosser’s argument in this excerpt because it

A
provides personal opinions about the working conditions in fast food restaurants.
B
helps the reader visualize teenagers working in fast food restaurants.
C
provides expert testimony about the nutritional quality of fast food.
D
emphasizes the obsession with consistency and standardization in the fast food industry.
8

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Cooking instructions are not only printed in the manual, they are often designed into the machines. A McDonald’s kitchen is full of buzzers and flashing lights that tell employees what to do.The evidence presented in this excerpt best supports the author’s claim that

A
McDonald’s is the leader in fast food innovation.
B
fast food restaurants use technology designed to reduce the need for skilled labor.
C
technology has helped improve the fast food industry.
D
the workers’ limited skills have forced fast food employers to rely on machines instead of people.
9

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. The labor practices of the fast food industry have their origins in the assembly line systems adopted by American manufacturers in the early twentieth century. Business historian Alfred D. Chandler has argued that a high rate of “throughput” was the most important aspect of these mass production systems. A factory’s throughput is the speed and volume of its flow—a much more crucial measurement, according to Chandler, than the number of workers it employs or the value of its machinery. Which of the following choices best describes the evidence used in this excerpt?

A
An expert’s opinion provides historical background of an important concept.
B
An expert’s viewpoint presents a counterclaim to the author’s argument.
C
Statistical and factual evidence prove the author’s claim.
D
Personal experience creates persuasive, emotional appeal.
10

Which of the following pieces of evidence from Fast Food Nation best supports the author’s claim that teenagers are the ideal candidates for working in the fast food industry?

A
And it gives fast food companies an enormous amount of power over their employees.
B
Since most teenagers still lived at home, they could afford to work for wages too low to support an adult, and until recently, their limited skills attracted few other employers.
C
Workers at the counter are told to increase the size of an order by recommending special promotions, pushing dessert, pointing out the financial logic behind the purchase of a larger drink.
D
A McDonald’s kitchen is full of buzzers and flashing lights that tell employees what to do.

Did you find these answers helpful?