AnswersHopkins FA American Literature 2026-2027A Look at the Fast-Food Industry by Eric Schlosser

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

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1
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Which excerpt from Fast Food Nation best states the author’s overall claim?

A
The fast food industry’s obsession with throughput has altered the way millions of Americans work, turned commercial kitchens into small factories, and changed familiar foods into commodities that are manufactured.
B
Unlike Olympic gymnastics—an activity in which teenagers consistently perform at a higher level than adults—there’s nothing about the work in a fast food kitchen that requires young employees.
C
Although Richard and Mac McDonald introduced the division of labor to the restaurant business, it was a McDonald’s executive named Fred Turner who created a production system of unusual thoroughness and attention to detail.
D
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.
2
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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.
3

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.
4

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. The strict regimentation at fast food restaurants creates standardized products. It increases the throughput. And it gives fast food companies an enormous amount of power over their employees. “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.”Which type of evidence is Schlosser using in this excerpt?

A
anecdotal
B
statistical
C
testimonial
D
analogical
5

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
6

Read the excerpt from Fast Food Nation. Unlike Olympic gymnastics—an activity in which teenagers consistently perform at a higher level than adults—there’s nothing about the work in a fast food kitchen that requires young employees. Which type of evidence does the author use in this excerpt?

A
anecdotal
B
statistical
C
testimonial
D
analogical
7

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.
8

Which excerpt from Fast Food Nation best states a reason supporting the author’s claim that fast food restaurants follow the assembly line model?

A
Once an order has been placed, buttons light up and suggest other menu items that can be added.
B
At Burger King restaurants, frozen hamburger patties are placed on a conveyer belt and emerge from a broiler ninety seconds later fully cooked.
C
The McDonald’s operations manual today has ten times the number of pages and weighs about four pounds.
D
Teenagers open the fast food outlets in the morning, close them at night, and keep them going at all hours in between.
9

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.
10

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.

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