The Language of Leaders — Test Answers

Which statement summarizes Samantha's claim?

Is Colin's evidence relevant to his claim?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits of the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race: "Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. Which statement best explains the validity of this argument?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. As a rule, I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the protection of the ballot in many of the states, for a while at least, either by an education test, a property test, or by both combined; but whatever tests are required, they should be made to apply with equal and exact justice to both races. What is the main claim the author makes?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. What evidence does the author use to support the claim that no one can disregard Black citizens and be successful?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. I believe that in time, through the operation of intelligence and friendly race relations, all cheating at the ballot-box in the South will cease. It will become apparent that the white man who begins by cheating a Negro out of his ballot soon learns to cheat a white man out of his, and that the man who does this ends his career of dishonesty by the theft of property or by some equally serious crime. In my opinion, the time will come when the South will encourage all of its citizens to vote. It will see that it pays better, from every standpoint, to have healthy, vigorous life than to have that political stagnation which always results when one-half of the population has no share and no interest in the Government. What is the strongest reasoning the author uses to support his claim?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. . . . I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you are”—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. Read the excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois. Notwithstanding this, it is equally true to assert that on the whole the distinct impression left by Mr. Washington’s propaganda is, first, that the South is justified in its present attitude toward the Negro because of the Negro’s degradation; secondly, that the prime cause of the Negro’s failure to rise more quickly is his wrong education in the past; and, thirdly, that his future rise depends primarily on his own efforts. Each of these propositions is a dangerous half-truth. The supplementary truths must never be lost sight of: first, slavery and race-prejudice are potent if not sufficient causes of the Negro’s position; second, industrial and common-school training were necessarily slow in planting because they had to await the black teachers trained by higher institutions,—it being extremely doubtful if any essentially different development was possible. What claim do the authors have in common?

Read the excerpt from Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. I do not believe that any state should make a law that permits an ignorant and poverty-stricken white man to vote, and prevents a black man in the same condition from voting. Such a law is not only unjust, but it will react, as all unjust laws do, in time; for the effect of such a law is to encourage the Negro to secure education and property, and at the same time it encourages the white man to remain in ignorance and poverty. What is the author’s main claim?

Which words complete the sentence correctly? In recent years, engineers have invented a __________ capable of __________ offensive language from live television feeds.

Read the excerpt from "Water Flowing from Toilet to Tap May Be Hard to Swallow.” The processes at Orange County and most other plants that clean the water include microfiltration that strains out anything larger than 0.2 microns, removing almost all suspended solids, bacteria and protozoa. After that comes reverse osmosis, which involves forcing the water across a membrane, which removes other impurities, including viruses, pharmaceuticals and dissolved minerals. A zap with powerful ultraviolet light and a bit of hydrogen peroxide disinfects further and neutralize other small chemical compounds. But after all that, 13 percent of adult Americans say they would absolutely refuse to even try recycled water, according to a recent study in the journal Judgment and Decision Making . "A small minority of people are very offended by this, and can slow it down or stop it because of legal and political forces,” said Paul Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies revulsion and a co-author of the study. Opponents of reusing water have long had the upper hand, said Paul Slovic, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, because of the "branding problem.” What evidence in the excerpt supports Schwartz's claim? Choose three correct answers.

In "Water Flowing from Toilet to Tap May Be Hard to Swallow,” what reasons does Schwartz give to support his claim? Choose two correct answers.

Read the introduction to Dan DeLuca's argument. Bob Dylan is the songwriter who opened up the doors of possibility to all who followed. He was the mysterious bard with a guitar who sent out a clarion call—first as the acoustic Voice of His Generation, then as the plugged-in rocker who remained a master of the unexpected for five decades—that the words pop singers sang were worthy of being taken seriously. "Dylan was a revolutionary,” Bruce Springsteen said in his 1988 speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "The way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind.” Early masterpieces such as "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and "Visions Of Johanna” and "Like A Rolling Stone” fueled a debate: Are rock lyrics poetry? The answer must be yes, because on Thursday, Dylan was awarded the highest honor for a writer: the Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy, in making him the first American winner since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993, cited him for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Which statement summarizes DeLuca’s claim?

Read the introduction to Dan DeLuca's argument. (1) Bob Dylan is the songwriter who opened up the doors of possibility to all who followed. (2) He was the mysterious bard with a guitar who sent out a clarion call—first as the acoustic Voice of His Generation, then as the plugged-in rocker who remained a master of the unexpected for five decades—that the words pop singers sang were worthy of being taken seriously. (3) "Dylan was a revolutionary,” Bruce Springsteen said in his 1988 speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (4) "The way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind.” (5) Early masterpieces such as "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and "Visions Of Johanna” and "Like A Rolling Stone” fueled a debate: Are rock lyrics poetry? (6) The answer must be yes, because on Thursday, Dylan was awarded the highest honor for a writer: the Nobel Prize in literature. (7) The Swedish Academy, in making him the first American winner since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993, cited him for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Which sentence states DeLuca’s claim?

Read these sentences from Paco's evaluation of Dan DeLuca's argument in the article "Dylan's Nobel Prize Settles Debate: Rock Lyrics Are Poetry." (1) In addition to quoting comments about Dylan's contributions to literature, DeLuca examines Dylan's writing and its influences. (2) Despite a somewhat confusing presentation of evidence, in the end, DeLuca's argument is convincing. (3) In his article, DeLuca attempts to come to grips with the decades-old question "Are rock lyrics poetry?” (4) He claims that this question has been answered with a resounding yes by the Nobel committee, who awarded their literary prize to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan for his collective literary works, most of which are song lyrics. In which order should the sentences appear?

Read the excerpt from Booker T. Washington’s speech delivered at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our education life, not only from the Southern states, but especially from Northern philanthropists. Read the excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois. First, it is the duty of black men to judge the South discriminatingly. The present generation of Southerners are not responsible for the past, and they should not be blindly hated or blamed for it. Furthermore, to no class is the indiscriminate endorsement of the recent course of the South toward Negroes more nauseating than to the best thought of the South. What evidence do the two texts have in common?

Information used to support a claim is called

Which statement is the most effective claim?

Which pair of words share the same prefix?

Which word contains both a prefix and a suffix?

Read the steps in identifying a claim. 1. Read the argument. 2. Identify the topic of the argument. 3. Determine what the author believes about the topic. Which step should come next?