Examine the public service ads. This first ad is from 1985.This second ad is from 2015.

Read the two passages.Passage 1Violence in video games is unavoidable. More than half of the top video games contain some element of violence. Does this lead to violence in the real world? Logical people know the answer, and the facts prove it. Between 1994 and 2004, video game sales increased by 204 percent. During that same time period, the arrest rate for juveniles committing violent crimes decreased by 63 percent. These facts make it obvious that video games are not a problem.Passage 2The majority of video games contain violence. Children playing these games leads directly to acts of violence. Several studies, including a 2014 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, have shown a correlation between persistent video game use and aggressive behavior. While my own children play video games, they do not play games labeled "Mature.” Simply avoiding these games and allowing children to play the thousands of other available games is a logical way to avoid a potential problem.
Read the passage from a debate speech.The current trade situation in this nation is unacceptable. We continue to lose money to other nations, while those nations prosper. I have a detailed plan to get our country—and its people—back on the right track. My opponent, who uses her time to spread lies and rumors while eating nice dinners bought by you taxpayers, does not even have a plan. I question her priorities.
Examine the excerpt from a public service campaign website. Which words from this campaign best indicate the target audience?

What reasons does the author give to support the claim that it is difficult for a message to move people to take action? Select two options.
Read the excerpt from a newspaper article.Last night, Fairview police arrested six university students for involvement in an illegal gambling ring. Today, community leaders and university officials are claiming that Professor Shuman, the students’ academic advisor, should also be arrested. Dr. Harris, the department chairperson, reports that Schuman has recently started holding group tutoring sessions in his campus office in the evenings. Video footage from security cameras outside the campus building shows him exiting on several occasions with some of the accused students. Although Shuman denies the gambling ring allegations, he was most likely involved with this illegal activity.
Read the first paragraph from an article in the local online newspaper.Local businesswoman Inés Garcia-Ruiz is joining the race for the state senate seat that is soon to be vacated by retiring senator Benjamin Hall. A long-time resident of this community, Garcia-Ruiz says that, if she is elected, she will "dive into projects that aid low-income families.” This should be obvious to most constituents because she is well known for her impressive charity work. Time and time again, she has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of those living in poverty in our community.
Read the excerpt from "Social Media Made the Arab Spring, But Couldn't Save It" by Jessi Hempel.Five years ago this week, massive protests toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, marking the height of the Arab Spring. Empowered by access to social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, protesters organized across the Middle East, starting in December 2010 in Tunisia, and gathered together to speak out against oppression, inspiring hope for a better, more democratic future. Commentators, comparing these activists to the US peace protesters of 1968, praised the effort as a democratic dawn for an area that had long been populated by autocracies. In a photo collection published by the New York Times a few months later, Irish writer Colum McCann wrote: "The light from the Arab Spring rose from the ground up; the hope is now that the darkness doesn’t fall.”The darkness has fallen. Half a decade later, the Middle East is roiling in violence and repression. Activists are being intimidated into restraint by governments that are, with the exception of Tunisia, more totalitarian than those they replaced, if any government as such really exists at all. Meanwhile, militants have harnessed the same technology to organize attacks and recruit converts, catapulting the world into instability. Instead of new robust democracies, we have a global challenge with no obvious solution. The Arab Spring carried the promise that social media and the Internet were going to unleash a new wave of positive social change. But the past five years have shown that liberty isn't the only end toward which these tools can be turned.Activists were able to organize and mobilize in 2011 partly because authoritarian governments didn’t yet understand very much about how to use social media. They didn’t see the potential, says NYU professor of politics Joshua Tucker, a [principal] investigator at the Social Media and Political Participation Lab at New York University. "There are a lot of reasons the people in power were slow to pick up on this,” he adds. "One of the things about not have a free press is it is harder to learn what was going on in the world.”
Which image is the best choice for convincing high school students to plant a tree on Earth Day?




Read this prompt.Create a presentation to convince school board members that district 16 should add a week-long October break to next year’s school calendar, like other districts in the state.Which reason best supports the claim in this prompt?
Read the scenario.A pilot is being investigated after an air-traffic accident led to many passengers being injured and hospitalized. Reports about a cover-up by the airline are surfacing, and people have accused the pilot of negligence.The editor-in-chief of the local newspaper has just assigned the story to the most experienced investigative reporter in the newsroom. However, the reporter’s uncle is the pilot being investigated. No one in the newsroom knows about this connection.
Which source would be most appropriate for researching the question "How does social media affect personal relationships?”
How does the writer best use evidence to support the claim? Select three options.
Which quotations from the excerpt provide evidence to support the claim that governments have responded to criticism delivered through social media? Select three options.
Read this prompt.Create a multimedia presentation claiming that teaching children more than one language is beneficial to their brain development. Use research and evidence to support your opinion. Use persuasive techniques and a variety of visual aids in your presentation.
Read the claim.The overuse of social media has led to a decline in the academic performance of this country’s high school students.Which reasons are logically sound and could be used to support the claim? Select two options.High school students are spending more time on social media than they are studying and completing homework.Grades at a specific high school are worse this year than they were 20 years ago, when social media was not a distraction.Social media is causing many problems in society, including a lack of attention and a more negative attitude toward education among students in my neighborhood.You can read several articles about students around the country causing problems at school rather than focusing on academics.Standardized test scores dropped or remained stagnant in many states in 2017, which was the peak year to date for social media use.
Read the passage from a speech by President Barack Obama.Good afternoon. Mr. Secretary General; Your Excellencies, we are here because, right now, in crowded camps and cities around the world, there are families—from Darfur in Chad, Palestinians in Lebanon, Afghans in Pakistan, Colombians in Ecuador—who’ve endured years—in some cases, decades—as refugees, surviving on rations and aid, and who dream of someday, somehow, having a home of their own.We’re here because, right now, there are young girls . . . like my daughters . . . who are just as precious and just as gifted—like the 16-year-old refugee from Myanmar that I met in Malaysia—who’ve suffered unspeakable abuse . . . girls who pray at night that someone might rescue them from their torment.
Which scenarios are considered ethically acceptable for journalists? Select three options.paying money to attend a conference about climate change in order to do research for an articleaccepting money from a politician to report on an opponent, then donating the money to a charityending an investigation because it may lead to violence and disunity in a local communityinterviewing the CEOs of two insurance companies that are competing against each otherusing information from a wiki page to clarify information about a topic
Which statements best evaluate the evidence in this excerpt? Select two options.
Read the excerpt from "The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings" by Heather Brown, Emily Guskin, and Amy Mitchell.Twitter, Facebook and other new media offer ways for the Arab-American news media to reach audiences, but also pose a threat to smaller outlets. In addition to keeping up with the online presence of larger news organizations, Arab-American media are forced to compete with user-generated content that is rapidly available to audiences. The utility of social media in accessing information became clear during the Arab uprisings and events such as Egypt’s parliamentary and presidential elections. However, [Suzanne] Manneh of New America Media points out that the credibility of this information is difficult to verify "depending on where it’s from, to whom it’s attributed, [and] especially when various events are happening very quickly."Arab-American news outlets find they must compete with this abundance of online content in order to evolve alongside readers who are increasingly turning to the internet for information. Newspapers have made the greatest inroads here so far, with most offering at least some form of digital content, while still maintaining print versions for older generations and those who prefer a physical newspaper. Radio programs, in light of the continuing challenge to find advertising sponsorship, are beginning to shift online. Arab-American television, on the other hand, has yet to even really find a place amid the satellite programming available from Arab countries.
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