CR Passage Questions

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1

<p>Hey guys, help me with these questions.</p>

<p>Passage:</p>

<p>According to the National Park Service, about a million tourists pay their respects to Thomas Jefferson in his memorial each year. On the March day in 1993 that I visited, several hundred tourists walked up the marble steps and looked up to the four inscribed panels on the walls and read the words, often moving their lips and murmuring the famous phrases to themselves. The first panel, which attracted more attention than the others, contained the most famous and familiar words in American history: "We bold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." </p>

<p>But what do these words mean? How do they create magic? </p>

<p>Merely to ask these questions is to risk being accused of some combination of treason and sacrilege, since self- evident truths are not meant to be analyzed: that is what being self-evident is all about. But when these words are stripped of the patriotic haze, read straightaway and liter- ally, two monumental claims are being made here. The explicit claim is that the individual is the sovereign unit in society; the individual's natural state is freedom from and equality with all other individuals; this is the natural order of things. [[line 25]] The implicit claim is that all restrictions on this order are immoral transgressions, violations of what God intended; individuals liberated from such restrictions will interact with their fellows in a harmonious scheme requiring no external discipline and producing maximum happiness. </p>

<p>This is a wildly idealistic message, the kind of good news simply too good to be true. It is, truth be told, a recipe for anarchy. Any national government that seriously attempted to operate in accord with these principles would be committing suicide. But, of course, the words were not intended to serve as an operational political blueprint. Jefferson was not a profound political thinker. He was, however, an utterly brilliant rhetorician and visionary. The genius of his vision is to propose that our deepest yearnings for freedom are in fact attainable. The genius of his rhetoric is to articulate irreconcilable human urges at a sufficiently abstract level to mask their mutual exclusiveness. Jefferson guards the American Creed at this inspirational level, which is Inherently immune to 45 scholarly skepticism and a place where ordinary Americans can congregate to speak the magic words together.The Jeffersonian magic works because we permit it to function [[line 48]] at a rarified region where real-Iife choices do not have to be made.</p>

<p>Jefferson's words allow American citizens to come together and simultaneously embrace seemingly opposite propositions. They can believe, for example, that health care and a clean environment for all Americans are natural rights, but that the federal bureaucracies and taxes required to implement medical and environmental programs violate individual independence. The primal source of Jefferson's modern-day appeal is that he provides the sacred space — not really common ground but more a midair location floating above all the political battle lines—where Americans can come together on such issues and, at least for that moment, become a chorus instead of a cacophony.</p>

<p>**<strong><em>END</em></strong>**</p>

<p>Questions:</p>

<p>1) The author's view of "the implicit claim" (line 25) might best be characterized as</p>

<p>(A) dismissive
(B) defensive
(C) reverent
(D) resentful
(E) skeptical</p>

<p>The answer is E. Why?</p>

<p>The author uses the phrase "rarified region" (line 48) to </p>

<p>(A) hint that only a few people truly appreciate the originality of Jefferson's philosophy
(B) indicate that Jefferson accurately predicted the political problems of the future
(C) suggest that Jefferson's world was remote from the realities faced by Americans today
(D) imply that Jefferson's ideas are too obscure for the average person to grasp
(E) emphasize the unique status that Jefferson's assertions enjoy</p>

<p>The answer is E. Why?</p>

<p>Thanks! :)</p>

2

<p>For the 2nd question, it says “The Jeffersonian magic works because we permit it to function [[line 48]] at a rarified region where real-Iife choices do not have to be made.” I picked C at first because the idea that “real-life choices do not have to be made” hints at choice C, but if you look at the 1st part of the sentence you notice that the “The Jeffersonian magic works… function at a rareified region.” </p>

<p>Actually choice C would be wrong off the bat if you were to notice that Jefferson’s world is compared to realities of today. How can you say that a world WAS remote in comparison to a world of today?</p>

3

<p>I chose skeptical for 1st question because the he has a negative tone. Dismissive is wrong because it’s too strong. Words such as idealistic, wildly, skeptical, practical, realistic all fit in a certain category. Words such as dismissive, repudiate, renounce, undoubtedly, conclusively all fit in a different category. I try to ask myself whether some words are too strong or not. </p>

4

<p>Where’d you get this test? It’s not in the blue book nor on the online course.
On a side note, I found a lot of tests not from these supplements on Baidu, a chinese site that hoards tests from every year. </p>

5

<p>The big tip for line reference questions is that the answer may be contained in the sentence before or after the referenced line. In this case, the answer is in the sentence(s) after line 25, which happens to be in the next paragraph. But first, I find it helpful to translate what the sentences are saying to get a stronger grasp (of course this takes a lot of time, but with practice you’ll get faster).</p>

<p>Line 25: The implicit claim is that all restrictions on this order are immoral transgressions, violations of what God intended; individuals liberated from such restrictions will interact with their fellows in a harmonious scheme requiring no external discipline and producing maximum happiness.</p>

<p>Translation: Restrictions on what Jefferson states (last sentence of first paragraph) are extremely bad and goes against what God wants us to do. Not having restrictions, however, will create a happy world :)</p>

<p>But this sentence doesn’t really reflect what the author thinks of the “implicit claim”. We must look at the next two sentences:</p>

<p>“This is a wildly idealistic message, the kind of good news simply too good to be true. It is, truth be told, a recipe for anarchy. Any national government that seriously attempted to operate in accord with these principles would be committing suicide.”</p>

<p>Translation: Jefferson’s message is way too positive and unrealistic. Actually, it’s a recipe for chaos. If anyone actually followed Jefferson’s advice, he or she would be committing suicide.</p>

<p>Now read that translation out loud. Does it sound like the author has a good view of Jefferson’s words, or a bad view? Using words like “wildly”, “anarchy”, and “committing suicide” indicates that the author has a very negative view of Jefferson’s words. So that’s when we look at the answer choices:</p>

<p>1) The author’s view of “the implicit claim” (line 25) might best be characterized as</p>

<p>(A) dismissive (negative word)
(B) defensive (negative word)
© reverent (positive word)
(D) resentful (negative word)
(E) skeptical (negative word)</p>

<p>We can only cross off reverent (for some questions, if you’re lucky you might be able to cross off more than one) and now we must define the other words:</p>

<p>Dismissive: Does the author have a, “Yeah… whatever…like I actually care…” attitude?</p>

<p>Defensive: Does the author have a, “You don’t know me… You don’t know my life!!!” attitude?</p>

<p>Resentful: Does the author have a, “Did you just hit me? I’m going to cut off your legs you worthless speck of dust!” attitude?</p>

<p>Skeptical: Does the author have a, “Uhh… that’s too good to be true. I don’t think that’s possible” attitude?</p>

<p>The best answer choice is (E) Skeptical because words like, “wild”, “simply too good to be true”, “it is… a recipe for anarchy” indicate that the author doesn’t really believe in or approve of Jefferson’s words.</p>

<p>But in order to correctly answer this question you have to know what all the words in the answer choice mean, and what the passage is saying. So first figure out if it’s understanding the passage that’s troubling you, or the if it’s the vocab.</p>