<p>SAT course gave me a 12, usually I get 10s on practice tests and I bombed the real one with an 8. Tell me how to improve. I think I use certain words way too much (one, values, sacrifices). What are some good synonyms for those words?</p>
<p>Prompt
*
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>
<p>If we valued honesty, we would be willing to risk our jobs to become whistleblowers and tell truths that our employers did not want revealed. If we valued success, we would give up our free time in order to excel in a subject or sport. In other words, the sacrifices we are willing to make reveal what we care about the most.</p>
<p>Can what we value be determined only by what we sacrifice? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.*</p>
<p>To measure someone's values is an impossibility; one cannot simply pick up a ruler and jot down what one values. However, as one can prove the presence of wind by the rustling of leaves, one can paint a rough picture of one's values by certain indicators. Chief among those indicators is to what extent one is willing to makes sacrifices to uphold those values.</p>
<p>In the mid 20th century, a civil rights leader named Martin Luther King Jr was willing to sacrifice everything for a cause - and ultimately he did. Along with other leaders of the black community, King put his personal safety on the line for the black community, marching, protesting, and giving speeches in the face of possible arrests, beatings, and even death threats. In spite of all this, he never ceased to believe in his cause, up to his last moments. His tremendous sacrifices and unwavering demeanor in the face of adversity holds testament to his character; he was a man that valued freedom very dearly.</p>
<p>Jean Valjean, from Hugo's Les Miserables, is another example of a man who sacrificed everything for his values. Once a petty criminal, Valjean turned a new leaf when the Bishop of Digne offered him kindness and fellowship. From that day forward, he always chose virtue over vice, even relinquishing his fatherly love for Cosette, who was everything to him, so that she would be happy with her new husband. He regarded the value of Cosette's happiness so highly that he traded his own happiness for hers.</p>
<p>Finally, my own mother is a living example of what it means to make sacrifices for one's values. Every day, she works tirelessly to provide for our family. Whenever we have dinner, she gives her scraps to us, so that we can eat more and grow. All the extra money she makes, instead of spending it for herself she saves it for our college expenses. She values our future and sacrifices her own luxury for our benefit.</p>
<p>All these people, Martin Luther King Jr, Jean Valjean, and my mother, have one thing in common. They each held their own values, and they held on to them so tightly that they were willing to make enormous sacrifices to uphold those values. While it is not the only way to gauge what somebody values, the extent to which someone is willing to sacrifice for their values is a powerful indicator of truly how highly they regard those values.</p>