Card 0 of 16
Adapted from George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
\[Before this point in the text, Washington has declined to run as a candidate in the next election for President of the United States.\]
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.
. . .
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
In the passage, the author characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being __________.
In the passage, Washington characterizes the perspective from which he offers advice to the United States and the motivations behind his offering said advice. He bookends his advice with discussion of this perspective and these motivations, mentioning it in the passage's first and last paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, after Washington states that out of concern for the U.S. he will offer some pieces of advice, he adds, "These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel." Let's paraphrase this: he's offering this advice freely because as he's not running as a candidate in the coming presidential election, he has no reason to bias his statements for political gain; instead, he says he is speaking as an unbiased friend of the nation.
Washington returns to this point of offering advice as an unbiased friend in the first sentence of the passage's last paragraph, where he states, "In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish."
Based on this evidence, the best answer is the one that most closely describes the perspective of "the disinterested warnings of a parting friend." In other words, he characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being "unbiased and well-meaning." Note that while it may be argued that Washington's perspective would be "reliable due to extensive political experience" and/or "the result of years of reading and research," or perhaps even "prudent and defensive," the question specifically asks about how the author characterizes his point of view "in the passage." The correct answer is the only answer choice supported by evidence in the text.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Passage 2: Adapted from Woodrow Wilson’s “War Message to Congress” ("Address of The President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of The Two Houses of Congress") (April 2, 1917)
On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year, the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to humane practices. \[International maritime law\] the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.
The repetitive structure the author uses in the underlined section of the passage has what rhetorical effect?
Let's consider the section of the passage being discussed.
Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
The question is specifically asking about the repetition found in the underlined section, where the author repeats the word "their" and specifies different ways in which the attacked ships might have differed. Note that this repetition is introduced by "Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character . . . " The author states that "every kind" of vessel have been "ruthlessly sent to the bottom." The repetition appears after the word "whatever," so this phrase is modifying the phrase "Vessels of every kind," emphasizing the diversity of ships that have been attacked.
The underlined selection has to do with ships, not with "different ways in which the United States has tried to protect its citizens while also maintaining peace with Germany," so that answer choice is incorrect. Furthermore, while the selection has to do with ships, it does not concern details about one particular ship Germany sunk, so "The repetition is providing details about the last ship that was sunk by Germany in order to present a vivid image to the audience" is not correct either. The selection is also not providing any specific examples of ships Germany has sunk, so "The repetition is listing specific different kinds of ships Germany has attacked to provide the readers with specific examples of particular ships that Germany has sunk" cannot be correct either. There is no evidence that the repetition is in any way belittling, so "The repetition is belittling; it makes the reader feel as if the author does not think he or she understands what the author is saying, and therefore the author has to repeat himself" isn't correct either.
The correct answer is "The repetition is emphatic; it emphasizes the wide variety of ships that Germany has attacked." In suggesting that Germany has sunk ships with different flags, characters, cargos, destinations, and errands, the author is emphasizing the panoply of ships that Germany has sunk to suggest that the country is attacking and sinking any ship that approaches its ports.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic (1896)
“Classification,” or the formation of Classes, is a Mental Process, in which we imagine that we have put together, in a group, certain Things. Such a group is called a “Class.” This Process may be performed in three different ways, as follows:
(1) We may imagine that we have put together all Things. The Class so formed (i.e. the Class "Things") contains the whole Universe.
(2) We may think of the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Things which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the Class so formed. In this case, the Class "Things" is called a “Genus” with regard to the Class so formed: the Class, so formed, is called a 'Species' of the Class "Things": and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
As this Process is entirely Mental, we can perform it whether there is, or is not, an existing Thing which pos- sesses that Adjunct. If there is, the Class us said to be “Real;” if not, it is said to be “Unreal,” or “Imaginary.”
\[For example, we may imagine that we have picked out, from the Class "Things," all the Things which possess the Adjunct "material, artificial, consisting of houses and street"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns." Here we may regard "Things" as a Genus, "Towns" as a Species of Things, and "material, artificial, consisting of houses and streets" as its Differentia. Again, we may imagine that we have picked out all the Things which possess the Adjunct "weighing a ton, easily lifted by a baby"; and we may thus form the Imaginary Class "Things that weigh a ton and are easily lifted by a baby."\]
(3) We may think of a certain Class, not the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Members of it which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the smaller Class so formed. In this case, the Class thought of is called a “Genus” with regard to the smaller Class picked out from it: the smaller Class is called a “Species” of the larger: and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
\[For example, we may think of the Class "towns," and imagine that we have picked out from it all the towns which possess the Attribute "lit with gas"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns lit with gas." Here may regard "Towns" as a Genus, "Towns lit with gas" as a Species of Towns, and "lit with gas" as its Differentia. If, in the above example, we were to alter "lit with gas" into "paved with gold," we should get the Imaginary Class "towns paved with gold."\]
A Class, containing only one Member is called an “Individual.”
\[For example, the Class "towns having four million inhabitants," which Class contains only one Member, viz. "London."\]
Hence, any single Thing, which we can name so as to distinguish it from all other Things, may be regarded as a one-Member Class.
\[Thus "London" may be regarded as the one-Member Class, picked out from the Class "towns," which has, as its Differentia, "having four million inhabitants."\]
A Class, containing two or more Members, is sometimes regarded as one single Thing. When so regarded, it may possess an Adjunct which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.
\[Thus, the Class "The soldiers of the Tenth Regiment," when regarded as one single Thing, may possess the Attribute "formed in square," which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.\]
From the tone and content of the passage, it is reasonable to infer that the author _________________.
To answer this question, you must be able to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on a passage. The answer suggesting that the author "is a professor of formal logic at a university" is a tempting trap! While it may seem totally reasonable to believe that the author is a professor of the subject of this passage (he certainly seems knowledgeable), there is no SPECIFIC textual evidence of that assertion to be found in the passage. This option makes a specific claim. Remember, you will never be asked to choose a specific claim that has no specific basis in the text. You may be aware, independently, that Lewis Carroll was the author of the Alice in Wonderland series, and is thus a world-renowned children's book author, but this is NOT an inference that you took from the text. This is extra textual knowledge that you are applying to the text.
Thus the correct answer is the simplest choice that refers directly and accurately to the text: he "has a clear understanding of the basics of formal logic." The evidence for this is the entire text, wherein he explains those basics clearly and concisely to us.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Mark Twain’s “A Defense of General Funston” (1802)
We are made, brick by brick, of influences, patiently built up around the framework of our born dispositions. It is the sole process of construction; there is no other. Every man and woman and child is an influence; a daily and hourly influence which never ceases from work, and never ceases from affecting for good or evil the characters about it--some contributing gold-dust, some contributing trash-dust, but in either case helping on the building, and never stopping to rest. The shoemaker helps to build his two-dozen associates; the pickpocket helps to build his four dozen associates; the village clergyman helps to build his five hundred associates; the renowned bank-robber's name and fame help to build his hundred associates and three thousand persons whom he has never seen; the renowned philanthropist's labors and the benevolent millionaire's gifts move to kindly works and generous outlays of money a hundred thousand persons whom they have never met and never will meet; and to the building of the character of every individual thus moved these movers have added a brick. The unprincipled newspaper adds a baseness to a million decaying character-fabrics every day; the high-principled newspaper adds a daily betterment to the character-fabric of another million. The swiftly-enriched wrecker and robber of railway systems lowers the commercial morals of a whole nation for three generations. A Washington, standing upon the world's utmost summit, eternally visible, eternally clothed in light, a serene, inspiring, heartening example and admonition, is an influence which raises the level of character in all receptive men and peoples, alien and domestic; and the term of its gracious work is not measurable by fleeting generations, but only by the lingering march of the centuries.
Washington was more and greater than the father of a nation, he was the Father of its Patriotism--patriotism at its loftiest and best; and so powerful was the influence which he left behind him, that that golden patriotism remained undimmed and unsullied for a hundred years, lacking one; and so fundamentally right-hearted are our people by grace of that long and ennobling teaching, that to-day, already, they are facing back for home, they are laying aside their foreign-born and foreign-bred imported patriotism and resuming that which Washington gave to their fathers, which is American and the only American--which lasted ninety-nine years and is good for a million more. Doubt--doubt that we did right by the Filipinos--is rising steadily higher and higher in the nation's breast; conviction will follow doubt. The nation will speak; its will is law; there is no other sovereign on this soil; and in that day we shall right such unfairnesses as we have done. We shall let go our obsequious hold on the rear-skirts of the sceptred land-thieves of Europe, and be what we were before, a real World Power, and the chiefest of them all, by right of the only clean hands in Christendom, the only hands guiltless of the sordid plunder of any helpless people's stolen liberties, hands recleansed in the patriotism of Washington, and once more fit to touch the hem of the revered Shade's garment and stand in its presence unashamed. It was Washington's influence that made Lincoln and all other real patriots the Republic has known; it was Washington's influence that made the soldiers who saved the Union; and that influence will save us always, and bring us back to the fold when we stray.
And so, when a Washington is given us, or a Lincoln, or a Grant, what should we do? Knowing, as we do, that a conspicuous influence for good is worth more than a billion obscure ones, without doubt the logic of it is that we should highly value it, and make a vestal flame of it, and keep it briskly burning in every way we can--in the nursery, in the school, in the college, in the pulpit, in the newspaper--even in Congress, if such a thing were possible.
The proper inborn disposition was required to start a Washington; the acceptable influences and circumstances and a large field were required to develop and complete him.
The passage is written from the point of view of a(n) ________________.
The key here is to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on the passage. Some of these options may be perfectly reasonable, or even true, inferences about the author's POV, but you must select the answer that is a definitely supportable inference based on the content of the passage.
The author never directly talks about himself, and makes no specific statement is made about his profession or qualifications. Now, the author does spend A LOT of time praising George Washington, and one may be tempted to believe that the author is a good friend of Washington's, but there is no specific evidence of any personal relationship between the two in this passage.
So, can we even safely assume the author is a human being? Yes! We can! The very first word of this paragraph is "We" and this collective pronoun is placed right at the beginning of a discussion of general human development. Our author is a confirmed human being.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
\[Before this point in the text, Washington has declined to run as a candidate in the next election for President of the United States.\]
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.
. . .
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
In the passage, the author characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being __________.
In the passage, Washington characterizes the perspective from which he offers advice to the United States and the motivations behind his offering said advice. He bookends his advice with discussion of this perspective and these motivations, mentioning it in the passage's first and last paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, after Washington states that out of concern for the U.S. he will offer some pieces of advice, he adds, "These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel." Let's paraphrase this: he's offering this advice freely because as he's not running as a candidate in the coming presidential election, he has no reason to bias his statements for political gain; instead, he says he is speaking as an unbiased friend of the nation.
Washington returns to this point of offering advice as an unbiased friend in the first sentence of the passage's last paragraph, where he states, "In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish."
Based on this evidence, the best answer is the one that most closely describes the perspective of "the disinterested warnings of a parting friend." In other words, he characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being "unbiased and well-meaning." Note that while it may be argued that Washington's perspective would be "reliable due to extensive political experience" and/or "the result of years of reading and research," or perhaps even "prudent and defensive," the question specifically asks about how the author characterizes his point of view "in the passage." The correct answer is the only answer choice supported by evidence in the text.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Passage 2: Adapted from Woodrow Wilson’s “War Message to Congress” ("Address of The President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of The Two Houses of Congress") (April 2, 1917)
On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year, the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to humane practices. \[International maritime law\] the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.
The repetitive structure the author uses in the underlined section of the passage has what rhetorical effect?
Let's consider the section of the passage being discussed.
Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
The question is specifically asking about the repetition found in the underlined section, where the author repeats the word "their" and specifies different ways in which the attacked ships might have differed. Note that this repetition is introduced by "Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character . . . " The author states that "every kind" of vessel have been "ruthlessly sent to the bottom." The repetition appears after the word "whatever," so this phrase is modifying the phrase "Vessels of every kind," emphasizing the diversity of ships that have been attacked.
The underlined selection has to do with ships, not with "different ways in which the United States has tried to protect its citizens while also maintaining peace with Germany," so that answer choice is incorrect. Furthermore, while the selection has to do with ships, it does not concern details about one particular ship Germany sunk, so "The repetition is providing details about the last ship that was sunk by Germany in order to present a vivid image to the audience" is not correct either. The selection is also not providing any specific examples of ships Germany has sunk, so "The repetition is listing specific different kinds of ships Germany has attacked to provide the readers with specific examples of particular ships that Germany has sunk" cannot be correct either. There is no evidence that the repetition is in any way belittling, so "The repetition is belittling; it makes the reader feel as if the author does not think he or she understands what the author is saying, and therefore the author has to repeat himself" isn't correct either.
The correct answer is "The repetition is emphatic; it emphasizes the wide variety of ships that Germany has attacked." In suggesting that Germany has sunk ships with different flags, characters, cargos, destinations, and errands, the author is emphasizing the panoply of ships that Germany has sunk to suggest that the country is attacking and sinking any ship that approaches its ports.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic (1896)
“Classification,” or the formation of Classes, is a Mental Process, in which we imagine that we have put together, in a group, certain Things. Such a group is called a “Class.” This Process may be performed in three different ways, as follows:
(1) We may imagine that we have put together all Things. The Class so formed (i.e. the Class "Things") contains the whole Universe.
(2) We may think of the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Things which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the Class so formed. In this case, the Class "Things" is called a “Genus” with regard to the Class so formed: the Class, so formed, is called a 'Species' of the Class "Things": and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
As this Process is entirely Mental, we can perform it whether there is, or is not, an existing Thing which pos- sesses that Adjunct. If there is, the Class us said to be “Real;” if not, it is said to be “Unreal,” or “Imaginary.”
\[For example, we may imagine that we have picked out, from the Class "Things," all the Things which possess the Adjunct "material, artificial, consisting of houses and street"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns." Here we may regard "Things" as a Genus, "Towns" as a Species of Things, and "material, artificial, consisting of houses and streets" as its Differentia. Again, we may imagine that we have picked out all the Things which possess the Adjunct "weighing a ton, easily lifted by a baby"; and we may thus form the Imaginary Class "Things that weigh a ton and are easily lifted by a baby."\]
(3) We may think of a certain Class, not the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Members of it which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the smaller Class so formed. In this case, the Class thought of is called a “Genus” with regard to the smaller Class picked out from it: the smaller Class is called a “Species” of the larger: and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
\[For example, we may think of the Class "towns," and imagine that we have picked out from it all the towns which possess the Attribute "lit with gas"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns lit with gas." Here may regard "Towns" as a Genus, "Towns lit with gas" as a Species of Towns, and "lit with gas" as its Differentia. If, in the above example, we were to alter "lit with gas" into "paved with gold," we should get the Imaginary Class "towns paved with gold."\]
A Class, containing only one Member is called an “Individual.”
\[For example, the Class "towns having four million inhabitants," which Class contains only one Member, viz. "London."\]
Hence, any single Thing, which we can name so as to distinguish it from all other Things, may be regarded as a one-Member Class.
\[Thus "London" may be regarded as the one-Member Class, picked out from the Class "towns," which has, as its Differentia, "having four million inhabitants."\]
A Class, containing two or more Members, is sometimes regarded as one single Thing. When so regarded, it may possess an Adjunct which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.
\[Thus, the Class "The soldiers of the Tenth Regiment," when regarded as one single Thing, may possess the Attribute "formed in square," which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.\]
From the tone and content of the passage, it is reasonable to infer that the author _________________.
To answer this question, you must be able to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on a passage. The answer suggesting that the author "is a professor of formal logic at a university" is a tempting trap! While it may seem totally reasonable to believe that the author is a professor of the subject of this passage (he certainly seems knowledgeable), there is no SPECIFIC textual evidence of that assertion to be found in the passage. This option makes a specific claim. Remember, you will never be asked to choose a specific claim that has no specific basis in the text. You may be aware, independently, that Lewis Carroll was the author of the Alice in Wonderland series, and is thus a world-renowned children's book author, but this is NOT an inference that you took from the text. This is extra textual knowledge that you are applying to the text.
Thus the correct answer is the simplest choice that refers directly and accurately to the text: he "has a clear understanding of the basics of formal logic." The evidence for this is the entire text, wherein he explains those basics clearly and concisely to us.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Mark Twain’s “A Defense of General Funston” (1802)
We are made, brick by brick, of influences, patiently built up around the framework of our born dispositions. It is the sole process of construction; there is no other. Every man and woman and child is an influence; a daily and hourly influence which never ceases from work, and never ceases from affecting for good or evil the characters about it--some contributing gold-dust, some contributing trash-dust, but in either case helping on the building, and never stopping to rest. The shoemaker helps to build his two-dozen associates; the pickpocket helps to build his four dozen associates; the village clergyman helps to build his five hundred associates; the renowned bank-robber's name and fame help to build his hundred associates and three thousand persons whom he has never seen; the renowned philanthropist's labors and the benevolent millionaire's gifts move to kindly works and generous outlays of money a hundred thousand persons whom they have never met and never will meet; and to the building of the character of every individual thus moved these movers have added a brick. The unprincipled newspaper adds a baseness to a million decaying character-fabrics every day; the high-principled newspaper adds a daily betterment to the character-fabric of another million. The swiftly-enriched wrecker and robber of railway systems lowers the commercial morals of a whole nation for three generations. A Washington, standing upon the world's utmost summit, eternally visible, eternally clothed in light, a serene, inspiring, heartening example and admonition, is an influence which raises the level of character in all receptive men and peoples, alien and domestic; and the term of its gracious work is not measurable by fleeting generations, but only by the lingering march of the centuries.
Washington was more and greater than the father of a nation, he was the Father of its Patriotism--patriotism at its loftiest and best; and so powerful was the influence which he left behind him, that that golden patriotism remained undimmed and unsullied for a hundred years, lacking one; and so fundamentally right-hearted are our people by grace of that long and ennobling teaching, that to-day, already, they are facing back for home, they are laying aside their foreign-born and foreign-bred imported patriotism and resuming that which Washington gave to their fathers, which is American and the only American--which lasted ninety-nine years and is good for a million more. Doubt--doubt that we did right by the Filipinos--is rising steadily higher and higher in the nation's breast; conviction will follow doubt. The nation will speak; its will is law; there is no other sovereign on this soil; and in that day we shall right such unfairnesses as we have done. We shall let go our obsequious hold on the rear-skirts of the sceptred land-thieves of Europe, and be what we were before, a real World Power, and the chiefest of them all, by right of the only clean hands in Christendom, the only hands guiltless of the sordid plunder of any helpless people's stolen liberties, hands recleansed in the patriotism of Washington, and once more fit to touch the hem of the revered Shade's garment and stand in its presence unashamed. It was Washington's influence that made Lincoln and all other real patriots the Republic has known; it was Washington's influence that made the soldiers who saved the Union; and that influence will save us always, and bring us back to the fold when we stray.
And so, when a Washington is given us, or a Lincoln, or a Grant, what should we do? Knowing, as we do, that a conspicuous influence for good is worth more than a billion obscure ones, without doubt the logic of it is that we should highly value it, and make a vestal flame of it, and keep it briskly burning in every way we can--in the nursery, in the school, in the college, in the pulpit, in the newspaper--even in Congress, if such a thing were possible.
The proper inborn disposition was required to start a Washington; the acceptable influences and circumstances and a large field were required to develop and complete him.
The passage is written from the point of view of a(n) ________________.
The key here is to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on the passage. Some of these options may be perfectly reasonable, or even true, inferences about the author's POV, but you must select the answer that is a definitely supportable inference based on the content of the passage.
The author never directly talks about himself, and makes no specific statement is made about his profession or qualifications. Now, the author does spend A LOT of time praising George Washington, and one may be tempted to believe that the author is a good friend of Washington's, but there is no specific evidence of any personal relationship between the two in this passage.
So, can we even safely assume the author is a human being? Yes! We can! The very first word of this paragraph is "We" and this collective pronoun is placed right at the beginning of a discussion of general human development. Our author is a confirmed human being.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
\[Before this point in the text, Washington has declined to run as a candidate in the next election for President of the United States.\]
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.
. . .
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
In the passage, the author characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being __________.
In the passage, Washington characterizes the perspective from which he offers advice to the United States and the motivations behind his offering said advice. He bookends his advice with discussion of this perspective and these motivations, mentioning it in the passage's first and last paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, after Washington states that out of concern for the U.S. he will offer some pieces of advice, he adds, "These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel." Let's paraphrase this: he's offering this advice freely because as he's not running as a candidate in the coming presidential election, he has no reason to bias his statements for political gain; instead, he says he is speaking as an unbiased friend of the nation.
Washington returns to this point of offering advice as an unbiased friend in the first sentence of the passage's last paragraph, where he states, "In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish."
Based on this evidence, the best answer is the one that most closely describes the perspective of "the disinterested warnings of a parting friend." In other words, he characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being "unbiased and well-meaning." Note that while it may be argued that Washington's perspective would be "reliable due to extensive political experience" and/or "the result of years of reading and research," or perhaps even "prudent and defensive," the question specifically asks about how the author characterizes his point of view "in the passage." The correct answer is the only answer choice supported by evidence in the text.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Passage 2: Adapted from Woodrow Wilson’s “War Message to Congress” ("Address of The President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of The Two Houses of Congress") (April 2, 1917)
On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year, the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to humane practices. \[International maritime law\] the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.
The repetitive structure the author uses in the underlined section of the passage has what rhetorical effect?
Let's consider the section of the passage being discussed.
Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
The question is specifically asking about the repetition found in the underlined section, where the author repeats the word "their" and specifies different ways in which the attacked ships might have differed. Note that this repetition is introduced by "Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character . . . " The author states that "every kind" of vessel have been "ruthlessly sent to the bottom." The repetition appears after the word "whatever," so this phrase is modifying the phrase "Vessels of every kind," emphasizing the diversity of ships that have been attacked.
The underlined selection has to do with ships, not with "different ways in which the United States has tried to protect its citizens while also maintaining peace with Germany," so that answer choice is incorrect. Furthermore, while the selection has to do with ships, it does not concern details about one particular ship Germany sunk, so "The repetition is providing details about the last ship that was sunk by Germany in order to present a vivid image to the audience" is not correct either. The selection is also not providing any specific examples of ships Germany has sunk, so "The repetition is listing specific different kinds of ships Germany has attacked to provide the readers with specific examples of particular ships that Germany has sunk" cannot be correct either. There is no evidence that the repetition is in any way belittling, so "The repetition is belittling; it makes the reader feel as if the author does not think he or she understands what the author is saying, and therefore the author has to repeat himself" isn't correct either.
The correct answer is "The repetition is emphatic; it emphasizes the wide variety of ships that Germany has attacked." In suggesting that Germany has sunk ships with different flags, characters, cargos, destinations, and errands, the author is emphasizing the panoply of ships that Germany has sunk to suggest that the country is attacking and sinking any ship that approaches its ports.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic (1896)
“Classification,” or the formation of Classes, is a Mental Process, in which we imagine that we have put together, in a group, certain Things. Such a group is called a “Class.” This Process may be performed in three different ways, as follows:
(1) We may imagine that we have put together all Things. The Class so formed (i.e. the Class "Things") contains the whole Universe.
(2) We may think of the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Things which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the Class so formed. In this case, the Class "Things" is called a “Genus” with regard to the Class so formed: the Class, so formed, is called a 'Species' of the Class "Things": and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
As this Process is entirely Mental, we can perform it whether there is, or is not, an existing Thing which pos- sesses that Adjunct. If there is, the Class us said to be “Real;” if not, it is said to be “Unreal,” or “Imaginary.”
\[For example, we may imagine that we have picked out, from the Class "Things," all the Things which possess the Adjunct "material, artificial, consisting of houses and street"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns." Here we may regard "Things" as a Genus, "Towns" as a Species of Things, and "material, artificial, consisting of houses and streets" as its Differentia. Again, we may imagine that we have picked out all the Things which possess the Adjunct "weighing a ton, easily lifted by a baby"; and we may thus form the Imaginary Class "Things that weigh a ton and are easily lifted by a baby."\]
(3) We may think of a certain Class, not the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Members of it which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the smaller Class so formed. In this case, the Class thought of is called a “Genus” with regard to the smaller Class picked out from it: the smaller Class is called a “Species” of the larger: and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
\[For example, we may think of the Class "towns," and imagine that we have picked out from it all the towns which possess the Attribute "lit with gas"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns lit with gas." Here may regard "Towns" as a Genus, "Towns lit with gas" as a Species of Towns, and "lit with gas" as its Differentia. If, in the above example, we were to alter "lit with gas" into "paved with gold," we should get the Imaginary Class "towns paved with gold."\]
A Class, containing only one Member is called an “Individual.”
\[For example, the Class "towns having four million inhabitants," which Class contains only one Member, viz. "London."\]
Hence, any single Thing, which we can name so as to distinguish it from all other Things, may be regarded as a one-Member Class.
\[Thus "London" may be regarded as the one-Member Class, picked out from the Class "towns," which has, as its Differentia, "having four million inhabitants."\]
A Class, containing two or more Members, is sometimes regarded as one single Thing. When so regarded, it may possess an Adjunct which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.
\[Thus, the Class "The soldiers of the Tenth Regiment," when regarded as one single Thing, may possess the Attribute "formed in square," which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.\]
From the tone and content of the passage, it is reasonable to infer that the author _________________.
To answer this question, you must be able to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on a passage. The answer suggesting that the author "is a professor of formal logic at a university" is a tempting trap! While it may seem totally reasonable to believe that the author is a professor of the subject of this passage (he certainly seems knowledgeable), there is no SPECIFIC textual evidence of that assertion to be found in the passage. This option makes a specific claim. Remember, you will never be asked to choose a specific claim that has no specific basis in the text. You may be aware, independently, that Lewis Carroll was the author of the Alice in Wonderland series, and is thus a world-renowned children's book author, but this is NOT an inference that you took from the text. This is extra textual knowledge that you are applying to the text.
Thus the correct answer is the simplest choice that refers directly and accurately to the text: he "has a clear understanding of the basics of formal logic." The evidence for this is the entire text, wherein he explains those basics clearly and concisely to us.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from Mark Twain’s “A Defense of General Funston” (1802)
We are made, brick by brick, of influences, patiently built up around the framework of our born dispositions. It is the sole process of construction; there is no other. Every man and woman and child is an influence; a daily and hourly influence which never ceases from work, and never ceases from affecting for good or evil the characters about it--some contributing gold-dust, some contributing trash-dust, but in either case helping on the building, and never stopping to rest. The shoemaker helps to build his two-dozen associates; the pickpocket helps to build his four dozen associates; the village clergyman helps to build his five hundred associates; the renowned bank-robber's name and fame help to build his hundred associates and three thousand persons whom he has never seen; the renowned philanthropist's labors and the benevolent millionaire's gifts move to kindly works and generous outlays of money a hundred thousand persons whom they have never met and never will meet; and to the building of the character of every individual thus moved these movers have added a brick. The unprincipled newspaper adds a baseness to a million decaying character-fabrics every day; the high-principled newspaper adds a daily betterment to the character-fabric of another million. The swiftly-enriched wrecker and robber of railway systems lowers the commercial morals of a whole nation for three generations. A Washington, standing upon the world's utmost summit, eternally visible, eternally clothed in light, a serene, inspiring, heartening example and admonition, is an influence which raises the level of character in all receptive men and peoples, alien and domestic; and the term of its gracious work is not measurable by fleeting generations, but only by the lingering march of the centuries.
Washington was more and greater than the father of a nation, he was the Father of its Patriotism--patriotism at its loftiest and best; and so powerful was the influence which he left behind him, that that golden patriotism remained undimmed and unsullied for a hundred years, lacking one; and so fundamentally right-hearted are our people by grace of that long and ennobling teaching, that to-day, already, they are facing back for home, they are laying aside their foreign-born and foreign-bred imported patriotism and resuming that which Washington gave to their fathers, which is American and the only American--which lasted ninety-nine years and is good for a million more. Doubt--doubt that we did right by the Filipinos--is rising steadily higher and higher in the nation's breast; conviction will follow doubt. The nation will speak; its will is law; there is no other sovereign on this soil; and in that day we shall right such unfairnesses as we have done. We shall let go our obsequious hold on the rear-skirts of the sceptred land-thieves of Europe, and be what we were before, a real World Power, and the chiefest of them all, by right of the only clean hands in Christendom, the only hands guiltless of the sordid plunder of any helpless people's stolen liberties, hands recleansed in the patriotism of Washington, and once more fit to touch the hem of the revered Shade's garment and stand in its presence unashamed. It was Washington's influence that made Lincoln and all other real patriots the Republic has known; it was Washington's influence that made the soldiers who saved the Union; and that influence will save us always, and bring us back to the fold when we stray.
And so, when a Washington is given us, or a Lincoln, or a Grant, what should we do? Knowing, as we do, that a conspicuous influence for good is worth more than a billion obscure ones, without doubt the logic of it is that we should highly value it, and make a vestal flame of it, and keep it briskly burning in every way we can--in the nursery, in the school, in the college, in the pulpit, in the newspaper--even in Congress, if such a thing were possible.
The proper inborn disposition was required to start a Washington; the acceptable influences and circumstances and a large field were required to develop and complete him.
The passage is written from the point of view of a(n) ________________.
The key here is to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on the passage. Some of these options may be perfectly reasonable, or even true, inferences about the author's POV, but you must select the answer that is a definitely supportable inference based on the content of the passage.
The author never directly talks about himself, and makes no specific statement is made about his profession or qualifications. Now, the author does spend A LOT of time praising George Washington, and one may be tempted to believe that the author is a good friend of Washington's, but there is no specific evidence of any personal relationship between the two in this passage.
So, can we even safely assume the author is a human being? Yes! We can! The very first word of this paragraph is "We" and this collective pronoun is placed right at the beginning of a discussion of general human development. Our author is a confirmed human being.
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Adapted from George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
\[Before this point in the text, Washington has declined to run as a candidate in the next election for President of the United States.\]
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.
. . .
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
In the passage, the author characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being __________.
In the passage, Washington characterizes the perspective from which he offers advice to the United States and the motivations behind his offering said advice. He bookends his advice with discussion of this perspective and these motivations, mentioning it in the passage's first and last paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, after Washington states that out of concern for the U.S. he will offer some pieces of advice, he adds, "These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel." Let's paraphrase this: he's offering this advice freely because as he's not running as a candidate in the coming presidential election, he has no reason to bias his statements for political gain; instead, he says he is speaking as an unbiased friend of the nation.
Washington returns to this point of offering advice as an unbiased friend in the first sentence of the passage's last paragraph, where he states, "In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish."
Based on this evidence, the best answer is the one that most closely describes the perspective of "the disinterested warnings of a parting friend." In other words, he characterizes the point of view from which he offers advice as being "unbiased and well-meaning." Note that while it may be argued that Washington's perspective would be "reliable due to extensive political experience" and/or "the result of years of reading and research," or perhaps even "prudent and defensive," the question specifically asks about how the author characterizes his point of view "in the passage." The correct answer is the only answer choice supported by evidence in the text.
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Passage 2: Adapted from Woodrow Wilson’s “War Message to Congress” ("Address of The President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of The Two Houses of Congress") (April 2, 1917)
On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year, the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to humane practices. \[International maritime law\] the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.
The repetitive structure the author uses in the underlined section of the passage has what rhetorical effect?
Let's consider the section of the passage being discussed.
Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
The question is specifically asking about the repetition found in the underlined section, where the author repeats the word "their" and specifies different ways in which the attacked ships might have differed. Note that this repetition is introduced by "Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character . . . " The author states that "every kind" of vessel have been "ruthlessly sent to the bottom." The repetition appears after the word "whatever," so this phrase is modifying the phrase "Vessels of every kind," emphasizing the diversity of ships that have been attacked.
The underlined selection has to do with ships, not with "different ways in which the United States has tried to protect its citizens while also maintaining peace with Germany," so that answer choice is incorrect. Furthermore, while the selection has to do with ships, it does not concern details about one particular ship Germany sunk, so "The repetition is providing details about the last ship that was sunk by Germany in order to present a vivid image to the audience" is not correct either. The selection is also not providing any specific examples of ships Germany has sunk, so "The repetition is listing specific different kinds of ships Germany has attacked to provide the readers with specific examples of particular ships that Germany has sunk" cannot be correct either. There is no evidence that the repetition is in any way belittling, so "The repetition is belittling; it makes the reader feel as if the author does not think he or she understands what the author is saying, and therefore the author has to repeat himself" isn't correct either.
The correct answer is "The repetition is emphatic; it emphasizes the wide variety of ships that Germany has attacked." In suggesting that Germany has sunk ships with different flags, characters, cargos, destinations, and errands, the author is emphasizing the panoply of ships that Germany has sunk to suggest that the country is attacking and sinking any ship that approaches its ports.
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Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic (1896)
“Classification,” or the formation of Classes, is a Mental Process, in which we imagine that we have put together, in a group, certain Things. Such a group is called a “Class.” This Process may be performed in three different ways, as follows:
(1) We may imagine that we have put together all Things. The Class so formed (i.e. the Class "Things") contains the whole Universe.
(2) We may think of the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Things which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the Class so formed. In this case, the Class "Things" is called a “Genus” with regard to the Class so formed: the Class, so formed, is called a 'Species' of the Class "Things": and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
As this Process is entirely Mental, we can perform it whether there is, or is not, an existing Thing which pos- sesses that Adjunct. If there is, the Class us said to be “Real;” if not, it is said to be “Unreal,” or “Imaginary.”
\[For example, we may imagine that we have picked out, from the Class "Things," all the Things which possess the Adjunct "material, artificial, consisting of houses and street"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns." Here we may regard "Things" as a Genus, "Towns" as a Species of Things, and "material, artificial, consisting of houses and streets" as its Differentia. Again, we may imagine that we have picked out all the Things which possess the Adjunct "weighing a ton, easily lifted by a baby"; and we may thus form the Imaginary Class "Things that weigh a ton and are easily lifted by a baby."\]
(3) We may think of a certain Class, not the Class "Things," and may imagine that we have picked out from it all the Members of it which possess a certain Adjunct not possessed by the whole Class. This Adjunct is said to be “peculiar” to the smaller Class so formed. In this case, the Class thought of is called a “Genus” with regard to the smaller Class picked out from it: the smaller Class is called a “Species” of the larger: and its peculiar Adjunct is called its “Differentia.”
\[For example, we may think of the Class "towns," and imagine that we have picked out from it all the towns which possess the Attribute "lit with gas"; and we may thus form the Real Class "towns lit with gas." Here may regard "Towns" as a Genus, "Towns lit with gas" as a Species of Towns, and "lit with gas" as its Differentia. If, in the above example, we were to alter "lit with gas" into "paved with gold," we should get the Imaginary Class "towns paved with gold."\]
A Class, containing only one Member is called an “Individual.”
\[For example, the Class "towns having four million inhabitants," which Class contains only one Member, viz. "London."\]
Hence, any single Thing, which we can name so as to distinguish it from all other Things, may be regarded as a one-Member Class.
\[Thus "London" may be regarded as the one-Member Class, picked out from the Class "towns," which has, as its Differentia, "having four million inhabitants."\]
A Class, containing two or more Members, is sometimes regarded as one single Thing. When so regarded, it may possess an Adjunct which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.
\[Thus, the Class "The soldiers of the Tenth Regiment," when regarded as one single Thing, may possess the Attribute "formed in square," which is not possessed by any Member of it taken separately.\]
From the tone and content of the passage, it is reasonable to infer that the author _________________.
To answer this question, you must be able to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on a passage. The answer suggesting that the author "is a professor of formal logic at a university" is a tempting trap! While it may seem totally reasonable to believe that the author is a professor of the subject of this passage (he certainly seems knowledgeable), there is no SPECIFIC textual evidence of that assertion to be found in the passage. This option makes a specific claim. Remember, you will never be asked to choose a specific claim that has no specific basis in the text. You may be aware, independently, that Lewis Carroll was the author of the Alice in Wonderland series, and is thus a world-renowned children's book author, but this is NOT an inference that you took from the text. This is extra textual knowledge that you are applying to the text.
Thus the correct answer is the simplest choice that refers directly and accurately to the text: he "has a clear understanding of the basics of formal logic." The evidence for this is the entire text, wherein he explains those basics clearly and concisely to us.
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Adapted from Mark Twain’s “A Defense of General Funston” (1802)
We are made, brick by brick, of influences, patiently built up around the framework of our born dispositions. It is the sole process of construction; there is no other. Every man and woman and child is an influence; a daily and hourly influence which never ceases from work, and never ceases from affecting for good or evil the characters about it--some contributing gold-dust, some contributing trash-dust, but in either case helping on the building, and never stopping to rest. The shoemaker helps to build his two-dozen associates; the pickpocket helps to build his four dozen associates; the village clergyman helps to build his five hundred associates; the renowned bank-robber's name and fame help to build his hundred associates and three thousand persons whom he has never seen; the renowned philanthropist's labors and the benevolent millionaire's gifts move to kindly works and generous outlays of money a hundred thousand persons whom they have never met and never will meet; and to the building of the character of every individual thus moved these movers have added a brick. The unprincipled newspaper adds a baseness to a million decaying character-fabrics every day; the high-principled newspaper adds a daily betterment to the character-fabric of another million. The swiftly-enriched wrecker and robber of railway systems lowers the commercial morals of a whole nation for three generations. A Washington, standing upon the world's utmost summit, eternally visible, eternally clothed in light, a serene, inspiring, heartening example and admonition, is an influence which raises the level of character in all receptive men and peoples, alien and domestic; and the term of its gracious work is not measurable by fleeting generations, but only by the lingering march of the centuries.
Washington was more and greater than the father of a nation, he was the Father of its Patriotism--patriotism at its loftiest and best; and so powerful was the influence which he left behind him, that that golden patriotism remained undimmed and unsullied for a hundred years, lacking one; and so fundamentally right-hearted are our people by grace of that long and ennobling teaching, that to-day, already, they are facing back for home, they are laying aside their foreign-born and foreign-bred imported patriotism and resuming that which Washington gave to their fathers, which is American and the only American--which lasted ninety-nine years and is good for a million more. Doubt--doubt that we did right by the Filipinos--is rising steadily higher and higher in the nation's breast; conviction will follow doubt. The nation will speak; its will is law; there is no other sovereign on this soil; and in that day we shall right such unfairnesses as we have done. We shall let go our obsequious hold on the rear-skirts of the sceptred land-thieves of Europe, and be what we were before, a real World Power, and the chiefest of them all, by right of the only clean hands in Christendom, the only hands guiltless of the sordid plunder of any helpless people's stolen liberties, hands recleansed in the patriotism of Washington, and once more fit to touch the hem of the revered Shade's garment and stand in its presence unashamed. It was Washington's influence that made Lincoln and all other real patriots the Republic has known; it was Washington's influence that made the soldiers who saved the Union; and that influence will save us always, and bring us back to the fold when we stray.
And so, when a Washington is given us, or a Lincoln, or a Grant, what should we do? Knowing, as we do, that a conspicuous influence for good is worth more than a billion obscure ones, without doubt the logic of it is that we should highly value it, and make a vestal flame of it, and keep it briskly burning in every way we can--in the nursery, in the school, in the college, in the pulpit, in the newspaper--even in Congress, if such a thing were possible.
The proper inborn disposition was required to start a Washington; the acceptable influences and circumstances and a large field were required to develop and complete him.
The passage is written from the point of view of a(n) ________________.
The key here is to understand the limits of reasonable inference based on the passage. Some of these options may be perfectly reasonable, or even true, inferences about the author's POV, but you must select the answer that is a definitely supportable inference based on the content of the passage.
The author never directly talks about himself, and makes no specific statement is made about his profession or qualifications. Now, the author does spend A LOT of time praising George Washington, and one may be tempted to believe that the author is a good friend of Washington's, but there is no specific evidence of any personal relationship between the two in this passage.
So, can we even safely assume the author is a human being? Yes! We can! The very first word of this paragraph is "We" and this collective pronoun is placed right at the beginning of a discussion of general human development. Our author is a confirmed human being.
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