Demonstrate Awareness of Audience Beliefs/Values Practice Test
•15 QuestionsRead the student-written argumentative passage below and answer the question that follows.
Scenario: A county is considering a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers to reduce noise and air pollution. The audience includes homeowners, landscaping businesses, environmental advocates, and older residents sensitive to noise.
Passage (student essay):
The county should ban gas leaf blowers because they’re obnoxious and unnecessary. Frankly, if your yard needs a machine that loud, you’re doing yard work wrong. People survived for generations with rakes, and they can do it again.
Landscaping companies will complain, but they can switch to electric tools. If they can’t afford it, that’s their problem for choosing a business model that depends on pollution. Homeowners who want “perfect lawns” should stop being lazy and pick up a rake. This ban is common sense, and anyone opposing it is choosing noise over public health.
Diagnosis: Which assumption about the audience most weakens the passage’s effectiveness?
Read the student-written argumentative passage below and answer the question that follows.
Scenario: A county is considering a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers to reduce noise and air pollution. The audience includes homeowners, landscaping businesses, environmental advocates, and older residents sensitive to noise.
Passage (student essay):
The county should ban gas leaf blowers because they’re obnoxious and unnecessary. Frankly, if your yard needs a machine that loud, you’re doing yard work wrong. People survived for generations with rakes, and they can do it again.
Landscaping companies will complain, but they can switch to electric tools. If they can’t afford it, that’s their problem for choosing a business model that depends on pollution. Homeowners who want “perfect lawns” should stop being lazy and pick up a rake. This ban is common sense, and anyone opposing it is choosing noise over public health.
Diagnosis: Which assumption about the audience most weakens the passage’s effectiveness?