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Critical reading course

-1Passage 1 I know what your e-mail in-box looks like, and it isnt pretty: a babble of come-ons and lies from hucksters and con artists. To find your real e-mail, you must wade through the torrent of fraud and obscenity known politely 5 as unsolicited bulk e-mail and colloquially as spam. In a perverse tribute to the power of the online revolution, we are all suddenly getting the same mail: easy weight loss, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. The crush of these messages is now numbered in billions per day. Its becoming 10 a major systems and engineering and network problem, says one e-mail expert. Spammers are gaining control of the Internet. The primary purpose of Passage 1 is to (A) make a comparison (B) dispute a hypothesis (C) settle a controversy (D) justify a distinction (E) highlight a concern

-2The ability to see the situation as your opponents see it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills that you can possess as a negotiator. You must know more than simply that they see things differently. It is not 5 enough to study them like beetles under a microscope; you need to know what it feels like to be a beetle. To accomplish this you should be prepared to withhold judgment as you try on their views. Your opponents may well believe that their views are right as strongly 10 as you believe yours are. The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) persuade people to defend their positions on critical issues (B) indicate a specific ability that is useful in negotiation (C) encourage people to be more accepting of others (D) argue that few people are fit for the demands of negotiation (E) suggest that negotiators should always seek consensus

-3Before the railroads were built, the way west followed the rivers: west along the Platte into Wyoming, over South Pass, up the Snake River into the Oregon Territory; or up the Missouri through the Dakotas and into Montana, then west along the Yellowstone. It 5 was the easiest but not the most accurate way to see the country. The country looked better or worse from the prospect of the river; I cant say

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which, not having gone that way. But the country looked different, certainly, not at all like the Great Plains. There 10 are many reasons why it could not have seemed the same. The authors primary purpose in the passage is to (A) introduce the narrative figure of the traveler (B) convey the excitement felt by the earliest explorers (C) encourage an appreciation of the Great Plains (D) establish the vanished beauty of western rivers (E) confirm the mysterious nature of the Great Plains

-4When Dr. Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992, she also blasted into history as the first woman of color to go into space. A chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher, 5 and astronaut, Jemison has been undaunted by a lack of role models or by roadblocks to women and minority people. I had to learn very early not to limit myself due to others limited imagination, says Dr. Jemison. An advocate for science and technology, Jemison main10 tains, we need to change the image of who does science. Thats important not only for folks who want to go into science, but for the folks who fund science. The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) note obstacles facing women in science (B) explain how Jemison fosters interest in science (C) discuss how Jemison rose to fame (D) provide a sketch of Jemison and her goals (E) describe Jemisons introduction to science

-5The desire to affirm that women and men are completely equal has made some scholars reluctant to show ways in which they are different, because differences between two groups of people have so often been used to 5 justify unequal treatment and opportunity. Much as I understand and am in sympathy with those who wish there were no differences between women and menonly reparable social injusticemy research on styles of conversation tells me that, at least in this 10 area, it simply isnt so. I believe that there are gender differences in ways of speaking, and we need to identify and understand them. Without such understanding, we are doomed to blame others or ourselvesor our own relationshipsfor the otherwise mystifying and damag15 ing effects of our contrasting conversational styles. The primary purpose of Passage 1 is to (A) present a historical overview of a controversy (B) acknowledge previous errors in thinking (C) urge changes in organized activities provided

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for children (D) assert the value of a particular approach to an issue (E) downplay the significance of a recent discovery

-6My mother began to tell a story about a science award I had won in third grade. She started with the winning the long, white staircase in the auditorium, and how the announcer called my name twice because we were way at the back and 5 it took me so long to get down those steps. Mamas eyes glowed. She was a born raconteur, able to increase the intensity of her own presence and fill the room. She was also a woman who seldom found new audiences for her anecdotes, so she made herself happy, she 10 insisted, with us children, her mother, her sisters, her grandparentsan entire clan of storytellers competing for a turn on the family stage. This time all eyes were on my mother. Her body, brown and plump and smooth, was shot through with energy. This time the story had a purpose

A central purpose of the passage is to (A) illustrate the character of the authors mother (B) portray the admissions process for boarding schools at that time (C) show the authors repressed hostility toward her mother (D) comment on examples of racism in the United States (E) reveal how the author became skeptical of human natu