How an author sharpens a key term across a text
Grade 11 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
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What Madison Means by a Faction (founding-era essay)
Background: [1] The Federalist is a series of 85 essays printed in New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788 to urge New York to approve the new Constitution. [2] No. 10, printed in November 1787 and credited to James Madison, follows one key word, faction; the excerpt is copied exactly, with a mark at each cut.
From The Federalist No. 10 (1787): [3] By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. [4] There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.… [5] …The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.… [6] …But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.… [7] …The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS. [8] If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.… [9] …When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.
Word notes: [10] Actuated means moved to act, and adversed to, as printed here, means opposed to. [11] Aggregate interests are those of the whole community together. [12] Mischiefs are harms, and latent causes are hidden ones. [13] The republican principle here is rule by majority vote, and sinister views are harmful aims. [14] Popular government is rule by the people. [15] The cuts leave out the ways of removing the causes, a list of what people have divided over, and a passage on lawmakers as judges.
Ari traces faction from sentence 3 to sentence 7. Which choice traces how the meaning moves?
- From a political party, to two parties in an argument, to parties that a law can ban.
- From a group set against others' rights, to a harm whose causes Madison plans to remove by better laws.
- From a group against others' rights, to one rooted in human nature, whose effects must be controlled.
- From a group set against others' rights, to the poor set against the owners of property.
Luz writes the last meaning-so-far note. By sentence 9, which kind of faction has the excerpt marked as the real danger?
- A faction that includes a majority, since popular government lets it overrule others' rights.
- A faction of less than a majority, since a small group can act against the rest.
- Government by the people, which note 14 calls popular government.
- Any group of citizens with shared interests, since each group in a town has interests of its own.
Jun compares the rungs for sentences 5 and 6. How does sentence 6 build on sentence 5's account of where faction comes from?
- Sentence 5 says property causes faction, and sentence 6 says human nature makes faction a little worse.
- Sentences 5 and 6 together say that faction is a quarrel between owners and non-owners.
- Sentence 5 says faction's causes are easy to see, and sentence 6 names the plainest one.
- Sentence 5 roots faction in human nature, and sentence 6 names property as its most common source.
Pia reads the whole ladder at once. What does faction mean by the end of the excerpt, taking every rung together?
- A group of any size set against others' rights, which well-made laws can keep from ever forming.
- A group of property owners whose interest is set against those without property.
- Any size of group set against others' rights, rooted in human nature, worst as a majority.
- A small group that splits away from a larger one so it can argue with it.
Bo looks for the rung where the essay turns from removing faction to controlling it. Which sentence makes that turn?
- Sentence 5, which says the causes are sown, so they can be pulled up like weeds.
- Sentence 7, which says the causes cannot be removed, so relief lies in controlling the effects.
- Sentence 4, which names removing the causes and controlling the effects as two methods.
- Sentence 15, which says the cuts leave out the ways of removing the causes.
Four Senses of Thought (nonfiction book excerpt)
Background: [1] John Dewey, an American philosopher and professor at Columbia University, published How We Think in 1910, a book on how schools can build careful, scientific habits of thinking. [2] Its first chapter asks what the word thought really means, and the excerpt below is copied exactly from that chapter, with a mark at each cut.
From How We Think (1910): [3] No words are oftener on our lips than thinking and thought. [4] So profuse and varied, indeed, is our use of these words that it is not easy to define just what we mean by them. [5] …In the first place thought is used broadly, not to say loosely. [6] Everything that comes to mind, that "goes through our heads," is called a thought.… [7] …Second, the term is restricted by excluding whatever is directly presented; we think (or think of) only such things as we do not directly see, hear, smell, or taste. [8] Then, third, the meaning is further limited to beliefs that rest upon some kind of evidence or testimony. [9] Of this third type, two kinds--or, rather, two degrees--must be discriminated. [10] In some cases, a belief is accepted with slight or almost no attempt to state the grounds that support it. [11] In other cases, the ground or basis for a belief is deliberately sought and its adequacy to support the belief examined. [12] This process is called reflective thought; it alone is truly educative in value, and it forms, accordingly, the principal subject of this volume.… [13] …Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought.
Word notes: [14] Oftener means more often, profuse means plentiful, and to discriminate here is to tell apart. [15] Grounds are the reasons or the evidence behind a belief, and their adequacy is whether they are enough to support it. [16] The cuts leave out the chapter's stated aim, a sentence on how it will proceed and Dewey's longer discussion of each sense, and the italics of the original are printed here as plain type.
Milo traces thought across sentences 5 to 8. Which choice traces how Dewey narrows the term?
- Daydreams, then memories, then good ideas, the kinds of thoughts that most people have.
- Anything that comes to mind, then beliefs held without grounds, then beliefs whose grounds are examined.
- Anything that comes to mind, then what is not directly seen or heard, then beliefs resting on evidence.
- Beliefs resting on evidence, then what is not directly seen, then anything that comes to mind.
Zee writes the last meaning-so-far note. By sentence 13, what does Dewey's reflective thought mean?
- Anything that goes through our heads, as long as we think about it carefully.
- Checking a belief against its grounds, the reasons that someone offers for it.
- Careful, continued checking of a belief against its grounds and against what it leads to.
- Asking whether the reasons behind a belief are enough, as note 15 defines adequacy.
Kira looks for the rung where idle fancies stop counting as thought. Which sentence first limits thought to beliefs?
- Sentence 4, which says the words are used in so many ways that they are hard to define.
- Sentence 7, which leaves out whatever we directly see, hear, smell or taste.
- Sentence 8, which limits the meaning to beliefs that rest on evidence or testimony.
- Sentence 6, which says everything that comes to mind is called a thought.
Ren traces the third sense of thought through sentences 9 to 12. How do those sentences split it?
- Into two kinds of thought that cover everything that goes through our heads.
- Into two kinds of belief that must be treated unfairly, as discriminated suggests.
- Into reflective beliefs that skip their grounds and other beliefs whose grounds go unexamined.
- Into beliefs taken with little look at their grounds and beliefs whose grounds are examined.
Noah looks for the rung where Dewey first gives his narrowest sense its name. Which sentence is it?
- Sentence 6, which says everything that comes to mind is called a thought.
- Sentence 9, which says the third type comes in two kinds, or rather two degrees.
- Sentence 12, which names the seeking and testing of a belief's grounds reflective thought.
- Sentence 10, which tells of a belief accepted with almost no look at its grounds.
