Appeals to trust, feeling and reason
Grade 9 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Let Them Sleep (parent's op-ed)
[1] At 6:40 on a school morning, my daughter stares at a bowl of cereal she cannot taste, and I have started to wonder what we are asking of a sixteen-year-old body. [2] Sleep studies find that teenagers' internal clocks shift later during puberty, so a student who cannot fall asleep before eleven is not being lazy; she is following biology. [3] In 2014 the American Academy of Pediatrics urged middle and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. [4] Researchers who followed two Seattle high schools after their start times moved later found that students slept about 34 minutes longer each night, and their grades rose. [5] Opponents worry about bus schedules and sports practice, and those are real costs. [6] But we already pay a cost when we send exhausted students into a first-period class they cannot absorb. [7] I am only a parent, with no medical degree, so please do not take my word for it; take theirs.
Ari is drawing the section map of the op-ed. Which description of how the writer combines appeals is accurate?
- Studies open it (logos), a morning scene follows (pathos), and the writer's own credentials close it with authority (ethos).
- A morning scene opens it (pathos), exhausted students carry the case (pathos), and a list of experts closes it (ethos).
- A morning scene opens it (pathos), studies carry the case (logos), and the writer's medical training closes it (ethos).
- A morning scene opens it (pathos), studies carry the case (logos), and an admitted lack of expertise points to experts (ethos).
Bo considers readers who doubt that a later start helps. How well does sentence 7 suit them?
- Poorly: a parent's opinion carries no weight with readers who doubt the idea.
- Well: it shows that doctors across the country agree on later start times.
- Poorly: skeptics want to hear the writer's own opinion, not a pointer to other people's work.
- Well: it admits what the writer lacks and sends doubters to the researchers.
Twenty Minutes Is Not a Lunch (speech to the school board)
[1] I come before you tonight as a student who ate lunch in the stairwell for a month. [2] Our schedule gives us twenty minutes for lunch, and the line alone consumes eleven of them, which leaves nine minutes to eat. [3] You might say that students could simply bring a lunch from home. [4] A parent survey run by the student council in October found that 58 percent of families rely on school meals, so for most of us a packed lunch is not a choice. [5] Mrs. Dolores Vance, who has served in our cafeteria for sixteen years, told me that she has watched students throw away half a tray because the bell rang. [6] Imagine paying for a meal you are not given time to eat. [7] A thirty-minute lunch would cost the school five minutes of class time on each of five days a week, and that is a trade I am asking you to make.
Jun is drawing the section map of the speech. Which description of how the speaker combines appeals is accurate?
- A lived experience opens it, minutes and a survey carry the case, and a cafeteria worker adds a witness.
- A lived experience opens it, a count of minutes carries the case, and the speaker's age closes it as a credential.
- A survey opens it, a lived experience follows, and a cafeteria worker closes it with a request.
- A lived experience opens it, wasted food carries the case, and the board's request closes it.
Kira considers the board members who must trade class time for lunch time. How well does sentence 7 suit them?
- Well: it states the exact cost in class time, so the board can weigh the trade.
- Well: it shows that class time would not suffer if lunch were made longer.
- Poorly: sentence 7 asks the board to make a trade without saying why.
- Poorly: the board cares about feelings, and sentence 7 gives just a number to weigh.
Luz wonders why sentences 3 and 4 raise the idea of a packed lunch before the speaker asks for anything. Why does the objection come early?
- To show that the speaker has read a survey, which makes the speaker an expert.
- To warn students who bring lunches that they will lose time.
- To admit that the request is unfair to families who pack lunches.
- To answer a likely objection with evidence before the board raises it.
Before the Third Flood (letter to the library board)
[1] The old county archive holds ninety thousand photographs and letters, and its basement has flooded twice in the last decade. [2] I have worked there as a volunteer since 2009, and I have handled enough water-stained pages to know what a third flood would do. [3] A digitizing project would cost $42,000, which is about what the county spends to resurface a mile of road. [4] Once scanned, the pages could be read by any student in the state, and not only by those who can drive to our basement. [5] One letter, written in 1918 by a nurse named Edith Calloway to her sister, describes an influenza ward in a clear, steady hand that the damp is already lifting from the paper. [6] I would hate for her words to become a blur. [7] Surely nobody on this board wants to be remembered as the group that let a county's memory dissolve.
Noah considers library board members who must justify $42,000 to taxpayers. How well does sentence 3 suit them?
- Poorly: road repair has nothing to do with an archive.
- Poorly: the board wants a story about the letters, not a price.
- Well: it sets the price beside a familiar county cost, so the board can defend it.
- Well: it shows that scanning is the cheapest way to protect the pages.
Pia wonders why the letter saves the nurse's letter from 1918 for sentence 5, after the cost and benefit. Why does it come there?
- To show that the water damage has already destroyed the letter.
- To persuade students across the state, who would read the scanned pages.
- To show the writer is a historian, since the writer has read an old letter.
- To add a human face once the board has the cost and the benefit.
A Signal at Pine and Fourth (neighborhood petition)
[1] At 3:15 on weekdays, forty children cross Pine Street at Fourth Avenue without a signal. [2] In the past three years the corner has seen two accidents, and last month a delivery truck stopped within a few feet of a first grader. [3] The city's traffic office counted 1,260 vehicles an hour at that corner in March, and the city's own policy calls for a signal at any school crossing above 500. [4] Our neighborhood association, which includes two retired traffic engineers, has drafted a design that costs $38,000. [5] The traffic office responded that funds are limited and that the corner ranks eleventh on its list. [6] We are not asking for a favor. [7] We are asking the city to apply its own rule to the street where our children walk.
Ren is drawing the section map of the petition. Which description of how the writers combine appeals is accurate?
- A scene opens it, counts and the city's rule carry the case, and the engineers' fees close it.
- A scene opens it, the near miss carries the case, and a fairness claim closes it.
- Counts and the city's rule open it, a scene of children follows, and a fairness claim closes the petition.
- A scene of children opens it, counts and the city's own rule carry the case, and a fairness claim closes it.
Tala considers traffic-office staff who must rank eleven corners. How well does sentence 7 suit them?
- Well: it asks the city to apply its own rule, which staff must respect.
- Well: it shows that the corner is the most dangerous in the city.
- Poorly: staff care about feelings, and sentence 7 just restates a rule.
- Poorly: asking a city to follow its own rule is a favor, not a right.
Zee wonders why sentence 6, "We are not asking for a favor," comes just before sentence 7. Why does it come there?
- To show the writers are polite, which makes them credible to the traffic office.
- To warn neighbors not to ask the city for favors.
- To admit that the neighborhood has asked the city for favors before this petition.
- To frame the request as a right under the city's own rule, not a favor.