AP English Language and CompositionThe Things They Carried Unit Test

Lawrynovicz Spring 2016

Form: Lemon

a. O’Brien b. Azarc. Kiowad. Rat Kiley e. Norman Bowker ab. Mitchell Sanderscd. Jimmy Crossde. Henry Dobbinsad. Bobby Jorgensonac. Lee Strunkae. Dave Jensenbc. Curt Lemonbd. Sallybe. Lindace. Kathleenabc. Marthabcd. Mary Anne

Character Quote Identification: Match the quotation with the person who said it. Yes, technically O’Brien wrote the whole book, and there are places where others are relating a story, or even where the character is imagined as speaking, but please identify the most immediate speaker, the person to whom the quotation is actually attributed in the book. Answer options may be used once, more than once, or not at all.

1. “You want my opinion, there’s a definite moral here.”2. “I’ll tell you the straight truth. The guy was dead the second he stepped

on the trail. Understand me? We all had him zeroed. A good kill—weapon, ammunition, everything.”

3. “Some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can’t ever forget it.”4. “Sometimes I want to eat this place. The whole country—the dirt, the

death—I just want to swallow it and have it there inside me. That’s how I feel. It’s like this appetite. I get scared sometimes—lots of times—but it’s not bad. You know?”

5. “All that had to be there for a reason. That’s how stories work, man.”6. “If you want, you can use the stuff in this letter. (But not my real name,

okay?) I’d write it myself except I can’t ever find any words, if you know what I mean, and I can’t figure out what exactly to say.”

7. “All right, but dance right.”8. “Brings back memories, I bet—those happy soldiering days. Except now

you’re a has-been. One of those American Legion types, guys who like to dress up in a nifty uniform and go out and play at it. Pitiful.”

Multiple Choice: Carefully read the questions and all answer options before making a choice. All questions have only one answer unless otherwise indicated.

9. All of the following are included in O’Brien’s rules for how to tell a true war story EXCEPTa. it cannot have a moral d. it embarrasses youb. it is never about warc. it never seems to end

e. it has to have some kernel of happening-truth in it

10. In some ways, both ____ act as stand-ins for the audience, voicing opinions about storytelling that O’Brien disagrees with (and ultimately wants the reader to disagree with).

a. Rat Kiley and Norman Bowker d. Mitchell Sanders and Kathleenb. Martha and Mary Annec. Azar and Kiowa

e. Linda and Henry Dobbins

11. Of the different soldiers, whose coping mechanism never really fails him or ends up twisting him?a. O’Brien’s d. Norman Bowker’sb. Azar’sc. Jimmy Cross’s

e. Henry Dobbins’

12. In the opening chapter, O’Brien writes, “At various times in various situations, they carried M-14s and CAR-15s and Swedish Ks and grease guns and captured AK-47s and Chi-Coms and RPGs and Simonov carbines and black market Uzis and .38 caliber Smith and Wesson handguns and 66 mm LAWs and shotguns and silencers and blackjacks and bayonets and C-4 plastic explosives.” Which of the following is NOT true of this sentence?

a. it contains polysyndeton, which makes the list seem even more lengthy

d. it emphasizes the haphazard, disorganized nature of the infantryman’s war experience

b. it contains jargon that makes O’Brien seem more crediblec. it contains epistrophe, which gives the

e. it hints at an almost illegal quality of the war

sentence a frantic, breathless quality

13. Which of the following are NOT parallels in The Things They Carried?a. The relationship between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen, and the one between O’Brien and Bobby Jorgensonb. The empty eyes of Martha and Mary Jane

d. Kiowa’s death and the “burying” of his moccasinse. the deaths of Ted Lavender and the baby buffalo

c. Cross and O’Brien focusing obsessively on pictures of women who are not their girlfriends

14. O’Brien’s structure helps him accomplish which of his purposes?a. making it seem as if the dead are still alive

d. all of the above

b. getting the “real truth” of being a soldier in Vietnam across to the readerc. confusing the readers about the facts so that they will seek out more information about Vietnam and educate themselves

e. only A and Bac. only A and Cbc. only B and C

15. O’Brien argues that language is a powerful tool, and that it was used by [Mark ALL that apply]a. soldiers to distance themselves from the reality of death by dehumanizing the dead

d. the soldiers to hide fear by making them sound tough

b. Jimmy Cross to convince his men that he knew what he was doing when he actually had no idea what the proper procedures were

e. O’Brien and the soldiers to bring the dead back to life

c. politicians to manipulate O’Brien into believing that the war was morally right

16. In “Love,” O’Brien writes, “At one point, I remember, we paused over a snapshot of Ted Lavender, and after a while Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said he’d never forgiven himself for Lavender’s death. It was something that would never go away, he said quietly, and I nodded and told him I felt the same about certain things.” Given the rest of the book, what does O’Brien likely have in mind when he says “certain things”?

a. the death of Kiowa d. what he said to Elroy before he leftb. not ever telling Linda how he felt about her c. shaking the dead man’s hand

e. how he failed to write Henry Dobbins’ story correctly the first time

17. How is Henry Dobbins making the washing motion with his hands in “Church” different from Azar’s dancing in “Style”?

a. Dobbins is trying to make Kiowa laugh while Azar is trying to humiliate Dobbins

d. Dobbins does it out of respect for the monks while Azar is mocking the girl

b. Azar doesn’t understand why the girl was dancing while Dobbins knows what the washing motion means

e. Dobbins is imitating something without understanding it completely while Azar knows what the dancing means

c. Dobbins is mocking the monks while Azar is trying to cheer up Rat Kiley

18. In “Spin,” O’Brien relays Mitchell Sanders’ story about a soldier who went AWOL and “shacks up in Danang with a Red Cross nurse.” But then later the soldier “rejoins his unit in the bush. Can’t wait to get back into action. Finally one of his buddies asks what happened with the nurse, why so hot for combat, and the guy says, ‘All that peace, man, it felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back.’” This story most closely parallels

a. Azar blowing up the puppy d. Rat Kiley going to Japanb. Mary Anne’s transformation e. O’Brien’s experience in “Ghost

Soldiers”c. What happens to Dave Jensen when he returns to the U.S.

19. O’Brien spends a great deal of time trying to redefine courage and cowardice. Towards which part of his audience is this argument about courage and cowardice mostly directed? Why?

a. those who fought in Vietnam; because they could not have understood what real cowardice was at the time

d. those who opposed the war by protesting; because he wants to point out that they fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the war

b. those who didn’t fight in Vietnam; because they would likely have misconceptions about cowardice in war, and O’Brien wants to correct those

e. those who dodged the draft during the war; because he wants to point out that they, too, were wrong about what bravery really was

c. those who supported the Vietnam war; because he wants them to realize the terrible consequences of their actions

20. The Charlotte Observer published a review of The Things They Carried that included the lines “It will be nominated for prizes, but I wonder if any prize will do it justice. Maybe a silver star for telling the truth that never happened.” The idea that the book deserves one of the military’s most prestigious combat medals suggests that the reviewer agrees with O’Brien’s argument

a. that happening-truth is more important than absolute occurrence

d. that truth is a fluid thing, and what really matters is if you felt like you were a hero

b. that telling the story-truth may be an act of bravery that saves livesc. that letting go of Kiowa was not an act of

e. that life itself is just as much a war as the Vietnam war, and sometimes just surviving is an act of courage

cowardice, nor something of which he should be ashamed

21. O’Brien mentions several instances in which he rewrites stories/the past, and in each instance he explains the purpose(s) for the revisions. Which of the following is NOT a reason he ever gives?

a. to atone for failures he made in earlier versions

d. to make himself the hero of the story, when at heart he is a coward

b. to help him forgive himself e. to get the real truth across to othersc. so that he can be brave and face what he couldn’t when he was in Vietnam

22. For what purposes does O’Brien write the chapter “On the Rainy River”? [Mark ALL that apply]a. to explain why he went to war d. to confess something of which he is

ashamedb. to criticize Jimmy Cross’s choices in comparison to his own

e. to confront his now dead father who was so disappointed in him

c. as a gesture of gratitude towards Elroy

a. O’Brien b. Azarc. Kiowad. Rat Kiley e. Norman Bowker ab. Mitchell Sanderscd. Jimmy Crossde. Henry Dobbinsad. Bobby Jorgensonac. Lee Strunkae. Dave Jensenbc. Ted Lavenderbd. Curt Lemon

23. What would O’Brien most likely say to readers who want to know which of the events or people in the book are actually real?

a. That he, Kiowa, and Norman Bowker were real, although some of the events and other people were changedb. The book is a work of fiction; none of it is truec. There is no such thing as objective truth; we all experience our own version of truth, none being more real than others

d. You have missed the point of the book. The point is not to learn about the absolute occurrences, but to understand the way the soldiers felte. The people are all real, but their names and some of the events have been altered to protect them

Matching: Match the objects below with the person who carried them.

24. His girlfriend’s pantyhose25. Tranquilizers26. Letters, two pictures, and a pebble27. An illustrated New Testament

Use the excerpt below from Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War to answer the question that follows.

The hallucination I had had that day in the mess, of seeing Mora and Harrison prefigured in death, had become a constant, waking nightmare. I had begun to see almost everyone as they would look in death, including myself. Shaving in the mirror in the morning, I could see myself dead, and there were moments when I not only saw my own corpse, but other people looking at it. I saw life going on without me. The sensation of not being anymore came over me at night, just before falling asleep…I was sure that another few months of identifying bodies would land me in the psychiatric ward.

28. The paragraph above most closely resembles O’Brien’s description of what happens toa. Curt Lemon d. Norman Bowkerb. Rat Kiley e. Kiowac. O’Brien himself

Use the passage below from Michael Herr’s nonfiction book Dispatches (1977) to answer the questions that follow.

[When discussing the reasons that reporters and soldiers were in Vietnam, Herr writes that people gave reasons such as…]

Hearts and Minds, Peoples of the Republic, tumbling dominoes, maintaining the equilibrium of the Dingdong by containing the ever encroaching Doodah; you could also hear the other, some young soldier speaking in all bloody innocence, saying “All that’s just a load, man. We’re here to kill gooks. Period.” Which wasn’t at all true of me. I was there to watch.

5 Talk about impersonating an identity, about locking into a role, about irony: I went to cover the war and the war covered me; an old story, unless of course you’ve never heard it. I went there behind the crude

but serious belief that you had to be able to look at anything, serious because I acted on it and went, crude because I didn’t know, it took the war to teach it, that you were as responsible for everything you saw as you were for everything you did. The problem was that you didn’t always know what you were seeing

10 until later, maybe years later, that a lot of it never made it in at all, it just stayed stored there in your eyes. Time and information, rock and roll, life itself, the information isn’t frozen, you are.

Sometimes I didn’t know if an action took a second or an hour or if I dreamed it or what. In war more than in other life you don’t really know what you are doing most of the time, you’re just behaving, and afterward you can make up any kind of bullshit you want to about it, say you felt good or bad, loved it or

15 hated it, did this or that, the right thing or the wrong thing; still, what happened happened.

Coming back, telling stories, I’d say, “Oh man I was scared,” and “Oh God I thought it was all over,” a long time before I knew how scared I was really supposed to be, or how clear and closed and beyond my control “all over” could become. I wasn’t dumb but I sure was raw, certain connections are hard to make when you come from a place where they go around with war in their heads all the time.

29. The diction in lines 1-2 indicates that Herr views these reasons asa. inspiring d. insidious and dangerousb. heartfelt and patriotic e. uninterestingc. generic and somewhat ridiculous

30. Lines 6-7, where Herr writes, “I went there behind the crude but serious belief that you had to be able to look at anything.” O’Brien went through his tour in Vietnam

a. with the same convictionb. at first with the same idea, but found that he was not brave enough to continue lookingc. with the same sort of writer’s interest in details so that he could faithfully relate them later in his books

d. using the exact opposite approach, which was largely to avoid looking at thingse. mostly with the opposite idea, but later, after the incident with the buffalo, decided he needed to start looking at things more closely

31. Herr writes that it took the war to teach him “that you were as responsible for everything you saw as you were for everything you did” (lines 7-8). O’Brien would

a. disagree, saying that you are only responsible for your actions

d. say that Herr needs to let go of his guilt, forget, and move on

b. wholeheartedly agreec. go even further and say that you are also responsible for everything the U.S. did or did not do

e. say that reporters were far less guilty than any soldier because all they ever did was observe

32. What would O’Brien most likely say about the sentiment Herr expresses in lines 9-10, “The problem was that you didn’t always know what you were seeing until later, maybe years later, that a lot of it never made it in at all, it just stayed stored there in your eyes”?

a. He would agree, as he experienced a similar phenomenon, and even argued that such jumbled or confused perception is one of the hallmarks of a true war story

d. He would say that the problem is too much information “made it in,” and this led to PTSD for all soldiers, regardless of whether they admitted it or not.

b. He would disagree and say the problem is actually the opposite, that you always know exactly what you are seeing, even when you don’t want to

e. There isn’t enough information in the book to be able to say what O’Brien would think about this statement with any certainty

c. He would say that Herr can’t really speak about such things with any authority since he didn’t actually fight, only observed

33. Herr’s use of profanity and racial slurs such as “gooks” would likely prompt O’Brien to saya. that his work is offensiveb. that this diction proves that Herr is probably

d. that such choices are dangerous, and may well keep readers from hearing the truth

interested in real truthc. that Herr is no more sophisticated than the soldiers he is reporting about

e. that Herr’s lack of respect for the people of Vietnam was typical of reporters who had no real contact with them

34. The last line ends with the mention of a “place where they go around with war in their heads all the time.” Herr is referring to ____, but O’Brien would probably say ____

a. America; Vietnam during the war d. the military; mostly just the medics inb. Vietnam during the war; everywhere in America during the war, even in small towns like Bowker’sc. a psychological state; just in the physical location of Vietnam

Vietname. Vietnam during the war; for a veteran, this might apply to anywhere he went even after the war

35. Hesse’s purpose is mainly toa. draw attention to a problem and lay out practical, concrete solutions to it

d. exaggerate the problem so that people realize what is going wrong and then try to fix it

b. raise awareness about a problem that is growing worse, and suggest the reader take time to think more critically

e. praise librarians and argue that they deserve more recognition and respect in society

c. criticize her audience for being lazy

36. After her opening note, Hesse lists a number of recent events. The strategy behind beginning this way is to

a. overwhelm the reader with evidence so that they can’t question her credibility

d. shock the reader with the ridiculous nature of the events, and make him question how things

b. distract the reader from the fact that her argument is mostly opinionc. create a kind of uncertainty about what is true, making the reader rethink his previous

got to this pointe. get the boring information out the way first, so that then the reader can apply the rules to what is to come

notions on the matter

37. Hesse’s defense of the Google generation isa. limited at best, but does encourage some understandingb. impassioned and wholehearted

d. strengthened by the fact that she is a member of that generation herself, and has managed to rise to a respected position as a reporter

c. undercut by her argument about the e. nonexistentdifference between information and knowledge

38. Hesse portrays Chad Stark asa. someone to laugh at d. a Christ figureb. someone admirable and unappreciated e. foolish and misguidedc. very effective in combating ignorance

39. Hesse’s intended audience is likely a. members of the Google generation d. all of the aboveb. older readers who are frustrated with the way the younger generation approaches the search for truth

e. both A and Bac. both A and Cbc. both B and C

c. teachers and professors who are too set in their old ways, and have not yet embraced new technology

40. Hesse’s title references a famous line from A Few Good Men, where a military officer is asked to tell the truth in court, and responds, “You can’t handle the truth.” He means that the truth is something civilians do not want to know. The truth is that the military is doing things civilians might see as unsavory, but which the officer sees as absolutely necessary. In this article, Hesse seems to be using the title as a way of saying

a. most people prefer to be uninformed because the truth is usually too horrifying to face

d. can you accept that lies are sometimes necessary for society to function smoothly?

b. can you handle the fact that there is no such thing as truth?c. can you see through the lies of others?

e. many people don’t have the patience to find the truth, and even if they do, they may not want to be willing to listen to it

41. In the beginning of the article, Hesse asks, “For the Google generation, what happens to the concepts of truth and knowledge in a user-generated world of information saturation?” Ultimately, her answer to this question is

a. never revealedb. that people are less willing to spend the necessary time to arrive at either one

d. that truth and knowledge are now impossible to find beneath the avalanche of factse. that they are lost entirely as moral relativity

c. that truth and knowledge are becoming more important, but information is becoming more scarce

has taken over

42. In the last section of her article, Hesse writes: Who is right? The student who lives online? Or the lame teacher who thinks that books are a necessary component to a well-rounded understanding of how information works? As students must absorb increasingly more information throughout their education, perhaps expecting them to assess whether it’s true is simply too much. Four errors to Britannica's three ain’t bad -- and probably good enough for the research the average person does on a daily basis.

From the diction used in the lines above, it is clear thata. Hesse herself is honestly unsure of the d. Hesse is critical of the teachers as living

answer in the past and using outdated methodsb. Hesse is partly taking on the voice of the students she is criticizing, and she is ultimately suggesting that the teachers are right

e. Hesse is less concerned with academic accuracy than she is with success in the real world

c. Hesse thinks the answer is not really as important as she once thought

43. Hesse defines the idea of “wikiality” in a way that makes it synonymous with which logical fallacy?a. hasty generalization d. post hoc ergo propter hocb. circular reasoning e. ad populumc. slippery slope

44. Which of the following rhetorical strategies is NOT used by Hesse in “Truth, Can You Handle It?”?a. an anecdote about Regan’s “Welfare Queen”

d. parroting the language of the “Google

b. repeated diction related to drowning or chokingc. a metaphor about war that pits librarians and teachers against misinformation and wikiality

generation”e. a rather informal, almost conversational tone

45. McRaney argues that most online arguments eventually descend into what kind of logical fallacy?a. red herring d. ad hominemb. straw man e. ad populumc. either/or

46. McRaney’s term, “narrative script” might most fittingly be applied to which part of The Things They Carried?

a. the familiar story about the soldier jumping on the grenade and saving his friends

d. the pairing of the chapters “The Man I Killed” and “Ambush”

b. O’Brien’s reimagining of the story about the soldier jumping on the grenade in order to save his friends

e. the chapter “On the Rainy River”

c. the repetition of the incidents surrounding Kiowa’s death

47. McRaney likely places the scientific evidence about spanking last instead of first becausea. he is attempting to make you realize the truth about spanking on your own

d. he is first concerned about offering anecdotal, personal evidence in order to

b. he is trying to demonstrate how gullible the majority of readers arec. he is trying to hold the reader’s attention

demonstrate that it is less convincinge. he is trying to get you to understand the concepts he is discussing, and then make you see how they affect you

48. One of McRaney’s rhetorical strategies that might rub his readers the wrong way, and might possibly make them feel defensive is

a. his aggressive stance on spanking d. his extended attack on Republican valuesb. his stance on homosexuality e. his use of the second person

c. his dismissal of so much earlier research, which has been accepted for decades, and was probably taught to the reader at some point

49. McRaney sees an increase in choice on the internet, social media, etc. asa. a concern, since it allows people to avoid information that might challenge their ideas

d. idyllic, and likely to eventually lead to a “techutopia”

b. a positive thing, since it encourages people to see things from various points of viewc. having little effect on our response to information

e. mildly helpful in mitigating the damage caused by the backfire effect, but still only a small step in the right direction

50. Towards the end of his article, McRaney writes, “Within minutes of learning about Seal Team Six, the headshot tweeted around the world and the swift burial at sea, conspiracy theories began to bounce against the walls of our infinitely voluminous echo chamber. Days later, when the world learned they would be denied photographic proof, the conspiracy theories grew legs, left the ocean and evolved into self-sustaining undebunkable life forms.” Here, McRaney’s use of the word “evolved”

a. demonstrates his respect for the progression of ideas

d. is sarcastic, indicating that he does not believe any sort of change is happening at all

b. is written in an ironic way, suggesting that he is disapproving of the “evolution” and doesn’t actually believe such theories are “undebunkable”

e. suggests that people have no control over their thought processes

c. ties back to his earlier discussion of how the backfire effect is an important step forward for rational thinking in the 21st century

51. McRaney uses all of the following types of evidence EXCEPTa. psychological studies d. a kind of experiment on the readerb. common scenarios that the reader is likely to have experienced, and therefore likely to recognize as true based on personal evidence

e. quotations from his interviews with students and professors

c. historical examples

52. McRaney’s purpose is mainly toa. convince the reader to stop using the backfire effect

d. inform the audience about a new psychological problem

b. make readers aware of how the backfire effect works and might be affecting them so that they can make more logical decisions

e. call the reader to action, asking them to take steps to insure the backfire effect does not cause more problems in politics

c. mock those people who are most affected by the backfire effect

53. Some high schools “track” students by their chosen career paths, meaning that all of the students who plan to pursue engineering are put in all the same classes, have the same lunch, go up and down the same hallways, etc., while the students interested in theater are all put together in classes with other students interested in theater, have the same lunch, etc. In these schools, rarely do students with differing interests run into each other. McRaney would view this type of set up as

a. helpful for student focus d. unlikely to have much of any effect on the

b. beneficial for social development and understandingc. a poor idea that is likely to be harmful to students

students’ learning or thinkinge. likely to help students experience a much weaker backfire effect when they encounter opposing opinions

54. Which piece of Hesse’s evidence is an example of what McRaney calls “biased assimilation”?a. the shark cartilage study d. the Lincoln quotationb. the smoking study from the 1960s e. the study involving the toddlersc. the Welfare Queen

55. The discussion of the “Welfare Queen” bears some resemblance to O’Brien’s discussion of how Rat Kiley tended to “heat up the truth.” How would O’Brien view the story of the “Welfare Queen” and its effects?

a. as “story truth,” and therefore he would approve of it

d. as crucial to understanding how the poor feel when they are on welfare

b. as “happening truth,” and therefore he would criticize itc. as necessary to make the voters understand how it feels to have the poor exploit the system

e. as a deception used to manipulate voters for political ends, not “story truth” to help them understand situations they have not experienced

56. In some ways, the overall arguments of McRaney and Hesse seem to contradict each other. As careful readers, what should we conclude?

a. That one of the theories is incorrect because they are incompatible, but it is impossible to tell which one is correct.b. The backfire effect is likely only temporary, and if psychologists had returned months later, they would have found that the subjects would actually have come to believe the data they had initially rejected.

c. Hesse is correct, and if the studies McRaney cites had just continued providing the subjects with data that contradicted their beliefs, they would eventually have changed their minds.d. They are both correct, but under limited circumstances. Hesse’s theory that the more times you hear something, the more likely you are to believe it only applies to topics that you do not already have strong feelings about.

57. Both McRaney and Hesse agree on which of the following points?a. We tend to believe what we want to believe

d. A and B

b. We don’t use new information to learn new things, become more informed, or change our position. We use it to reinforce our beliefs.

e. B and Cac. A and Cad. A, B, and C

c. The root problem with the way we process information has always been there,

but the problem is getting worse because of the large amounts of information made available by the internet

58. Which of the following makes the reader a kind of psychological test subject in order to prove a point?

a. McRaneyb. Hesse

c. bothd. neither

59. If Hesse is correct, the fact that O’Brien repeatedly refers to the young Vietnamese man as “the man I killed” means that the audience is

a. less and less likely to believe that O’Brien actually killed anyone

d. likely to feel betrayed and become angrier and angrier with O’Brien

b. more likely to believe that O’Brien killed him, even though he denies it at one point

e. going to end up confused, unable to say whether he killed the man or not

c. probably going to distrust O’Brien more and more on all points

60. If you google “horaltic pose,” you will find many reputable websites that use the phrase to describe vultures standing with outstretched wings, and you can read a great deal about the purpose of such a stance (to dry the bird’s wings, to warm up, to bake off bacteria, etc.). However, you will not find the word “horaltic” in any book about vultures, because it is not actually a legitimate term, but rather a mistake or garbling of another word made once online, and then repeated and repeated until even zoos and birding websites accepted it. This phenomenon would be useful as evidence to support the claim of which work?

a. “Truth, Can You Handle It?” d. none of the aboveb. “The Backfire Effect” e. both A and Bc. The Things They Carried

61. What would most likely be O’Brien’s reaction to the results of the Kent State psychological study that is presented in McRaney’s article?

a. He would be undisturbed by them, since he is always blurring the lines of truth himselfb. He would be concerned because he wants people to recognize and understand moral ambiguities, so realizing that those who knew more about the situation were less likely to see any kind of gray area would disappoint him

c. He would be upset, because as a liberal and anti-war writer, he would want everyone to recognize that the aggression of the National Guard led to unnecessary student deathsd. He would be upset because he wants people to remember the war and the deaths associated with it, so the fact that so many people know nothing about such an important event would sadden him.

62. The cartoon below is most relevant to which argument?

63. O’Brien’s first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, was a nonfiction account of his time in Vietnam. His next book, Going after Cacciato, was a fiction novel about the Vietnam War, and a kind of riff on the famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Based on this information and what you know of The Things They Carried, you could argue that O’Brien

a. cannot decide which genre he prefersb. felt like he had already told his story the first time, and now must continue making up new stories in order to help people remember the Vietnam War, which they are quickly forgetting

d. was unsatisfied with the ability of both fiction and nonfiction to capture the truth about the war, and so turned to a kind of “faction” in an attempt to do so more successfullye. has matured as a writer, and so is able to write good fiction, not just plain nonfiction

c. Wrote The Things They Carried as an attempt to clarify what was confusing in the first two books

64. Consider the quotation from John Ransom that opens O’Brien’s book. Based on the quotation, one might argue that both Ransom and O’Brien felt part of their audience would accept their writing as truth because of what McRaney calls _______; and, on the other hand, feared that the rest of their audience might reject what they had to say because of ______.

a. confirmation bias; selective skepticism d. selective skepticism; cognitive dissonance

b. the backfire effect; narrative scripts e. reactionary realism; absolute occurancec. narrative scripts; confirmation bias

65. All three works in this unit explore a. the sometimes unexpected ways that the mind processes truth and facts

d. the relationship between technology and memory

b. the relationship between cowardice and the inability to act or make a decision

e. problems that arise because we have too much information available to us now

c. scientific studies about truth

66. Considering the opening of his article, one of McRaney’s main purposes seems to be _____; one might say that this is one of O’Brien’s main purposes as well since he tries to _____.

a. Hesse’s about cognitive dissonanceb. Hesse’s about wikialityc. McRaney’s argument about the backfire effectd. Hesse’s about detoxing studentse. McRaney’s argument about the confirmation bias

a. to criticize those conservatives; ridicule them for the part they played in sending soldiers to Vietman

c. to make his audience think for themselves; get them to be skeptical of everything he says d. to correct a misconception; make the reader

b. to reveal the way the brain works; explain in scientific terms how one processes the concept of truth

reconsider how he or she defines courage, cowardice, and truth

Use the article below to answer the questions that follow.

America’s Most Trusted News Source Not So TrustworthyBy Leonard Pitts Jr.

Miami HeraldNovember 2, 2014

You can’t handle the truth.

There is a temptation to take that line from Jack Nicholson — snarled at Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men” — as the moral of the story, the lesson to be learned from a new study on trustworthiness and the news media.

The study, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, informs us that America’s least-trusted news source is conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, rated unreliable by almost 40 percent of all Americans. The also conservative Fox “News” follows closely at 37 percent. So America’s least-trusted news sources are also its most popular; Limbaugh hosts the number one show on radio and Fox is the highest-rated cable news outlet.

It gets better. Pew tells us America’s most trusted news source is CNN; the network that eschews any ideological identifier is considered reliable by 54 percent of us. Yet for as much as we supposedly trust it, we don’t seem to like it very much. Its ratings — despite a mild resurgence in recent months — are but a fraction of Fox’s and it is undergoing massive layoffs.

For what it’s worth, there’s evidence to support America’s perception of who is and is not trustworthy. PunditFact, an offshoot of PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website, has issued a report card on the truthfulness of broadcast pundits by network. It’s an imperfect measure, but the results are still compelling. Over 60 percent of Fox pundit statements rated by PunditFact have been found to be some flavor of false.

CNN? Just 22 percent.

If all this sounds like a commercial for the network of holograms and missing plane obsessions, it isn’t. Rather, it’s a lament for the closing of the American mind.

There is an axiom that he who builds the best mousetrap enjoys the greatest success. But if that’s true, how is it the greatest successes in a business measured by trustworthiness are those entities judged least trustworthy of all? Maybe the answer is that conservative hardliners are more rabid in support of those who validate their views than the rest of us are in pursuit of simple truth.

In a nation where political discourse is increasingly a facts-optional exercise and reality now comes in shades of red and blue, that’s hardly reassuring.

Two years ago, at the request of yours truly, the people at Nielsen crunched some numbers. They found that in times of major breaking news — the examples used were the Columbine shooting, the Sept. 11 attacks, the commencement of the Iraq War, the Japanese tsunami and the death of Michael Jackson — ratings for all three cable news outlets tend to rise. But, almost without exception, the most dramatic spikes on a percentage basis are enjoyed by CNN. The week of Sept. 11, its ratings rose by 800 percent. No other network came close.

In other words, when something big has happened and people need to know what’s going on, they know where to go. They go where they can trust.

But on a routine day, many Americans, for as much as they will say otherwise, really don’t want to be informed so much as to be confirmed in their political biases, in the partisan version of truth that explains the world to them while making the fewest demands on intellect — and conscience. They need the “death panels” and “anchor” babies, the birther controversies and supposedly rampant voter fraud, the “threats” of sharia law and Obama-caused Ebola, the whole rickety structure of falsehood and fear upon which conservatism has built its alternate reality. That’s the whole reason Fox exists — and CNN barely does.

And it’s why Nicholson’s quote, tempting as it is, provides no proper moral for this story.

It’s not that we can’t handle the truth. It’s that some of us prefer the lie.

67. Pitts’ tone in this article is similar to McRaney’s in that it isa. informal and informative d. formal and detachedb. condescending and eruditec. vicious and sarcastic

e. defeated and regretful

68. Pitts’s article is similar to Hesse’s in that it tries to convey its message by usinga. interviews with students d. an analysis of a scene from A Few Good

Menb. statistics from reputable studiesc. a pattern of war or military diction

e. a kind of psychological experiment on the reader

69. Pitts’ comment that “political discourse is increasingly a facts-optional exercise and reality now comes in shades of red and blue,” most closely mirrors

a. O’Brien’s understanding of truth, but while Pitts views this in a positive light,

d. Hesse’s mention of the recent publication of "True Enough: Learning to

a. ad hominem b. ad populumc. straw mand. red herring e. hasty generalization ab. slantingcd. post hoc ergo propter hocde. either/or ac. circular reasoningad. false analogyae. slippery slope

O’Brien views it in a negative light.b. Sanders’ tendency to “heat up the truth”when he is telling a story

Live in a Post-Fact Society," Farhad Manjoo's exploration of the "cultural ascendancy of belief over fact."e. McRaney’s comment that at some point all

c. O’Brien’s criticism of Rat Kiley’s deceitful storytelling style

newspapers “screw up and get the facts wrong.” But “a reputable news source takes the time to say ‘my bad.’”

70. Hesse, McRaney, and Pitts all agree that ____; but Pitts goes further to suggest that ____.a. the internet is making the problem worse; this amounts to brain washing

d. technology is making it more difficult to discern what is true; there is no such thing as

b. the brain has difficulty distinguishing between truth and falsehood; nothing can be done to fix the problemc. we tend to seek out information that supports what we already believe; we are aware that this means we won’t get the most accurate information, but we do it anyway

objective truthe. many people seek out reliable information; they are too afraid of being wrong to acknowledge the truth when they find it

Matching: Using the choices from the box below, match the following examples with the correct logical fallacies. Answers may be used once, more than once, or not at all.

71. A black cat crossed my path just before I tripped and broke my arm. Therefore, the black cat caused my broken arm.

72. People that protested against the war in Iraq were either Communists or Al Qaeda sympathizers.

73. American education is in a sad state. Tests prove that we are lagging behind most of the developed world in math, science, and even English. Some people say that American schools could raise those scores if they abolished summer vacation and students were made to go to school all year long. That way, they say that students wouldn’t forget important information while on break. What we should really be considering, however, is what abolishing summer vacation would do to places like New Orleans and Florida, where seasonal tourism is such a vital part of the local economy.

74. Man O’ War wasn’t nearly as good a racehorse as the great Triple Crown winner Sir Barton. Heck, he couldn’t even manage to win the Kentucky Derby! [The speaker fails to mention that Man O’ War was never entered in the Kentucky Derby, and that he beat Sir Barton in a match race.]

75. Lots of people have downloaded this new Imagine Dragons song, so it must be good.

76. Bill Clinton never served in the military. To have Bill Clinton become president, and thus commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States, is like electing some random person you met on the street to fly the space shuttle.

77. Cruz is the best presidential candidate because he is better than all of the others.78. [News broadcast] In today’s top story, Senator Smith carelessly cast the deciding vote today to pass

both the budget bill and the trailer bill to fund yet another excessive watchdog committee over coastal development.

79. I’ve met six people from Boston, and they were all terrible drivers. Everyone in Boston must be a terrible driver.

80. I know you’re not getting enough sleep, but you’ve got to stop drinking so much coffee! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s ADHD medication. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, stay away from the coffee!