PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Advanced Reading 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student reads two passages on the same historical event — one written by a participant and one written by a historian fifty years later. Which statement best describes an advantage the historian's account has over the participant's account?
- The historian can include personal emotions that make the account more vivid
- The historian benefits from temporal distance, access to multiple sources, and reduced personal bias (Correct answer)
- The historian's account is automatically more accurate because it is longer
- The participant's account is always less reliable because memory fades over time
Correct answer: The historian benefits from temporal distance, access to multiple sources, and reduced personal bias
A historian writing decades later can consult multiple primary sources, consider competing interpretations, and is less likely to be swayed by personal stake in the outcome — advantages a participant writing in the moment does not have.
Question 2: An author opens an essay with a striking anecdote about a single struggling family, then transitions to national poverty statistics. This rhetorical strategy is best described as:
- Moving from logos to ethos to establish credibility before presenting data
- Using pathos to create emotional engagement before supporting claims with logos (Correct answer)
- Undercutting the statistical argument by making it seem too personal
- Demonstrating syllogistic reasoning through a concrete example
Correct answer: Using pathos to create emotional engagement before supporting claims with logos
Opening with a personal story appeals to emotion (pathos) to hook the reader, while the shift to statistics introduces logical evidence (logos) — a classic rhetorical sequence designed to persuade on both emotional and rational levels.
Question 3: In a short story, the narrator describes a neighbor as 'generous to a fault,' yet every scene shows the neighbor giving only when others are watching. A skilled reader would interpret this as:
- Situational irony, because the narrator's label contradicts what the scenes demonstrate (Correct answer)
- Hyperbole, because 'generous to a fault' exaggerates a positive quality for comic effect
- Foreshadowing that the neighbor will eventually perform a truly selfless act
- An allusion to a well-known literary character known for public charity
Correct answer: Situational irony, because the narrator's label contradicts what the scenes demonstrate
Situational irony occurs when what is stated or expected conflicts with what actually happens. The narrator's positive label ('generous to a fault') is undermined by scenes that reveal self-serving motives, creating an ironic gap between description and evidence.
Question 4: A reader encounters the word 'ephemeral' in a passage about social media trends. The surrounding sentences state: 'Viral moments captivate millions overnight but are forgotten within days. Nothing online seems to last.' Which strategy best determines the word's meaning?
- Searching for a cognate in a familiar foreign language
- Using context clues — the sentences describe things that disappear quickly, suggesting 'ephemeral' means short-lived (Correct answer)
- Skipping the word because the main idea is still understandable without it
- Assuming the word is negative because it appears in a criticism of social media
Correct answer: Using context clues — the sentences describe things that disappear quickly, suggesting 'ephemeral' means short-lived
Context clues are the most efficient and reliable strategy here; the surrounding sentences explicitly describe things vanishing quickly, directly defining 'ephemeral' (meaning lasting for a very short time) without requiring an external source.
Question 5: An author writing an argumentative essay includes a paragraph that fairly presents the opposing viewpoint before refuting it. This technique is called a:
- Non sequitur, used to distract the reader from weak evidence
- Counterclaim and rebuttal, used to demonstrate awareness of opposing views and strengthen credibility (Correct answer)
- Red herring, inserted to make the essay appear balanced without engaging the opposition
- Circular argument, restating the thesis in the language of the opposition
Correct answer: Counterclaim and rebuttal, used to demonstrate awareness of opposing views and strengthen credibility
Acknowledging a counterclaim and then refuting it is a standard argumentative structure that signals intellectual honesty, anticipates reader objections, and ultimately strengthens the author's overall argument by showing its claims hold up against scrutiny.
Question 6: A poem and an informational article both address the same environmental disaster. Compared to the article, the poem is more likely to:
- Provide precise data about the extent of the damage
- Present an objective, third-person chronology of events
- Use figurative language and sensory imagery to convey emotional impact (Correct answer)
- Define technical terms for a general audience
Correct answer: Use figurative language and sensory imagery to convey emotional impact
Poetry prioritizes emotional resonance and artistic expression; figurative language and imagery are its primary tools for conveying meaning. An informational article, by contrast, relies on facts, definitions, and objective reporting to inform rather than evoke feeling.
PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Advanced Reading 1
A student reads two passages on the same historical event — one written by a participant and one written by a historian fifty years later.
Which statement best describes an advantage the historian's account has over the participant's account?