PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Advanced Reading 7 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student reads an article in which the author systematically concedes a counterargument before refuting it in each paragraph. What is the most likely purpose of this structural choice?
- To confuse readers by presenting multiple conflicting viewpoints without resolution
- To demonstrate that the author has considered opposing views and strengthen the overall argument's credibility (Correct answer)
- To indicate that the author is uncertain about the central claim
- To pad the article's length by repeating the same idea in different words
Correct answer: To demonstrate that the author has considered opposing views and strengthen the overall argument's credibility
Acknowledging and then refuting counterarguments is a classic rhetorical strategy called concession and rebuttal; it shows intellectual honesty and preempts objections, making the author's position appear more thoughtful and credible.
Question 2: A poem uses the image of a crumbling stone wall to describe an aging friendship throughout all six stanzas. This repeated image is best described as:
- An allusion to a famous historical monument
- An extended metaphor that develops the poem's central theme (Correct answer)
- A simile comparing friendship to architecture
- A hyperbole exaggerating the difficulties of friendship
Correct answer: An extended metaphor that develops the poem's central theme
When a single figurative comparison is sustained and developed across an entire text rather than used once, it is called an extended metaphor; the wall's gradual decay mirrors the friendship's deterioration over all six stanzas.
Question 3: A nonfiction author writes: 'The council voted unanimously — every single member raised a hand — to approve the budget.' What is the most precise reason the author includes the parenthetical clarification?
- To introduce a contrasting fact that weakens the council's decision
- To provide emphasis and ensure readers understand the full significance of 'unanimously' (Correct answer)
- To cite a specific source for the voting record
- To signal that the author doubts the accuracy of the original claim
Correct answer: To provide emphasis and ensure readers understand the full significance of 'unanimously'
The parenthetical 'every single member raised a hand' restates 'unanimously' in concrete, visual terms; this emphasis technique ensures readers fully grasp the scope of the agreement rather than glossing over an abstract adverb.
Question 4: Two editorial writers respond to the same new education policy. Writer A uses personal interviews with teachers; Writer B uses nationwide standardized test score data. A reader who wants to evaluate the policy's broad measurable impact should prioritize:
- Writer A's account, because personal testimony is always more reliable than statistics
- Writer B's account, because large-scale quantitative data better reflects systemic trends across the population (Correct answer)
- Neither account, because editorials are inherently biased and unusable
- Writer A's account, because qualitative data is richer than quantitative data in every context
Correct answer: Writer B's account, because large-scale quantitative data better reflects systemic trends across the population
When the goal is assessing broad, measurable impact across a large population, large-scale quantitative data (standardized test scores nationwide) is more appropriate than a limited set of personal interviews, which reflect individual experiences rather than system-wide patterns.
Question 5: A reader notices that a science article aimed at the general public uses the phrase 'heart attack' while a cardiology journal article on the same topic uses 'myocardial infarction.' What does this difference most directly reveal?
- The science article is less accurate than the journal article
- The journal article was written before medical terminology was standardized
- Both authors are adapting their diction to suit their intended audience's level of familiarity (Correct answer)
- The science article author does not understand the medical terminology
Correct answer: Both authors are adapting their diction to suit their intended audience's level of familiarity
Diction — word choice — is one of the key ways authors signal and respond to their intended audience; 'heart attack' is accessible to general readers while 'myocardial infarction' assumes specialized medical knowledge, showing each author tailored language to their readership.
Question 6: In a memoir, an author recounts a childhood argument with her mother in vivid sensory detail, then immediately follows it with the line: 'I understand now what she was trying to protect.' What narrative technique does this shift most clearly illustrate?
- Foreshadowing, because the author hints at a future conflict
- Dramatic irony, because readers know something the mother does not
- Retrospective insight, because the adult narrator interprets a past event with knowledge gained over time (Correct answer)
- Stream of consciousness, because the narrator records unfiltered thoughts in real time
Correct answer: Retrospective insight, because the adult narrator interprets a past event with knowledge gained over time
When a narrator looks back on a past event and assigns meaning to it using understanding gained through later experience, this is retrospective insight (also called retrospective narration); the adult perspective reframes what the child experienced, creating a gap between the two vantage points.
PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Advanced Reading 7
A student reads an article in which the author systematically concedes a counterargument before refuting it in each paragraph.
What is the most likely purpose of this structural choice?