Rise Placement Test Critical Analysis and Sourcing 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A headline reads: 'New Drug Eliminates Cancer in Lab Mice.' What is the most important caveat a critical reader should keep in mind?
- The drug has not yet been tested in human clinical trials (Correct answer)
- Lab mice are unethical research subjects
- Cancer research is always overfunded
- Headlines are written by scientists, not journalists
Correct answer: The drug has not yet been tested in human clinical trials
Results in animal models frequently do not translate to human medicine, so lab success alone does not indicate an effective human treatment.
Question 2: Which of the following is the strongest indicator that a website is a credible source of health information?
- The site has millions of monthly visitors
- The content is reviewed by licensed medical professionals and cites peer-reviewed studies (Correct answer)
- The site sells no advertising
- The site uses a clean, professional design
Correct answer: The content is reviewed by licensed medical professionals and cites peer-reviewed studies
Expert review and citation of peer-reviewed research are hallmarks of credible health information, unlike popularity or aesthetics.
Question 3: When an author presents only the weakest version of an opposing argument in order to refute it easily, this is called:
- Steel-manning
- Straw man fallacy (Correct answer)
- Slippery slope fallacy
- Appeal to nature
Correct answer: Straw man fallacy
A straw man distorts or oversimplifies the opposing view so it can be knocked down without addressing its strongest points.
Question 4: A blog post written in 2015 discusses smartphone security risks. Why might this source be insufficient for a 2026 research paper?
- Blogs are never acceptable academic sources
- The technology landscape and threats have changed significantly since 2015 (Correct answer)
- The post is too short to contain useful information
- Security topics require government-authored sources only
Correct answer: The technology landscape and threats have changed significantly since 2015
Cybersecurity evolves rapidly, so an eleven-year-old source is likely to omit current threats, standards, and technologies.
Question 5: Which question is MOST useful for assessing the purpose of a source?
- Is the source longer than five pages?
- Why was this content created—to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain? (Correct answer)
- Does the source use bullet points or paragraphs?
- Was the source published in the morning or afternoon?
Correct answer: Why was this content created—to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain?
Identifying the author's purpose reveals potential bias and helps you understand how the content frames information.
Question 6: An opinion editorial argues that since violent video games became popular, school violence has increased. What logical error does this commit?
- False dilemma
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc (false cause) (Correct answer)
- Appeal to authority
- Hasty generalization
Correct answer: Post hoc ergo propter hoc (false cause)
Arguing that because B followed A, A caused B is the post hoc fallacy—sequence in time does not prove causation.
Question 7: Which action best demonstrates 'lateral reading' when fact-checking an unfamiliar source?
- Reading the source from top to bottom very carefully
- Opening new browser tabs to search what others say about the source (Correct answer)
- Printing the source and annotating it by hand
- Re-reading the source's conclusion multiple times
Correct answer: Opening new browser tabs to search what others say about the source
Lateral reading means leaving the source immediately to search for independent assessments of its credibility, as professional fact-checkers do.
Rise Placement Test Critical Analysis and Sourcing 4
A headline reads: 'New Drug Eliminates Cancer in Lab Mice.' What is the most important caveat a critical reader should keep in mind?