Asking the Right Questions- Chapter 2+3

Task 1. Complete the following statements:

1. Descriptive issues are those that raise questions about the way things were, are, or will
be. (2 words)
2. We cannot critically evaluate until we find the conclusion. (2 words)
3. The surest way to detect an issue when it is not explicitly stated is to locate the
conclusion
4. Conclusions are not statements used to prove something else. (1 word)
5. “What is the author’s main point?” is a question used to search for the writer’s
conclusion
6. Every argument must have at least one reason and a (1 word each).
7. The conclusion of an argument is derived from reasons (1 words).
8. A statement of personal belief or opinion that is not supported by reasons or evidence is
not an argument. (2 words).
9. It is impossible to determine the worth of a conclusion until you identify the reasons. (1
word)
10. Three characteristics of arguments are: they have intent; their quality
varies; and they have two essential visible components (1 word each.).

Task 2. Which of the following are issues? Categorize the issues.

 a. Should abortion be legal? f. Employment is getting even worse than
This question proposes a course of action during the recession.
or policy. This is a statement of fact about a current
situation.
b. How should Vietnam react to China’s g. Does our society spend too much on
aggression? educational projects? This question
While this question seeks a solution, it implies a judgment about the current level
implicitly suggests that there should be a of spending and suggests a potential need
reaction. for change.
c. Capital punishment should be h. Adoption controversy
abolished. This is a clear statement This is a description of a complex issue
advocating for a specific action. with multiple perspectives.
d. What caused the Great Depression? i.Do people with sports cars drive faster
This is a question seeking to understand a than others?
past event. This is a factual question that can be
answered through observation or data
analysis.
e. Do people need higher education to j. Have Hollywood movies become too
succeed? immoral? This question implies a moral
While this question implies a correlation, judgment and suggests a standard that is
it is primarily asking about a factual not being met.
relationship between education and
success.
descriptive
prescriptive

Task 3. For each passage in this exercise, identify which of the items that follow best
states the primary issue discussed in the passage.
1. Let me tell you why Hank ought not to take that math course. First, it’s too hard,
and he’ll probably flunk it. Second, he’s going to spend the whole term in a state of
frustration. Third, he’ll probably get depressed and do poorly in all the rest of his
courses.
a. Whether Hank ought to take the math course
b. Whether Hank would flunk the math course
c. Whether Hank will spend the whole term in a state of frustration
d. Whether Hank will get depressed and do poorly in all the rest of his courses
→ The passage directly addresses the question of whether Hank should enroll in the math
course, considering potential negative consequences.
2. Pollution of the waters of the Everglades and of Florida Bay is due to multiple causes.
These include cattle farming, dairy farming, industry, tourism, and urban
development. So it is simply not that the sugar industry is completely responsible for
the pollution of these waters.
a. Whether pollution of the waters of the Everglades and Florida Bay is due to multiple
causes
b. Whether pollution is caused by cattle farming, dairy farming, industry, tourism, and urban
development
c. Whether the sugar industry is partly responsible for the pollution of these waters
d. Whether the sugar industry is completely responsible for the pollution of these waters
→ The passage explicitly argues against the notion that the sugar industry is solely
responsible, highlighting multiple contributing factors.

3. It’s clear that the mainstream media have lost interest in classical music. For
example, the NBC network used to have its own classical orchestra conducted by
Arturo Toscanini, but no such orchestra exists now. One newspaper, the no-longer-
existent Washington Star, used to have thirteen classical music reviewers—that’s more
than twice as many as the New York Times has now. H. L. Mencken and other
columnists used to devote considerable space to classical music; nowadays, you almost
never see it mentioned in a major column.
a. Whether popular taste has turned away from classical music
b. Whether newspapers are employing fewer writers on classical music
c. Whether the mainstream media have lost interest in classical music syndrome.
→ The passage provides evidence of declining media coverage of classical music,
suggesting a loss of interest.

4. From an editorial in a newspaper outside Southern California: “The people in

Southern California who lost a fortune in the wildfires last year could have bought
insurance that would have covered their houses and practically everything in them.
And anybody with any foresight would have made sure there were no brush and no
trees near the houses so that there would be a buffer zone between the house and any
fire, as the Forest Service recommends. Finally, anybody living in a fire danger zone
ought to know enough to have a fireproof or fire-resistant roof on the house. So, you
see, most of the losses those people suffered were simply their own fault.”
a. Whether there were things the fire victims could have done to prevent their losses
b. Whether insurance, fire buffer zones, and fire-resistant roofs could have prevented much
of the loss
c. Whether the losses suffered by people in the fires were their own fault
→ The passage provides evidence of declining media coverage of classical music,
suggesting a loss of interest.

5. The TV show The Sopranos might have been a pretty good series without the
profanity that occurred all the way through it. But without the profanity, it would not
have been believable. Those people just talk that way. If you have them speaking
Shakespearean English or middle-class suburban English, then nobody is going to pay
any attention to the message because nobody will see it as realistic. It’s true, of course,
that, like many other programs with some offensive feature—whether it’s bad
language, sex, or whatever—it will never appeal to the squeamish.
a. Whether movies with offensive features can appeal to the squeamish
b. Whether The Sopranos would have been a good series without the bad language
c. Whether The Sopranos would have been believable without the bad language
d. Whether believable programs must always have an offensive feature of one kind or
another
e. Whether communism, in the long run, is a much worse system than capitalism when it
comes to protecting the population from harm
→ The passage emphasizes the role of profanity in creating a realistic and believable
portrayal of the characters.

6. “The United States puts a greater percentage of its population in prison than any
other developed country in the world. We persist in locking more and more people up
despite the obvious fact that it doesn’t work. Even as we build more prisons and stuff
them ever more tightly, the crime rate goes up and up. But we respond, ‘Since it isn’t
working, let’s do more of it’! “It’s about time we learned that fighting criminals is not
the same thing as fighting crime.”
— Richard Parker, radio commentary on CalNet, California Public Radio
a. Whether we build more prisons than any other country
b. Whether we imprison more people than do other countries
c. Whether reliance on imprisonment is an effective method of reducing crime
d. Whether attacking the sources of crime (poverty, lack of education, and so on) will
reduce crime more than just imprisoning people who commit crimes
→ The passage criticizes the overreliance on imprisonment and suggests that it is not an

effective solution to crime.

7. Letting your children surf the Net is like dropping them off downtown to spend the
day doing whatever they want. They’ll get in trouble.
a. Whether letting your children off downtown to spend the day doing whatever they want
will lead them into trouble.
b. Whether letting your children surf the Net will lead them into trouble
c. Whether restrictions should be placed on children’s activities
→ The passage draws a comparison between letting children surf the net and leaving

them unsupervised, implying potential risks.

8. The winner of this year’s spelling bee is a straight-A student whose favorite subject is
science, which isn’t surprising, since students interested in science learn to pay
attention to details.
a. Whether the winner of this year’s spelling bee is a straight-A student
b. Whether science students learn to pay attention to detail
c. Whether learning science will improve a student’s ability to spell
d. Whether learning science teaches a student to pay attention to details
e. None of the above
→ The passage suggests a correlation between studying science and developing attention

to detail, which is relevant to spelling ability.

9. In 2007, the Dominican Republic banned the sale of two brands of Chinese
toothpaste because they contained a toxic chemical responsible for dozens of poisoning
deaths in Panama last year. The company that exported the toothpaste, the Danyang
Household Chemical Company, defended its product. “Toothpaste is not something
you’d swallow, but spit out, and so it’s totally different from something you would eat,”
one company manager said. The company manager was taking a position on which
issue?
a. Whether the Danyang Household Chemical Company included toxic chemicals in its
toothpaste.
b. Whether toothpaste should be eaten
c. Whether the Danyang Household Chemical Company did anything wrong by exporting its
toothpaste
d. Whether China should have better product safety controls
→ The passage focuses on the company's defense of its product and its claim that the

toothpaste was not intended for ingestion.

Task 4. For each of the following arguments, identify the main conclusion and the
reasons.
1. The odds that a dangerous leak from a nuclear power plant could occur are so small as
to be almost impossible to calculate. I have as much chance of being seriously injured
backing out of my drive as I would be living next to a nuclear power plant for a year. So,
someone living next door to a nuclear power plant should feel 100 per cent safe.
Main Conclusion: Someone living next door to a nuclear power plant should feel 100%
safe.
Reasons:

The odds of a dangerous leak are extremely low.

The risk of injury from a car accident is comparable to the risk from living near a nuclear
power plant.

2. The one third of people who smoke in public places are subjecting the rest of us to
discomfort. What is more, they are putting our health at risk, because ‘passive’ smoking
causes cancer. That is why it is time to ban smoking in public places.
Main Conclusion: It is time to ban smoking in public places.
Reasons:
Smoking in public places causes discomfort to non-smokers.

Passive smoking poses health risks, including cancer.

3. A foetus’s heart is beating by 25 days after fertilization. Abortions are typically done
seven to ten weeks after fertilization. Even if there were any doubt about the fact that the life
of each individual begins at fertilization, abortion clearly destroys a living human being with
a beating heart and a functioning brain. If the first right of a human being is the right to his or
her life, the direct killing of an unborn child is a manifest violation of that right.

Main Conclusion:the direct killing of an unborn child is a manifest violation of the right of
life
Reasons:

A fetus is a living human being with a beating heart and brain. clearly destroys a living
human being with a beating heart and a functioning brain

the first right of a human being is the right to his or her life

Abortion directly violates the right to life of an unborn child.

4. It has always been the case in the past that new discoveries of mineral reserves have
kept pace with demand. For example, bauxite reserves have tripled in the last ten years, while
demand has doubled over the same period. At no time have the known reserves of minerals
been as great as the total mineral resources of the world. Therefore, even though at any given
time we know of only a limited supply of any mineral, there is no reason for us to be
concerned about running out of mineral resources.
Main Conclusion: There is no reason to be concerned about running out of mineral
resources.
Reasons:
Historically, new mineral discoveries have kept pace with demand.

Bauxite reserves have tripled while demand has doubled.

The total mineral resources of the world are vast.

5. In rape cases, sentences should be lighter for those who plead guilty than for those who
plead not guilty. For a victim of rape, appearing in court is a very distressing experience.
If the defendant pleads guilty, the victim does not have to appear in court. If sentences are as
heavy for those who plead guilty as for those who plead not guilty, all defendants will plead
not guilty, because there is nothing to lose.
Main Conclusion: In rape cases, sentences should be lighter for those who plead guilty than
for those who plead not guilty.
Reasons:

A guilty plea spares the victim the trauma of a court appearance.

Heavier sentences for guilty pleas would incentivize all defendants to plead not guilty.

6. If imprisonment worked as a deterrent to potential criminals, the more people we had in

prison to serve as examples, the more would their lesson be conveyed to those outside
prison. But today we have record numbers of people in prison, and a crime rate which is
growing, not decreasing. Thus, imprisonment is not an effective deterrent.
Main Conclusion: Imprisonment is not an effective deterrent to crime.
Reasons:

If imprisonment were a deterrent, increased imprisonment would lead to decreased crime.

We have record numbers of prisoners, but crime rates are increasing.

7. Those who oppose any and all restrictions on freedom of the press are wrong. Consider
the effects of freedom to report on cases of kidnap. Experience shows that kidnap victims are
less likely to be killed by their captors if the kidnapping is not reported. To report a kidnap
can thus endanger a victim’s life. If we do not pass legislation against publishing in these
circumstances, some newspapers will continue to be irresponsible and will publish details of
the kidnapping before the victim is released or rescued.
Main Conclusion: Restrictions on freedom of the press are necessary.
Reasons:

● Reporting on kidnappings can endanger victims' lives.

● Some newspapers are irresponsible and would publish details of kidnappings.
● Legislation can prevent irresponsible reporting.

CHAPTER 5. ASSUMPTION
Group Presentation:
- Group of 4-5 sts, present in max. 15 mins
- Contents: 6/10;
- PPT design: 1/10 (must have 2 first slides introducing about the main contents of the
presentation + group members).
- Oral delivery (use of E. language, body language, eye contact, intonation,
pronunciation): 3/10
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1. Define assumptions + Types of assumptions
2. Explain the differences between types of assumptions
3. How to identify different types of assumptions
4. How assumptions affect the conclusion and the reasons of a reading passage/ or Why
readers need to recognize assumptions of reading texts.
5. Choose 2 passages from Task 4 above to explain how to identify the assumptions and
the KEY assumption in each passage.
Dear Linh,

I hope this letter finds you well! I’ve been thinking a lot about your question
lately, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. I know you’ve been
considering your options whether you should pursue higher education or not,
and I think it’s worth exploring why entering university can be so beneficial for
your career aspect in the future.

Firstly, higher education often opens doors to better job opportunities. As you
know, many careers today require specialized knowledge or training that a
college degree provides. Since you want to be business woman, a degree in
business would provide you with essential knowledge about how companies
operate and understand the complexities of running a business.

Additionally, higher education offers valuable networking opportunities. You’ll

meet professors, industry experts, and fellow students who share your interests.
These connections can be incredibly beneficial as you enter the business world
—whether it’s for internships, job opportunities, or mentorship. Having a strong
network can give you an edge and open doors that might otherwise be closed.

Lastly, let’s not forget the potential for higher earning potential. Many
successful businesswomen have advanced degrees, which can translate to better
job prospects and salaries. Investing in your education is an investment in your
future. This financial stability can lead to a better quality of life and more
opportunities down the line.

Of course, higher education isn’t the only path to success, and it’s important to
find what works best for you. But I truly believe that investing in your
education can provide you with the tools and opportunities to thrive.

Let’s chat more about your plans when you have some time. I can’t wait to hear
your thoughts!

Take care and talk soon!

Love,