Download End of Unit 2 Reading Exam - umei004c

MEI 1
Critical Reading Strategies:
A Step Back to the Workhouse?
Name________________________
Instructions
Read the text on 294-299 from 75 Readings and complete the comprehension.
Critical reading strategies and skills tested:








highlighting
annotating (in the margins)
scanning (for details to answer explicit and implicit questions)
recognizing genre(s)
identifying frame(s)
recognizing register
identifying foregrounded and backgrounded assumptions
using context clues and word analysis to guess the meanings of words
Comprehension Questions
Directions
Answer each question that is not multiple choice with a complete sentence (or sentences). Be
sure to proofread your answers carefully.
1. What is Ehrenrich’s thesis?
Ehrenreich claims that welfare, far from creating generational dependence on the government,
helps women who are single mothers bridge personal crises so that they can get back on their
feet and support their families. On the contrary, workfare unfairly targets making it more
difficult for women in crises to achieve economic indepennce.
2. What is her purpose in writing the text?
Eric Walker July 7, 2008
MEI 2
Critical Reading Strategies:
A Step Back to the Workhouse?
Her purpose is to argue against received notions about welfare creating generational dependence
and to show that workfare unfairly targets women, the primary recipients of government
assistance.
3. Other than argument, what genre(s) does the author use to accomplish her purpose?
The author also uses exemplification (Lynn), narrative, and exposition.
4. Which of the following best describes the register of the text:
a. Subjective
b. Objective
c. Angry
d. Complaining
5. According to the author’s analysis of Lynn, why is welfare not an example of the cycle of
dependency?
Ehrenreich exemplifies how welfare, in Lynn’s case and the cases of many other women,
serves principally as a bridge program to help women like Lynn through emergent
situations until they can achieve economic independence.
6.
In paragraph 2, the word “dissolute” in the phrase “That the poor are poor because they
are lazy and dissolute; and that they are lazy and dissolute because they are suffering
from ‘welfare dependency’” means
a. stupid
b. immoral
c. disappointed
d. unhappy
7. In paragraph 4, the phrase “mounted the bandwagon” in the sentence “. . . I will further
acknowledge that many of the proponents of workfare, possibly including Senator
Moynihan and the Democratic presidential candidates, have mounted the bandwagon
with the best of intentions” means
a. attacked the cause of workfare
b. joined the cause of workfare
c. loved the cause of workfare
d. disagreed with the cause of workfare
Eric Walker July 7, 2008
MEI 3
Critical Reading Strategies:
A Step Back to the Workhouse?
8. We can infer from the author’s discussion of workfare that she believes there would be
no workfare program if
a. the recipients of welfare were not mostly women
b. the recipients of welfare were not lazy
c. the recipients of welfare were mostly white
d. the recipients of welfare were not mostly white
9. What are the author’s major backgrounded critical assumptions about poverty in the
U.S.?
One of Ehrenreich’s major backgrounded assumptions is that because American lawmakers are
white males that there are systemic prejudices against all women, particularly women who are
single parents and women of color. Another major backgrounded assumption is that the media,
because they are also dominated by white males, underreport and misreport the “true” facts of
welfare and workfare as they concern women.
10. Write a paragraph in which you compare and contrast Ehrenreich’s argument regarding
the poor and Hardin’s argument regarding the poor. how the author frames lifeboat
ethics. Be sure to include in your paragraph backgrounded critical assumptions the
author makes. Which argument do you find the most persuasive? Why?
(This question requires an accurate paraphrase/summary of each author’s main arguments
and then an assessment/analysis of claims and evidence to support which one you think is
most persuasive. )
Eric Walker July 7, 2008