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    Chapters 1 and 2 - Current Issues and Enduring Questions

    This quiz addresses the main themes present in a handful of the essays (specifically including "He Saves All His Critical Thinking for My Behavior", "The Florida Case", "Driver’s Licenses and Dropouts", "Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters", "A First Amendment Junkie", "Executions Should Be Televised", and "Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should be Revised") that are frequently assigned to English 102 students.

    1

    When discussing the cartoon associated with the essay “He Saves All His Critical Thinking for My Behavior,” it can be said that the stance of the gentleman shown, and his facial expression—especially his down-turned mouth—clearly indicate his self-confidence and his disapproval of the world around him.

    2

    In “The Florida Case,” it was determined that the main character of the essay shouldn’t have been required to remove any of his or her attire, unless a second officer was present.

    3

    In the essay, “Driver’s Licenses and Dropouts,” the primary issue with confiscating the driver’s licenses of drop-outs is that it doesn’t keep youngsters in school, nor does it motivate them to perform or behave better.

    4

    In the essay, “Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters,” the term “brass ceiling” by means of a rhyme, of course, plays on the term glass ceiling, the transparent barrier that lets women (in the business world) see the higher echelons but keeps women from reaching them. The barrier in the military is here called brass because the insignia of commissioned officers (the admiral’s gold stripes, the general’s stars) are colloquially called brass, as in “the top brass will never approve of this.”

    5

    Among many of the themes present in “Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters,” the primary argument of the author is that the reason why women shouldn’t be allowed to fight is because captured female soldiers run the risk of being raped.

    6

    According to the essay “Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters,” the reason why men are more successful in combat is because when men enter competition, their testosterone level rises, increasing their hemoglobin and hence their blood’s capacity to carry oxygen, thus heightening the brain’s sense of confidence and appetite for risk, which is called the “winner effect”.

    7

    The three main reasons why the board of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District has decided to make the bridge suicide-proof is because (a) the government has a responsibility to save people who wish to harm themselves by means of suicide, (b) the value of the human life is worth more than the cost to alter the bridges’ aesthetics to prevent suicides, (c) the suicide rate of 3% in past years has risen dramatically.

    8

    In the essay, “A First Amendment Junkie,” the author’s primary argument is that parents should protect the young and that adult-oriented pornography, however objectionable, should not be censored. Parents shouldn’t “shift responsibility from individuals to institutions.”

    9

    In the essay “Executions Should Be Televised,” the authors insist that they do not assume that visibility would engender revulsion against the practice and thus would stimulate support for opposition to capital punishment. The authors, claiming to be open-minded, say that they advocate making executions public simply because, “A democracy demands a citizenry as informed as possible about the costs and benefits of society’s ultimate punishment.”

    10

    In the essay, “Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should be Revised,” the author mentions that the original version of the Pledge did not include the words “under God”, and that the phrase was later added in 1954.