Reading and All That Jazz: Tuning Up Your Reading, Thinking, and Study Skills, 2/e

Peter Mather, Glendale Community College
Rita McCarthy, Glendale Community College

Inferences

Journal

Inference

Reading Selection:

An excerpt from Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, by Fannie Flagg


1		How does this excerpt make you feel about Daisy's father?



2		What do you think Daisy learned from this experience?

In Your Own Words


3		What could you infer about Bill Harper's character? List the details from the story that support your conclusions.



4		Would Daisy Fay's mother have approved of the scheme to win the fishing contest? What evidence do you have for your answer?



5		Bill Harper would probably be considered an optimist. What details in the story show that he always looks on the bright side of things?

Excerpt from Too Much of A Good Thing, by Geoffrey Cowley


6		How might doctors and other health professionals solve the problem of antibiotic misuse?

In Your Own Words


7		The use of antibacterial products is widespread. We have antibacterial soaps, sponges, cleaning products, and even toys. Some experts believe that we are killing off the good bacteria as well as the bad, thereby promoting the growth of drug-resistant strains. Do you routinely use antibacterial products in your home? Do you have an opinion about whether the widespread use of antibacterial products is a good idea?



8		Many scientists are concerned about the use of antibiotics in the food supply. For instance, farmers use antibiotics to prevent disease in livestock. In 1998, over 5,000 Americans were made ill by drug-resistant bacteria that had infected chicken. The sick people were immune to the antibiotics that the doctors prescribed. Do you think the food and drug administration should consider banning the use of antibiotics to treat poultry and other livestock?

Reading Selection:

Inside the Vicious Heart from AMERICA PAST AND PRESENT 4/e by Robert A. Divine, et. al.


9		What do you think of Eisenhower's order that all nearby armed forces units visit the concentration camp? Do you think this was a good or a bad idea? Why?



10		Why do you think that it is a common lament of the WWII generation is the absence of personal responsibility? What could your generation do to change this?

In Your Own Words


11		Why did the soldiers who discovered the camps have difficulty believing what they were seeing? In their reports, why did they qualify their observations about the camps? Lee Miller, a former model for Vogue, became a war correspondent in 1944. While on assignment, she photographed Dachau, the German concentration camp. She sent her photographs to British Vogue and followed with a telegram that said: I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE. Why would she find it necessary to have a cable like this accompany her photographs? How do comments like this help explain America's initial reluctance to believe in the existence of the camps?



12		Do you think the concentration camps were deliberately designed to look like American Civilian Conservation Corps camps? Why might they have been designed that way?



13		What did Eisenhower mean when he said that if the Americans did not know what they were fighting for, they at least now knew what they were fighting against?

Reading Selection:

Thomas Broderick, by Tom Brokaw

Written Assignment


14		Have you ever found your life headed in the wrong direction? If you have, what did you do to turn your life around? Did anyone help you put your life on a more positive path? How has this change in direction affected your life today? Write a couple of paragraphs describing your experience.

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