Atmosphere of School

Section1Writing Focus20 POINTSRead the essay below and answer the questions that follow:To Go or Not to Go to CollegeFinishing high school then college and getting a decent job are a typical path for almost everyone. We have been programed from birth to follow the pathway laid out for us by our predecessors. However, the world is constantly changing. College is no longer the necessary step between your adolescent years and your future. There are some points that you should consider before you jump onto the college bandwagon.First, it is absurdly expensive. The cost of college has skyrocketed in recent years. Attending a decently-ranked university can easily cost upwards of $100,000. What is even scarier: according to the Wall Street Journal, college graduates who take out loans leave with, on average, $27,000 in student debt. Most importantly, this is a debt that they cannot default on.Second, you mistakenly think it will prepare you for career success. School teaches obedience and discipline. If you think about it, the most successful students are the ones who do their homework, and do it on time. Nevertheless, employers are looking for something that schools do not teach. They value people who are self-directed, can set goals, take initiative, and succeed at work not just in school.Moreover, getting a degree does not guarantee getting a job. The New York Times calls recent college graduates “Generation Limbo.” More than 44% of college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed, which means they are forced to take jobs that do not require a degree. Thus, if you have student debt, how are you going to pay it back if you are making little to no money? You need to realise that everyone else is doing it. Almost 15,000,000 students enrol as undergraduates each year. Going to college no longer distinguishes you from the crowd. Instead, a college education has become ubiquitous. Therefore, it will be hard to stand out.Interestingly, you have not seriously explored any other options. In fact, it is what you “should” be doing, but not what you want to do. You have been told your entire life that college is the logical next step, but you do not actually have a reason as to why you are going. College does not excite you nearly as much as does going out into the real world. Attending a 4-year institution is far from the only path to take after high school, despite what your college counsellor (or parents, peers, and teachers) might tell you. In reality, you have a spectrum of options, from taking a gap year to entirely designing your own education.Despite the way they are portrayed, normal people can and do succeed without going to college. Their stories are just not as widely publicized as are those of Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. A tried-and-true route can be through getting an unpaid internship in a field you are interested in. Learn as much as you can, then leverage your experience and new network of professional contacts to get a paid internship. At that time, use that experience to get a full-time job. Remember, it is not a choice between attending college or working at McDonald’s.Most people learn more outside of the classroom than inside of it. For some people, learning via textbook is tedious. They prefer learning by doing working, exploring, creating, or otherwise doing things in the real world. Others have no problem learning out of a textbook. Instead, it is the one-pace-fits-all atmosphere of school that bothers them. A classroom setting is optimal only for a small number of people. It may suit you or not. Therefore, try to figure out how you learn best.Most importantly, there is an incredibly increasing amount of resources available for free. Almost any knowledge you could possibly hope to gain these days can be found on the internet. If not, you can get in touch with someone who has this knowledge or knows how to get it by using the Internet. “You wasted $150,000 on an education you could a got for a dollar 50 cents in late charges at the public library”, said Will Hunting.To sum up, the previous points help in recognizing that college is not the only place where you can get more affordable and meaningful education. You can pay lots of money for the curriculum and social experience that college provides, and have it delivered on a silver platter, or you can do it yourself, creating an educational experience that you actually want to have for a fraction of the cost. The choice is yours, so weight up the effects of such a decision.1. What is the subject/topic of this essay? (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. What is the writer’s main purpose? Choose the correct answer from a, b, or c. (1 point)a. To inform and persuadeb. To compare and contrastc. To describe a process________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3. Write the opening sentence of this essay that hooked the reader. (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4. Which type of background is provided in the introductory paragraph? Choose the correct answer from a, b, or c. (1 point)a. General to specificb. Anecdotec. Historical5. What is the thesis statement of this essay? (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6. What is the controlling idea of this thesis statement? (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7. Write the main idea of each body paragraph in your own words. (7 points)Body paragraphNo.Write the main idea of each body paragraph in a sentence using your own words (1 point each)8. Which statement in the concluding paragraph is a rewarding/restatement of the thesis? (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9. What is the writer’s final/memorable comment? (1 point)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Section2Editing5 POINTSRead the following questions and choose the best answer from (a, b or c). (1 point each)1. Which one of the following is the run-on sentence?a. I politely got rid of the people at the door and went back to finish lunch.b. I thought I would relax over my coffee, I had to break up a fight between my two young sons about which television channel to watch.c. As a last bit of frustration, my daughter came downstairs and asked me to drive her over to a friend’s house before I went back to work.2. Which of the following sentences is the most grammatically correct?a. Early in life, Thomas Edison suffered with deafness he taught his wife-to-be Morse code while he was courting her.b. Early in life, Thomas Edison suffered with deafness, so he taught his wife-to-be Morse code while he was courting her.c. Early in life, Thomas Edison suffered with deafness and he taught his wife-to-be Morse code while he was courting her.3. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

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