Directions: Read the following selections. For each one, paraphrase the thesis statement. Then circle the letters of the patterns you recognize in the reading.
skepticism: disbelief, suspicion
virtual: in effect but not in reality
harried: busy, overworked
spiraling: continuously increasing or decreasing
entailed: meant, produced, caused
moderates: people who dont hold extreme views
prevail: win out, prove right
accreditation: the act of reviewing an institution in order to see if it meets specific standards
Less than twenty years ago, if someone had claimed it was possible to attend classes without walls and take exams without bluebooks, the claim would have aroused some skepticism. Nowadays, most people wouldn't lift an eyebrow. Cybercolleges, courses conducted by means of the Internet, have definitely become part of the mainstream with more and more students logging on to get a diploma.
One very good reason why cyber or virtual colleges are growing by leaps and bounds is the flexibility they offer to busy adult learners. Harried executives, for example, need degrees to climb the corporate ladder. Yet their schedules don't always allow for class attendance on specific days and at specific times. Faced with this situation, many do what Joe Martin, the 41-year-old CEO of Farm Bureau Insurance in Indianapolis, did. He enrolled in and graduated from Duke University's Global Executive MBA program. While in school, he listened to lectures and turned in papers via the Internet. He also engaged in discussions with classmates as far-flung as China and Brazil. In 1998, Mr. Martin got his degree and according to Richard Staelin, director of Duke's online program, others are definitely following in Mr. Martin's footsteps: In 10 years, cybercolleges will definitely be part of mainstream education. There's no escaping it.
Cost is another reason for the growth in cybercolleges, with the state of Utah providing a good example of how spiraling education budgets encourage the growth of virtual classrooms. Faced with a projected college enrollment that would have entailed $3 billion dollars worth of building costs, Utah's governor Michael Leavitt led the movement for a cybercollege that would rely on the existing resources of universities in thirteen nearby states. The result is called Western Governors University, and students can take courses online from any one of the thirteen schools participating in the program.
Supporters of virtual colleges like Pam Dixon, the author of a book titled Virtual College, are convinced that there's no escaping the growth of cybercolleges. Author and researcher, Joseph Coates, insists that real schools are going to disappear as more and more students, starting in elementary school, get used to learning at their own pace and in the privacy of their own homes. Others, like Jeffrey Livingston, the executive director of Western Governors University, are more moderate in their approach. They insist that online education is just another educational alternative.
In the end, it is likely that the moderates will prevail. Cyberclasses will grow, but they will remain an alternative form of education since classes with and without walls offer different kinds of benefits. Yes, learning from the privacy of your own home is a major advantage of cyberschooling. Still some students may well prefer the give and take of real classroom exchange. For them, e-mail messages or chat rooms just won't generate the same kind of excitement as a genuine class discussion. Thus they are less likely to choose learning in cyberspace. In addition, virtual colleges are not yet subject to the same accreditation procedures required of universities with walls. Consequently, a student cant always assume that an online course is a good as one offered in a traditional classroom setting.
Thesis Statement:
Patterns
| a. definition b. sequence of dates and events c. process |
d. comparison and contrast e. cause and effect f. classification |
manipulate: handle
utterances: verbal statements
markedly: noticeably
gibberish: nonsense
acuity: sharpness
The human brain is divided into two halves, or hemispheres. Although research suggests that the brain's hemispheres cooperate for almost all activities, it is also true that each hemisphere is in charge of or controls different activities.
Thanks to the left hemisphere, we can master and manipulate language, using it to communicate our thoughts and feelings. In fact, roughly about 95 percent of the adult population relies on the left hemisphere to speak, write, and understand verbal language. In general, the left side of the brain controls our ability to analyze. It enables us to break things into parts and see how the parts do or do not fit together. The left hemisphere also takes over when we need to process items in a sequence, or one after the other. Not surprisingly, damage to the brain's left side can drastically reduce our ability to communicate effectively. If the damage is severe enough, most of us would have a hard time making sense when we speak. The order and logic of our utterances would diminish markedly due to damage in the left hemisphere. In severe cases, we would be reduced to speaking and writing gibberish.
Once considered the minor hemisphere, the right side of the brain actually has its own special talents. The right hemisphere is superior to the left when it comes to recognizing patterns, faces, or melodies. It is also the main source of our ability to detect and express emotion. Not surprisingly, damage to the right side of the brain almost always affects visual acuity. For example, a young woman who underwent surgery for a brain tumor in the right hemisphere eventually had to abandon her job. What was the reason? Her work involved matching Diners Club cards to invoices; after the surgery she was no longer able to tell the cards from the invoices.
Thesis Statement:
Patterns
| a. definition b. sequence of dates and events c. process |
d. comparison and contrast e. cause and effect f. classification |
convenience: that which makes life easier or more comfortable
alliance: union, association
chaos: confusion
feats: achievements
unattainability: incapable of being reached or possessed
courtier: a member of the royal court
inconsequential: unimportant
Ask Americans why they intend to marry, and most will answer without skipping a beat, For love, of course. Committed to the notion that romantic love and marriage naturally go hand in hand, most Americans dont realize that not all societies share the belief that a marriage not based on romance is no marriage at all. Korean dating services, for example, spend little time trying to match people on the basis of romantic attraction. They concentrate on bringing together those with similar backgrounds and traditions.
Unaware of cultural differences where romance is concerned and raised on a steady diet of Hollywood love stories, most Americans also dont know that throughout much of history, romantic love was simply not a requirement for marriage. For members of the upper classes, who had the time to think of such things, romantic love was usually pursued outside the bonds of matrimony. As one might expect, the poorer classes were too busy trying to stay alive to worry about romance, its presence or absence in their lives. It is only in the last century or two, that men and women, both rich and poor, have assumed that romantic love is the basis for marriage.
The ancient Greeks, who thought quite a bit about love and its various categories, tended to celebrate the bonds of men over all others. For them, marriage was often little more than a practical convenience. Couples might marry to secure a political alliance or increase wealth, but they seldom married for love. To do so would have only encouraged social chaos.
For much of the Middle Ages (476 - 1453), courtly love between upperclass men and women was in fashion. Still, that didn't mean love and marriage went hand-in-hand. On the contrary, young knights looked for high-born ladies they could worship but never possess. The whole point of courtly love was the woman's unattainability. The inability to possess his lady's love was what inspired the knight to great feats. Thus a knight might wear his lady's colors in a tournament, write poems in her honor, and compose hymns to her beauty. But he certainly never touched her. Above all, he never thought of marrying her. Often, she was already married to someone else.
During the Renaissance (the period falling roughly between 1450-1600), the reigning wisdom governing relationships between the sexes was outlined in Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier published in 1518. If in the middle ages, men had been expected to make themselves pleasing to women, the Renaissance turned the tables. Renaissance women were expected to obey first their fathers, then their husbands. But being obedient did not earn a wife her husbands desire. In fact, it was generally assumed that passion occurred outside marriage. Although working class women in the Renaissance had a lot more freedom than high-born ladies—they worked in the fields, helped in the shops, and played prominent roles in the textile industry—like their upperclass counterparts, they didn't assume that marriage should be based on love. Mutual affection was considered a plus, but what was really important was the man's ability to provide financially. In an era when most working people could barely keep themselves out of poverty's clutches, love was a luxury for the rich.
Arriving in America in the middle of the seventeenth century, the Puritans initially had no time to think about love. In an unfamiliar and hostile world, staying alive was what mattered. But as the century wound down, and physical safety and comfort increased, love and marriage began to join hands. Thus, it's not unusual to find seventeen-century sermons counseling newly engaged or married couples to celebrate the joys of a love that was both passionate and spiritual.
Throughout the nineteenth century, Victorian America continued the shift toward combining love and marriage. Although the poor, as usual, were struggling to earn a living and unconcerned with notions of love, members of the middle and upper classes were more and more likely to assume that love was a crucial ingredient in any marriage. While the acquisition of property and status were still primary reasons for a couple to tie the knot, love was no longer considered inconsequential.
By the twentieth century, the modern notion of love and marriage had firmly planted itself in the American mind. Rich or poor, most everyone believed that romance was essential to marriage. In fact, in a 1986 study, the majority of college students polled insisted they would never marry someone they hadnt fallen deeply in love with, even if that person had every other quality they considered desirable in a mate. (The study cited is Jeffrey Simpson et al., The Association between Romantic Love and Marriage, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,Volume 12, pp.28-29.)
Thesis Statement:
Patterns
| a. definition b. sequence of dates and events c. process |
d. comparison and contrast e. cause and effect f. classification |
diminished: reduced
evoked: called up, recreated
dormant: inactive
emitting: producing, giving off
bowels: intestines
ferocity: violence
A blast of burning sand pours out in whirling clouds. In their power, the rushing vapors carry up mountain rocks, black ash, and dazzling fire. So wrote the poet Lucilius Junior on the subject of volcanoes sometime around 50 A.D., and the centuries have certainly not diminished the awesome volcanic power evoked in that ancient poem. In Indonesia in 1883, the seemingly dormant volcano, Krakatau, suddenly began emitting both steam and ash. No longer dormant, the volcano blew up on August 26. When the explosion had finally ended, 36,000 people were dead. In 1991, the volcano on Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines began to show signs of life after a 400-year sleep. When the volcano exploded, the top of it blasted off into the air. Because close to 60,000 people had already been evacuated from the area, thousands of lives were saved.
While it is impossible to produce a strict classification scheme for volcanic eruptions—there are at least seven major types—the general sequence of steps in an eruption is usually fairly similar. During an eruption,"magma," or molten rock, in the bowels of the volcano becomes charged with steam or gas. The magma then shoots upward and falls back to earth. The exploding magma can take the form of "lava," a sizzling mud that pours out over the landscape, but it can also erupt in the form of hot rocks, cinders, or ash. When the magma within the volcano builds to the point of overflowing, this stage of the eruption is called the "crisis". Soon after the crisis point is reached, the volcano will begin to cool.
In the cooling stage, the volcano emits gases and vapors rather than magma. In this final phase of the eruption, geysers, or hot springs, may appear like the ones found in Yellowstone National Park. Over time—and the amount of time varies with the volcano—the last traces of volcanic heat disappear, and the volcano may become inactive for an extended period of time. A lack of volcanic activity even over a century does not mean, however, that potentially deadly eruptions will no longer occur. Before it exploded with spectacular ferocity in 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano had been quiet for one hundred and twenty-three years.
Thesis Statement:
Patterns
| a. definition b. sequence of dates and events c. process |
d. comparison and contrast e. cause and effect f. classification |
Last change made to this page: Jan. 8, 2007