Name: Lisa Rodriquez
Week 1 On Your Own for 092
Directions: After reading the assigned passage, apply the five active reading strategies by filling in your answers in the boxes for each passage below. Please spell check and proofread your work. Follow course instructions for submission.
Reading #1: “The lie behind those gloomy national polls” by Michael Medved of USA Today. Source: The Week, October 19, 2007
Ask Americans how they feel about the world, said Michael Medved, and they wind up with a paradox. By staggering majorities, people tell pollsters that they disapprove of both Congress and the President, and two out of three say the US is headed “in the wrong direction.” Yet when asked about their own lives, “Americans express overwhelming contentment and dazzling confidence.” A recent Harris poll found that more than nine out of 10 people are satisfied “with the life you lead,” with 56 percent choosing the highest category “very satisfied.” Almost everyone expects life to be better in the next five years. Somehow, Americans feel that they personally live in a “sun-kissed, optimistic island of happiness,” while the country at large is going to hell. How can this be? It’s actually not that surprising, given that we spend, on average, 30 hours a week immersed in television. On both the news and entertainment shows, the world is presented as rife with crime, terrorism, death, sexual depravity, personal humiliation, and bitter political conflict. Self-serving politicians add to the “prevailing gloom” by emphasizing problems and exaggerating threats. The real American story, though, is the one we live, in which people are making steady economic progress and life is mostly good—and always better than it was yesterday.
Predicting |
Read the title and first sentence. Now predict what you think the passage will be about. |
Answer: I predict this passage is going to be about the opinions of Americans on how they feel about the world. |...