Putting It All Together

These taxes fall into three categories: taxes on energy consumption, taxes on health deterrents, and taxes on luxu-ry.. At the same time that these taxes are increased, taxes on earnings

This last chapter reviews

the strategies you learned

in Chapters 15–20:

analyzing word choice

and point of view,

determining tone, finding

the implied main idea,

summarizing, and

paraphrasing You’ll put

all of this knowledge to

practice in a review that

brings in all the

strategies you’ve learned

throughout this book

C ongratulations! You’re in the home stretch.

You’ve been building your reading skills chapter by chapterthroughout this book, and now it’s time to pull your skills alltogether in a final review Here is one long passage in which you’ll prac-tice strategies from this section as well as sections 1–3 But first, here’s areview of what you’ve learned in this section

IN BRIEF

words carefully to reflect their attitude towards their subject You

learned how to look for clues in word choice and point of view tomake inferences about the writer’s attitude.

point of view work together to create tone Tone is the mood orattitude conveyed by words or speech You practiced recognizing avariety of different tones of voice and made observations tosupport your inferences and boost your retention

work like a detective and find clues to determine the main ideawhen the writer doesn’t provide clear topic sentences You looked

at word choice, point of view, and tone to see what main idea all ofthe other sentences in the passage added up to

powerful reading strategies: summarizing and paraphrasing Youlearned how to “process” what you read and “translate” those ideasinto your own words When you summarized, you focused on themain idea and key support and put them into your own words.When you paraphrased, you rewrote sentences idea by idea

If any of these terms or strategies sound unfamiliar to you, STOP Take

a few minutes to review the chapter or concept that is unclear

Here’s one long passage about taxes Pre-read first, and then answer thepre-reading question Then, read the passage carefully Keep in mind thefollowing points, which are essential parts of this exercise:

Pre-Reading Question:

passage? On a separate sheet of paper, write several questions that youexpect the passage to answer

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R 203

Change the Tax System

Every year, April 15th comes around like a recurring

night-mare Citizens brace themselves for the agony of complicated

forms and hours of gathering numbers and receipts to figure

out how much more of their hard-earned money they’ll be

forced to give to Uncle Sam It’s a task and a system that

cit-izens loathe, and it’s time for a serious restructuring of the

U.S tax system

Citizens are currently being taxed for working hard and

saving money—two activities we should encourage Instead,

citizens should be taxed for the “bad” things that they do

That is, they should be taxed on the things that deplete our

natural resources, pollute our environment, and create

waste These taxes fall into three categories: taxes on energy

consumption, taxes on health deterrents, and taxes on

luxu-ry At the same time that these taxes are increased, taxes on

earnings and savings should be reduced proportionately

Taxes on Energy Consumption

The gasoline that we put in our cars pollutes the air and

drains our natural resources Traffic jams clog our streets and

create noise pollution A higher tax on gasoline, on oil, and

on cars and car parts would encourage people to conserve

gas, to carpool, to use public transportation, and to walk or

ride bicycles when possible Citizens would then benefit from

cleaner air and healthier bodies

Electricity and other forms of energy should also be taxed

at higher rates to help us conserve our natural resources

Increased taxes on electricity would encourage people to

turn off lights and appliances when not in use In addition, it

would discourage people from buying gadgets they don’t

need, like salad shooters and electronic calendars Citizens

would hang their clothes to dry more often instead of

run-ning the dryer, would use a regular toothbrush instead of an

electric one, and would cook their food in ovens rather than

the microwave (a much healthier choice)

Taxes on Health Deterrents

Cigarettes and alcohol are already taxed—but they should

be taxed more The tremendous burden in health care costscreated by these habits alone should warrant higher taxes onthese addictive substances Higher taxes on cigarettes andalcohol will help reduce the number of people addicted tothese substances Children and teens will be less able toafford these items, and adults will consider whether theirhabit is really worth the hole it’s burning in their pocket.We’ll have a healthier population and reduce overall healthcare costs

Taxes on Luxury

Despite America’s large middle class, a great majority ofwealth in this country is still in the hands of a very few.Those citizens who are wealthy enough to afford such luxu-

ry purchases as jet airplanes, yachts, summer and winterhomes, car collections, fur coats, jewels, and other unneces-sary items should pay higher taxes on these purchases Thatway, citizens who have to struggle just to put food on thetable can be taxed less

Benefits for Everybody

Even if the average citizen ends up paying the same amount

in taxes, the system should still be changed to tax the bad, notthe good Taxpayers would certainly feel much better aboutgiving money to Uncle Sam, and who knows? We might get

a few people to break a few bad habits in the process

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R 205

words

the following questions:

into this category of “energy consumption”?)

“health deterrents”?)

“luxury”?)

every year, without fail

drinking create a large burden on health care costs, and the writer

suggests that this is reason enough to raise taxes on these items

might be restated as follows: The tax system should be restructured so

people are taxed for wasting, not for working

explains the different groups of taxes The sentence “These taxes fallinto three categories” should help you anticipate this organizationalpattern.

citizens loathe, and it’s time for a serious restructuring of the U.S taxsystem”; “two activities we should encourage”; and “citizens should betaxed for the ‘bad’ things that they do.” In fact, most of this passage is

opinion You should not have underlined sentences like “The gasoline

that we put in our cars pollutes the air and drains our naturalresources.”

night-mare,” “brace themselves,” “agony,” and especially “how much more of

their hard-earned money they’ll be forced to give to Uncle Sam” clearly

suggest that the writer feels indignant (angry about somethingthought to be unjust or unfair)

The U.S tax system, which currently punishes citizens bytaxing them for money they earn and save, should tax citi-zens for what they consume instead Taxes on gas, electricityand other forms of energy should be raised to encourage cit-izens to conserve these resources Taxes on cigarettes andalcohol should also be raised to discourage smoking anddrinking and reduce health care costs Taxes on luxury itemsshould also be raised to reduce wasteful spending

Meanwhile, taxes on earnings and savings should be reduced,

so citizens can feel better about how they’re being taxed

In addition, here’s an example of how you might have underlined andreacted to the first part of the passage:

Change the Tax System

Citizens brace themselves for the agony of complicated formsand hours of gathering numbers and receipts to figure out howmuch more of their hard-earned money they’ll be forced to

the short form is pretty easy

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R 207

give to Uncle Sam It’s a task and a system that citizens loathe,

and it’s time for a serious restructuring of the U.S tax system

Citizens are currently being taxed for working hard and

saving money—two activities we should encourage Instead,

citizens should be taxed for the “bad” things that they do

That is, they should be taxed on the things that deplete our

natural resources, pollute our environment, and create

waste These taxes fall into three categories: taxes on energy

consumption, taxes on health deterrents, and taxes on luxury

At the same time that these taxes are increased, taxes on

earnings and savings should be reduced proportionately

Taxes on Energy Consumption

The gasoline that we put in our cars pollutes the air and

drains our natural resources Traffic jams clog our streets and

create noise pollution A higher tax on gasoline, on oil, and

on cars and car parts would encourage people to conserve

gas, to carpool, to use public transportation, and to walk or

ride bicycles when possible Citizens would then benefit from

cleaner air and healthier bodies

it like this before

That would be nice

I agree

True, but then I couldn’t drive to work by myself every day

You’ve completed 20 chapters and are now better able to understand andremember what you read Good work Go ahead and take the post-test tosee how much your reading skills have improved

Suggestions for how to continue improving your reading skills, alongwith a list of suggested books organized by subject appears in Appendix A.Appendix B offers four charts: common prefixes, suffixes, Latin wordroots, and Greek word roots Studying these charts will help you toincrease your vocabulary, which in turn will help you to understandmore of what you read

Now it’s time to reward yourself for a job well done Buy yourself agood book and enjoy!

I f you’d like to gauge how much your reading

comprehension and retention skills have improved since youstarted this book, try this post-test Though the questions are differ-ent from the pretest, the format is the same, so you will be able todirectly compare results The only key difference between these two tests

is that the post-test uses more of the vocabulary words you’ve learnedthroughout this book

When you complete this test, grade yourself, and then compare yourpre- and post-test scores If you scored much higher on the post-test,congratulations; you’ve profited noticeably from your hard work If yourscore shows little improvement, perhaps there are certain chapters youneed to review Do you notice a pattern to the types of questions you gotwrong?

Whatever your score on this post-test, keep this book around forreview Refer to it whenever you need tips on how to better understandand remember what you read.

Circle the correct answers below, or if this book doesn’t belong to you,write the numbers 1–30 on a piece of paper and record your answersthere

Take as much time as you need to complete this post-test (plan onabout a half an hour) When you finish, check your answers against theanswer key that follows this test Each answer tells you which chapterscorrespond to the strategies in that question

Good luck!

Note: Do not use a dictionary for this post-test.

PART I

P O S T-T E S T 211

PART II

Read the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow

Passage 1

The sentences are numbered to make the questions easier to follow

(1) There are many things you can do to make tax time easier (2) Thesingle most important strategy is to keep accurate records (3) Keep all

of your pay stubs, receipts, bank statements, and other relevant cial information in a neat, organized folder so that when you’re ready

finan-to prepare your form, all of your paperwork is in one place (4) Thesecond thing you can do is start early (5) Get your tax forms from thepost office as soon as they are available and start calculating (6) Thisway, if you run into any problems, you have plenty of time tostraighten them out (7) You can also save time by reading the direc-tions carefully (8) This will prevent time-consuming errors (9)Finally, if your taxes are relatively simple (you don’t have itemizeddeductions or special investments), use the shorter tax form (10) It’sonly one page, and if your records are in order, it can be completed inless than an hour

can be completed in less than an hour” is:

will prevent time-consuming errors Finally, if your taxes are

relatively simple (you don’t have itemized deductions or special

investments), use the shorter tax form It’s only one page, and if

your records are in order, it can be completed in less than an

hour

will prevent time-consuming errors Finally, if your taxes are

relatively simple (you don’t have itemized deductions or special

investments), use the shorter tax form It’s only one page, and ifyour records are in order, it can be completed in less than anhour.

prevent time-consuming errors Finally, if your taxes are relativelysimple (you don’t have itemized deductions or special invest-ments), use the shorter tax form It’s only one page, and if yourrecords are in order, it can be completed in less than an hour

prevent time-consuming errors Finally, if your taxes are relativelysimple (you don’t have itemized deductions or special invest-ments), use the shorter tax form It’s only one page, and if yourrecords are in order, it can be completed in less than an hour

PASSAGE 2

The following passage is excerpted from Jane Jacobs’s 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities The paragraphs are numbered to

make the questions easier to follow

(1) A city sidewalk by itself is nothing It is an abstraction It meanssomething only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses thatborder it, or border other sidewalks very near it The same might besaid of streets, in the sense that they serve other purposes besidescarrying wheeled traffic in their middles Streets and their sidewalks,the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs Think of acity and what comes to mind? Its streets If a city’s streets look inter-esting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.(2)More than that, and here we get down to the first problem, if acity’s streets are safe from barbarism and fear, the city is thereby toler-ably safe from barbarism and fear When people say that a city, or apart of it, is dangerous or is a jungle, what they mean primarily is thatthey do not feel safe on the sidewalks

(3) But sidewalks and those who use them are not passive ciaries of safety or helpless victims of danger Sidewalks, their border-ing uses, and their users, are active participants in the drama ofcivilization versus barbarism in cities To keep the city safe is a funda-mental task of a city’s streets and its sidewalks

benefi-P O S T-T E S T 215

(4) This task is totally unlike any service that sidewalks and streets

in little towns or true suburbs are called upon to do Great cities are

not like towns, only larger They are not like suburbs, only denser

They differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of these is

that cities are, by definition, full of strangers

(5) The bedrock attribute of a successful city district is that a person

must feel personally safe and secure on the street among all these

strangers He must not feel automatically menaced by them A city

district that fails in this respect also does badly in other ways and lays

up for itself, and for its city at large, mountain on mountain of trouble

25. A good glossing of paragraph 2 would be:

para-graphs to do?

safe

streets are unsafe

beneficia-ries of safety or helpless victims of danger

participants in the drama of civilization versus barbarism incities

its sidewalks