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AP English Language: Rhetorical Situation (Drill 1)

Drill 1 · Reading · Rhetorical Situation

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About This Drill

AP English Language: Rhetorical Situation (Drill 1) is a Reading practice drill covering Rhetorical Situation. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

Read the passage carefully, then answer all five questions. Questions will ask about the passage's purpose, rhetorical strategies, structure, tone, and argumentation, the core skills tested on the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

Passage

The following text is adapted from a speech delivered by journalist and author Katherine Boo at a journalism school commencement ceremony in 2014. I want to tell you something that your professors probably haven't, because it doesn't fit neatly into a curriculum: the most important skill you will develop as a journalist is not writing. It is not research, though research matters enormously. It is not even the ability to ask good questions, though you should practice that every day for the rest of your lives. The most important skill is the capacity to be wrong in public, and to keep going. Every story I have ever reported began with a theory I was certain about. And every story, without exception, eventually required me to revise that theory, sometimes slightly, sometimes so thoroughly that I had to begin again. The journalists who frightened me most when I was starting out were not the ones who made errors. They were the ones who never seemed to make any. Because what that told me was not that they were extraordinarily careful. It told me they were not looking hard enough. The world you are entering is one in which the pressure to be right the first time has never been greater. Social media rewards speed and punishes correction. An editor who publishes a retraction is seen as having failed rather than having done exactly what a serious journalist should do. I understand these pressures. I have felt them. But I want to suggest to you that the culture which treats correction as failure is not a culture of accuracy. It is a culture of performance. And performance, in the long run, is the enemy of truth. What does it mean to report well under these conditions? It means building into your practice the assumption that you are, right now, missing something. It means cultivating sources who will tell you what you don't want to hear. It means sitting with a community long enough that people stop performing for you, stop giving you the story they think you came for, and start giving you the story that is actually there. That takes time. It takes discomfort. It requires you to be genuinely uncertain in a media environment that rewards the performance of certainty. I spent four years reporting in a single slum in Mumbai. People asked me constantly whether that was efficient use of my time. My answer was always the same: I didn't know what efficiency meant in the context of trying to understand a human life. What I knew was that the longer I stayed, the more wrong I discovered I had been, and the closer I got to something I would not be ashamed to call the truth. You will be told, in the years ahead, that the audience doesn't have the patience for complexity. That they want short. That they want fast. That they want to confirm what they already believe. Some of that is true some of the time. But I have spent my career betting against the assumption that people are only capable of the worst version of their curiosity. I have not always won that bet. I have won it often enough to keep making it. Go find the story that no one else is sitting with long enough to understand. Be wrong about it. Be wrong about it again. And then, when you have earned the right to be right, write it.

Questions & Explanations

Question 1. The primary purpose of Boo's speech is to

  • A) warn graduating journalists about the specific dangers of social media to the profession.
  • B) argue that long-form investigative reporting is more valuable than daily news coverage.
  • C) challenge graduates to embrace uncertainty and correction as core journalistic virtues. ✓
  • D) persuade journalism school administrators to extend the length of reporting programs.

Explanation: Choice C is correct. Boo's central argument is that the capacity to 'be wrong in public, and to keep going' is the most important journalistic skill, and she develops this throughout by distinguishing genuine accuracy from the 'performance of certainty.' Choice A is too narrow; social media is one example, not the central argument. Choice B is not her claim; she does not argue for long-form over daily journalism broadly. Choice D misidentifies the audience; she is addressing graduates, not administrators.

Question 2. In the second paragraph, Boo's observation that journalists who never seemed to make errors were 'not looking hard enough' primarily serves to

  • A) reframe error-making as evidence of thorough engagement rather than incompetence. ✓
  • B) acknowledge that even experienced journalists make frequent factual mistakes.
  • C) criticize senior journalists for setting unrealistic standards for new reporters.
  • D) suggest that journalism schools place too much emphasis on accuracy over speed.

Explanation: Choice A is correct. Boo inverts the expected logic, error-free work signals insufficient looking, while errors signal genuine inquiry. This reframing repositions mistakes as a marker of rigor rather than failure, supporting her central argument. Choice B misreads the point; she is making a claim about what apparent error-free performance reveals, not conceding that errors are universally common. Choice C introduces a criticism of senior journalists not supported by the passage. Choice D is not stated or implied.

Question 3. Boo's distinction between 'a culture of accuracy' and 'a culture of performance' in the third paragraph is best understood as

  • A) a contrast between journalists who prioritize facts and those who prioritize narrative.
  • B) an argument that social media platforms should implement stronger fact-checking requirements.
  • C) an acknowledgment that performance skills are necessary for journalists who appear on television.
  • D) a rhetorical framework that indicts media norms valuing the appearance of correctness over genuine truth-seeking. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is correct. Boo uses the distinction to critique a broader media culture in which appearing right matters more than the process of actually getting things right. 'Performance' here is pejorative; it describes prioritizing image over truth. Choice A introduces a facts-vs-narrative contrast not present in the passage. Choice B is too narrow and prescriptive; Boo does not propose a platform-level policy fix. Choice C misreads 'performance' as a neutral term about broadcast skills.

Question 4. The author's description of her four years reporting in a Mumbai slum primarily functions to

  • A) illustrate through personal experience the value of sustained, patient reporting for approaching truth. ✓
  • B) contrast the conditions of international journalism with pressures facing American journalists.
  • C) argue that journalists should specialize in a single geographic region throughout their careers within the passage's argument.
  • D) demonstrate that audiences in developing countries are more receptive to complex reporting.

Explanation: Choice A is correct. The Mumbai anecdote is Boo's personal embodiment of her central argument, that staying long enough to be repeatedly wrong is how journalists get closer to truth. It gives concrete, credible weight to an otherwise abstract claim. Choice B introduces a domestic-vs-international contrast not present in the passage. Choice C overgeneralizes from a single example; Boo is not prescribing geographic specialization. Choice D is not supported; audience receptiveness is never discussed.

Question 5. Boo's tone throughout the speech can best be described as

  • A) nostalgic and elegiac, mourning a more principled era of journalism.
  • B) measured and candid, acknowledging real pressures while urging principled resistance. ✓
  • C) combative and accusatory, assigning blame to media institutions for journalism's decline.
  • D) detached and analytical, presenting an objective assessment of the modern media landscape.

Explanation: Choice B is correct. Boo consistently acknowledges the pressures she describes ('I understand these pressures. I have felt them.') before countering them, a pattern of honest concession followed by principled pushback. This is measured and candid rather than combative or nostalgic. Choice A doesn't fit: she is forward-looking and action-oriented, not mournful. Choice C overstates the aggression; she critiques a culture, not specific institutions or individuals. Choice D is wrong because the speech is personal and persuasive, not detached.