Read the following argument made by a concerned citizen at a town meeting:
are we supposed to stand idly by while our town
government wastes millions of dollars? while we pay
higher and higher taxes, our leaders are stuffing the money
into a bag that's riddled with holes! we cannot continue to
support this senseless waste. we cannot accept tax
increases as inevitable. and we cannot allow our elected
officials to retain their positions without fixing this broken
system.
which of these sentences is the most accurate evaluation of the structure of
the argument?
o
a. the repetition of the word "higher creates an emotional effect
that is convincing.
o
b. the opening question shows the issue to be a choice between
common sense and nonsense.
o
c. the idea that elected officials be suspended until the government
can be "fixed" is naïve.
o
d. the notion that paying high taxes is 'senseless' is itself nonsense,
given the evidence.

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt