GED Language Arts (RLA) : Identifying Evidence

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GED Language Arts (RLA)

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store

Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Identifying Evidence

Adapted from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, III.ii.82-117 (1599)

 

[This is a speech by Mark Antony]

 

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-

For Brutus is an honorable man;

So are they all, all honorable men-

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;

But Brutus says he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal [a public festival]

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

And sure he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause;

What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

What is the purpose of the underlined line, "When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept"?

Possible Answers:

To show how weak-willed Caesar actually was.

To make the point that even real men can cry.

To provide a human touch in the description of Caesar at his funeral.

To provide another example of how Caesar does not appear actually to have ambition.

To show that Caesar was not the tough figure that Brutus and others thought he was.

Correct answer:

To provide another example of how Caesar does not appear actually to have ambition.

Explanation:

The key to interpreting this line is found on the very next line: "Ambition should be made of sterner stuff." Mark Antony is implying that ambitious men are "stern" that is hard and unlikely to cry. However, Caesar did in fact weep with the poor. Therefore, he is using the example of crying to try to show that perhaps Brutus is not correct in making the claim that Caesar was ambitious.

Example Question #1 : Using Evidence

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the European education system underwent an overhaul which was, in part, solidified with the creation of the Bologna Process, an agreement among European countries to improve consistency and quality in higher education across the continent. The creation of the Bologna Process has not only improved the standard of education in EU nations, but set a very high bar for nations hoping to join the EU to hurdle. Belarus has already applied and been rejected due to concerns about its academic commitment. So we can see that quality education in Europe is not simply a lucky coincidence, or the natural result of a long history of scholars, but an intentional reform initiative upon which major political decisions, such as the inclusion of countries into the European Union, are made. Eastern European countries also had an especially difficult time transitioning to the new standards required of Bologna Process signatories since they were coming from the Soviet tradition of severely underfunded public schools and widespread bribery as a main criterion for university admission. The Soviet influence on the current state of tertiary education can clearly be seen by comparing eastern and western Germany. Before the implementation of the Bologna Process and formation of the European Higher Education Area, many European countries modeled their higher education system on Germany's, which separated students into academic or vocational training schools from the beginning of high school. This model fit with the Communist rationale of all jobs being of equal value, and the obligation of adolescents to train for the job for which they were best suited in society rather than allowing them to choose a major at the university level.

The example highlighted in the text supports which conclusion?

Possible Answers:

Belarus did not want to join the EU because of undue influence the EU may impose on its educational system

Belarus may have been approved to join the EU if it had shown more commitment to the quality of its education

The EU's criteria for entry are arbitrary and unfair

None of these conclusions can be made based on available evidence

Belarus was deemed to be not economically strong enough to join the EU

Correct answer:

Belarus may have been approved to join the EU if it had shown more commitment to the quality of its education

Explanation:

The example of Belarus was provided to support the previous sentence: "The creation of the Bologna Process has not only improved the standard of education in EU nations, but set a very high bar for nations hoping to join the EU to hurdle."  Therefore, since Belarus was denied because of a lack of commitment to education, it stands to reason that the country may have been accepted had this not been an issue.

Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors