Level of Difficulty

[lathlee]

Hi. Is it fair to consider as one of more difficult RC passage to crack and do Viewstamp?

[Adam Tyson]

I don't have the statistics on how students did with this passage back in February 200, lathlee, but in my opinion this is not a particularly challenging passage. It follows a pretty classic "some people say X, but they're wrong" structure. The author's tone is mildly critical of the current approach and of criminologists who fail to understand what is the real issue with juvenile delinquency, and supportive of an alternative approach based on a better understanding. His purpose, which we are asked about in the last question, seems obvious - to suggest that the alternative approach would be a better one. There's no challenging jargon to deal with, nor is there any obscure or especially difficult vocabulary.

As I went though the questions following the passage I found that they were mostly easy to prephrase, but as usual I returned to the passage frequently to find support for my answer choices, and the support was not hard to find. As long as I didn't trust my memory when I was down to two contenders (and you shouldn't either - the goal is to find evidence, not the recite it from memory) I was completely confident in every answer choice I selected.

Take another run at it and come up with your own VIEWSTAMP analysis. Take a few notes to indicate where the evidence can be found (like the data about numbers and percentages around lines 35-40), prephrase every answer, and find text to support your final choices. I bet you'll find the second time around that this passage is fairly benign.