Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practice Question 41: Answer and Explanation

Question: 41

Text 1 is from Sojourner Truth's 1815 speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. Text 2 is from Carrie Chapman Catt's 1917 Address to the Congress on Women's Suffrage.

Text 1

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I could have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?

Text 2

Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and fight with us? . . . We shall all be better friends, we shall have a happier nation, we women will be free to support loyally the party of our choice, and we shall be far prouder of our history.

Both texts use which of the following argumentative techniques?

• A. Rhetorical questions
• B. Individual attacks
• C. Personal anecdotes
• D. Historical references

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

(A) Both passages use rhetorical questions, i.e., questions given for dramatic effect in which the answer is already known. Text 1 asks "ain't I a woman?" and Text 2 asks "why not be honest, frank friends of our cause?" Neither uses individual attacks. Text 1 uses personal anecdotes, whereas Text 2 does not. Text 2 puts the situation in a historical context, whereas Text 1 focuses on the present.