Раздел аналитических эссе (Analytical Writing Assessment)

Первый раздел тестирования – Analytical Writing Assessment – включает два типа заданий, связанных с написанием аналитических эссе.

Анализ проблем (Analysis of an Issue)

В первом задании – Analysis of an Issue – предъявляется отрывок текста, в котором излагается тема для обсуждения. Ваша задача – принять одну из точек зрения и аргументировать ее, снабжая свои утверждения соответствующими доводами и иллюстрациями.

Пример Analysis of an Issue

Постановка проблемы:

In many countries, including the USA, the postal service is a quasi-governmental organization whose primary mission is to deliver mail to individuals within the borders of the country. Since, it is argued, mail delivery to rural addresses where the population is sparse cannot be done economically under any acceptable circumstance; the postal service is given a monopoly on mail delivery. Actually, however, mail delivery could be done economically by private corporations as long as each corporation were given a monopoly to service any given area where sparsely populated areas were balanced against densely populated areas.

Задание:

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Эссе:

The idea that the post office department can be privatized is based on two questionable assumptions. In the first place, it can be shown that population in the USA is not distributed so that postal market areas can be divided with the result that costly market areas are balanced against lucrative market areas. In the second place, it can be shown that private corporations are not necessarily more cost effective than quasi-governmental organizations. It is, therefore, most likely that privatization of the post office department cannot be accomplished.

In the first place, due to mechanization, one worker on the farm can support at least three hundred people living in the city. Large combines with relatively small crews can roll across the prairies harvesting 500 ton of wheat in a day, enough to feed hundreds of people for a year.

As a result, there has been less and less employment in rural areas and, as a further result, people have left the rural areas for life in the city, creating the contemporary dilemma for postal planners. It is easy to distribute tons of mail to big city dwellers in high rise buildings at a reasonable cost. But who is going to find a cost effective way to deliver a single first class letter twenty miles down a country road in a snowstorm in January? Therefore, postal markets cannot be distributed so that service to any given market is economical using contiguous geographical markets.

Perhaps the answer lies in distributing the cost of mail delivery by balancing a cost intensive market area such as rural up-state New York with a lucrative market area such as New York City. On examination, however, this turns out to be an impossibility because population simply is not distributed in neatly balanced areas for reasons noted in the preceding paragraph.

Albany, New York, probably has a greater population than the entire state of Wyoming. Is a single company going to be given Wyoming and Albany as a single market area? If so, that company will not be able to service the area economically because the costs of doing business over such a long distance are extremely high. The current post office department, in effect, already does this and it has found it to be not economical. Clearly, it is also true that postal markets cannot be distributed using noncontiguous geographical markets, so that service to any given market is economical.

Furthermore, not all private corporations are economical. The federal government has always subsidized defense contractors rewarding them for their inefficiencies with huge cost over-runs. Besides this, any number of large private  corporations have gone bankrupt including Continental Airlines and Pan American Airways.

Would any social planners want postal delivery discontinued to any area because a large, privatized postal company declared bankruptcy?

The argument that the post office department can be privatized is based on two questionable assumptions. It is therefore most likely that this argument is invalid (1) because populations are not distributed in such a way that large, regional post offices could be run economically, and (2) because private corporations are not necessarily cost efficient and economical.

For these reasons, privatization does not appear to be an effective means of reforming our postal system.

Анализ аргумента (Analysis of an Argument)

Во втором задании первого раздела – Analysis of an Argument – необходимо критически проанализировать аргументы, приведенные в отрывке текста. Нужно указать на слабые стороны рассуждения и предложить свой, более удачный вариант аргументации. Приводим пример стандартного вопроса из этого раздела.

Пример Analysis of an Argument

Задание:

In a free society, laws must be subject to change. Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which a law should not be subject to change in a free society. Discuss what you think determines whether or not a law in a free society should be subject to change.

Эссе:

A society establishes laws to address the needs of the present, and these needs often change with time. When needs change, laws must either be flexible enough to address new situations or be subject to change. This is the only way to insure that the needs of contemporary society are being addressed. The given statement uses the qualification of a «free society », implying that the citizens in the society have the freedom to make their needs known and to contribute to the making of laws. For a free society to flourish, the political structure must be able to accommodate a reevaluation and possibly a restructuring of laws.

The laws which constitute the political system, specifically those ensuring citizens their basic human rights should not be subject to change. In the United States, the Bill of Rights guarantees citizens fundamental rights, and therefore it should not be subject to change. In a free society which permits its members extensive personal freedom, The Bill of Rights provides for the harmonious coexistence of diverse groups of people. As such a societal mediator, The Bill of Rights encompasses many laws that are the basis behind the notion «free society» and therefore should not be subject to change.

In deciding whether or not a law should be subject to change, the premise on which the law stands must be evaluated. Laws which make up the foundation of a free society must be stable, but can only remain so as long as they address the needs of the society's constituents. Every society contains diverse groups of people and therefore must have laws to encompass a variety of difference needs. To determine the immutability of a law, the laws impact on society must be evaluated, and care must be taken to ensure that changing a law to benefit parts of the community do not do so at the expense of some of the constituents. A law governing basic rights should be stable, while minor laws regulating certain actions do not necessitate such careful consideration. For example, the laws governing abortion involve the fundamental rights of women, and much attention must be spent on the issue to moderate its impact on society. The laws governing issues such as car parking do not involve a major issue, and should easily be subject to change if problems with existing regulations arise.