We’ll be taking an exam over The Grapes of Wrath on Thursday in AP Language. The test will consist of answering two essay questions
taken from a list of three options. Each answer should be a well-developed response that shows understanding of the details of the text and our discussion about it.
Because the questions may contain some spoilers, I’ve posted them below. Click “Read more” to see the specific questions that could be asked on the test.
An interesting piece from The Atlantic calls for more research into exercise and brain function for students:
The Danish study I cited in my earlier piece, which shows that kids concentrate better after biking or walking to school, is far from the only research showing positive cognitive benefits from cycling, and not just for school-age kids. And yet these connections are only beginning to be adequately explored.
A recent article in Bicycling magazine, "Riding Is My Ritalin," looked at the effects of cycling on ADHD in children and adults, telling the story of one young man who has been using an intense road cycling regimen to treat his own attention disorder. As the article points out, researchers were looking at the link between physical activity and attention deficit as long ago as the 1970s.
Want to know more about gun violence in the United States? The Atlantic has one of the best primers available on the subject. One key finding:
What has worked to reduce gun violence?
This is not an easy question to answer, because crime rates can decline for a wide range of reasons. For example, violent crime rates declined sharply all across the country in the mid-1990s, regardless of whether a given area had tightened its gun laws. So based on a naive interpretation of the numbers, any attempt at reducing gun violence in 1995 would have appeared successful by 1998. Then there is the problem of comparing different states or cities: Circumstances differ, and what works in Memphis may fail in Detroit.
Nonetheless, there are some plausible methods for isolating the different factors, using comparison groups or other controls. The most thorough summary is a 2008 meta-analysis where the authors reviewed every prior American gun violence reduction study, examining both the reported effectiveness and the strength of the statistical evidence.
