3.1-3.5 Quiz

Schools should exercise very little control over what students wear to school. Many students choose to express themselves through their clothing, accessories, and hairstyles. Their appearance is one way that students can communicate something about themselves. Dressing a certain way can help students find friends who share their interests.

Which provides the best example to support the writer's argument that clothing is a means of self-expression?

• Students in the same social group tend to choose styles that are similar to each other.

• A student who dresses like his favorite anime character shows others that he likes Japanese animation.

• Students who participate in team sports can be identified by the uniforms that they wear.

• A student who wants to be noticed may choose an unconventional style of dress or an unusual hairstyle.

Which two of the following are the best reasons to write summary notes of source materials?

• to keep track of ideas from multiple sources

• to capture an author's ideas word for word

• to capture the main idea of a single source

• to evaluate whether a source is reliable

• to prove that the entire text has been read

Schools should exercise very little control over what students wear to school. Many students choose to express themselves through their clothing, accessories, and hairstyles. Their appearance is one way that students can communicate something about themselves. Dressing a certain way can help students find friends who share their interests.

Based on this student's claims, which statement should be added to the end of this paragraph to outline the argument being developed?

• Freedom to dress in a certain way helps students express themselves and connect with those who share their interests.

• The availability of other forms of self-expression does not justify a strict dress code in schools.

• Students have the right to express themselves however they wish, and schools should have no control over this.

• Students have many available options beyond their clothing for expressing their personalities and interests.

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, a case in which students filed a lawsuit against the public school system in Des Moines, Iowa.

In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate. They may not be confined to the expression of those sentiments that are officially approved. In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.

Which choice provides the best objective summary of the text?

• Students should be seen as individuals who learn from others and who have thoughts of their own.

• Schools can limit students’ right to free expression as long as there is a valid legal reason to do so.

• Schools should encourage students to explore ideas and perspectives different from their own.

• Students have a right to their own views even when their views are not the same as those of school officials.

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, a case in which students filed a lawsuit against the public school system in Des Moines, Iowa.

There is here no evidence whatever of petitioners‘ [the students who wore armbands] interference, actual or nascent, with the schools‘ work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone.

Which choice best shows the meaning of the word collision in the context of the sentence?

• impact

• invasion

• conflict

• contact

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, a case in which students filed a lawsuit against the public school system in Des Moines, Iowa.Then read the dictionary definition that follows.

In wearing armbands, the petitioners were quiet and passive. They were not disruptive, and did not impinge upon the rights of others. In these circumstances, their conduct was within the protection of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth.

impinge (verb)

1.  to affect or impact, usually negatively

2.  to encroach on another‘s property

3.  to collide with

4.  to push against

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, written by Justice Hugo Black.

Change has been said to be truly the law of life, but sometimes the old and the tried and true are worth holding. The schools of this Nation have undoubtedly contributed to giving us tranquility and to making us a more law-abiding people. Uncontrolled and uncontrollable liberty is an enemy to domestic peace. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that some of the country’s greatest problems are crimes committed by the youth, too many of school age. School discipline, like parental discipline, is an integral and important part of training our children to be good citizens—to be better citizens.

Which choice best summarizes Justice Black's opening remarks?

• Change is inevitable. Schools contribute to peace and order, and uncontrollable liberty threatens this. Youth are entirely to blame for many of today's problems. Discipline in school and at home is critical to shaping our citizens.

• Change is the law but shouldn’t be. Schools create tranquility and law-abiding people. Uncontrollable liberty is the enemy. We can’t close our eyes to the fact that youth cause problems. School discipline is integral to developing good citizenship.

• Change is not always a welcome part of life. Our nation’s schools are invaluable in their contributions to peace. Uncontrollable liberty is dangerous. Youth are to blame for our nation’s problems, and they must be disciplined.

• Change is inevitable, but limitless liberty can be dangerous. Schools help facilitate peace, order, and the development of good citizens. Youth contribute to some of the nation’s worst problems, making school discipline imperative.

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines.

They have picketed schools to force students not to cross their picket lines, and have too often violently attacked earnest but frightened students who wanted an education that the pickets did not want them to get.

Which choice best shows the meaning of the word earnest in the context of the excerpt?

• aggressive

• committed

• fearful

• hopeful

Read the excerpt from the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, a case in which students filed a lawsuit against the public school system in Des Moines, Iowa.

If a regulation were adopted by school officials forbidding discussion of the Vietnam conflict, or the expression by any student of opposition to it anywhere on school property except as part of a prescribed classroom exercise, it would be obvious that the regulation would violate the constitutional rights of students, at least if it could not be justified by a showing that the students' activities would materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school. 

The ideas in this excerpt strengthen the court's claim by

• hinting that the wearing of armbands is acceptable when it does not disrupt schoolwork.

• proving that the wearing of armbands does not negatively affect student classrooms.

• comparing the wearing of an armband to other accepted forms of free speech.

• outlining the claim that efforts to ban the wearing of armbands are against the law.

Read the excerpts from the Supreme Court decision Jacobson v. Massachusetts and the video transcript "How Do Vaccines Work?"

Jacobson v. Massachusetts: There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. On any other basis, organized society could not exist with safety to its members. Society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.

"How Do Vaccines Work?": . . . live attenuated vaccines can be difficult to make, and because they’re live and quite powerful, people with weaker immune systems can’t have them.

Which claim best synthesizes information from both excerpts?

• Some vaccine laws designed to protect the common good should not allow exceptions of any kind.

• The difficulty of producing certain types of vaccines makes mandatory vaccine policies impractical for most communities.

• Live attenuated vaccines should not be subject to the same mandatory laws that govern other vaccines.

• Vaccine policies are important to protect the general welfare but must take into account those with weaker immune systems.