College test english 4 doc

LearningExpress Skill Builders • CHAPTER 3 59

lege athletes are underpaid, and there are many who

would disagree. Some would say that the value of

tuition-free education, room and board, and the future

earning capacity that a college education and athletic

training provides more than compensates college ath￾letes. But those same people cannot dispute that col￾lege athletes earn one-tenth the salary that professional

athletes earn. All they can argue is that it isn’t fair or

equitable, and that argument immediately throws the

statement into the realm of opinion or belief.

So one way to distinguish fact from opinion is to

apply the debate test. If a statement can be debated it

is opinion, not fact. Read these statements.

1. Carbon dioxide emissions produce unhealthy air.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency must

enforce legislation to protect the air from increased

carbon dioxide emissions.

Sentence one (1) is a claim of fact. It cannot be

disputed that carbon dioxide emissions harm air qual￾ity. Scientific data eliminates all debates. But how we

feel about that fact, and how we use that fact, is what

takes it from fact to opinion, or belief. For example, sen￾tence two (2) uses the fact that CO2 is an air pollutant

to suggest the need for government enforcement of air

quality controls. Many Americans would disagree that

such intervention is either needed or even constitu￾tional. Notice, the disagreement is not about the fact,

but about how the fact is used.

Next, decide whether the following statements are

fact or opinion.

1. All Americans have the right to healthcare.

2. Congress has required the implementation of a

new TV ratings system to aid parents in the selec￾tion of appropriate viewing for their children.

3. The new TV ratings system represents yet another

unnecessary effort on the part of the govern￾ment to reduce individual responsibility.

4. Affirmative action programs are morally correct

for America.

5. Legalization of assisted suicide would benefit ter￾minally ill patients by giving them more control

of their own destiny.

You’ll notice that these statements aren’t quite as

easy to work with as the first group of sentences. But

you must remember the debate test and decide if the

statement can be argued. Is it a fact or an opinion that

all Americans have the right to health care? Well, about

the only thing debatable in that statement is who

should pay for the care? And how should it be provided?

Statement one is a fact; where we go with it presents

the debate.

Statement two is also a claim of fact.You may not

agree with what Congress did, and you may even dis￾agree with the whole concept of censoring what chil￾dren watch on TV, but the statement simply says that

Congress has legislated that there must be a system to

do it.

Statement three is definitely a claim of opinion

or belief. Whether or not the ratings system was nec￾essary and whether or not the system will increase or

decrease individual responsibility is highly debatable.

But the fact remains; there is now a system of ratings.

Statement four is also a claim of opinion or

belief. It isn’t telling us whether or not there are affir￾mative action programs, which would be a claim of fact,

but it is telling us that these programs are morally cor￾rect.

Statement five is a claim of fact. Legalizing assisted

suicide would give the terminally ill more control. This

is a highly charged claim of fact with lots of arguments

–READING COMPREHENSION–