english questions
hamd_m
qsrw_set.docxESL 21A- Spring 2014
Unit 8 Discussion Questions
“Set in Our Ways: Why Change Is So Hard”
Answer the following, and be prepared to discuss your thoughts in class.
1. Summarize the author’s main point in a few sentences.
2. What is an anecdote?
Explain the point of the anecdote in the paragraph 2.
3. What does the author tell us about people in their teens and early 20s?
What does he tell people once they have passed their early 20s?
4. That “this pattern holds true regardless of cultural background” implies what?
5. What do biopsychologists say about change?
What do psychologists say about change?
6. People completely lose their appetite for change after a certain age.
According to the article, is this statement true or false?
Explain your answer.
7. Read the definitions of metaphor and answer the question.
A metaphor is "a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another (Ex.: the curtain of night, “all the world's a stage”)."
a. Identify the metaphor in paragraph 12.
b. Explain it.
8. The author presents some evidence that the age-related decline in appetite for change is due to nature and some that shows it is due to nurture. List the author’s claims and include some of your own, or comment on the author’s claims.
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Nature |
Nurture |
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9. Explain false hope syndrome.
10. What does paradox mean?
What is the paradox in paragraph 5?
11. “The shortest path to oneself leads around the world.” Do you agree that travel is the best way a person can discover who he/she is? Write a short paragraph.
