Passage Find Time to Volunteer
Find Time to Volunteer
(1) Many people believe that they gain a greater sense of purpose by giving their time to serve others. (2) These are the people who spend their free time volunteering at various places within the community. (3) Those who are served benefit from the work of these volunteers. (4) However, research shows that those who volunteer also receive benefits.
(5) For many students, this proposition may sound impossible. (6) Schoolwork can require hours of study each week. (7) Volunteering at a retirement center or homeless shelter requires both time and energy. (8) Extracurricular activities fill up after-school time. (9) Family obligations and part-time jobs often have to be worked into the schedule, too. (10) However, if students can find time to volunteer, even for a few hours a month, they may find that the benefits outweigh the scheduling difficulties.
(11) To begin with, students who engage in volunteer activities acquire valuable skills and experience, which can help them focus on potential fields of study and career options. (12) Furthermore, when students list volunteer work on college applications, admissions counselors see applicants who care about making their community and college campus a better place.
(13) Volunteerism benefits more than students applying to college. (14) This type of experience is equally important for students moving directly into the workforce after high school. (15) Volunteering demonstrates initiative, dedication, and a strong work ethic, qualities that companies value in a potential employee. (16) In a CareerBuilder study, 60 percent of managers regarded volunteerism as a significant asset when considering applicants.
(17) Students who volunteer undoubtedly make a positive investment in their future, but they also affect their present quality of life. (18) Studies have shown that volunteering is good for both the mind and the body. (19) Volunteering can boost mood levels and reduce anxiety. (20) According to the Mayo Clinic,1 the feeling of doing something meaningful and the appreciation received from that action can reduce stress.
(21) Even the busiest of students can find a way to donate some time to a worthy cause. (22) Though managing different commitments may seem overwhelming at times, students are sure to feel a sense of fulfillment in volunteerism.
1Mayo Clinic: a nonprofit medical organization dedicated to treatment and research
Question
Which concluding sentence should replace sentence 22 to provide the best support for the argument presented in the passage?
- AIn every city, there are homeless shelters, food pantries, youth centers, and political campaigns that depend on the support and commitment of hardworking young people.
- BClearly, students who volunteer will experience a host of benefits, such as learning new skills, meeting interesting people, opening up opportunities for the future, and gaining a sense of satisfaction.
- CWhen students carefully evaluate their activities and prioritize volunteerism, they find a way to work it into their schedule and are soon encouraging their peers to do the same.
- DWhether they are seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress, high school students who volunteer can help themselves as much as they help others.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which concluding sentence should replace sentence 22 to provide the best support for the argument presented in the passage.
A. Incorrect. Although the sentence lists examples of organizations that depend on “hardworking young people” as volunteers, it should not replace sentence 22, because its use of specific examples does not provide a strong conclusion to the main idea in the passage, and it does not best support the main argument that students benefit themselves and their community when volunteering.
B. Incorrect. While the sentence supports the argument that students “will experience a host of benefits” through volunteerism, it should not replace sentence 22 as a concluding sentence, because it does not best support the main argument that volunteerism benefits both the students and their community.
C. Incorrect. Although the sentence emphasizes the importance of prioritizing volunteerism, it should not replace sentence 22, because it focuses on the main idea in the second paragraph (“For many students, this proposition may sound impossible.”), rather than the main argument that volunteerism benefits both students and their community. This sentence introduces the idea that student volunteers “are soon encouraging their peers” to volunteer, which does not best support the argument presented in the passage.
D. CORRECT. This sentence should replace sentence 22 to conclude the passage because it lists specific reasons for volunteering (“Whether they are seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress”) and best supports the main argument that volunteering not only helps students but can also help their community (“high school students who volunteer can help themselves as much as they help others”).
Question analysis
This conclusion question asks which sentence should replace the last line of the essay urging high school students to volunteer. Students need a closing statement that best supports the argument as a whole. Several options list benefits or name real places to volunteer, so the challenge is telling an ending that fits the whole essay from one that drifts.
- NYS standards
- 7W1e concluding an argument
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Writing a conclusion that sums up an argument is a grade 7 standard. Students recognize one rather than write it, but they must keep the essay’s several reasons in mind while judging four endings that all sound final.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 354 words; question and choices: about grade 15, 134 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
All four endings sound final, and the strongest wrong one is a fair-sounding list of benefits that opens with “Clearly.” The right ending wins on fit: its three reasons are the essay’s own, college, work and stress, and it keeps the opening idea that volunteers help others as well as themselves. Students who sketch the essay’s reasons paragraph by paragraph before reading the endings can see which one gathers them and which adds a point of its own.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The reasons a conclusion must gather sit in three body paragraphs, college admission in paragraph 3, the workforce in paragraph 4 and stress in paragraph 5, well before sentence 22. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right ending and the “host of benefits” ending both list what volunteers gain; they part on whether the list matches the essay’s own reasons and keeps the help volunteers give others. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: List the essay’s reasons for volunteering, one phrase per paragraph, then pick the ending that pulls them together without bringing in a new point.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
The wrong answers, classified
A Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Likes the concrete list of shelters, pantries and campaigns, but naming groups that need young volunteers sums up none of the essay’s reasons for volunteering.
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Sums up only what students gain, adding “meeting interesting people,” which the essay never mentions, and drops the point that volunteers help others too.
C Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Carries on sentence 21’s point that busy students can find time, then adds students recruiting their peers, so it ends on scheduling instead of the reasons to volunteer.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need a new last sentence for the essay. A good conclusion sums up the argument. It pulls the main reasons together without adding a new idea. Example: an essay on biking to school might end, Biking keeps you fit, saves money and helps clean the air. So first list this essay’s reasons.
List the essay’s reasons
- Paragraph 1: volunteers help others, and “those who volunteer also receive benefits” (sentence 4).
- Paragraph 3: volunteering helps with college applications.
- Paragraph 4: it helps students “moving directly into the workforce,” which means starting a job.
- Paragraph 5: it helps the mind and body, and it “can reduce stress.”
So a good ending names college, work and stress. It also keeps the idea that volunteers help both others and themselves.
Check each choice
- D names all three: “seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress.” It ends with students who “help themselves as much as they help others.” That matches the essay.
- B lists benefits, but it adds “meeting interesting people.” The essay never says that. It also leaves out helping others.
- A lists places that need volunteers. It sums up none of the essay’s reasons.
- C is about fitting volunteering into a schedule and getting friends to join. Getting friends to join is a new idea.
Pick the answer
Watch out: B starts with “Clearly” and lists good things, so it sounds like an ending. But its list is not the essay’s list. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because it also sums up what volunteers gain. But it adds a benefit the essay never discusses, and it drops the help volunteers give others. D gathers the essay’s own reasons, college, work and stress, and keeps both sides of the essay’s idea.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Find Time to Volunteer” as printed (page 163)
