Answers and Explanations—15.8

  1. Sample Spoken Response—Track 171

    The person that I admire is, uh, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She, um, is admirable because she, uh, went to law school at a time where women were discouraged to do so, and she went to a very good law school, um… and basically made her way to the top by being both smart about how she did it. Um, I also admire her because she’s not afraid to, uh, change her positions based on… on feedback, and I think that’s, um, particularly admirable in a day and age where, uh, people get very, um, sort of, uh… uh, tied to their own positions.

    Comments

    The student provides multiple strong reasons why she admires Justice Ginsburg. Toward the end, she could improve her response by using short pauses while she’s thinking about what she wants to say. It’s okay to say “um” a few times, but too many in one sentence can make it hard to understand the sentence.