L E S S O N 2

The Way, the Truth, and

The LIFE

S CRIPTURE

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

~ John 3:16

Prayer Points

M ATURITY

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both

now and forever! Amen.”

~ 2 Peter 3:18

The British author G.K. Chesterton writes, “The madman’s explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory.”1 While this author agrees that absolute objectivity has yet to be attained, it is not the same for absolute truth. In any event, the idea of objectivity as a guiding principle is too valuable to be abandoned. Without it, the pursuit of knowledge is indeed hopelessly lost. As Aristotle argues in his seminal work Nicomachean Ethics, “. . . the great majority of mankind are agreed about this; for both the multitude and persons of refinement speak of it as Happiness, and conceive ‘the good life’ or ‘doing well’ to be the same thing as ‘being happy.’ But what constitutes happiness is a matter of dispute; and the popular account of it is not the same as that given by the philosophers.”2 Objectivity is as elusive as happiness, but truth is real. Are people better at making observations, discoveries, and decisions if they remain neutral and impartial? Only if they pursue truth.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Alice in Wonderland falls into the rabbit hole and knows that she is lost. “Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction,”3 the doorknob tells Alice. She has lost all objectivity. She is in trouble. She knows it. But she still has truth — the doorknob has given her truth. Read the directions! Alice is not neutral and, in her crisis, is making observations and decisions galore. She has lost her objectivity, though. She wants to go home. The truth will lead her home. Impartiality, then, is immaterial. She has a need, a stated objective, and she can have the truth. The truth will lead her home.

Young people, this ACT preparation course is not on a search for the truth. Most assuredly, we know the Truth. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

“If Christians want us to believe in a Redeemer, let them act redeemed.”4

— Voltaire

Test-Taking Insight

Work as fast as you effectively are able. Don’t waste time on questions that are too difficult for you. If you’re not sure about an answer, take your best guess and put a symbol next to the question so that you can come back and answer it if you have time. Unlike in the SAT, in the ACT the questions do not follow a specific order of difficulty. The first ten and the last ten in each section are equal in difficulty. If you cannot answer a difficult question, quickly move to the next question. Occasionally you will find a question that you could answer if you have/had time, but for now you will skip. You may return to answer it later. In any event, do not leave any answers blank on the ACT. Unlike the SAT, where there is a .25 penalty for guessing, there is no penalty for guessing on the ACT.

Use this marking system:

√ Answer if I have time.

X Never answer. I can’t figure this out.

+ Be certain to find time to answer this.

Remember, you get the same number of points for an easy question as for a hard one, so try to answer as many questions as you can.

R EADING

Main Idea

“In the period between the landing of the English at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and the close of the French and Indian war in 1763 — a period of a century and a half — a new nation was being prepared on this continent to take its place among the powers of the earth. It was an epoch of migration. Western Europe contributed emigrants of many races and nationalities. The English led the way. Next to them in numerical importance were the Scotch-Irish and the Germans. Into the melting pot were also cast Dutch, Swedes, French, Jews, Welsh, and Irish. Thousands of slaves were brought from Africa to till Southern fields or labor as domestic servants in the North. Why did they come? The reasons are various. Some of them, the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England, the French Huguenots, Scotch-Irish and Irish, and the Catholics of Maryland, fled from intolerant governments that denied them the right to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. Thousands came to escape the bondage of poverty in the Old World and to find free homes in America. Thousands, like the captives from Africa, were dragged here against their will. The lure of adventure appealed to the restless and the lure of profits to the enterprising merchants.”5 — Charles & Mary Beard

The main idea of this passage is:

  1. The origin of slavery in the New World.
  2. Immigration occurred for many different reasons but all, except for African slaves, came with the expectation that their lives would be improved.
  3. The two main purposes for immigration were the allure of adventure and profits.
  4. The English were the most important group to immigrate to America.
M ATH

Basic Algebra

  1. Solve for x, if x + 14 = 34.
  2. For what value of x is 3(x + 3) - 4x = 14?
V OCABULARY

What do these words mean?

The remainder of important suffixes and roots can be found in the Appendix.

“Grasp the subject, the words will follow.”6

— Cato

E NGLISH

Grammar

As a father of three adopted children; it grieves me that some mothers choose to abort their children.

  1. No change
  2. As a father of three adopted children
  3. As a father of three adopted children,
  4. As a father of three adopted children —
  5. As a father of three adopted children.

(A comma follows an introductory clause.)

Correct any wrong sentences.

  1. He likes to boast of Mary cooking.
  2. It is an error and which can’t be corrected.
  3. He said he should come if he could.
  4. Can I use your pencil?
  5. If you were I, what would you do?
  6. We would like to go.
  7. Neither the members of the committee nor the chairman is present.
  8. He only spoke of history, not of art.
  9. Socialists don’t have no use for trusts.
  10. This is John’s book.7

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.”8

— John Maynard Keyes

W RITING

The Essay Overview

The ACT Assessment Writing Test was added to the ACT Assessment in February 2005. It is a 30-minute student-produced essay written to a specific prompt. The prompts are based on topics concerning young people — this is different from the SAT. I advise you to take the writing portion of the ACT. It is a great opportunity to show colleges that you are a competent writer. It is also the easiest portion of the ACT for which to prepare.

You will receive a prompt. You will first write a thesis statement — a one-sentence purpose statement. You will then write an outline based on the thesis statement.

You will have 30 minutes to write your essay. Therefore, you will be tempted to skip the outline step. Don’t do that. The less time you have, the more concise you have to be, and the more important an outline becomes.

Why create an outline?

Then:

An outline is a kind of graphic scheme of the organization of your paper. It indicates the main arguments for your thesis as well as the subtopics under each main point.

Remember: An outline is a critical, necessary step!

The following is an essay prompt similar to one provided by ACT. Before you write an essay on this topic, create an outline. The first outline should be an orthodox outline (i.e., I, A, B, etc.). The second outline should be a schematic/graphic organization of your essay. Of course you will only choose one option when taking your exam.

“Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.”9

— Samuel Johnson

W RITING

ACT Prompt

Over the past several years many schools have gone from a nine-month school year to year-round schooling. Although students attend school the same number of days, they have several shorter breaks throughout the year instead of one long summer break. Advocates of year-round schooling claim that students are able to retain more of what they have learned, while opponents feel that it disrupts summer vacation. In your opinion, is year-round school better than a traditional nine-month school year?

Write an essay in which you take a position on this question. You may choose either argument presented above or introduce a different point of view. Develop your essay with specific details that support your opinion (ACT).

The ACT essay prompt generally concerns a social issue relevant to high school students. For example: should dress codes be required in public schools? Your response must be a well-structured argument supporting a definite point of view.

Create an outline for this ACT essay.

S CIENCE

Here are things you will need to do on the science portion of the ACT:

A popular problem on the ACT is related to designing experiments to prove a scientific thesis. Questions of this kind describe an experiment, including the pro forma conditions under which it is performed and the outcome of the experiment. You will be asked to deduce the purpose of the experiment.

The following is an example taken from the TCA website:

A lima bean is planted under similar conditions in each of three containers The containers are placed in a dark room, and the soil in each one is moistened with an equal amount of water each day. A week later it is observed that a young plant, with bean still attached, has emerged through the soil in each container. The seed coat and the bean are carefully removed from the first plant. The seed coat and half the bean are carefully removed from the second plant. The third plant is not altered in any way. Two weeks later it is observed that the first plant has grown very little and that the third plant has grown higher than the second plant.

One of the purposes of this experiment is to determine

  1. the effect of darkness on the growth of seedlings
  2. whether bean plants can be grown from seed
  3. the function of the seed in plant development
  4. if lima beans will sprout only in dark locations

“The science part of the ACT was the easiest. I knew that the answer was always found in the problem description. The math was not hard. The hard part was the thinking.”

— A home school student who scored 32 on the ACT

“Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.”10

— George Santayana

Go to Answers Sheet