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I Can’t

think

S

CRIPTURE

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

~ Hebrews 4:12

Prayer Points

L

OVE

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

~ Galatians 5:25

In Newsweek recently there was an article called “I Can’t Think.” It is about the fact that we are overloaded by information. “The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionalized our lives, but with an unintended consequence — our overloaded brains freeze when we make decisions,” journalist Sharon Begley writes. Begley warns us that we are overloaded with information, choices, and alternatives. When we have so many choices, we are unable to make any choice at all. As a result, when we finally do respond “the ceaseless influx trains us to respond instantly, sacrificing accuracy and thoughtfulness to the false god of immediacy.”1

In other words, we respond out of exigency and expediency and not out of thoughtfulness and care. We choose the quick not the right, the convenient not the just.

George Loewen of Carnegie Mellon University warns that “getting 30 texts per hour up to the moment when you make a decision means that the first 28 or 29 have virtually no meaning.”2 Immediacy dooms thoughtful deliberation.

Another casualty is creativity. Creative decisions are more likely to bubble up from a brain that applies unconscious thought to a problem, rather than going at it in a full-frontal, analytical assault. So much for making decisions in the shower or on a quiet walk. We swamp ourselves with text messages and twitter and IMs. We don’t need to reflect on a problem — we can google our crisis away with hundreds of hits.

Oh, that it were so! No one, my friend, can put humpty together again but the Maker. Yes, God. Unless we can Twitter our way to the Holy Spirit or text God we might be in trouble. We will not be able to send an SOS out on Facebook to solve our sorry lives — we need a direct, old-fashioned touch of God. In the midst of so much information the thing that really matters, we discover, is WHO we know and not WHAT we know. Well, all this information is only information, after all. Aha! Our epistemology will take us no further than our metaphysics.

How can you protect yourself from having your decisions warped by excess information? Ms. Begley suggests we take our e-mails in limited fashion, like a glass of wine before bedtime. She wants us to control our access to Facebook — only twice a day.

Silly me. May I suggest an alternative? Why not turn off the computer. And pick up your Bible. And read it.

R

EADING

Author’s Tone

The term “tone” refer to the author’s slant on a subject, emotions, or feelings. To determine tone in a literary piece, you have to consider diction and syntax, the grammatical structure of the sentence. You also have to consider which details are included and which are left out.

What is the tone of the following passage?

“What soul in the land but has felt and witnessed this grief — this unavailing sorrow for the brave and untimely dead? I thought of the letter from the sorrowing one in Iowa, whose son, a prisoner, I had nursed, receiving with the last breath words for the distant, unconscious mother; of her sorrow in writing of him in his distant grave; of her pride in him, her only son. How many in the land could take her hand and weep over a mutual sorrow! And in the hospital wards, men, who still hold the name of Americans, together were talking of battles, prisoners, and captors, when each told the other of acts of bravery performed on hostile fields, and took out pictures of innocent babes, little children, and wives, to show each other, all feeling a sympathy and interest in the unknown faces. Verily, war is a species of passionate insanity.”3 (Mary Ann Loughborough, My Cave Life in Vicksburg)

The author’s tone is:

1. Somber
2. Flippant
3. Critical
4. Neutral

The author’s tone is established by:

1. The setting
2. Language
3. Plot
4. All of the above

M

ATH

General Problems

The sum of two numbers is 60, and the greater is four times the lesser. What are the numbers?

If the difference between two numbers is 48, and one number is five times the other, what are the numbers?

There are three numbers whose sum is 96; the second is three times the first, and the third is four times the first. What are the numbers?

Divide the number 126 into two parts such that one part is 8 more than the other.

Test-Taking

Insight

Tips for Taking the ACT

• Carefully read the instructions on the cover of the test booklet.
• Read the directions for each test carefully.
• Read each question carefully. Answer the question on the test — not the question you think it is.
• Pace yourself — don’t spend too much time on a single passage or question.
• Bring six slightly dulled No. 2 pencils with good erasers. Do not use a mechanical pencil or ink pen.
• Answer the easy questions first, then go back and answer the more difficult ones if you have time remaining on that test. Allow at least five minutes to review your test answers (on each section).
• On difficult questions, eliminate as many incorrect answers as you can, then make an educated guess among those remaining. There is no penalty for guessing.
• Answer every question. Your scores on the multiple-choice tests are based on the number of questions you answer correctly. There is no penalty for guessing.
• Mark your answers properly. Erase any mark completely and cleanly without smudging.
• Do not mark or alter any ovals on a test or continue writing the essay after time has been called. If you do, you will be dismissed and your answer document will not be scored (ACT).

V

OCABULARY

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin4

Benjamin Franklin

Speaking to his “Dear Son,” Benjamin Franklin began what is one of the most famous autobiographies in world history. At the age of 62, Franklin wrote his reminiscences for the benefit of his son, William Franklin (1731–1813). The book was composed in sections, the first part dealing with Franklin’s first 24 years. He finished this in 1771. Then, with the end of the American Revolution, he resumed his writing in 1783 and finished it in 1789. Ironically, though, the autobiography covers his life only until 1757. There is no mention even of the American Revolution. Full of anecdotes and wisdom, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin remains a timeless classic.

Suggested Vocabulary Words

1. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. (part 1)
2. It was written in 1675, in the home-spun verse of that time and people, and addressed to those then concerned in the government there. It was in favor of liberty of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other distresses that had befallen the country, to that persecution, as so many judgments of God to punish so heinous an offense, and exhorting a repeal of those uncharitable laws. (part I)
3. At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children. (part 1)
4. I continu’d this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence. (part 2)
5. In his house I lay that night, and the next morning reach’d Burlington, but had the mortification to find that the regular boats were gone a little before my coming, and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this being Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old woman in the town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the water, and ask’d her advice. (part 2)
6. My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be begun and spread at first among young and single men only; that each person to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such creed, but should have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks’ examination and practice of the virtues as in the before-mention’d model; that the existence of such a society should be kept a secret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solicitations for the admission of improper persons, but that the members should each of them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, the scheme should be gradually communicated these proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, I assembled and form’d into a connected discourse prefix’d to the Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. (part 3)
7. In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia (a very beneficent design, which has been ascrib’d to me, but was originally his), for the reception and cure of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavoring to procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he met with but small success. (part 4)

“Most people won’t realize that writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else.”5

— Katherine Anne Porter

E

NGLISH

Diction

Diction involves word choice. Some of the questions on the ACT English Test require that you identify the words that are unacceptable.

Identify the usage problems in the following sentences:

1. I effected the outcome by my choices.
2. It was alright for me to borrow my mother’s car.
3. Please lay next to the water fountain.
4. I cannot choose between the three food dishes.

???Are you reading 50 to 100 pages a day???

W

RITING

The Conclusion

In a general way, your conclusion will:

• restate your topic and why it is important
• restate your thesis/claim

Remember that once you accomplish these tasks you are finished. Done. Don’t try to bring in new points or end with a sermon or polemic. Stay focused! Stay on task! Finish with confident humility.

The conclusion:

S

CIENCE

Comparing Theories

One type question in the Science Reasoning portion may present two opposing viewpoints. These may be different interpretations of experimental results or different theories to explain some phenomena.

You will be presented with questions about the two viewpoints. You will have to delineate the different assumptions behind each viewpoint.

The Evolution of Man

Theory A

The modern theory concerning the evolution of man proposes that humans and apes derive from an ape-like ancestor that lived on earth a few million years ago. The theory states that man, through a combination of environmental and genetic factors, emerged as a species to produce the variety of ethnicities seen today, while modern apes evolved on a separate evolutionary pathway.

The following are assumptions of this theory:

1. Mankind evolved into its present species by trial and error.
2. The earth is millions of years old.
3. There is no God.
4. A and B
5. A, B, & C

Theory B

Creation occurred in six normal-length days about 6,000 years ago, just the way it is described in the Bible, and that God destroyed the earth with a global Flood about 1,600 years later.

1. The Bible is authoritative and should be accepted literally.
2. The earth is no more than 6,000 years old.
3. A
4. B
5. A & B

Go to Answers Sheet