Appendix More Sample Responses
Integrated Writing Response A The reading passage and the lecture discusses about the accuracy of the memoir written by Chevalier de Seingalt . The writer says that there are many parts in the memoir that are not true, and the lecturer contradicts these parts, insisting that the memoir is indeed quite accurate. The passage tells that he borrowed a lot of money when he lived in Switzerland, although the memoir tells that he was very wealthy while staying there . This contradicts the fact told in the lecture that he had to borrow money in order to purchase properties initially. The reading passage says that the conversations between Chevalier and Voltaire can’t be accurate, because it has been written years after the talk . However, the professor tells that Chevalier wrote down everything he could remember after the talk, and witnesses who have lived with him have approved the fact . The reading passage tells that Chevalier has bribed the jailers to escape from the Venetian prison, using the politically connected friends . On the contrary, the lecturer tells that other prisoners had much stronger friends, and still they couldn’t escape by offering bribes . Plus, after Chevalier’s escape, the ceiling of the room where he stayed had to be repaired, which implies that he really did escape the jail by himself. Integrated Writing Response B The lecture states that the Chevalier’s memoirs were accurate. The passage states that the critics are skeptical about the accuracy of Chevalier’s memoirs. The lecture and passage are in contrary to each other. The main topics for contention are about Chevalier’s wealth, Chevalier’s meeting with the famous writer and Chevalier’s escape from prison in Venice. According to the passage the critics argue that these records are not accurate. The lecture defends these records by giving sufficient proof. The passage had stated that since Chevalier had borrowed money from a Swiss merchant he was not a rich man and hence his memoir is not accurate. The lecture answers this by stating that Chevalier was a wealthy man. He spent a great amount of money on parties and gambling. To support this he had to sell his property. It usually takes some time to convert property to liquid asset. He had to take loans to support his partying and gambling habits because it takes time to sell the property. The critics in the passage argued that since Chevalier wrote about the conversation with Voltaire many years after the conversation it cannot be accurate. The lecture refutes this by telling that Chevalier used to take note of his conversation with Voltaire at the end of each day. He used these notes later while writing the memoirs. His friends had seen him consult his notes while writing his memoirs about his meeting with Voltaire. The critics in the passage also disagree about Chevalier’s claim on how he escaped from the prison in Venice, Italy . They say that it is difficult to escape by making a hole in the ceiling by using a piece of metal. They state that he bribed the jailers and they helped him to escape . He used his powerful friends to bribe the jailers . The lecture defends this by stating that there were many others in prison who had more powerful friends than Chevalier but they were unable to escape from jail . The lecture also states that by seeing the archives of government records of that period they could see that the ceiling of the prison in Venice had to be repaired . Thus the lecture says that Chevalier escaped from jail without bribing anyone. The lecture completely defends Chevalier’s records and its accuracy, and gives enough proof and data to support the authenticity of Chevalier’s claims. The critics in the passage have to come up with more data to disprove the accuracy of Chevalier’s memoirs .
224
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting