Choose The Best Summary

Directions: For each passage, select the best summary. Be prepared to explain your choice.
Note: Remember, when you write a summary, you should let the main idea guide your selection of
essential details;
paraphrase rather than copy most of the original language.
use the openings of sentences to make connections between ideas as clear as possible for readers.
You should also consider
combining information from different sentences or paragraphs.
changing the original sequence of explanations whenever it allows you to condense without losing
clarity.
1.
Modifications in Consumer Behavior
In the United States and other industrialized countries, many consumers are making "green" choices in
their behavior and purchases that reflect concern for the environment. In some cases, these choices
carry a price tag, such as paying more for organically grown food or for clothing made from organic
cotton. Consumers are also motivated to make green purchases that save money. For example, after gas
prices topped $4/gallon in 2008, sales of gas guzzling SUVs dropped, and sales of more fuel-efficient
cars, such as hybrids, increased. Consumers often consider their utility bill when they choose energy-
efficient appliances and electrical equipment. (Mooney et al. Understanding Social Problems, 8thed.
p.428)
Summary
a. In the United States, growing numbers of people are thinking green, and both their purchases
and actions show their desire to protect the environment.
b. Industrialized countries like the United States have a growing number of people who, in both
their actions and purchases, are concerned about the environment and thinking green. Some
consumers, for instance, are even willing to pay more money for organically grown groceries.
c. More and more people in industrialized countries like the U.S. are thinking green. They are
paying more to buy organic products, saving money by avoiding high-priced gas-guzzlers, and choosing
energy-efficient appliances and equipment.
2.
Not Everyone is Listening to Warnings About the Environment
Scientists seem to think that simply telling people about various threats to the environment will induce
people to change their behavior. But so far at least, that hasn't been the case. Real change hasn't
occurred because people generally have one or all three of these reasons for thinking that future threats
to the environment are over-rated. It's all so far away. Many people believe that the environment may
be in danger, but they are convinced that the threat is a distant one. Their great grandchildren, not their
immediate family, will face it. One person can't do anything. Faced with the enormity of problems like
pollution and global warming, many people feel that one person's refusing to use plastic bottles is just a
drop in the bucket that accomplishes nothing. Technology is going to solve the problem soon. There isn't
much evidence for this belief. But it's comforting. Thus people repeat it without doing any research to
see if it's true.
Summary
a. Science researchers may believe that warning people about what will happen to the
environment is going to make a difference. But the warnings aren't being listened to. Or if they are, they
aren't leading to action on the part of consumers.
b. There are three reasons why people don't listen to scientists' warnings about threats to the
environment. They consider the threat to be far in the future and believe that even if it were closer, one
person can't do anything. Some people are also convinced that threats to the environment will be solved
by technological means.
c. Many people don't listen to warnings about threats to the environment because they are
convinced that technology can save the environment. They believe this despite all evidence to the
contrary, probably because it helps eliminate any anxiety they might have about the future.
3.
Kevin Carter's Pulitzer Prize
Kevin Carter (1960-1994) was an award-winning photojournalist from South Africa, whose image of a
starving Sudanese toddler stalked by a vulture won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. But prestigious as the
Pulitzer is, it did not bring Carter much happiness. What it did bring was a lot of controversy and a host
of personal accusations. Some of Carter's colleagues claimed that Carter had broken the
photojournalist's cardinal rule of recording the moment as it happens by setting up the shot for
maximum shock value. However, it was newspapers from around the world that really took him to task.
An editorial in the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times said in print what many others were thinking: "The man
adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another
vulture on the scene." Carter, who had suffered for years from depression and whose drug use had been
increasing in the early nineties, went into an emotional tailspin following the uproar over his Pulitzer
award. On July 27, 1994, Carter committed suicide by running a garden hose from the exhaust pipe of
his red Nissan truck into the passenger side window, and he died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Summary
a. In 1994, South African photojournalist Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer for his photo of a vulture
lurking nearby as a starving Sudanese child lay hunched over on the ground. The prize though brought
him more misery than happiness. He was criticized from all sides, especially by the press. In one
editorial, he was likened to a vulture for taking the photo rather than helping the child. Suffering from
depression and the effects of long drug use and made miserable by the criticism he received, Carter
committed suicide in the same year that he received the Pulitzer Prize.
b. In 1994, after newspapers called him a "vulture" for exploiting the misery of a starving child,
South African photojournalist Kevin Carter was an emotional wreck. Afflicted by depression and the
effects of drug use, Carter was in no shape to handle the criticism. In July of the same year, he
committed suicide by hooking a garden hose up to the exhaust pipe of his truck and snaking the hose
through the passenger seat window. Inhaling the fumes, Carter died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
c. Kevin Carter was a South African journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in1994. Unfortunately,
Carter could not handle the fame that came with the prize. The effects of depression and drug use
destroyed his ability to defend himself against attacks by other journalists. Shortly after receiving the
Pulitzer, he committed suicide.
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Directions: For each passage, select the best summary. Be prepared to explain your choice.

paraphrase rather than copy most of the original language.

You should also consider

combining information from different sentences or paragraphs.

Modifications in Consumer Behavior

Not Everyone is Listening to Warnings About the Environment

Kevin Carter's Pulitzer Prize

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