Critical Reading for College and Beyond [Chapter 9]

Exercise

Using Preview, Study- Read, and Review (PSR) Strategies

Chapter 9

Exercise 9a)

Previewing

1. There are 12 Rice Chex in the crane.

2. I believe they’re using tapes for the wheels on the truck.

3.Three vehicles are visible in the picture.

4. I don’t know

5. I don’t know

6. The ice cream cone is on top of the white building in the middle of the picture.

7. The stick of gum is on the right side of the picture.

8. They use a stick of paint and a guitar pick to make the plane.

9. I don’t know how many trees, but they use broccoli to make them.

10. There are 7 dices in the picture.

11. Dog bones (biscuits) are next to the wheelbarrow.

12. I can’t name twelve.


Exercise 9b)

Previewing Practice

1.Your question using the title: What are the microeconomic players in the marketplace?

2.Your questions using the headings:
a.What is the role of the consumers in microeconomics?
b.How do firms work and benefit in the marketplace?

3.Your prediction of the passage’s content:
This chapter is probably going to talk about the different roles in microeconomics, such as firms and consumers. It’s probably going to explain the transaction between the two and how they nurture each other. The headings and sub-headings seem to hint that firms have more than one role in the market. Not only do they buy, but they also sell apparently. Maybe they’ll explain how that works with consumers playing the role of buyers as well?

4. I already know that consumers are limited by their income when they go out to buy and will try to buy the best quality they can get in terms of that condition. I also know that firms try to benefit by creating a product that is affordable for the consumers and allows them to still profit from it.


Exercise 9c)

Study-Reading

1. Journal Prompt #1: Am I able to answer my preview questions?
a. Consumers buy goods and services made by the firms, but they’re limited to certain conditions that prevent them from getting every thing they desire. Because of this, they try to benefit by creating the best purchases given their income. This is done by comparing the additional marginal benefits and additional costs of each purchase.
b. Firms play two roles in the industry: They are buyers as well as sellers. They hire resources and combine them to make a final product that they can eventually sell to consumers. If they combine the two well, they can make a profit off of the product they are selling and still please the consumers whose incomes are limited.

2. Journal Prompt #3: Can I relate the material to what I already know?
a. Yes; my limited knowledge of this subject is enveloped by the passage that is given. It can be said that my knowledge is a brief summary of the longer explanation given by this passage.


Exercise 9d)

Main Idea

1. The main idea of this passage, “The Microeconomic Players” is that there are four categories of participants in the economic world: consumers, firms, factory owners, and the government. The headings of this passage are all referring to the different types of “players” in the main title. Even the title is talking about the different participants of the economy whereas if the passage was about what to buy and sell, then the passage would elaborate on how each participant chooses these things to buy and sell. Instead of that, the passage chooses to explain what each participant does in the market and how they each benefit from the process.


Exercise 9e)

Summary Writing Practice

There are four participants in the marketplace: consumers, firms, factory owners, and government. The first three all have objectives that they wish to achieve and all make decisions that they feel would benefit them.

Consumers buy things that are produced by firms. However, they’re constrained by their limited income as well as the positive and will therefore try to get the best quality with what money they are willing to spend. They are able to make these decisions by comparing the benefits from purchasing the product and the additional costs that come with these benefits.

Firms have two roles: buyer and seller. In terms of being buyers, they are in charge of combining resources that they buy to create a product that they can sell to consumers. Because they also want to increase their profits, they will try to buy resources that only contribute to the output of their products to cover the cost of producing them. In other words, they are also limited in terms of spending and will make similar decisions to those of consumers.

As a seller, firms will try to find a reasonable price to sell their products to create the maximum profit. Other than consumers who try to buy things at a lower price for a higher quality, firms also deal with competition from other firms who attempt to cut down prices to sell more to consumers. All of these things contribute to the reason for firms to change their prices and how many of each product to create.


Exercise 9f)

Connecting New Information to Old

2. Many people in my life have often told me to be optimistic and I’ve taken it to heart. I believe that by simply changing perspectives on things could create a better environment for everybody around you. I also believe that happiness and kindness could spread just as well as negativity. Even now, I act on that belief.

3. Today’s society is more open to many different types of people, especially in America. However, I can relate to being subjected to harassment simply because of my race or sex. I’ve witnessed women who are being pushed around at work by men who are chauvinistic. I’m not too sure if being as crude as men gain respect from them though.

4. As a child, I used to watch ants travel to and from the floors carrying bits and pieces of food from the cafeteria to their homes. I’ve never known how much they actually contribute to nature, but I know that they do work relatively fast and have an extremely effective system that allows them to prosper and increase even with their size as a potential weakness.