Exercise 5-11
1. “Yes, a lot of innocent
civilians are being killed by
the bombing in both North
and South Vietnam, but do
remember that Asians do
not believe in the
importance of individual
lives like we do. Life just
doesn’t mean as much to
them.”
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
2. No, we should not raise
the minimum wage for
agricultural workers. Many
of those people are illegal,
and besides, they’re happy
to work for low wages or
they would not have come
to this country to begin
with.
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
3. Immigrants, legal and
a. demonizing.
illegal, are coming over here
by the thousands and taking b. Fostering xenophobia.
jobs away from us—and jobs
are already hard enough for
c. Otherizing.
us to find.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
4. About 47% percent of the a. demonizing.
American public receive
benefits from the
b. Fostering xenophobia.
government and about the
same percentage pay no
income tax. They are
c. Otherizing.
takers, not like you and me.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
5. The motorcycle gangs that
come through here regularly
are like nothing you’ve ever
seen. They are filthy, they
dress like wild people, they are
foul-mouthed, and their
motorcycles make such a
racket it drives you crazy.
Decent folk can hardly go out
in the street while they’re
here. We have got to get the
city council to do something to
stop this terrible invasion.
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
6. It is indeed an
unintended consequence of
the new voting laws here in
our state that a few people
who do not have
government-issued photo
identification will have
trouble voting. The
purpose of the laws was to
help discourage voter fraud,
although nobody is certain
whether that has been a
problem in our state.
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
7. Planned Parenthood is
badly named. “Planned
Population Control” is more
like it. The head of that outfit
has said that she’d be for
killing any infant that survived
an abortion, and that’s
murder! There are true
friends, I tell you! And they
give hundreds of
presentations a year in Los
Angeles schools. They are
insinuating their foul views of
humanity into our own
children!
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
8. An upper-class British
woman around the turn of
the last century: “Working
people are supposed to
work; what could they
possibly want with a day
off?”
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
9. It isn’t just the number of
illegals that are streaming
across our borders. It’s the
fact that they are universally
poor, mainly illiterate, and
without real means of selfsupport. That means our
welfare system, the one you
can I pay dearly to support,
will be clogged with
invaders.
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
10. Crime is going to get
nothing but worse with the
growth in population, and
neither your family nor your
property is safe anymore.
There have been break-ins,
home invasions, and
muggings right here in our
town. Get an alarm system.
Better yet, get a gun.
a. demonizing.
b. Fostering xenophobia.
c. Otherizing.
d. Fear or hate
mongering.
e. No rhetorical impact.
11. “Making a former CEO
a. Rhetorical analogy.
the head of the Securities
and Exchange Commission
b. Rhetorical explanation.
is like putting a fox in charge
of the henhouse.”
c. Innuendo.
d. Dysphemism.
e. Not a slanter.
12. “Right. George Bush
‘won’ the election in 2000,
didn’t he?
a. A weasler.
b. A dysphemism.
c. A downplayer.
d. A rhetorical
explanation.
e. Not a slanter.
13. “The obvious truth is
a. Proof surrogate.
that bilingual education has
been a failure.”
b. Weasler.
c. Innuendo
d. Dysphemism.
e. Not a slanter.
14. After George W. Bush
announced he wanted to
turn a substantial portion of
the federal government
operation over to private
companies, Bobby L.
Harnage Sr., president of the
American Federation of
Government Employees,
said Bush had “declared allout war on federal
employees.”
a. Rhetorical explanation.
b. Euphemism.
c. Weasler.
d. Hyperbole/rhetorical
analogy.
e. Not a slanter.
15. “Harry and his
daughter had a little
discussion about her
outfit…one that left her in
tears.”
a. Loaded questions.
b. Euphemism.
c. Both a and b.
d. Neither a nor b.
16. “Before any more of my
tax dollars go to the
military, I’d like answers to
some questions, such as
why are we spending
billions of dollars on
weapons programs that
don’t work.”
a. downplayer.
b. Dysphemism.
c. Proof surrogate.
d. Loaded question.
e. Hyperbole and loaded
question.
17. “Can Governor Evans
be believed when he says
he will fight for the death
penalty? You be the
judge.”
a. dysphemism.
b. Proof surrogate.
c. Innuendo.
d. Hyperbole.
e. No slanters.
18. President Obama
promised change, but he
has continued to turn
government operation over
to private companies,
especially in Iraq and
Afghanistan, just like his
predecessor did.
a. hyperbole.
b. Dysphemism.
c. Loaded question.
d. Proof surrogate.
e. Downplayer.
19. “Studies confirm what
3everyone knows: smaller
classes make kids better
learners.”
a. Proof surrogate.
b. Weasler.
c. Hyperbole.
d. Innuendo.
e. No slanter.
20. Man selling his car:
“True it has a few dents,
but that’s just normal
wear and tear.”
a. Loaded question.
b. Innuendo.
c. Dysphemism.
d. Euphemism.
Exercise 5-16 in groups.