1994 AP English Language and Composition

Free Response Essay Questions

Question 3
(Suggested tirn~0 minutes. This question counts one-third of the total essay section score.)

California n a t i v e ~ i s a E9Velist, essayist, and journalist. In the late 1960s, Didion's reporting
brought Californian subcultures to wider attention. The following paragraphs open Joan Didion's essay "Los
Angeles Notebook." Read the following excerpt carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the r h e ~
_ _ ___,c...,oices Didion makes to develop her view that the anta Ana winds are an · ex Ii ab fo ce of nature.
~\I L\v'I e-., p~
v,..tic_, t,;it'\L\ T
, .here 1s
. some~ as - th e L os . th"1s
s arr 45 begms . as a co Id mass, 1t
. 1s
. warmed as 1t
. comes down the
afternoon, some atur stillness, som nsio . What mountain and appears finally as a hot dry wind.
it means is that tonig ta Santa Ana will begin to blow, a Whenever and wherever afoehn blows, doctors hear
hot wind from the northeast whining down through the about headaches and nausea and allergies, about
5 Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sandstorms "nervousness," about "depression." In Los Angeles some
\@, out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to the 50 teachers do not attempt to conduct formal classes during
~ flash point. For a few days oow we will see smoke hack a Santa Ana, because the children become
-~e.,,,,,., in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night.ll]liave '1~v~ unmanageable. In Switzerland the suicide rate goes up
neither heard nor read that a S~ta Ana is due, but~ during the foehn, and in the courts of some Swiss
10 know it, and almost everyonel!Jhave seen today knows it cantons the wind is considered a mitigating circumstance
too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets . The 55 for crime. Surgeons are said to watch the wind, because
maid su!ks.ffirekindle a waning argument with the blood does not clot normally during a foehn. A few
telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, years ago an Israeli physicist discovered that not only
given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the during such winds, but for the ten or twelve hours which
Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a precede them, the air carries an unusually high ratio of
.'(\...deeply mechanistic view of human behavior. 60 positive to negative ions. No one seems to know exactly
>-f--:\'O""- I recall being told, when I frrst moved to Los Angeles why that should be; some talk about friction and others
and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians,_ suggest solar disturbances. In any case the positive ions
'\. would throw themselves into the sea when the had wjnd are there, and what an excess of positive ions does, in
20 6few. I could see why. The Pacific turned ominously the simplest terms, is make people unhappy. One cannot
giossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the 65 get much mote mechanistic than that.
night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the
olive trees but by the eerie absence ofs~ f. The_heat was ' c.1,di4Q r l/ (1968)
surreal. The s k y ~ . the kind ofhght viS14J.\ 'i.~,f\.{
25 sometimes called "earthquake weather." My only 0
neighbor would not come out of her house for days, and t.\1C\.\19\eS
there were no lights at night, and her husband roamed CLN0rl- 1'5 YlO r moJ
the place with a machete. One day he would tell me that
he had heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake.
30 "On nights like that," Raymond Chandler once wrote
about the Santa Ana, "every booze party ends in a fight.
little wi~ edge of the carving knife and
necks:'"
sµidytiielrliiisba.ds' Afil'thing can haPQen. II Tnat
was the kind of wmd 1t was. I did not know then that
35 there was any basis for the effi:ct it had on all ofus, but
it turns out to be another of those cases in which science
bears out folk wisdom. The Santa Ana, which is named
for one of the canyons it rushes through, is afoehn wind,
like the.fa.elm of Austria and Swit,,.er!and and the --
40 -tbamsin oflsrael. There are-a number of persistent
malevolent winds, perhaps the best known of which are
the mistral of France and thP- Mediterranean sirocco, but
afoehrrwind has distinct characteristics: it occurs on the ----.___
leeward slope of a mountain range and, although the air
-
AP English Language and Composition Scoring Rubrics (Effective Fa/12019}

Scoring Rullric for Question 2: Rhetorical Analysis (6 points)

Row A O points
1 point
Thesis For any of the following :
Responds to the prompt with a defensible t hes is that

-
(0-1 points) • There is no defensible thesis. analyzes t he w riter' s rhetorical choices.
IE •
•
The intended thesis only restates the prompt.
The intended thesis provides a summary of the issue with no apparent or coherent claim.
• There is a thesis, but it does not respond to the prompt.

1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points

Simply restates thesis (if EVIDENCE: EVIDENCE :
Rowe EVIDENCE: EVIDENCE :
present), repeats provided Provides evidence that is Provides some specific Provides specific evidence to Provides specific evidence to
EvideJ ce information, or offers mostly general. rel evant evidence. support all claims in a line of support all claims in a line of
AND infOf!mation irrelevant to the
reasoning. reasoning.
pro~,, pt.
Commentary AND AND AND
(0-4 points) AND
COMMENTARY: COMMENTARY: COMMENTARY:
Summarizes the evidence but

-
Explains how some of the
IE does not explain how the
Explains how some of the COMMENTARY :

m
evidence supports the
student' s argument .
evidence relates to the evidence supports a line of Consistently explains how
student's argument, but no reasoning. the evidence supports a line
line of reasoning is of reasoning.
AND

m
established, or the line of
reasoning is faulty. AND
Explains how at least one
l'D rhetorical choice in the passage

m contributes to the writer's Explains how multiple

rhetorical choices in the
argument, purpose, or message.
passage contribute to the
writer' s argument, purpose,

Sophistication Does not meet the criteria

-
Demonstrates sophistication of thought and/or develops a complex understanding of the rhetorical situation .
(0-1 points) for one point.

m
Responses that earn this point may demonstrate sophistication of thought and/or a complex understanding of the
rhetorical situation by doing any of the following:
1. Explaining the significance or relevance of the writer's rhetorical choices (given the rhetorical situation) .
l 'D 2. Explaining a purpose or function of the passage's complexities or tensions.

IE 3. Employing a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive .

m
ll.:.ll:JII This point should be awarded only if the sophistication of thought or complex understonding Is part of the student's argument,
not merely a phrase ar reference.

September 2019
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