Higher RUAE workshop Linking questions What are linking

Higher RUAE workshop Linking questions

What are linking questions? In these questions, you are being asked to explain how a certain sentence acts as a link between two paragraphs at a particular point in the passage. They are usually worth 2 marks.

Remember! Four-step-method: Step 1: • Quote from the linking sentence. Step 2: • Show that quote makes a link back to earlier in the passage, using your own words. Step 3: • Quote again from the linking sentence. Step 4: • Show that second quotation makes a link forward to what is to come in the passage, using your own words.

You should also identify any linking words that have been used, for example: • • • However. Furthermore. Nonetheless. In addition. Moreover. Etc…

Example question and answer

How does the first line of the second paragraph act as a linking sentence? (2) So what do you do at these Olympics? Cherry-pick moments of glory and grace, and hope you have not been deceived? What, when you really think about it, is the alternative? You could reel back the years of Olympic history and, sure, only a dead soul would not feel surges of excitement: Seb Coe coming back at Steve Ovett in Moscow; Carl Lewis winning gold in Atlanta in 1996 with his last jump; Michael Johnson in his gold shoes after Muhammad Ali came blinking into the spotlight and lit the flame. But nowadays only a fool digs into the past without questioning, however fleetingly, what was true and what was false. You couldn’t go through the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and ever abandon the need to ask that question. There was never a betrayal like Ben Johnson’s. He took us to the stars with that 100 metres run, which etched disbelief on the face of second-placed Carl Lewis. He shattered the world record, and you knew when it happened you would never forget the coiled power that was released so astonishingly. And then, in the grey dawn of the following day, you saw him

• “the past” links back to the previous paragraph where the author describes some of the most memorable moments from Olympic history. • “what was false” links forward to where the author goes on to explain one of the most infamous examples of cheating that have taken place in Olympics over the years, involving Ben Johnson. • The word “but” is a conjunction.

Practice questions

How does the first line of the second paragraph act as a linking sentence? (2) The future of the city has suddenly become the only subject in town. It ranges from tough topics such as managing water resources, economic policy, transport planning, racial tolerance and law enforcement to what is usually presented as the fluffier end of the scale, such as making public spaces people want to spend time in and deciding the colour of the buses. But it is this diversity which powerfully affirms the city as mankind’s greatest single invention. For all their agonies, however, cities must be counted as a positive force. They are an engine of growth, a machine for putting the rural poor onto the first rung of urban prosperity and freedom. Look at London, a city that existed for several centuries before anything approximating England had been thought of. It has a far stronger sense of itself and its identity than Britain as a whole or England. It has grown, layer on layer, for 2000 years, sustaining generation after generation of newcomers.

• “however” is a linking word/conjunction • “agonies” links back to where we are told of all the important considerations and decisions which must be made to maintain cities and ensure that cities are constantly improving and developing • “positive force” links forward to where we are told of how cities have, for centuries, provided homes for people of all kinds from all over the country, particularly the poor

With close reference to the passage show the first line of the second paragraph is an effective linking sentence (2) Where most critics allege a dumbing down, I see a progressive story: popular culture steadily, but almost imperceptibly, making our brains sharper as we soak in entertainment usually dismissed as so much lowbrow fluff. I hope to persuade you that increasingly the non-literary popular culture is honing different mental skills that are just as important as the ones exercised by reading books. The most powerful example of this is found in the world of video games. And the first and last thing that should be said about the experience of playing today’s video games, the thing you almost never hear, is that games are fiendishly, sometimes maddeningly, hard. The dirty little secret of gaming is how much time you spend not having fun. You may be frustrated; you may be confused or disorientated; you may be stuck. But when you put the game down and move back into the real world, you may find yourself mentally working through the problem you have been wrestling with, as though you were worrying a loose tooth.

“this” refers back to the previous paragraph where we are told of how features of popular culture are having a beneficial impact on our mental abilities and intelligence. “powerful example”/“video games” links forward to where we are told that modern computer games can be very challenging and involve a great deal of skill and problemsolving.

Explain how the writer creates a link between ideas at the start of the second paragraph (2) Sun cream and ice cream sales, hotel bookings, day trips: all shoot up during long, hot summers, and suppliers rub their hands at the takings. But few can be rubbing with quite such glee as the soft drinks manufacturers. They are already on a roll, as our consumption of fizzy drinks, juices and smoothies rises reliably year on year. But a good summer can make all the difference. Once the temperature hits 18 C, for every degree increase, soft drinks sales rise by 4 per cent, and above 21 C by 7 per cent per degree. In the short term that is just more pounds in the till; but in the long term it is pounds on the bathroom scales. In 1988 we downed 7, 000 million litres of soft drinks. By 2008 it was 14, 000 million. As the quantity of drinks doubled, the number of overweight or obese people quadrupled.

• “that”/“more pounds on the till” refers back to the previous paragraph where we are told about the huge profits that can be made from the consumption of soft drinks during hot weather. • “pounds on the bathroom scales” refers to later in the paragraph where the author informs us that the rising consumption of soft drinks over recent years has caused a rise in obesity.

Explain how the start of the second paragraph acts as a link in this article (2) They are known as kippers, Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings — and, according to the Office of National Statistics, most are men. Officially, almost a third (29 per cent) of men aged between 20 and 34 in Britain are now living with their parents, compared with less than a fifth (18 per cent) of women. The trend for young people returning home has emerged over the last eight years and in that period the number has risen by 300, 000 to include two million young men. But this trend does not mean we have a generation of sensitive young men pitching in with cooking or DIY while parents put their feet up: living at home is not always the easy option. Earlier this year a London University study found that stay-at-home sons were more violent than those who move out. According to the survey of more than 8, 000 people, young men in their twenties were responsible for 16 per cent of all violent injuries in the past five years, even though they constituted just 4 per cent of Britain’s male population.

“But” is a linking word/conjunction. “this trend” links back to the previous paragraph where we are told of how the number of young men still living with their parents into their 30 s has increased in the last decade. “not always the easy option” links forward to where we are told of how a disproportionate number of young men who still live at home are involved in criminal activity.

The 7. 15 Latin dance is full, as was the six o’clock, as is the 8. 30. In the reception area of Edinburgh Dancebase, learners, ranging from the middle-aged, fresh from work to students, still mill around waiting to dance. Unlikely as it may at first seem, this is occurring across the country. Against similar winter backdrops people are queuing up to learn to dance. National inhibition is being shed as salsa, meringue and cumbia beats force hips to sway rhythmically and partners to twist complicatedly. French ceroc classes are filling up, street dancing to hip-hop is being used as an exercises class. Even ballroom dancing is enjoying something of a renaissance. 2 marks

• “this” refers back to the previous paragraph where the author describes the increasing popularity of dance classes in Scotland. • “occurring across the country” links forward to where the author describes the many different types of dancing that people all over the nation are becoming involved in.

This week the Home Secretary was assuring his French counterpart that Britain would clamp down even more severely on those working here illegally. At the same time plans are advanced for ‘accommodation centres’, which will have the immediate effect of preventing natural integration. Meanwhile ever more sophisticated technology is to be employed to stem the number of young men who risk their lives clinging to the underside of trains. Yet at the heart of this ever more draconian approach to immigration policy lie a number of misconceptions. The UK is not a group of countries swamped by a tidal wave of immigrants. Relatively speaking Europe contends with a trickle of refugees compared with countries who border areas of famine, desperate poverty or violent political upheaval.

• “this”/ “draconian approach”/ “immigration policy” links back to where the author outlines the different methods that the Home Secretary is using to curb immigration into Britain. • “misconceptions” links forward to where the author explains how these methods are not actually needed as there is no immigration problem. • The author has used a conjunction/linking word- “yet”.

The popular press found copy in Einstein. Newspaper photographers found a highly photogenic subject- his was a face of character: drooping, kindly eyes and wrinkles of humour surrounded by a leonine mane of hair. The habits of the man were a little irregular; already some of the characteristics expected of the absent-minded professor were beginning to show: he lived a simple life uncluttered by possessions and any of the outward trappings of success; when there was no need to be careful he was careless about his dress: sometimes he wore no socks. All these qualities, combined with the publicised qualities of the man- kindness, gentleness and warmth- would still not have been sufficient to turn Einstein into the international figure he was to become. The missing ingredient in this recipe for public fame was the apparently incomprehensible nature of Einstein’s work. For a few years after the publication of his general theory of relativity only a limited number of scientists familiarised themselves with it. There were few people in the world who were capable of understanding theory.

“these qualities” links back to the previous paragraph where we are told of the different aspects of Einstein’s character and appearance which made him a popular figure in the media. “not have been sufficient”/ “international figure” links forward to where we are told of how his worldwide fame was mostly due to the fact that most of his work was understood by a very limited number of people.