MYP 3 Language and Literature · The Future is Now: Ethics and Innovation

Values and belief systems

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  1. Question 1

    A short story shows a teenager finding a note that reveals a friend cheated on an exam. The narrative reveals only the teenager's internal thoughts and never explains the friend's reasoning. What effect does this narrative choice most likely have on the reader's judgement?
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    Correct answerCorrect!Incorrect
    AIt positions the reader to sympathise mainly with the teenager since the friend's motives remain unexplained and hidden

    Step-by-step walkthrough

    Choose a solution method

    Method #1Direct reasoning

    Step 1: Identify the narrative choice

    The text restricts access to only the teenager's internal thoughts, withholding the friend's motives entirely from the reader.

    Step 2: Apply the concept of perspective

    Like the camera lens analogy, this narrow focus sharpens detail on the teenager's feelings while missing the surrounding context of the friend's situation.

    Step 3: Interpret the likely effect

    Because readers only see one side, they are naturally guided to align emotionally with the character whose thoughts they can access.

    Step 4: Select the answer

    This means the reader is positioned to sympathise with the teenager, not to condemn or completely distrust either character.

    Method #2Process of elimination

    Step 1: Eliminate total condemnation

    Condemning the friend outright ignores that the text gives no context to judge motive, only outcome.

    Step 2: Eliminate no judgement at all

    Readers still form judgements even with limited perspective; restriction shapes judgement, it does not erase it.

    Step 3: Eliminate trusting the friend more

    The reader has no access to the friend's thoughts, so there is no basis for trusting that perspective over the teenager's.

    Step 4: Confirm the correct option

    The remaining option correctly identifies that limited access to one character's mind builds sympathy for that character specifically.

  2. Question 2

    In a novel, a character breaks the precept "never back down" for the first time when a friend is in danger. Analysing this moment, what does the break in precept most clearly reveal?
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    Correct answerCorrect!Incorrect
    BThat a competing value, such as protecting someone loved, has temporarily outweighed the character's usual guiding principle

    Step-by-step walkthrough

    Choose a solution method

    Method #1Direct reasoning

    Step 1: Identify the precept and the break

    The character's usual precept is 'never back down,' but this moment shows the precept broken under specific pressure.

    Step 2: Apply the idea of colliding precepts

    The teaching content explains that precepts can collide, such as loyalty versus another rule, creating conflict that reveals priorities.

    Step 3: Interpret the friend's danger as the trigger

    The danger to the friend introduces a competing value, protection or loyalty, that momentarily outweighs the original precept.

    Step 4: Select the answer

    This shows the break reveals a value conflict being resolved, not an abandonment of all values or an authorial mistake.

    Method #2Process of elimination

    Step 1: Eliminate abandoning all values

    Breaking one precept under pressure is not the same as having no guiding principle at all; one value simply outweighed another.

    Step 2: Eliminate inconsistency as a flaw

    Precepts breaking under pressure is a deliberate technique for analysis, not evidence of poor writing.

    Step 3: Eliminate judging the danger's seriousness

    The question asks what the break reveals about values, not whether the danger objectively justified the character's action.

    Step 4: Confirm the correct option

    The option identifying a competing value overriding the precept matches the text's explanation of precept conflict.

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