Reading Comprehension Assessment Series
GRADE 6
INFERENCE & SYNTHESIS
Reading Beneath the Surface: Tragedy,
Flaw & the Structure of Human Failure
Webb's
Depth of Knowledge · Hess's Cognitive Rigor Matrix
Drawing
Conclusions · Making Predictions ·
Cross-Paragraph Synthesis · Dual-Passage Comparison
Tier
2 & Tier 3 Academic Vocabulary
· Frustration-Level Text
Student
Name: _________________________________
Date: ____________
Teacher:
_________________________________
Period / Class: ____________
SKILL REFERENCE: INFERENCE &
SYNTHESIS QUESTION CATEGORIES
This assessment requires you to read between
the lines—to think like a detective. The table below identifies the eight
inference and synthesis skills you will practice.
|
Inference Category |
Skill Tested |
DOK / CRM |
Detective Move |
|
Implied Main Idea |
Infer the unstated central
claim from evidence patterns |
DOK 2–3 / B-2–C-3 |
What is the author implying
but not saying directly? |
|
Logical Conclusion |
Draw a conclusion that must
follow from stated evidence |
DOK 2–3 / B-2–C-3 |
Given what I know, what must
be true? |
|
Prediction / Projection |
Predict what would likely
happen given the passage's logic |
DOK 3 / C-3 |
If this is true, what comes
next? |
|
Character / Author
Motivation |
Infer unstated reasons for
an action or rhetorical choice |
DOK 3 / C-3 |
Why did they do/say this
without stating why? |
|
Cross-Paragraph Connection |
Connect ideas stated in
different paragraphs to form a new insight |
DOK 3–4 / C-3–D-4 |
How do these two separate
facts relate to each other? |
|
Dual-Passage Synthesis |
Compare, contrast, or
synthesize two passages on related topics |
DOK 3–4 / C-3–D-4 |
What would Passage A say
about Passage B's claim? |
|
Authorial Assumption / Gap |
Identify what the author
assumes without arguing for, or what is missing |
DOK 4 / D-4 |
What has the author left
unsaid or taken for granted? |
|
Evaluative Synthesis |
Assess the strength of an
argument using evidence from across the text |
DOK 4 / D-4 |
Does the evidence actually
prove the claim? |
DIRECTIONS
Read both passages carefully. Annotate as you
go—underline evidence, circle clues, draw arrows between connected ideas across
passages. Every question requires inference: do not look only for sentences
that directly answer the question. The answer is always built from evidence,
but it is never stated outright. For written responses, construct your
reasoning step by step.
PASSAGE A: THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRAGEDY — ARISTOTLE, HAMARTIA
& THE COMMON MAN
[A1] The
concept of tragedy in Western literary tradition originates with Aristotle's
Poetics, written in the fourth century BCE, in which the philosopher defines
tragedy as the representation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a
certain magnitude—one that, through pity and fear, achieves the catharsis, or
purification, of those emotions. For Aristotle, tragedy was not simply a sad
story; it was a precisely structured form designed to produce a specific
psychological and moral effect in the audience. The tragic hero, whom Aristotle
calls the protagonist, must be neither entirely virtuous nor entirely
vicious—someone of noble stature who falls not through wickedness but through a
fatal flaw, which Aristotle names hamartia.
[A2] The
most celebrated analysis of Aristotelian tragedy in the English-speaking world
remains that of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet possesses all the structural
requirements Aristotle identifies: noble birth, superior intelligence and
sensitivity, a clear hamartia—usually identified as his fatal tendency toward
paralyzing philosophical reflection at moments requiring decisive action—and a
fall of devastating consequence. Yet Hamlet resists easy categorization because
the very quality that makes him fascinating—his extraordinary capacity for
thought—is simultaneously his greatness and his destruction. His tragedy is not
that he is flawed in an obvious way; it is that his virtue and his flaw are
identical.
[A3] This
paradox—that the tragic hero's greatest strength is inseparable from their
greatest weakness—is what separates tragedy from mere misfortune. A character
who fails because of simple bad luck suffers misfortune; a character who fails
because of the very quality that defines their excellence suffers tragedy. The
distinction matters because tragedy implies a moral order in which human
greatness carries within itself the seeds of its own undoing—a proposition both
profoundly pessimistic and strangely consoling, since it suggests that failure
at the highest level is not shameful but inevitable and, in some sense, noble.
[A4] Twentieth-century
critics, particularly Arthur Miller, challenged the Aristotelian requirement of
noble birth as a precondition for tragic status. Miller argued in "Tragedy
and the Common Man" (1949) that the essential quality of the tragic hero
is not social elevation but the willingness to sacrifice everything in pursuit
of personal dignity—a quality Miller demonstrated in his own plays by creating
tragic protagonists from the working class. Whether nobility of birth is
necessary for tragedy remains one of the most productive debates in literary
theory.
PASSAGE B: ANTIGONE & THE TRAGEDY OF INCOMMENSURABLE VALUES
[B1] Sophocles'
Antigone (441 BCE) presents what may be the most analytically challenging of
all ancient tragedies because it refuses to locate its tragic flaw in a single
protagonist. Unlike Hamlet or Oedipus, where the hamartia belongs unambiguously
to one character, Antigone distributes its tragic error across two figures:
Antigone herself, whose absolute commitment to divine law leads her to defy the
explicit edict of King Creon; and Creon, whose absolute commitment to political
authority leads him to defy the demands of divine law and human compassion.
Both are right within their own framework of values. Both are catastrophically
wrong from the perspective of the other.
[B2] The
tragedy of Antigone is, at its core, a tragedy of incommensurable values—values
so incompatible with each other that no compromise is possible without one
party surrendering what they hold most sacred. Philosopher Hegel identified
this structure as the purest form of tragedy: not a conflict between good and
evil, but a conflict between good and good, in which the collision of two
legitimate moral claims produces destruction that neither party could have
prevented without ceasing to be who they are. The play does not end with the
triumph of the better value; it ends with the annihilation of both.
[B3] This
structure has enormous implications for how we read Creon, who is often misread
as simply the villain of the play. Creon is not wicked; he is wrong. He
genuinely believes that civic order, embodied in the state's authority to
command obedience, is the foundation of all other goods—and this belief is not
obviously foolish. The catastrophe occurs not because Creon is evil but because
he cannot recognize the limits of his own value system—cannot see that his law
is one law among others, and that the absolute application of any single value
destroys the others it must coexist with.
[B4] The
Antigone model of tragedy—where destruction results from the collision of
legitimate values rather than from individual flaw—offers a critique of the
Aristotelian hamartia framework. If both protagonists have tragic flaws in
Antigone, and if those flaws are indistinguishable from their virtues, then the
hamartia concept may be insufficient to account for tragedies in which the
social and political order itself, not just the individual, is implicated in
the catastrophe.
SECTION A — SINGLE-PASSAGE
INFERENCE (2 pts each)
Questions 1–8: Draw conclusions, infer main
ideas, identify author motivations, and detect authorial assumptions from
within individual passages.
1. [Logical Conclusion] Passage
A states the tragic hero falls "not through wickedness but through a fatal
flaw." What conclusion can you draw about why a fall through wickedness
would NOT constitute tragedy in Aristotle's framework?
DOK 2 · CRM
B-2
▸ Infer the
logic of hamartia as structural device.
A) A fall through wickedness would
not qualify as tragedy because wicked characters are not allowed to appear in
Athenian drama
B) If the character falls through
wickedness, the fall is a just punishment that the audience expects and
believes is deserved—there is no pity because the character earned their fate;
tragedy requires that the fall feel both earned by the hero's flaw AND undeserved
in proportion to the crime, creating the specific emotional tension of pity and
fear
C) A fall through wickedness would
qualify as comedy rather than tragedy in Aristotle's framework
D) Aristotle believed wicked
characters were incapable of achieving the magnitude required for true tragedy
2. [Implied Main Idea] Passage
A discusses Aristotle, Hamlet, and Miller without stating a single thesis. What
central argument about tragedy do all four paragraphs together imply?
DOK 2 · CRM
B-2
▸ Infer the
unstated main claim of Passage A.
A) Tragedy is a universally
misunderstood literary form that requires professional literary training to
appreciate properly
B) Tragedy is a specific and
rigorously structured form whose most defining characteristic—the
inseparability of the hero's greatness from their destruction—reveals a moral
vision in which human excellence itself carries the conditions of its own
undoing, and whose precise requirements remain productively contested across
centuries
C) Aristotle's definition of tragedy
is correct and has been confirmed by every major work of tragic literature
since the fourth century BCE
D) Arthur Miller's expansion of
tragedy to common people is the most important development in the history of
the form because it made tragedy democratic
3. [Authorial Assumption / Gap]
Passage A states that tragedy's proposition—"human
greatness carries within itself the seeds of its own undoing"—is
"both profoundly pessimistic and strangely consoling." What
assumption about what audiences find consoling does this claim make without
defending?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Identify
an unexamined assumption in Passage A.
A) The passage assumes that audiences
find statistics and empirical data more consoling than narrative accounts of
human failure
B) The claim assumes that recognizing
failure as structurally inevitable—a necessary consequence of excellence rather
than a random catastrophe or a product of shame—provides psychological relief
from the anxiety that failure might be arbitrary, avoidable, or personally
disgraceful; but the passage never examines whether all audiences share this
response or whether "consolation" from tragedy is culturally specific
C) The passage assumes that pessimism
and consolation are mutually exclusive emotional responses that cannot
genuinely coexist
D) The claim assumes that all
audience members share Aristotle's specific theory of catharsis, which the
passage treats as a universal psychological mechanism
4. [Prediction / Projection]
Based on Passage A's description of Arthur Miller's argument,
how would Miller most likely evaluate a contemporary play about a working-class
factory worker who loses everything fighting for fair wages and dignified
treatment from her employer?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Predict
how Miller would evaluate a specific contemporary play.
A) Miller would likely classify the
play as social realism rather than tragedy because it concerns economic rather
than personal or philosophical questions
B) Miller would likely argue this
play qualifies as genuine tragedy—because the protagonist is willing to
sacrifice everything in pursuit of personal dignity, which is precisely the
quality Miller identified as the essential condition of tragic status, demonstrating
that noble birth is not required for tragic greatness
C) Miller would reject the play as
tragedy because a labor dispute lacks the philosophical depth of Hamlet's
existential crisis
D) Miller would evaluate the play
favorably as social commentary but would distinguish it from tragedy because
the protagonist's suffering is caused by external economic forces rather than
by an internal hamartia
5. [Character / Author Motivation]
Passage A calls Hamlet "the most celebrated
analysis" of Aristotelian tragedy. What can you infer about why Hamlet
specifically, rather than another tragedy, serves this analytical function?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Infer why
Hamlet is described as the "most celebrated" example.
A) Hamlet is the most celebrated
example because Shakespeare is universally agreed to be the greatest writer in
the English language
B) Hamlet is particularly useful for
Aristotelian analysis because it both perfectly illustrates the hamartia
framework AND complicates it—Hamlet's flaw is simultaneously his greatest
virtue—making it a text that demonstrates the framework's explanatory power
while also revealing its limits, which makes it more analytically productive
than a play that simply fits the model without straining it
C) Hamlet is used because it is the
longest and most complex of Shakespeare's plays, providing the richest material
for extended literary analysis
D) Hamlet is the most celebrated
example because it was the first English play to be recognized as comparable in
quality to the tragedies of ancient Greece
6. [Logical Conclusion] Passage
B states that Antigone distributes its tragic flaw across two characters rather
than locating it in one. What conclusion can you draw about what this structure
implies about the play's view of catastrophe?
DOK 2 · CRM
B-2
▸ Infer the
structural implication of Antigone's dual hamartia.
A) The dual hamartia proves that
Sophocles was less skilled than Aristotle's framework requires, because
properly constructed tragedy assigns the flaw to a single protagonist
B) The dual hamartia implies that the
catastrophe in Antigone is not the product of individual psychological failure
but of a structural collision between incompatible legitimate values—suggesting
that some catastrophes are systemic rather than personal, and cannot be
prevented by any individual character acting differently within the constraints
of who they are
C) The dual hamartia means Antigone
is actually a comedy in Aristotle's framework, since comedy typically involves
multiple characters with exaggerated flaws
D) Distributing the hamartia across
two characters doubles the emotional intensity of the tragedy, making Antigone
more powerful than plays with a single tragic protagonist
7. [Implied Main Idea] What
central argument about tragedy does Passage B imply through its analysis of
Antigone?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Infer the
central argument of Passage B.
A) Sophocles was a more sophisticated
playwright than Aristotle realized because his play contains a dual hamartia
that Aristotle's framework cannot account for
B) Antigone demonstrates that the
most profound tragedies may arise not from individual psychological flaw but
from the irresolvable collision of legitimate but incompatible value
systems—suggesting that the Aristotelian hamartia framework, while illuminating,
is insufficient to account for a deeper form of tragedy in which the social and
moral order itself generates catastrophe
C) Creon is the true tragic hero of
Antigone because his hamartia—absolute commitment to civic authority—is more
clearly defined than Antigone's commitment to divine law
D) Tragedy requires a villain, and
Creon fulfills this role in Antigone despite his genuine belief in the
rightness of his own position
8. [Authorial Assumption / Gap]
Passage B invokes Hegel's identification of Antigone as
"the purest form of tragedy" to support its argument about
incommensurable values. What assumption about the nature of value conflicts
does Hegel's framework make, and is this assumption challenged anywhere in
either passage?
DOK 4 · CRM
D-4
▸ DOK 4:
Identify the deepest assumption in Passage B's use of Hegel.
A) Hegel assumes that all value
conflicts are ultimately resolvable through historical progress, which Passage
B implicitly challenges by showing the destruction that incommensurable values
produce
B) Hegel's framework assumes that
there exist genuine conflicts between fully legitimate values in which no
compromise or synthesis is possible without destroying both—a deep
philosophical claim about the nature of ethics that treats moral life as
inherently and irreducibly tragic rather than as a domain where patient
reasoning always finds a resolution; this assumption is not examined or
challenged in either passage; it is deployed as an authority supporting Passage
B's argument without any examination of the philosophical objections to
Hegelian ethical theory
C) Hegel's framework assumes that
Antigone is a better play than Hamlet, which Passage A implicitly challenges by
treating Hamlet as the most celebrated analysis of tragedy
D) The Hegelian assumption is
explicitly examined in Passage B paragraph three, where Creon's perspective is
analyzed as a legitimate but ultimately inferior value system
SECTION B — CROSS-PARAGRAPH &
DUAL-PASSAGE SYNTHESIS (2 pts each)
Questions 9–14: Connect ideas across
paragraphs within and between passages. Evaluate arguments using combined
evidence.
9. [Cross-Paragraph Connection]
Passage A defines hamartia as a single fatal flaw belonging
to one protagonist. Passage B argues that Antigone distributes the tragic flaw
across two characters. What inference can you draw about the relationship
between individual psychology and social structure in producing tragedy?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Connect
Passage A's hamartia definition with Passage B's dual hamartia challenge.
A) The two passages together prove
that Aristotle's hamartia concept is simply wrong and should be abandoned in
favor of Hegel's framework
B) The two passages together suggest
that tragedy operates at two distinct levels: the individual psychological
level (Hamlet's paralyzing reflection) and the structural social level (the
collision of Antigone's divine law with Creon's civic law)—with individual
hamartia capable of explaining the former but insufficient to explain the
latter, where the tragedy is embedded in the structure of the moral and
political order rather than in any individual's character
C) Both passages agree that tragic
flaw is always a feature of individual psychology rather than of social or
political structures
D) Passage B's dual hamartia model
renders Passage A's Hamlet analysis obsolete, since Hamlet's flaw can be
reinterpreted as a conflict between his private values and public duty
10. [Cross-Paragraph Connection]
Passage A describes Miller's argument that tragedy requires
willingness to sacrifice everything for personal dignity, not noble birth.
Passage B argues that Antigone's tragedy is a collision of incommensurable
values. What inference can you draw about whether Creon qualifies as a
Millerian tragic hero?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Connect
Miller's democratic tragedy with Antigone's structural tragedy.
A) Creon cannot be a Millerian tragic
hero because he holds political authority and therefore represents the opposite
of the common person Miller envisioned
B) Creon does appear to qualify as a
Millerian tragic hero in one key respect: he is genuinely willing to sacrifice
everything—including his son and his city's stability—to maintain the principle
he considers most sacred (civic authority); this willingness places him within
Miller's framework even though his nobility of birth would already qualify him
under Aristotle's, suggesting that Miller's criterion of dignitary sacrifice
may be a more universal principle than Miller himself realized
C) Creon cannot be a Millerian tragic
hero because Miller explicitly required working-class status as a condition of
tragic dignity
D) Creon is disqualified from
Millerian tragedy because he is the political authority rather than someone
resisting it, and Millerian tragedy requires resistance to power rather than
its exercise
11. [Evaluative Synthesis] Based
on evidence from BOTH passages, evaluate whether the Aristotelian hamartia
model and the Hegelian incommensurable-values model are fundamentally
contradictory or can be reconciled into a single, more complete theory of
tragedy.
DOK 4 · CRM
D-4
▸ DOK 4:
Evaluate whether the two models of tragedy are compatible.
A) They are fundamentally
contradictory because Aristotle locates tragedy in individual flaw while Hegel
locates it in structural collision, and these accounts cannot both be true
simultaneously
B) They can be reconciled into a more
complete theory: the Aristotelian model captures tragedies where individual
psychological constitution produces destruction (Hamlet), while the Hegelian
model captures tragedies where social and moral structure produces destruction
through the collision of legitimate values (Antigone)—both models are needed
because different tragedies operate at different levels, and a complete theory
requires both the individual and the structural dimensions to account for the
full range of the form
C) The Hegelian model completely
supersedes the Aristotelian model and should replace it as the standard
framework for literary analysis of tragedy
D) The two models cannot be evaluated
in relation to each other because they were developed in different historical
contexts and for different analytical purposes
12. [Dual-Passage Synthesis] What
inference can you draw from BOTH passages together about why humans across
cultures and centuries continue to create and engage with tragic narratives?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Synthesize
what both passages reveal about the function of tragedy.
A) Humans engage with tragedy
primarily for entertainment, since dramatic conflict is more engaging than
stories with happy endings
B) Taken together, both passages
suggest that tragedy serves a complex cultural and psychological function: it
provides a framework for understanding failure that locates destruction in the
structure of human greatness or human moral life rather than in randomness,
wickedness, or shame—offering both catharsis (Aristotle's pity and fear) and a
form of moral education about the inevitability of certain conflicts and the
limits of any single value system (Hegel's incommensurable values); tragedy
helps societies process and make sense of the irreducible difficulty of human
life
C) Humans engage with tragedy because
the ancient Greeks invented it and European cultural institutions have
preserved and promoted it ever since
D) Tragedy continues to be relevant
because human beings never stop making the same psychological mistakes that
Aristotle identified as hamartia in the fourth century BCE
13. [Cross-Paragraph Connection]
Passage A argues that Hamlet's virtue and his flaw are
"identical." Passage B argues that Creon is "not wicked; he is
wrong." What inference can you draw about the moral relationship between
Hamlet and Creon as tragic figures?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Connect
the "flaw = virtue" paradox from Passage A with Creon's
characterization in Passage B.
A) Hamlet and Creon are morally
equivalent figures whose tragedies are produced by the same type of character
flaw operating in different historical and cultural contexts
B) Both Hamlet and Creon illustrate
the same principle from different angles: that the most dangerous failures are
not produced by wickedness but by the excess or rigidity of genuine
virtues—Hamlet's virtue of careful thought becomes paralyzing over-reflection;
Creon's virtue of civic order becomes authoritarian absolutism; in both cases,
the character's tragedy stems not from the absence of goodness but from its
catastrophic application, which is precisely what makes both figures
sympathetic rather than simply culpable
C) Hamlet and Creon cannot be
compared because Hamlet is a fictional character in a fictional Denmark while
Creon is a historical figure in ancient Thebes
D) The comparison reveals that Hamlet
is a more profound tragic figure than Creon because Hamlet's flaw
(philosophical reflection) is more internal and psychological, while Creon's
flaw (civic absolutism) is more external and political
14. [Evaluative Synthesis] Based
on BOTH passages, evaluate this claim: "The history of tragic theory
reveals that our understanding of tragedy has progressively deepened by
discovering the limits of each previous framework." Is this claim
well-supported by the evidence?
DOK 4 · CRM
D-4
▸ DOK 4:
Evaluate the literary argument both passages together construct.
A) The claim is not supported because
each framework (Aristotle, Hegel, Miller) simply contradicts the previous one
rather than building on it
B) The claim is well-supported:
Aristotle provides the foundational structural framework (hamartia, catharsis,
noble protagonist); Hegel identifies cases the Aristotelian framework cannot
fully account for (tragedies of incommensurable values) and proposes a
complementary model; Miller extends the framework by challenging the social
class requirement; each theorist reveals a genuine limit in the previous
account and expands the theory's scope without entirely rejecting what came
before—constituting a progressive deepening rather than simple replacement
C) The claim is partially supported
for Hegel and Miller but not for Aristotle, who was simply wrong about noble
birth
D) The claim cannot be evaluated
because we have insufficient evidence about whether Hegel and Miller were aware
of each other's arguments about tragedy
SECTION C — PREDICTION &
PROJECTION (2 pts each)
Questions 15–18: Use the logic and evidence
of both passages to predict likely outcomes, policy implications, and future
developments.
15. [Prediction / Projection]
Based on Passage A's description of Aristotle's framework and
Passage B's analysis of Antigone, how would Aristotle most likely evaluate
whether Antigone qualifies as a true tragedy?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Predict
how Aristotle would evaluate Antigone.
A) Aristotle would fully endorse
Antigone as the perfect tragedy because it involves noble characters, a serious
action, and a catastrophic ending
B) Aristotle would likely struggle
with Antigone because the dual hamartia structure complicates his requirement
for a single protagonist with a single fatal flaw; he might designate one
character (perhaps Creon, as the figure of power whose reversal of fortune is
most dramatic) as the primary tragic protagonist and minimize the other,
applying his framework imperfectly rather than acknowledging its limits
C) Aristotle would reject Antigone as
tragedy because the play ends with the annihilation of both protagonists, which
violates his requirement for a single fall
D) Aristotle would classify Antigone
as a historical play rather than a tragedy because it is based on mythological
events rather than invented ones
16. [Prediction / Projection]
Based on the combined frameworks of both passages
(Aristotle's hamartia, Hegel's incommensurable values, Miller's democratic
tragedy), what would a contemporary play need to include to qualify as tragedy
by all three frameworks simultaneously?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Predict
what a contemporary tragic play would look like.
A) A contemporary tragedy satisfying
all three frameworks would need a working-class protagonist, a fatal flaw, and
a conflict with a wicked antagonist who represents a corrupt social order
B) A contemporary tragedy satisfying
all three frameworks would need: a protagonist from any social class who is
willing to sacrifice everything for personal dignity (Miller); a specific
personal quality that functions simultaneously as the source of their greatness
and their destruction (Aristotle's hamartia); and a conflict that places this
protagonist's deepest value in irresolvable collision with another equally
legitimate value (Hegel)—making destruction feel simultaneously personally
caused and structurally inevitable
C) The three frameworks are
incompatible, so no contemporary play could simultaneously satisfy all three
D) A contemporary tragedy would
primarily need a five-act structure following the specific dramatic arc that
Aristotle describes in the Poetics
17. [Prediction / Projection]
A student reads Antigone knowing only Aristotle's hamartia
framework and not Hegel's incommensurable values model. Based on Passage B,
what specific misreading is this student most likely to produce?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Predict
what happens when a reader only knows one framework.
A) The student would likely miss the
play entirely and read it as a political thriller rather than a tragedy
B) The student would likely designate
either Antigone or Creon as the "real" tragic protagonist with the
"real" hamartia—probably reading Creon as simply a villain whose
excessive stubbornness is his flaw—while missing the play's deeper argument
that the destruction is produced by the legitimate collision of two value
systems rather than by the psychological failure of one individual
C) The student would likely read the
play correctly but be unable to explain why it produces emotional catharsis
D) The student would likely identify
Haimon (Creon's son) as the tragic protagonist because he is the most obviously
sympathetic character
18. [Prediction / Projection]
What question do both passages raise but leave entirely
unanswered, which a follow-up passage would need to address to complete the
theory of tragedy they together develop?
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
▸ Predict
the most important extension of the argument both passages leave undeveloped.
A) Neither passage addresses the
historical origins of tragedy in Dionysian religious ritual, which is essential
context for understanding why the Greeks invented the form
B) Neither passage addresses
non-Western tragic traditions—the question of whether the hamartia framework,
the incommensurable values model, or Miller's democratic modification apply to
tragedy as practiced in Japanese Noh theater, Sanskrit drama, Chinese opera, or
African literary traditions—leaving entirely unexamined whether
"tragedy" as defined by these passages is a universal human form or a
specifically Western one
C) Neither passage addresses the
neuroscientific basis of catharsis—what actually happens in the human brain
when audiences experience pity and fear in response to tragic drama
D) Neither passage addresses whether
contemporary superhero films or television series qualify as tragedy under any
of the three frameworks discussed
SECTION D — SHORT ANSWER (10 pts each)
DOK 3–4
| CRM C-3 / D-4 |
Complete sentences and evidence from BOTH passages required.
19. [Cross-Passage Inference — Analysis] Passage A introduces the paradox
that the tragic hero's "virtue and flaw are identical." Passage B
argues that Creon is "not wicked; he is wrong." Drawing on BOTH
passages, construct a specific inference about what separates genuinely tragic
failure from ordinary moral failure. What must be true about a character's
relationship to their own qualities for their destruction to constitute tragedy
rather than simply deserved punishment or bad luck? (DOK 3 | CRM C-3)
DOK 3 · CRM
C-3
20. [Evaluative Synthesis] Both
passages present frameworks for understanding tragedy, but they locate the
source of destruction differently: Passage A locates it in individual
psychology (hamartia), while Passage B locates it in structural collision
between legitimate values. Based on the evidence in BOTH passages, evaluate
this claim: "The most profound tragedies are not about individual failure
but about the limits of human moral life itself." Construct a specific
argument using evidence from both passages about whether tragedy's deepest
insight is personal or structural. (DOK 4 | CRM D-4)
DOK 4 · CRM
D-4
SECTION E — EXTENDED SYNTHESIS
ESSAY (20 pts)
DOK Level 4
| CRM D-4 |
Minimum 10 sentences. Draw on BOTH passages. Construct original
inferences—do not simply summarize.
21. [Full Synthesis — Extended Response] Full Synthesis: Passages A and B
together present three frameworks for understanding tragedy: Aristotle's
hamartia, Hegel's incommensurable values, and Miller's democratic tragedy. In a
well-organized extended response drawing on evidence from BOTH passages: (1)
construct a single unified inference about what all three frameworks share as a
common assumption about the nature of human greatness and human failure; (2)
identify the single dramatic scenario—drawn from real life, contemporary
events, or your own imagination—that would best test all three frameworks
simultaneously, and explain which framework it fits most precisely and why; (3)
evaluate whether the collision of Passage A's individual-flaw model with Passage
B's structural-collision model reveals a genuine disagreement about the nature
of tragedy or simply a recognition that different plays operate at different
levels; and (4) construct your own definition of tragedy that synthesizes all
three frameworks into a single coherent formulation—then test it against Hamlet
and Antigone simultaneously.
DOK 4 · CRM
D-4
SECTION F — DETECTIVE JOURNAL (4 pts each)
DOK 2–3
| CRM B-2 / C-3 | The
detective journal trains the habit of inference. For each prompt, write 2–4
sentences explaining your reasoning. Show your "clues → conclusion"
thinking.
Clue File
1: Passage A states that Hamlet's
hamartia is "paralyzing philosophical reflection at moments requiring
decisive action." List two specific contemporary situations in which this
same quality—excessive reflection at the wrong moment—could produce tragedy.
What does this tell you about whether Aristotle's hamartia is a timeless
pattern?
Clue File
2: Passage B argues that Creon is
"not wicked; he is wrong." What inference can you draw about the
difference between wickedness and wrongness as categories of moral failure? Is
being wrong more or less culpable than being wicked? Why?
Clue File
3: Both passages suggest that human
greatness and human destruction are connected—that what makes people remarkable
is often also what undoes them. What inference can you draw from this pattern
about the nature of human excellence?
ASSESSMENT SCORING GUIDE
|
Section |
Possible |
Earned |
DOK |
CRM Cell |
|
Sec A: Single-Passage
Inference MC (×8) |
16 |
___ |
2–4 |
B-2 / C-3 / D-4 |
|
Sec B: Cross-Paragraph
Synthesis MC (×6) |
12 |
___ |
3–4 |
C-3 / D-4 |
|
Sec C: Dual-Passage
Synthesis MC (×6) |
12 |
___ |
3–4 |
C-3 / D-4 |
|
Sec D: Short Answer (×2) |
20 |
___ |
3–4 |
C-3 / D-4 |
|
Sec E: Extended Synthesis
Essay |
20 |
___ |
4 |
D-4 |
|
Sec F: Prediction &
Projection (×4) |
8 |
___ |
3 |
C-3 |
|
Sec G: Detective Journal
(open) |
12 |
___ |
2–3 |
B-2 / C-3 |
|
TOTAL |
100 |
___ |
— |
— |
Grade 3
— Ocean Plastics / The Plastisphere
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
Grade 4
— Mongol Empire / Pax Mongolica
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
Grade 5
— Social Conditions of Science / HeLa Cells
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
Grade 6
— Architecture of Tragedy / Antigone
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
Grade 7
— Sovereignty & R2P / Syria Trilemma
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
Grade 8
— Economic Paradigms / 2008 Crisis
Section A — Single-Passage
Inference MC (Q1–8):
Q1: B
Q2: B
Q3: B
Q4: B
Q5: B
Q6: B
Q7: B
Q8: B
Section B — Cross-Paragraph
& Dual-Passage Synthesis MC (Q9–14):
Q9: B
Q10: B
Q11: B
Q12: B
Q13: B
Q14: B
Section C — Prediction &
Projection MC (Q15–18):
Q15: B
Q16: B
Q17: B
Q18: B
Sections D, E,
F, G: Apply DOK/CRM open-response rubric below.
DOK / CRM Inference &
Synthesis Rubric
|
Score |
DOK |
Inference Quality |
Evidence Use |
Synthesis & Register |
|
18–20 |
4 |
Original insight; goes
beyond both passages; identifies unstated implications |
Cites specific evidence from
both passages; no unsupported claims |
Tier 3 vocabulary; formal
register; cross-passage synthesis |
|
14–17 |
3 |
Strong inference; connects
passages; mostly beyond summary |
Mostly accurate citations;
strong use of at least one passage |
Tier 2; generally formal;
partial cross-passage work |
|
9–13 |
2 |
Some inference; partially
beyond summary; may conflate with stated content |
General references; may
paraphrase rather than cite |
Mixed register; one passage
only or surface synthesis |
|
0–8 |
1 |
Restates passage content; no
genuine inference |
Vague or absent evidence |
Informal language; no
cross-passage engagement |
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