MAKING MEANING

Comparing Texts
In this lesson, you will read and compare two
selections that present different arguments about
the same issue. First, you will complete the first
THREE CHEERS FOR THE • BAN THE BAN!
NANNY STATE read and close read activities for “Three Cheers for • Soda’s a problem but...
the Nanny State.”

About the Author

Three Cheers for the Nanny State
Concept Vocabulary
As you conduct your first read of “Three Cheers for the Nanny State,”
you will encounter these words. Before you read, rate how familiar you
are with each word. Then, rank the words in order from most familiar (1)
to least familiar (5).
Sarah Conly holds the title
WORD YOUR RANKING
of Associate Professor of
Philosphy at Bowdoin College impose
in Brunswick, Maine. She
is the author of numerous rational
essays, journal articles, and
opinion pieces focusing on justifiable
issues of personal choice and
public policy. principle

status quo

After completing your first read, come back to the selection vocabulary and
review your ratings. Mark changes to your original rankings as needed.
Tool Kit
First-Read Guide and
Model Annotation
First Read NONFICTION
Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete a close read after your first read. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NOTICE the general ideas of ANNOTATE by marking

the text. What is it about? vocabulary and key passages
Who is involved? you want to revisit.

 STANDARDS
Reading Informational Text CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing
By the end of the year, read and the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
comprehend literary nonfiction at
the high end of the grades 6–8 text already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
complexity band independently and have already read. the selection.
proficiently.

276 UNIT 3 • WHAT MATTERS

 ANCHOR TEXT | OPINION PIECE

Three Cheers
for the Nanny State Sarah Conly

BACKGROUND
The term “nanny state” is a negative nickname for a welfare state,
which is a model of government that takes direct responsibility for the
protection and well-being of its citizens. Welfare states offer basic
social support, such as free health care or low-income housing, but also
create laws and policies that attempt to control or influence how people
behave.

W hy has there been so much fuss about New York City’s

attempt to impose a soda ban,1 or more precisely, a ban on
large-size “sugary drinks”? After all, people can still get as much
NOTES
impose (im POHZ) v. force
a law, idea, or belief
soda as they want. This isn’t Prohibition. It’s just that getting it on someone by using
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would take slightly more effort. So, why is this such a big deal? authority
2 Obviously, it’s not about soda. It’s because such a ban suggests
that sometimes we need to be stopped from doing foolish stuff,
and this has become, in contemporary American politics, highly
controversial, no matter how trivial the particular issue. (Large CLOSE READ
ANNOTATE: In paragraph 1,
cups of soda as symbols of human dignity? Really?)
mark the questions that the
3 Americans, even those who generally support government author does not answer.
intervention in our daily lives, have a reflexive response to being
told what to do, and it’s not a positive one. It’s this common QUESTION: Why might
the author have begun
desire to be left alone that prompted the Mississippi Legislature
the article with several
earlier this month to pass a ban on bans—a law that forbids unanswered questions?
municipalities to place local restrictions on food or drink.
CONCLUDE: What effect
1. soda ban In 2013, New York City passed a law prohibiting soda containers larger than do these questions have
16 ounces in volume. The New York State Court of Appeals later overturned the law. on the reader?

Three Cheers for the Nanny State 277

 4 We have a vision of ourselves as free, rational beings who are
NOTES totally capable of making all the decisions we need to in order to
rational (RASH uh nuhl) adj. create a good life. Give us complete liberty, and, barring natural
able to make decisions disasters, we’ll end up where we want to be. It’s a nice vision, one
based on reason rather that makes us feel proud of ourselves. But it’s false.
than emotion; sensible
5 John Stuart Mill2 wrote in 1859 that the only justifiable
justifiable (juhs tuh FY reason for interfering in someone’s freedom of action was to
uh buhl) adj. able to be
defended as correct; prevent harm to others. According to Mill’s “harm principle,”
reasonable and logical we should almost never stop people from behavior that
principle (PRIHN suh puhl) n. affects only themselves, because people know best what they
moral rule or set of ideas themselves want.
about right or wrong that 6 That “almost,” though, is important. It’s fair to stop us, Mill
influences individuals to
argued, when we are acting out of ignorance and doing something
behave in a certain way
we’ll pretty definitely regret. You can stop someone from crossing
a bridge that is broken, he said, because you can be sure no one
wants to plummet into the river. Mill just didn’t think this would
happen very often.
7 Mill was wrong about that, though. A lot of times we have a
good idea of where we want to go, but a really terrible idea of how
to get there. It’s well established by now that we often don’t think
very clearly when it comes to choosing the best means to attain
our ends. We make errors. This has been the object of an enormous
CLOSE READ amount of study over the past few decades, and what has been
ANNOTATE: In paragraphs discovered is that we are all prone to identifiable and predictable
8–10, mark the types of
miscalculations.
bias, or judgments and
prejudices, the author 8 Research by psychologists and behavioral economists,
describes. including the Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman and his
research partner Amos Tversky, identified a number of areas in
QUESTION: Why does
the author include these
which we fairly dependably fail. They call such a tendency a
explanations of different “cognitive3 bias,” and there are many of them—a lot of ways in
biases? which our own minds trip us up.
9 For example, we suffer from an optimism bias, that is we tend
CONCLUDE: How does
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this information affect to think that however likely a bad thing is to happen to most
the persuasiveness of her people in our situation, it’s less likely to happen to us—not for
argument? any particular reason, but because we’re irrationally optimistic.
Because of our “present bias,” when we need to take a small, easy
step to bring about some future good, we fail to do it, not because
we’ve decided it’s a bad idea, but because we procrastinate.
status quo (STAT uhs kwoh) 10 We also suffer from a status quo bias, which makes us value
n. existing state what we’ve already got over the alternatives, just because we’ve
or condition at a
particular time
already got it—which might, of course, make us react badly to

2. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher.

3. cognitive (KOG nih tihv) adj. related to thinking.

278 UNIT 3 • WHAT MATTERS

 new laws, even when they are really an improvement over what
we’ve got. And there are more. NOTES

11 The crucial point is that in some situations it’s just difficult for
us to take in the relevant information and choose accordingly. It’s
not quite the simple ignorance Mill was talking about, but it turns
out that our minds are more complicated than Mill imagined.
Like the guy about to step through the hole in the bridge, we
need help.
12 Is it always a mistake when someone does something
imprudent, when, in this case, a person chooses to chug 32 ounces
of soda? No. For some people, that’s the right choice. They don’t
care that much about their health, or they won’t drink too many
big sodas, or they just really love having a lot of soda at once.
13 But laws have to be sensitive to the needs of the majority. That
doesn’t mean laws should trample the rights of the minority, but
that public benefit is a legitimate concern, even when that may
inconvenience some.
14 So do these laws mean that some people will be kept from CLOSE READ
doing what they really want to do? Probably—and yes, in many ANNOTATE: In paragraph
ways it hurts to be part of a society governed by laws, given that 14, mark the example the
author uses to support
laws aren’t designed for each one of us individually. Some of us
her claim.
can drive safely at 90 miles per hour, but we’re bound by the same
laws as the people who can’t, because individual speeding laws QUESTION: Why might
aren’t practical. Giving up a little liberty is something we agree the author have chosen
this specific example as
to when we agree to live in a democratic society that is governed
support?
by laws.
15 The freedom to buy a really large soda, all in one cup, is CONCLUDE: How does the
inclusion of this example
something we stand to lose here. For most people, given their
affect the author’s
desire for health, that results in a net gain. For some people, yes, argument?
it’s an absolute loss. It’s just not much of a loss.
16 Of course, what people fear is that this is just the beginning:
today it’s soda, tomorrow it’s the guy standing behind you
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making you eat your broccoli, floss your teeth, and watch
PBS NewsHour4 every day. What this ignores is that successful
paternalistic5 laws are done on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis:
if it’s too painful, it’s not a good law. Making these analyses is
something the government has the resources to do, just as now it
sets automobile construction standards while considering both the
need for affordability and the desire for safety.
17 Do we care so much about our health that we want to be forced
to go to aerobics every day and give up all meat, sugar and salt?

4. PBS NewsHour television news program in the United States.

5. paternalistic (puh tuhr nuh LIHS tihk) adj. protective, but controlling; in the manner of a
parent.

Three Cheers for the Nanny State 279

 No. But in this case, it’s some extra soda. Banning a law on the
NOTES
grounds that it might lead to worse laws would mean we could
have no laws whatsoever.
18 In the old days we used to blame people for acting imprudently,
and say that since their bad choices were their own fault, they
deserved to suffer the consequences. Now we see that these errors
aren’t a function of bad character, but of our shared cognitive
inheritance. The proper reaction is not blame, but an impulse to
help one another.
19 That’s what the government is supposed to do, help us get
where we want to go. It’s not always worth it to intervene, but
sometimes, where the costs are small and the benefit is large, it is.
That’s why we have prescriptions for medicine. And that’s why, as
irritating as it may initially feel, the soda regulation is a good idea.
It’s hard to give up the idea of ourselves as completely rational.
We feel as if we lose some dignity. But that’s the way it is, and
there’s no dignity in clinging to an illusion. ❧

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280 UNIT 3 • WHAT MATTERS

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read.

1. What new law was proposed in New York City?

2. What is a “cognitive bias”?

3. According to the author, what do people fear they will lose as a result of the
new law?

4. According to the author, what will most people gain from the soda ban?
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5. Notebook Write a summary of “Three Cheers for the Nanny State.”

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly
research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an
aspect of the text?

Research to Explore Write a research question that you might use to find out more
about the concept of the “nanny state.”

Three Cheers for the Nanny State 281

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

1. The model, from paragraph 16, shows two sample
annotations, along with questions and conclusions. Close
read the passage, and find another detail to annotate. Then,
THREE CHEERS FOR THE
write a question and your conclusion.
NANNY STATE

ANNOTATE: The author begins the

paragraph with the transition phrase Of
course.
QUESTION: Why might the author have ANNOTATE:
chosen this specific transition? The author lists
activities.
CONCLUDE: The author uses this phrase
to show that she recognizes and, to some QUESTION: Why
degree, understands opposing views. does the author list
these activities?

Of course, what people fear is that CONCLUDE:

Each activity is
this is just the beginning: today it’s considered “good”
soda, tomorrow it’s the guy standing for people, and
behind you making you eat your is something we
broccoli, floss your teeth, and watch usually do at home.
PBS NewsHour every day. The list exaggerates
the idea of
government control
of our behavior.

Tool Kit 2. For more practice, go back into the text and complete the
Close-Read Guide close-read notes.
and Model Annotation 3. Revisit a section of the text you found important during your
first read. Read this section closely, and annotate what you
notice. Ask yourself questions such as “Why did the author

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make this choice?” What can you conclude?

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Notebook Respond to these questions.

 STANDARDS 1. (a) Distinguish What is the author’s tone, or attitude toward her
Reading Informational Text subject and audience? (b) Support What words and phrases does
• Determine an author’s point of the author use that create that tone?
view or purpose in a text and analyze
how the author acknowledges and 2. (a) Deduce What is the larger issue that the author is addressing
responds to conflicting evidence or in this opinion piece? (b) Interpret Why do you think the author
viewpoints.
• Delineate and evaluate the uses the soda-ban debate as a catalyst, or motivating force, for
argument and specific claims in a addressing this issue?
text, assessing whether the reasoning
is sound and the evidence is relevant 3. Essential Question: When is it right to take a stand? What have
and sufficient; recognize when you learned from this text about when it is right to take a stand?
irrelevant evidence is introduced.

282 UNIT 3 • WHAT MATTERS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: When is it right to take a stand?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Author’s Argument An author’s argument is his or her position on
a controversial or debatable topic or issue. In an argument, the author
makes a claim, or statement of a specific position. The author’s reason
for writing is to convince readers to share that position. To do so, the
author gives reasons for taking the position, and provides supporting
evidence that is relevant, or related, to it. The most basic forms of
evidence are facts and opinions:

• A fact is something that can be proved.

• An opinion is a person’s judgment or belief. It may be supported by

facts, but it cannot be proved.

A successful persuasive argument relies on factual evidence. It also uses

logical reasoning, or clear thinking, that shows how an author has
arrived at his or her position.

An author’s argument and choices of supporting evidence can be

influenced by various factors, including his or her perspective. An
author’s perspective, which can also be called point of view, includes
his or her attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. If an author’s personal beliefs,
attitudes, or feelings are too prominent, an argument may seem less
convincing. In extreme cases, it may even be read as bias, which is an
unfair preference either for or against an idea, person, or group.

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

Notebook Use the chart to identify at least four facts the author uses
to support her argument. Then, answer the questions that follow.

FACTS HOW THEY SUPPORT THE ARGUMENT

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1. (a) What generalizations, or broad statements, does the author make about
Americans? (b) What reasons does the author give for these generalizations?
(c) Are the reasons based on facts or opinions?
2. (a) Do you think the author’s argument will benefit the health of most people?
Why or why not? (b) What evidence from the text supports your opinion?
3. Based on your evaluation, did you find the author’s argument convincing and
persuasive? Why or why not?

Three Cheers for the Nanny State 283

 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Concept Vocabulary
impose justifiable status quo

rational principle
THREE CHEERS FOR THE
NANNY STATE
Why These Words? These concept words help the author discuss rules
and laws. For example, part of deciding whether a law is justifiable, or
defensible, is to see if it is rational, or reasonable. Rules are often based
on a principle, or idea, about cooperation or safety.

1. How is each concept vocabulary word related to the author’s argument

about the new law in New York?

2. What other words in the selection connect to rules or laws?

Practice

 WORD NETWORK Notebook The concept vocabulary words appear in “Three Cheers
for the Nanny State.” First, use each concept vocabulary word in a
Add words related to taking
a stand from the text to sentence that shows your understanding of the word’s meaning. Then,
your Word Network. find a synonym, or word with a similar meaning, for each vocabulary
word. Confirm your understanding of each synonym by checking the
meanings in a dictionary.

Word Study
 STANDARDS
Latin Root: -just- The Latin root -just- means “law” or “fair and right.”
Language
• Demonstrate command of the In “Three Cheers for the Nanny State,” the author refers to John Stuart
conventions of standard English Mill’s idea that preventing harm to others is the only justifiable reason for
grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.
interfering with a person’s freedom. Mill felt that this was the only “fair
• Demonstrate command of the and right” reason to interfere.
conventions of standard English
1. Think about how the root -just- contributes to the meaning of the
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capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing. concept vocabulary word justifiable. Then, write a sentence in which
• Determine or clarify the meaning you correctly use justifiable. Remember to include context clues that
of unknown and multiple-meaning
words or phrases based on grade 8 show the relationship between the root -just- and the word’s meaning.
reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.
b. Use common, grade-appropriate
Greek or Latin affixes and roots as
clues to the meaning of a word.
2. Using your knowledge of the Latin root -just-, explain how the root
d. Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of a contributes to the meaning of the following words: adjust, justice,
word or phrase. justification.
• Demonstrate understanding
of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
b. Use the relationship between
particular words to better
understand each of the words.

284 UNIT 3 • WHAT MATTERS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: When is it right to take a stand?

Conventions
Clauses A clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a
verb. An independent clause has a subject and a verb, and it can stand
by itself as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate, clause has a
subject and a verb, but it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.

Subordinate clauses are classified according to their function in a

sentence. The three kinds are adverb clauses, relative clauses (also
called adjective clauses), and noun clauses.
CLAUSE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE

Independent clause • Can stand by itself as a sentence Although many people oppose the
new law, the author supports it.

Adverb clause • Acts as an adverb Although many people oppose the

• B
 egins with a subordinating conjunction new law, the author supports it.
such as if, although, when, or because

Relative clause • Acts as an adjective The author supports a law that bans
• U
 sually begins with a relative pronoun: who, large-size sugary drinks.
whom, whose, which, or that

Noun clause • Acts as a noun The author explains how the new law
• B
 egins with a word such as what, whatever, will work.
when, where, why, or how

In a sentence with two or more clauses, you may need a comma between
the clauses. For example, you usually need a comma between an adverb
clause and an independent clause.

Read It
1. 
Identify whether each clause is an independent clause or a dependent
clause. If it is a dependent clause, tell which kind.
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a. People suffer from “cognitive bias”

b. Which makes us value what we already have
c. Because we procrastinate
d. Some new laws are really an improvement

2. Reread paragraph 5 of “Three Cheers for the Nanny State.” Mark and  EVIDENCE LOG
then label one example of an independent clause and one example of Before moving on to a
a dependent clause. new selection, go to your
Evidence Log and record
Write It
what you have learned
Notebook Write a brief paragraph about the goals of the new law from “Three Cheers for the
in New York. Make sure to use at least two independent clauses and two Nanny State.”
dependent clauses in your paragraph. Then, identify each type of clause
in your writing.

Three Cheers for the Nanny State 285