The mountain · Humanities ridge · camp 1 of 4

Sources

Sources: reading a document, a photograph, a map or a statistic as evidence. Who made it, when, why, and what it can and cannot tell you.

Eight rungs, one trail

Every camp on the mountain has the same eight rungs: the eight altitudes Alpenrise measures, read back in the words of your own school system. Rung 1 is the bottom of secondary school; rung 8 is beyond the final exam.

One question from each rung

The mountain draws three questions per rung from the same slice as the free placement. Here is one from each rung of Sources, shown without its answer.

1. Rung 1 · Explorer · Year 7SOURCE — two online reviews of the same bike shop (a practice source, invented for this exercise): REVIEW BY 'happycyclist22': 'Fixed my flat tyre in ten minutes and didn't charge me for it — brilliant service, five stars, I'll never go anywhere else!' REVIEW BY 'the_shop_owner' (posted using the shop's own account by mistake): 'Best bike shop in town, hands down. Everyone should come here instead of that other shop down the road. Five stars from us!' The second review was later removed by the website after other customers pointed out who had posted it.What would be the BEST next step for someone trying to judge if this shop is actually good?Look for several more reviews written by people with no connection to the shop · Trust the second review completely, since shop owners always know their own business best · Ignore both reviews and judge the shop only by how tidy its window display looks · Trust whichever review appeared first on the website
2. Rung 2 · Pathfinder · Year 8A local sports club keeps the original scoresheet from every match, filled in by the umpire on the day. This scoresheet is —a primary source · a secondary source · an advertisement · an opinion
3. Rung 3 · Voyager · Year 9A politician gives two different speeches on the same policy: one at a rally for supporters, full of passionate rhetoric, and one in a formal parliamentary debate, full of careful qualifications. What does comparing the two reveal?Audience shapes tone and emphasis even when the underlying policy position stays consistent · The politician must hold two entirely contradictory views on the policy · Parliamentary debates are never actually watched or read by anyone outside government at all · Rally speeches are always more factually accurate than formal debates
4. Rung 4 · Navigator · Year 10A scientific-sounding claim reads: 'Laboratory tests confirm the cream visibly reduces wrinkles, and it is quite simply the best on the market.' Why should a careful reader treat the two halves of this sentence differently?The first half points to a specific testable claim, while 'the best on the market' is a sweeping comparison no single test could establish · Both halves are equally provable, since the sentence mentions laboratory tests once · Neither half can be trusted, since advertisements are never allowed to mention real tests · The second half is more trustworthy, since it sounds more confident than the first
5. Rung 5 · Pioneer · Year 11SOURCE — a page from a school's 1950s attendance register, with a note added by the school archivist (a practice source, invented for this exercise): The register lists forty-one names, each with a tidy row of ticks for every day they attended that term. ARCHIVIST'S NOTE: 'Families who could not pay the term's small enrolment fee were not entered in this register at all, even if their children still came to lessons some days. No one today knows exactly how many children that was.'If a researcher only used this register to count how many children attended the school that term, what would the count most likely be?Too low, since children who did attend some days are missing · Exactly right, since every child who ever attended is listed once · Too high, since some listed children never actually attended at all · Impossible to judge, since the register does not give any names
6. Rung 6 · Summit · Year 12Ice cream sales and the number of people at the beach both rise every summer. Does this mean buying ice cream makes people go to the beach?No — hot weather is the likely reason both rise at the same time · Yes — the two events happening together proves one causes the other · No — ice cream sales and beach visits never actually rise together · Yes — but only during years when the summer is unusually short
7. Rung 7 · Apex · Year 13SOURCE A — a post on a school parents' social media group, 8:02am (a practice source, invented for this exercise): 'Just saw this — a fight broke out at the bus stop this morning, looks bad!' Attached is a photo of two boys with their arms raised toward each other. SOURCE B — a reply posted at 8:41am by a parent who says she was standing at the same bus stop (a practice source, invented for this exercise): 'I was right there. That's not a fight — that's the same photo, but it's actually from a dance move they were practising for the talent show. I filmed the whole thing on my phone seconds later and they're both laughing.' SOURCE C — a comment from the school office, posted at 9:15am (a practice source, invented for this exercise): 'We've reviewed the bus-stop camera footage from this morning. No incident of any kind was recorded at the time in question.'Which detail makes Source B a stronger correction than a random guess would be?The parent says she was standing at the same bus stop and filmed it · The parent posted her reply thirty-nine minutes after the original post · The parent's reply is written in a longer paragraph than the original post · The parent used more confident language than the original poster did
8. Rung 8 · Beyond · NZ ScholarshipSOURCE — a paragraph from a Year 12 essay on a local park (a practice source, invented for this exercise): 'Records show visitor numbers to the park rose after new lighting was installed in 2018. More visitors means people felt safer at night. Feeling safer means crime in the area must have fallen. Therefore, installing lighting is the single most effective way to cut local crime.'What is the clearest way to describe the whole argument's structure?Each sentence quietly assumes the one before it, until the final claim outruns all its evidence · Each sentence in the paragraph is separately and fully supported by its own independent piece of evidence · The paragraph makes no claims at all beyond the single fact about visitor numbers · The final claim about crime is actually the paragraph's best-supported sentence

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