Reading: Irony and evidence in an overtourism opinion piece
Reading task: a regional newspaper opinion piece headlined 'Come to the Baltic-Just Not in July' argues that the town of Grömitz has 12,000 residents and 2.1 million overnight stays a year. The author writes: 'Who wouldn't want to share their bakery queue with four hundred strangers?' She notes that 61 per cent of visitors arrive in six weeks, that the harbour car park is full by 9:30 a.m., and that the local council has raised the tourist tax by 3 euros per night. Her proposal is to stagger school holidays across the northern German states. She ends: 'The sea does not need us to love it; it needs us to leave it alone for a few weeks.' A candidate is asked to analyse tone and evaluate the argument.
1. Explain the tone of the rhetorical question and its function in the argument. Avoid saying only 'ironic'.
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The question is ironic, but its function is not merely to amuse. It is a mock-inclusive question: 'Who wouldn't want...?' invites the reader to agree that nobody would. The obvious answer is 'nobody', so the question presupposes the opposite of what it appears to ask. It shifts the piece from statistics to shared experience and creates an in-group of residents and sympathetic visitors. Rhetorically, it enlists consent before the proposal, making the later argument feel like common sense. It also simplifies: it treats crowding as a universal irritation rather than a distributional conflict between residents, visitors and businesses. A strong answer names the irony and then explains this consent-building function.
2. Does the proposal to stagger school holidays follow from the evidence presented? Identify one gap and one hidden assumption.
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The proposal follows only partly from the evidence. The evidence shows temporal concentration: 61 per cent of visitors arrive in six weeks, and the car park is full by 9:30. Staggering school holidays could spread family demand. But the piece gives no figure for the share of visitors who are families with school-age children. That is the gap: if most visitors are retired couples, hikers or day-trippers, holiday calendars will not change much. The hidden assumption is that visitors can and will choose dates according to school terms, and that northern German states can coordinate. The tourist tax rise is evidence of policy activity, not of the proposal's effectiveness. So the proposal is plausible but undersupported.
3. The final sentence shifts from economics to ethics. What does this shift achieve, and what does it risk?
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The final sentence shifts from economics to ethics by making the sea an agent with needs. It achieves a memorable close and reframes the issue: the sea does not need love, it needs restraint. This elevates the argument beyond tourist tax and parking. The risk is that it oversimplifies and alienates local businesses. Earlier the author proposed a practical measure, staggered holidays; the final line implies withdrawal for weeks, which is stronger. A good answer notes the rhetorical gain (memorability, moral framing) and the cost (polarisation, loss of policy precision). It may also note that 'leave it alone' personifies the sea and avoids naming who should act.