Reading comp PrepTest 109 · Section 2 · Question 1

Topic: Social Science

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Author on GNP's shortcomings (ignores human indicators like health, resources, employment, and services)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • The view of many political economists:
    • Gross national product (GNP) per capita is the best way to measure economic health (first sentence)
  • Definition of GNP per capita: value of goods produced divided by population (first sentence)
  • Author's view:
    • GNP ignores human factors that also affect the welfare of citizens (second sentence)
  • Comparison, according to the author:
    • Human indicators are a better metric than GNP, although sometimes more difficult to calculate or document (second sentence)
  • Examples of human indicators, according to the author:
    • Life expectancy, infant mortality, availability of resources, employment, and governmental services like education, water, medicine, transportation, and communication (last sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "many factors affecting residents' welfare that are not captured" (second sentence), "sometimes more difficult to calculate or document" (second sentence), "provide sounder measures" (second sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Economists' defense (human indicators follow GNP increases) and author's rebuttal (that doesn't always happen; GNP can obscure wealth discrepancies)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Economists' view:
    • Improvements in GNP eventually improve human indicators (first sentence)
  • Author's view:
    • Increases in GNP do not always improve human indicators (second sentence)
    • GNP per capita can obscure wealth discrepancies and give a distorted picture of the distribution of wealth across a society (fifth through last sentences)
  • Examples, according to the author:
    • Some nations that have improved their GNP still have bad human indicators, like infant survival, literacy, nutrition, and life expectancy (fourth sentence)
    • A country with a low population where a small percentage of residents hold most of the wealth can have a high GNP per capita (fifth sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "But, in actuality" (second sentence), "often fails to occur" (second sentence), "does not always reach" (third sentence), "often presents a distorted picture" (fifth sentence), "is a matter not merely" (sixth sentence), "frequently obscures" (sixth sentence)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Author's argument in the real world (nations are realizing GNP is a bad metric and caring more about human indicators)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Some nations' views:
    • Nations are becoming less concerned with raising their GNP and more focused on actually improving the human indicators (first and last sentence)
  • Comparisons, according to the author/some nations
    • Prioritizing GNP can hurt the health of the nation, and a nation can still do well with a relatively low GNP (last sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "realize" (first sentence), "better directed away" (first sentence), "recognize" (last sentence), "may be endangered" (last sentence), "may thrive" (last sentence)

Main Point: Human indicators are far better for measuring a nation's economic health than GNP because the latter ignores important factors and can obscure wealth discrepancies.

Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure: This passage skirts the line between a few different Meta-Structures, but we ultimately decided that it uses a Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure.* In such a structure, the author describes a view held by another person or group, and then criticizes their view. Importantly, the author's argument should focus primarily on why the view is wrong, unjustified, or misguided.

In this particular passage, we begin with the conventional method of measuring the economic health of a nation: gross national product per capita (GNP). Immediately after this introduction, the author makes it clear that they are not a fan of this method. They think it ignores other factors that affect citizens' welfare. Another, more elusive metric that considers "human indicators" is more accurate. Though some economists claim that improvements in GNP can cause improvements in those other factors, this is demonstrably false; some nations have a high GNP but low scores in human indicators. Also, GNP can be distorted by how a nation's wealth is distributed. Finally, the author says that nations are acknowledging the problems with GNP and electing to focus on improving with more accurate indications of their citizens' welfare.

In passages that use a Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure, the main point will be the author's central criticism or a summary of the criticisms. Since there isn't a moment in the passage that the author offers such a criticism, we can forge our own. Thus, the main point will be something like: "Human indicators are far better for measuring a nation's economic health than GNP because the latter ignores important factors and can obscure wealth discrepancies."

*You could make a very strong case that this is an Old Approach/New Approach passage, with "human indicators" as the new approach. You could also claim that this is a Correcting the Record passage. There is considerable overlap between these Meta-Structures and Criticizing a Viewpoint. Ultimately, we chose Criticizing a Viewpoint because the author is more focused on criticizing GNP rather than promoting human indicators (seriously, we counted the number of sentences dedicated to each). But selecting any of these Meta-Structures could also lead you to an effective understanding of the passage. Regardless of what you choose, the important thing to remember is how the passage presents a certain method that the author thinks is bad for a couple reasons.

When a passage sets up a conflict between two things, try to memorize a workable definition of both before moving on to the questions. Many questions will refer to, for instance, how GNP is calculated rather than just saying “GNP.” So, try to remember that per capita GNP is the value of goods produced by a nation divided by its population and that human indicators include things like life expectancy, infant mortality, availability of resources, employment, and governmental services.