Reading comp PrepTest 115 · Section 1 · Question 19

Passage

Questions 13-20  .        Donna Haraway's Primate Visions is the most  . ambitious book on the history of science yet Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's conclusion (Haraway's primatology book most ambitious feminist science history book)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Haraway's book is a more ambitious feminist science history than any other book to date (first sentence)
      • Primates seem like us, so Haraway can use them to make conscious and unconscious projections of her beliefs about nature and culture (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "the most ambitious" (first sentence), "not only" (first sentence), "particularly apt vehicle" (last sentence), "they provide ready material" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway argues the division between knower/object is masculine and colonial)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between the "traditional" division in scientific inquiry (between knower —scientist/historian — and object — nature/history) and Haraway's approach (miscellaneous human actors & creatures contribute to the knowledge of nature, which isn't singular) (first, fourth, and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "most radical departure" (first sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway's fragmented, unique writing style reflects her views)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between "traditional history" writing and Haraway's fragmented approach (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "iconoclastic" (first sentence), "unorthodox" (first sentence), "will not succumb" (second sentence), "fragmented" (third sentence), "familiar enough" (third sentence), "rarely been but into practice" (third sentence), "complex alternative" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway ignores distinction between scientific theory/practice and social issues/beliefs)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between "internal" scientific issues and "external" scientific issues (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "equally innovative" (first sentence), "difficult to set aside" (second sentence), "simply ignores it" (third sentence), "one must shed a great many assumptions" (last sentence)

Main Point: By challenging traditional assumptions of science and adopting a unique writing style, Donna Haraway's Primate Vision is an innovative work of primatology and the most ambitious book on the history of science written from a feminist perspective.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: This passage adopts the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure.* This structure is usually reserved for passages about artists but can occasionally appear in passages about scientists, historians, philosophers, and others. In this case, we could call this an "Innovative Scientist" passage, as it's about a primatologist with some ambitious, unconventional ideas.

When a passage falls into the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure, the main point focuses on that innovation, as reflected in our main point above. Further, it's important to track whether and the extent to which the author approves of these innovations. In this passage, the author adopts a tone that suggests that the author truly admires Haraway's innovations, referring to her book as "the most ambitious book on the history of science yet written from a feminist perspective" (P1, S1), her writing style as a "complex alternative" to the traditional (P3, S4), and her analysis as "innovative" (P4, S1). The author does use some words that can have a neutral or even negative connotation, like "iconoclastic" (P3, S1) and "unorthodox" (P3, S1), and does make a concession that Haraway's writings could be considered by the more traditionally minded to be "distracting … bewildering … digressive" (P4, S4). However, on balance, the author seems to approve of Haraway's work.

*As is often the case with Innovative Subject passages, you could also reasonably call this passage an Old Approach/New Approach passage, characterizing Haraway's approach as the "new approach."

Comparison: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the comparison. As is often the case for passages that utilize the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure, the subject's innovations are frequently distinguished from the conventional approaches. The author distinguishes Haraway's approach from the traditional division between "active knower" and "passive object" in the second paragraph, distinguishes Haraway's writing style from the traditional style in the third paragraph, and distinguishes Haraway's topics from the traditional focus of scientific studies in the last paragraph. We should expect several questions about these.

Last Thoughts?The author uses many words and phrases that convey authorial opinions, so expect several questions about the author's attitude.

Question prompt

According to the author Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to find the correct answer

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us about the "historiographical method" of Primate Visions, which is the subject of this entire passage. So this question stem really provides no indication as to the topic of the correct answer or where it'll show up in the passage. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn’t reflected in our notes on each paragraph, we shouldn’t check the passage to see if it was mentioned. Instead, we’ll table it and move on to the next answer choice. If something seems inconsistent with the main point, we can eliminate it. If something seems familiar, consistent with the main point, or reflected in our notes, we’ll use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be true. If we can find that confirmation, we’ll select that answer choice and move on.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It is a particularly Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage's main point or reflected in our notes?

    This doesn't conflict with the main point, but it's not reflected in our notes. The only time our notes bring up "social issues" is to say that "Haraway ignores distinction between scientific theory/practice and social issues/beliefs." Since this doesn't suggest that the Primate Visions is "particularly effective" in its discussion of social issues (or even that "social issues" is a discrete narrative strand), we should probably table (A) without reviewing the passage and move on to the remaining answer choices.

    If we needed to review the passage to eliminate (A), we would find that the author never claims that Haraway is "particularly effective" in her discussion of social issues. In fact, when the author assesses Haraway's discussion of social issues in the third paragraph, the author expresses more ambivalence than in previous paragraphs, noting that traditionally minded readers may find these discussions "distracting … bewildering … digressive" (P4, S4). While that's not enough for us to conclude that the author dislikes Haraway's discussion of social issues, it's also not enough for us to conclude that the author finds this discussion "particularly effective."

  2. B
    It is an approach Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage's main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. This is nearly the opposite of the author's main point and should be eliminated straight away. After all, the author claims repeatedly that Haraway's approach is "iconoclastic" (P3, S1), "innovative" (P4, S1), and rarely attempted by historians of science (P3, S3). To claim that Haraway's approach is common is to ignore the author's main point about Haraway.

  3. C
    It is generally less Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage's main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. In fact, you can stop reading this one after reading "less effective." The author, on balance, certainly admires Harway's approach. The author acknowledges that some readers may be put off by Haraway's eccentricities (P4, S4), but elsewhere, the author uses laudatory words, like "most ambitious" (P1, S1), a "complex alternative" (P3, S4), and "innovative" (P4, S1), which connote approval of Haraway's project.

  4. D
    It has rarely been Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage's main point or reflected in our notes?

    Well, many test-takers are attracted to this answer chioce, as we know that historians traditionally emphasize "strictly narrative or narrative with emphasis on a causal argument" in their approaches to historiography (P3, S4). And we know that what Haraway is doing "has rarely been put into practice by historians of science" (P3, S3). This would appear to align with (D).

    But observant test-takers may notice a problem that takes (D) out of contention right away: it refers to "historians" in general. That makes this answer choice too broad since the passage focuses on historians of science. We don't know how often historians of other disciplines utilize an approach like Haraway's, so this answer choice is unsupported.

  5. E
    It has rarely been Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage's main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yes. The author's main point is that Donna Haraway's Primate Vision is an innovative and ambitious book on the history of science, as Haraway challenges the traditional beliefs and writing styles of this discipline in her approach. Saying that Haraway's approach has "rarely been practiced by historians of science," is perfectly aligned with the author's claim that Primate Vision is innovative.

    If you need textual support from the passage to feel more comfortable with selecting this answer choice, the passage provides plenty, but most directly in the third paragraph: "This fragmented approach to historiography is familiar enough in historiographical theorizing but has rarely been put into practice by historians of science" (P3, S3).

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 8%
  5. E Credited 82%

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