Reading comp PrepTest 120 · Section 2 · Question 1

Passage

Questions 1-5  .        In 1963, a three–week–long demonstration for jobs  . at the construction site of the Downstate Medical Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background and goals of protest
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • What - 1963 protest at construction site
    • One of most significant and publicized civil rights campaigns
    • Led by ministers (previously politically moderate) from their congregation
    • Goal - Force government and industry changes in union hiring practices (excluded African Americans)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • How it came about; What ministers risked
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recruited ministers
    • Ministers moderate and served as mediators between government and communities; also worked for parties or ran for office - Risked by protests

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Outcome
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Agreement - Gov’t and union leaders
    • Some Activists - Shortcoming - Didn’t have specific legislation or job numbers
    • Author - Pro - Gov’t did agree to enforce anti-discrimination legislation
    • Author - Pro - Got public to see issues in construction industry and in North
    • Author - Pro - Ministers maintained moderate ties, serving as model

Main Point: While the ministers at the Downstate protest weren’t able to get everything some activists wanted, they managed to get some concessions while raising the public’s awareness of discrimination in the North and in the construction industry while maintaining their moderate ties and serving as a model for future action.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-5 - Overview of key event

Lines 5-9 - What made the event notable

Lines 12-17 - Goals of the protest

Lines 26-29 - What was at risk

Lines 40-43 - More on what was at risk

Lines 44-46 - Outcome

Lines 49-51 - Some consider outcome bad

Line 49 - Author’s opinion starts, with list of positive outcomes

Meta-Structure?

Importance of Event - Much as we see Humanities passages that focus on an important work or movement, we also see Social Science passages that focus on the importance of an event. These passages go into the details of that event, usually establishing some historical context before describing what happened and why it was notable. Here, the passage starts with the event’s background (along with a statement that it was important - Lines 3-5) and the goals of those behind it. It then provides background context for those involved in the event, and it ends with a discussion of the outcome. This discussion of the outcome includes a list of positives presented by the Author, starting in Line 49. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the Author’s view of why the event is important serves as the basis for the main point, as reflected in our summary above.

Last Thoughts?

There’s not a lot of depth to this passage - it’s a pretty straight-forward discussion, without a lot of argumentation or call-backs. And that’s reflected in there being only 5 questions for it. Let’s try to get through them quickly so we can save up some time for a later passage!

Question prompt

It can be reasonably Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review where in the passage the Author presented her attitude, identifying elements that she’s positive towards, and find one of those as an answer

Answer Anticipation

We should always be noting where the Author presents an opinion in an RC passage, so we should be able to scan our notes to find where she shows up. That’s primarily in Paragraph 3.Looking there, we see that she presents a list of positives that came out of the Downstate protests (starting in Line 49):The government agreed to enforce existing anti-discrimination legislationThe public’s awareness of discrimination in the North and in the construction industry was raisedMinisters maintained their moderate ties, serving as a model for future ministers to act So she seems to have a positive overall view of the Downstate protest, and she certainly has a positive view of each of these outcomes. Let’s find an answer reflecting any part of that positive opinion.

Answer choices

  1. A
    the ways in which Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 44-49) The Author notes that the campaign ended with an agreement between ministers and union officials, but the union leaders didn’t commit to any specific numbers, and the Author doesn’t mention a change in their mindset in her list of positive outcomes, so this answer is unsupported.

  2. B
    the impact that the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 46-47) The Author says that the agreement between the ministers leading the Downstate campaign and government officials “did not include new legislation,” so this answer is incorrect. She says that they committed to enforcing existing antidiscrimination legislation.

  3. C
    CORE's relationship to the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Paragraph 2) The Author discusses the relationship between CORE and the ministers in Paragraph 2, but we didn’t note any authorial opinion there, so we can’t say she has a positive view of that relationship.

  4. D
    the effects that the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) (Lines 56-60) In her list of positive outcomes of the Downstate campaign, the Author brings up the increased public concern around issues of discrimination in the construction industry and in the North. This answer reflects that positive outcome, so it’s the correct answer.

  5. E
    the way in which Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) While the Author does have a positive view of a number of the outcomes of the Downstate campaign, she never discusses the way in which it was negotiated by the leaders of the campaign, so this answer is out of scope.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B 7%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 79%
  5. E 9%

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