Reading comp PrepTest 120 · Section 2 · Question 2

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

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review the information about the outcome of the campaign, then find an answer that reflects those outcomes

Answer Anticipation

Question #1 asked about the Author’s Attitude in the passage, and we noted that she stated her attitude primarily on the outcomes of the campaign, which was done throughout Paragraph 3. So we should be set up to know where to find the relevant information, as well as some of the relevant information - the Author asserted three positive results of the campaign.However, this question is broader than the last one - it doesn’t ask only about things the Author was favorable towards, so we should dig into the other outcomes.Looking back to the passage, we can see that some activists noted a shortcoming - the government didn’t agree to specific legislation, and the union leaders didn’t agree to hiring a specific number of African Americans.These shortcomings coupled with the positive results noted by the Author have to serve as the basis for the correct answer, so let's head down and find one that matches up with them.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It achieved all of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 46-51) Some of the activists involved felt that the agreement fell short of their goals since it didn’t include specific legislation or job targets, so the campaign can’t be said to have reached its goals for changes in union policy.

  2. B
    It directly achieved neither Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) (Lines 46-51) Some of the activists involved felt that the agreement fell short of their goals since it didn’t include specific legislation or job targets, so the campaign can’t be said to have reached its goals for government action or changes in union policy. This answer is therefore correct.

  3. C
    It achieved all of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 46-51) Some of the activists involved felt that the agreement fell short of their goals since it didn’t include specific legislation, so the campaign can’t be said to have reached its goals for government action.

  4. D
    It achieved all of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 46-51) Some of the activists involved felt that the agreement fell short of their goals since it didn’t include specific legislation, so the campaign can’t be said to have reached its goals for government action.

  5. E
    It eventually achieved all Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 46-51; Lines 65-66) Some of the activists involved felt that the agreement fell short of their goals since it didn’t include specific legislation or job targets, so the campaign can’t be said to have immediately reached its goals for government action or changes in union policy, and there’s no discussion of later activism that led to these goals being achieved. The Author does note that the actions of the ministers in this case served as a model for future ministers, but it doesn’t state the outcomes of any protests led in the future, so we can’t assume that these protests eventually achieved all of the goals of the Downstate campaign.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B Credited 82%
  3. C 9%
  4. D 2%
  5. E 2%

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