Reading comp PrepTest 120 · Section 2 · Question 3

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

The primary function of 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

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review the purpose of the paragraph including Lines 31-38, then use that and the immediate context surrounding those lines to define their purpose

Answer Anticipation

Lines 31-38 show up in the middle of Paragraph 2. We said that that paragraph was meant to highlight how the Downstate campaign came about and what the ministers who led it risked. Lines 31-38 show up after the pivot to the second purpose, so let’s keep that in mind as we read the immediate section.Lines 31-38 talk about the past activities of urban African American ministers - working with communities to address social, political, and economic concerns. Specifically, they had acted as mediators between their communities and the government. The paragraph concludes by stating that the Downstate protests “risk[ed]” their reputations as being able to “effect[] change through established political channels.So the passage highlights their prior work to show that they were risking their reputations by taking a significantly different approach. Let’s find an answer reflecting that purpose.

Answer choices

  1. A
    demonstrate that the tactics Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 40-43) The passage notes that the ministers were risking their reputations as serving as mediators within existing channels by leading the protests, so the Author doesn’t argue that it was a natural progression of their earlier work.

  2. B
    explain why the leaders Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 40-43) The passage notes that the ministers were acting in a different way during the downstate protests than they had before. Outlining how they had previously acted wouldn’t explain why they changed their approach!

  3. C
    provide examples of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 24-26) CORE is presented as the group that asked the ministers to lead the Downstate campaign. If anything, that suggests that they were more involved in campaigns such as this one rather than the different work that the ministers had been engaged in.

  4. D
    indicate how the Downstate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Paragraphs 3 deals with the outcomes of the Downstate campaign, so it would be weird for her to argue in Paragraph 2 that there were other means of achieving these goals. On top of that, the Author never makes such an argument, so this answer is out of scope.

  5. E
    underscore the extent to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) (Lines 40-43) The Author goes through the work that the ministers had done up until the point of the Downstate protest to show that they had been working within the system and as moderators/mediators between communities and the government. This is to contrast that work with the Downstate campaign, which risked their reputations as working within established political channels. As such, Lines 31-38 serve to set up what had been done as a contrast to what the ministers did in this case, so this is the correct answer.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B 12%
  3. C 12%
  4. D 3%
  5. E Credited 58%

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