Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 4 · Question 23

Passage

 In tracing the changing face of the Irish landscape, scholars have traditionally relied primarily on evidence from historical documents. However, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary Topic: Social Science

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem with studying a certain history is noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Irish landscape - Historians rely on documents
    • Problem - Fragmentary, unreliable, and generally limited to military/commerce

Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A partial solution
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Partial solution - Study fossilized pollen grains
    • Shows changes in vegetation (human and natural causes)
    • What plants grew when
    • Supplement/Correct documentary record (partial)

Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Example of pollen analysis
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Pollen analysis - Cereal grains grown in LL/CD ~400 AD
    • Prior belief - Cereal grains not grown here (clay) until moldboard plough (7th c)
    • New belief - Cereal grains grown before that invention

Paragraph 4
  • Paragraph note
    • Example 2
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • LL linen
    • Prior belief - Flax (linen plant) was grown before 18th c
    • New belief - Flax pollen only since 18th c, so not grown before

Paragraph 5
  • Paragraph note
    • Limits and example
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Limits exist
    • Example - Can ID genus/family, but not species for some
    • Example of Example - Madder - can’t tell if cultivated or wild based on pollen

Main Point:
Studying fossilized pollen grains can supplement and correct the history of the Irish landscape that is derived from documents (even if it has limitations).

Key Lines?
Lines 3-5 - A problem is highlighted
Lines 10-12 - A partial solution is noted (partial because it’s an “additional means” aside from the incomplete one already noted)
Lines 18-20 - The Author shows how her solution works with the current process
Lines 48-50 - The Author places limitations on her solution

Meta-Structure?
Problem/Solution - This passage presents a problem in Paragraph 1 - the documentary evidence on a topic of interest (the Irish landscape’s history) is incomplete. The Author then presents a solution to that problem - fossilized pollen grains can be used to supplement and correct this record (Lines 10-12; Lines 19-20). However, there are limitations to this solution (Lines 48-50), so it’s a partial solution. When a passage is defined by a Problem/Solution Meta-Structure, the Author’s solution is the main point, reflected in what we wrote above.

Examples - The passage uses several examples to make its point. Paragraph 3 includes an example to show pollen records correcting a prior belief; Paragraph 4 had a separate example for the same purpose. And Paragraph 5 included an example that highlighted a limitation on the method. None of these examples are central, so they’re more likely to show up in questions about specifics rather than in big-picture questions.

Last Thoughts?
Those examples carried a lot of weight in the passage, so we should expect some questions focused on them. It’ll also be important to remember that the Author brought up limitations on her process for analyzing the history of the Irish landscape, so we should be sure that any answer we select that reflects her view is more balanced.

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: A

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

Question Type

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Reiterate the main point as we stated it after reading the passage, then find the answer that most closely aligns with it

Answer Anticipation

This passage presents a problem in Paragraph 1 — the documentary evidence on a topic of interest (the Irish landscape's history) is incomplete. The Author then presents a solution to that problem — fossilized pollen grains can be used to supplement and correct this record (Lines 10—12; Lines 19—20). However, there are limitations to this solution (Lines 48—50), so it's a partial solution. When a passage is defined by a Problem/Solution Meta—Structure, the Author's solution is the main point:
Studying fossilized pollen grains can supplement and correct the history of the Irish landscape that is derived from documents (even if it has limitations).
We threw the bit about limitations in parentheses because it's not strictly necessary for the correct answer here — the Author wrote this to argue that fossilized pollen is a useful tool to determine the history of the Irish landscape. But if an answer has the limitations mentioned in Paragraph 5 mentioned, all the better.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Analysis of fossilized pollen Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    Correct. (Lines 3—5; Lines 10—12; Lines 18—20) This answer brings up the Author's solution to the fragmentary record on the Irish landscape — using fossilized pollen grain analysis. It also hits the strength of her view in saying that this method supplements and corrects the documentary record. It doesn't include the limitations in the last paragraph explicitly, but it also doesn't go too far and say that this method will completely fill in the missing information, so it implicitly accepts some limits. This answer is therefore correct.
  2. B
    Analyses of historical documents, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 18—20) The passage is about using pollen analysis to correct or supplement the documentary record. This answer makes it seem as if analyzing historical documents was the focus of the passage, with pollen analysis being a bit of an add—in.
  3. C
    Analysis of fossilized pollen Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer doesn't say anything about the Irish landscape, which is what the pollen analysis method was applied to. It's also about "ancient" plant species, while the passage talks about the 4th and 18th centuries.
  4. D
    Analysis of fossilized pollen Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. This is definitely a tempting answer! However, there's a big problem with it — the evidence already suggested that these plants had a significant impact on the Irish landscape. What the pollen record showed was that the timing of when they had an impact was off.
  5. E
    While pollen evidence can Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 48—50) While the Author does bring up limits on the pollen analysis method, those aren't the focus of the passage. On top of that, she never states that the applicability of it is "severely" limited.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 44%
  2. B 23%
  3. C 7%
  4. D 14%
  5. E 12%

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