Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 4 · Question 26

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 In tracing the changing face of the Irish landscape, scholars have traditionally relied primarily on evidence from historical documents.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

The passage indicates that 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 prior beliefs that we noted throughout the passage, then head to the answer choices

Answer Anticipation

If you're on top of your RC game, you might note that this question is very similar to Question #24. Both ask about a view that was held before pollen analysis came along, albeit with slightly different language. However, the work we did for that question will be the same as what we need to do for this one. Thinking back to that question we had examples in Paragraphs 3 and 4 that included a prior view.
Looking at Paragraph 3, we can see in Lines 26—29 that historians used to believe that the clay soil of Long Lough in County Down wasn't tilled until the moldboard plough was introduced in the 7th century.
Looking at Paragraph 4, we can see in Lines 42—44 that some historians used to believe that flax was being cultivated in County Down before the 18th century.
Question #24 focused on the example from Paragraph 3, so let's anticipate that this one is going to have a correct answer from Paragraph 4's example.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The Irish landscape had Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. Flooding? That wasn't mentioned in the passage.
  2. B
    Cereal grain was not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 26—29) This is related to the first example, from Paragraph 3, but it could still be right. However, the view stated there is that "these soils," referring to the clay soils of Long Lough in County Down, weren't tilled and thus didn't grow cereal until the 7th century. Their view is limited to parts of Ireland which have similar soil — and that might not be all of it.
  3. C
    The history of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. The Author does establish that the documentary record which historians worked from is fragmentary, but there's no indication that they weren't aware of it! They could have been working with what they had while lamenting its shortcomings, just waiting for an enterprising historian to invent pollen analysis.
  4. D
    Madder was not used Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 52—58) Madder is the example from Paragraph 5, and there's no prior belief of historians there to be overturned.
  5. E
    The beginning of flax Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. (Lines 42—44) This view is stated directly in Paragraph 4 as being held by historians until the pollen record corrected it, 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 8%
  2. B 36%
  3. C 12%
  4. D 6%
  5. E Credited 38%

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