Reading comp PrepTest 132 · Section 3 · Question 17

Topic: Social Science

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • A consensus view; the Author questions it; Examples for the latter
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Consensus view - Broadcasting programs into developing nations = cultural imperialism
  • Author - View assumes automatic dominance of import, which lacks evidence
  • Author - Some risk of dominance, but…
  • Example 1 - Imports don’t stop domestic shows from being profitable
  • Example 2 - Imports don’t get bigger audiences; many prefer domestic shows

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Area where experts are wrong; example to show it
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Experts (wrong) - Role of TV
  • Example - Anthro study showed people used domestic serial dramas like oral poetry

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Recommendation; Questions that need to be answered after consensus view rejected
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Recommendation - Empirical approach, similar to anthropologists
  • Question - What is the relationship between imported and domestic productions if not dominance?
  • Potential answer 1 - Domestic culture absorbs imports (enriched)
  • Potential answer 2 - Imports fuse with domestic culture where aligned

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • Another question posed
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Question - Assess position of individual within culture
  • Requires - Diverse and individual responses

Main Point: The consensus view that imported programs amount to cultural imperialism lacks empirical proof and rests on faulty assumptions - those who make it should adopt an empirical approach similar to anthropologists in order to answer the key questions on imported broadcasts and their effects on developing nations.

Lines 1-5 - A consensus view

Line 7; Lines 9-13 - The Author calls that view into question

Line 17 - An (counter)example is introduced

Line 19 - Another (counter)example is introduced

Lines 26-27 - An area where the consensus view is wrong

Line 28 - An example is introduced

Lines 37-40 - A recommendation

Lines 41-45 - A question

Line 45 - One potential answer is introduced

Line 48 - Another potential answer is introduced

Lines 53-55 - Another question is posed

Lines 55-58 - What answering that question will require

Questioning Consensus View (Similar to Old Theory/New Theory) - The Author starts with something that is “almost unanimously” believed by specialists in international communication - that industrialized programs being broadcast to developing nations is cultural imperialism. When a consensus view is introduced, the Author is almost always going to call it into question - and we see that here. The Author immediately pivots to assumptions of the view (Lines 7-9) and examples that show it’s wrong. The rest of the passage highlights a flawed belief central to it (Paragraph 2), and two questions that it should focus on to be correct (Paragraphs 3 and 4). Normally, the Author’s “replacement” view would serve as the main point, but here, the Author doesn’t give one, so the main point should reflect that.

Examples - There are examples throughout of details that can’t be accounted for by the consensus view - two in Paragraph 1, another in Paragraph 2. These examples support the Author’s attack on the consensus view, so they’re premises and not central to the main conclusion.

Recommendation - Here, the Author shows that the “methods” being used by specialists in international communications have led to incorrect conclusions - namely, they’re making assumptions and drawing conclusions without research (Lines 7-11). After highlighting the problems with this and the false conclusions it’s led to, the Author recommends a change in approach - the experts should adopt “an empirical approach not unlike that of anthropologists” (Lines 37-40). She then goes on to describe how this approach could answer the key questions in this area. When an Author makes a recommendation on the central topic of the passage, it’s generally going to be the main point - which is what we have here.

Question/Answer - The Author poses two questions in this passage, one in each of Paragraphs 3 and 4. In Paragraph 3, it’s an explicit question (Lines 41-45), and the Author provides two potential answers (Line 45; Line 48). In Paragraph 4, it’s an implied question (“will also need to consider how”; Lines 53-54), and what’s needed to answer it is stated (not an answer itself). Question/Answer structures can frequently lead to the main point, but in this case, they’re follow-up questions that don’t have answers that the Author commits to, which is a factor in the main point but not the main point itself.

There were a lot of examples, questions, and answers - a lot of details - in this passage, so having a set view of the topic/content of each section is going to be key to answering the questions efficiently.