Reading comp PrepTest 134 · Section 4 · Question 11

Passage

Questions 7-12  .        Mexican Americans share with speakers of  . Spanish throughout the world a rich and varied repertoire Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background on Mexican Americans' use of proverbs (impart wisdom, most from Spain, some have English equivalents)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Definition of "proverb": A self-contained saying meant to impart some wisdom (second sentence)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • While most Mexican American proverbs are from Spain, many are from Europe generally and have English equivalents (third and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "riched and varied repertoire" (first sentence); "vital tradition" (first sentence); "great majority" (third sentence); "Many belong, in fact" (last sentence); "exact equivalents" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • One purpose of proverbs for Mexican American communities (instruction of the young, "run with" example, reasons for using proverbs)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Proverb meaning changes based on person and context, but one of the most important social functions of proverbs in Mexican American communities is to teach the young (first through third sentences)
      • The use of proverbs to instruct the young may be because community norms are threatened by external culture or because parents appeal to traditional wisdom to bolster their authority (last sentence)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Teaching the young with proverbs is much more common in Mexican American communities than in English-speaking communities (fourth sentence)
    • Examples of proverbs meant to instruct the young, according to the author:
      • Proverbs about manners and peer relationships ("tell me who you run with and I'll tell you who you are") (fifth and sixth sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "is an individual act" (first sentence); "Nonetheless, it is important to recognize" (second sentence); "is also shaped" (second sentence); "one important function" (third sentence); "seems to be much more prominent" (fourth sentence); "consistently report" (fifth sentence); "particularly frequent focus of proverb use" (sixth sentence); "Perhaps" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another purpose of proverbs (strengthen ties to Mexican heritage)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Proverbs also pass on ethnic identity to their listeners, helping to spread language and culture/heritage (first and second sentences)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
      • Proverbs are vehicles for the Spanish language and Mexican culture, which causes young people to have stronger ties to their Mexican heritage (second, third, and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "often serve to foster" (first sentence); "nevertheless serve as a vehicle for the transmission of both the Spanish language and Mexican culture" (second sentence); "established and maintained" (third sentence); "provide a means of enhancing" (last sentence); "thereby strengthening their ties" (last sentence)

Main Point: Spanish-language proverbs are used by Mexican Americans as instruction for the young and to pass on heritage, language, and culture.

Meta-Structure?

Phenomenon/Explanation: This passage best fits the Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure.* In such a passage, the author will generally present an observable fact, behavior, or situation. In this case, it's Mexican Americans' frequent use of proverbs. Then, the author will describe one or more explanations of that observable fact, behavior, or situation. In this passage, the author attributes Mexican Americans' use of proverbs to a desire to instruct young members of that community and strengthen their ties to their Mexican heritage.

In a Phenomenon/Explanation passage, the main point is generally the explanation that the author provides or endorses. The author cites two reasons why Mexican American communities use proverbs so frequently, so we included both of those in our anticipated main point.

*You could also reasonably call this an Importance of [Subject] passage, with the "[Subject]" placeholder standing in for "Proverbs." As is often the case, more than one Meta-Structure can describe the passage. Either one would give you a solid understanding of the passage's main point and argument structure.

List: While it isn't particularly explicit, the author presents a list of two key reasons why proverbs are so frequently used by the Mexican American community. As such, the list is the most prominent minor Meta-Structure in this passage. The first reason shows up in the second paragraph — instruction of children. The second is introduced in the third paragraph ("Another dimension"). These two purposes make up the entirety of the author's main point in writing this passage, and details surrounding both items in the list will serve as fodder for questions.

Last Thoughts?

The one "weird" element in this passage is the first paragraph. It presents pure background information — it sets up the main point about the purposes of proverbs in the Mexican American community, but it doesn't really factor into the argument. It defines a proverb and cites where most Mexican American proverbs come from, but the shared nature of many with European and English-language proverbs doesn't really factor into the rest of the passage. As such, we might get a Minor Point question or two about this content, but it doesn't need to play a role in any of our big-picture answers.

Question prompt

The author of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, and use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the author’s attitude, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author’s attitude

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us about the author's view, but doesn't provide any insight into the topic of the correct answer or where the supporting information might show up in the passage. This means the correct answer is likely to relate back to the author's main point. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). We can also review any notes about the author's attitude or any text we highlighted because it expresses the author's opinion. After doing that, we can head to the answer choices, tabling those that don't line up with the main point. For those answer choices that conform to the author’s main point, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if they're correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Most Mexican American proverbs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the author's main point or reflected in our notes on the author's argument?

    Well, our note for the first paragraph says that most Mexican American proverbs are from Spain, which is, of course, in Europe. Therefore, it's worth checking the passage to see if this is accurate.

    However, upon reviewing the first paragraph, we'll see that the passage passage notes that “[m]any” originated in the common proverb tradition of Europe, not most. Therefore, the author would not agree with this statement.

  2. B
    Mexican American parents are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the author's main point or reflected in our notes on the author's argument?

    No. While our notes and main point show that Mexican American parents use proverbs for the "instruction of the young" — which might involve "traditional wisdom" — neither our notes nor the main point suggest that Mexican American parents emphasize traditional wisdom more than other parents. So, we should curb any temptation to review the passage, eliminate or table (B), and move on to the next answer choice.

    If we had to review the passage to eliminate (B), we'd see that the passage compares the prominence of proverb use in Mexican American communities to English-speaking ones (P2, S4), not all other communities in the U.S. And that comparison is about the prominence of proverbs, not an emphasis on traditional wisdom. Therefore, the passage doesn't provide any reason for us to believe that the author would agree with this statement.

  3. C
    There are more Spanish–language Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the author's main point or reflected in our notes on the author's argument?

    Nope. Neither the main point nor our notes say anything about the number of Spanish-language proverbs or proverbs from the common European tradition. So, we should curb any temptation to review the passage, eliminate or table (C), and move on to the next answer choice.

    Besides, we wouldn't find any support for (C) if we re-read the entire passage. The number of proverbs in these two traditions are never directly compared — just how often proverbs from the European tradition overlap with Mexican American proverbs (P1, S4). As such, this comparison is unwarranted.

  4. D
    Proverb use in some Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the author's main point or reflected in our notes on the author's argument?

    Yes! This answer aligns with the author’s main point that Mexican American parents use proverbs, in part, to impart Mexican "heritage, language, and culture" on the younger generation. If Mexican American parents were not worried that the younger generation would not embrace Mexican traditions, they probably wouldn't use proverbs to promote that purpose. This answer choice also uses the soft, easier-to-support language ("may") that we like to see in Must Be True answer choices. So, it's worth checking the passage to see if this is supported.

    Checking our notes, we can see that the potential reasons for proverb use are given at the end of the second paragraph. There, the author says that one reason is concern over the threat posed to community-approved norms by the surrounding society (P2, S7). As such, proverb use in Mexican American communities may be driven by a concern about the abandonment of these norms for others, so this answer is correct. We can select it and advance to the following question.

  5. E
    Most proverbs cannot be Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the author's main point or reflected in our notes on the author's argument?

    No. Neither our note nor our main point describes how easy it is to translate proverbs from one language into another. So, we should resist any temptation to review the passage, eliminate or table (E), and circle back to any answer choices we haven't already eliminated.

    If we had to check the passage to see whether (E) is supported, we'd see that the passage notes that many Spanish-language proverbs have exact equivalents in English-language proverbial speech (P1, S4), but that doesn’t mean that the ones that don’t can’t be translated. In fact, the only example we get — in Paragraph 2 — has a proverb that was translated. That translation might be "rough" (P2, S6), but that doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 23%
  2. B 12%
  3. C 4%
  4. D Credited 60%
  5. E 1%

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Discussion

  • Answer E 3 replies

    Started by yckim2180

  • question type 5 replies

    Started by OlaHamed

  • Why is A incorrect? 1 reply

    Started by Milo-Hammer

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