Reading comp PrepTest 135 · Section 3 · Question 7

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        In the 1980s there was a proliferation of poetry  . collections, short stories, and novels published Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • 1980s trends in U.S. Latina writings (proliferation of poetry/short stories/novels, and three notable autobiographies)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of two 1980s trends in writings by Latina women in the U.S., according to the author:
      • 1980s: Lots of poetry, short stories, and novels (first sentence)
      • End of 1980s: Autobiography (3 examples) (last sentence)
    • List of notable autobiographies of Latina women in the U.S., according to the author:
      • Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Pasó Por Sus Labios by Cherríe Moraga; Getting Home Alive, by Aurora Levins Morales and Rosario Morales; and Borderlands/La Frontera, by Gloria Anzaldúa (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "proliferation" (first sentence); "notable" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • How the three autobiographies innovate (combine English and Spanish, mix genres to explore ethnicity, gender, and language)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The three notable autobiographies innovate by mixing English and Spanish and by combining multiple genres (essays, poems, short stories, etc.) to explore the relationship between ethnicity, gender, and language (first through last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "innovative at many levels" (first sentence); "confront" (second sentence); "manifests itself" (last sentence); "without, for the most part, giving preference" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Specific innovations in each autobiography (all use multiple genres and voices to express complex identities)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of specific innovations in each autobiography, according to the author:
      • Borderlands/La Frontera: personal and community history by mixing narrative and poetry (first sentence)
      • Loving in the War Years: Mixes genres; not chronological (political development) (second sentence)
      • Getting Home Alive: Even more innovative, mixes mom and daughter viewpoints (fourth through sixth sentences)
    • Author's view:
      • All autobiographies mix genres and voices to express the formation of their author's complex identity (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "departs even further from conventions" (fourth sentence); "may seem fragmentary and confusing, it is in fact a fully intentional and carefully designed experiment with literary structure" (sixth sentence); "employ multigeneric and multivocal forms to express the complexities inherent in the formation of their identities" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's conclusion (writers revolutionized autobiography to make it fit their voices and experiences)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • These autobiographies by Latina women in the U.S. revolutionized the genre to make a better vehicle to express their voices and experiences (first and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "revolutionized" (first sentence); "redrawing the boundaries" (first sentence); "more amenable to teh expression of their own experience" (first sentence); "shown a strong determination" (last sentence)

Main Point: By mixing forms and genres, breaking with traditional timelines, and mixing multiple voices, the autobiographies published by Latina women at the end of the 1980s innovated within the genre and allowed the authors to fully capture their identities and experiences.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: This passage uses one of the most common major Meta-Structures for humanities passages — Innovative [Subject]. These humanities passages describe what is groundbreaking and unique about an artist, movement, or group of artists. The word "[Subject]" is just a placeholder for the artist, movement, or group of artists. This passage discusses three authors and their innovations in the autobiography genre. So, we can think of this as an Innovative Autobiographies or Innovative Autobiographers passage (or an Innovative Autobiografía passage, if you want to mix English and Spanish like these writers).

In Innovative [Subject] passages, the main point is generally the author's opinion on the innovation. The author really goes overboard with their praise for these autobiographies — especially in the fourth paragraph, where the author summarizes their opinion. We can use that paragraph as the main point whenever a question requires us to consider that main point. Alternatively, we can summarize the author's opinions for them. We elected to use the latter approach, including some of the specific innovations the author outlined in the third paragraph.

Last Thoughts?

Paragraph 3 is really long and detailed, so we should be sure to head back to check details as necessary when answering questions about the specific innovations in each autobiography.

Question prompt

Which one 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

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the author's statement in the last paragraph, determine weaknesses in that claim to anticipate how to weaken it, and select the answer choice that makes the claim less convincing

Answer Anticipation

We're going to let you in on a little secret here. It's actually relatively common to get a Weaken question in Innovative [Subject] passages, and the answer is almost always the same — an example of someone doing the innovative thing before the people in the passage.With that in mind, let's head to the first sentence of the last paragraph. There, the author argues that "these writers have revolutionized ... autobiography, redrawing [its] boundaries." So, in other words, they innovated the genre of autobiography. How? Using the methods described earlier — including other genres, breaking from chronological order, and including multiple authors.So, let's look for an answer that brings up an example of some other writer or group of writers doing this before the late 1980s. That said, many things could feasibly weaken the author's claims, so we should keep an open mind as we progress through the answer choices. We'll start by asking ourselves, "Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?"

Answer choices

  1. A
    Few autobiographical works published Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?

    Nope. This answer is about the recognition of these works, not what these works actually did. Even if very few works written after these three autobiographies are recognized for using the same innovations, we could still say that the three autobiographies were very innovative.

  2. B
    Few critically acclaimed books Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?

    No. This answer choice says that most critically acclaimed books by Latina authors are like these three autobiographies. Even if that's true, these three autobiographies could have been very innovative. So, this answer doesn't affect the argument.

  3. C
    Many autobiographies have been Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?

    Nope. First, this answer choice uses the weak, wishy-washy language ("[m]any autobiographies") that we don't like for Weaken answer choices. Plus, even if most autobiographies in the U.S. were straightforward, the three autobiographies discussed in the passage could still be very innovative.

  4. D
    Several nineteenth–century autobiographies that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?

    Yes! This answer brings up autobiographies from the 1800s that mixed genres and had multiple authors. Those are the innovations attributed to the writers in the passage, and they're much less innovative if someone else did them first. As such, these examples weaken the author's argument that the three autobiographies in the passage are innovative, making this the correct answer. We can select this and wrap up this passage.

  5. E
    Several multigeneric, nonautobiographical collections Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this weaken the claim that these autobiographies revolutionized the genre?

    Nope. This just says that after the three autobiographies discussed in this passage were written, some works that are not autobiographies use techniques and experiments similar to the three autobiographies. That doesn't affect whether the three autobiographies were innovative in the first place.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 11%
  2. B 19%
  3. C 8%
  4. D Credited 57%
  5. E 4%

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