Reading comp PrepTest 136 · Section 3 · Question 10

Passage

Questions 7-12 Passage A  .        Readers, like writers, need to search for answers.  . Part of the joy of Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Passage A

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Problem with historiography/history teaching
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author/Teacher - Problem - History writing/teaching is boring

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author’s solution, and a problem with it
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author’s Solution - Bring stories back to history!
    • Examples
    • Problem - Historians are name-checking stories but not changing their (boring) writing

Passage B

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Description of legal writing
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author = Law professor
    • Legal writing - Necessarily linear
    • Author - Last sentence shows some disdain for this

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author’s problem with legal writing; potential solution
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author - Problem - Too much legal writing is bad
    • Potential solution - Focus on narrative - Story at heart of each case
    • Legal writing is abstract, causes students to forget story

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Outcome of changes
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • “Subversive” narrative movement might enter curriculum without changing how lawyers write
    • Just acknowledging narrative might fix some things

Main Points:

Passage A - History writing is boring, and it needs to implement stories to fix this, though, despite recognition from some historians, this has yet to happen.

Passage B - Legal writing is too often bad because it loses sight of the narrative at the heart of the case, but a growing awareness of this might lead to some important changes.

Key Lines?

Passage A:

  • Lines 3-5 - Author identifies herself and her opinion
  • Lines 11-14 - That opinion is fully stated, reflecting a problem
  • Lines 15-16 - A potential solution is offered
  • Lines 27-28 - The solution is shown to not really be implemented

Passage B:

  • Line 30 - The Author identifies himself
  • Lines 37-38 - Negative connotation/Author’s opinion
  • Lines 39-42 - That opinion is expanded
  • Lines 42-44 - A potential solution
  • Lines 50-51 - A problem with the solution
  • Lines 52-59 - The Author’s prediction of potential outcomes

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?

This set of passages is very interesting! They’re actually quite similar. They both are written by teachers in the field they discuss (Line 5; Line 30). They focus on different areas (history; law), but they both address a problem with writing in that field. Those problems are similar - in both cases, the writing is too boring, too logical, too abstract (Lines 5-7; Lines 34-42; among others in both). Both propose similar solutions - the inclusion of stories/narrative in that writing (Lines 15-16; Lines 42-44). And both believe that there’s at least some movement in that direction, though not enough to solve the problem (Lines 16-17; Lines 25-26; Lines 44-45; Lines 52-57). The main difference between the two appears to be that the Author of Passage A doesn’t think the problem is really being solved, with “very few historians” truly adapting narrative (Line 27), while the Author of Passage B believes that even “mere awareness...could perhaps serve as an important corrective” (Lines 58-59), which is slightly more optimistic.

Problem/Solution (Both) - Both passages employ the same Problem/Solution meta-structure. And, in fact, both identify the same problem and solution in their respective fields (see above)! When a passage is centrally concerned with presenting solutions to a problem, the Author’s solution (and any associated opinions on that solution) constitute the main point, which is reflected in our main points written above.

Last Thoughts?

There are two things that are different about these passages than the norm. First, both are written in the first-person, so the viewpoints are a little stronger and more personal than we’re used to seeing. Second, the two are significantly more aligned than we generally see, with each making more or less the same argument about their respective fields. These elements should really define a lot of our anticipations and approach to the questions.

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: C

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Head straight to the answers and use our big-picture understanding to find the correct one

Answer Anticipation

This question asks about a way that the passages are different, when we noted that they were largely similar. We did say that Passage A was a little more pessimistic than Passage B in the hopes of the proposed solution succeeding in making positive change, but looking at the answers, we can see that the Author’s Attitudes aren’t referenced in them.Which brings us to the second note for this question - when you have no idea what form the answers will take, look at them to get an idea before you start anticipating. The correct answer here could deal with content, tone, attitude, structure, main point, method of reasoning, etc… There are just too many ways that passages could be compared, so you should see what elements show up in the answers. Looking at them, the answers talk about various methods of reasoning, so we should keep that in mind.We didn’t really note any major methods of reasoning in each, so let’s head to the answers and go from there.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Passage A presents and Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 34-36) This answer would be closer to correct if it switched the passages. Passage A never presents an argument for why history writing should be boring. Passage B does state that linear and direct writing is seen in legal writing because of the “purposes it serves,” implying an argument in favor of that type of writing.

  2. B
    Passage A makes evaluative Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Line 7; Lines 41-42) Both passages include statements that show the author’s opinion - how they’d evaluate writing in their respective fields - and so they both include evaluative claims.

  3. C
    Passage A describes specific Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) (Lines 20-26) The Author of Passage A brings up a couple of specific papers presented at a conference that “w[ere] still historiography, intended only for other academics,” so there are examples of boring history writing noted in Passage A. The Author of Passage B never discusses any specific instances of legal writing. This answer is therefore correct.

  4. D
    Passage B offers criticism, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Line 7; Lines 41-42) This answer is essentially the reverse of (B), as criticisms would be evaluative claims, and it’s wrong for the same reason - both passages offer criticism of the writing in their respective professions.

  5. E
    Passage B outlines a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) This is an interesting question, as you can easily get wrapped up in whether the recommendations in the passage constitute a theory. But don’t! If such a recommendation is a theory (e..g, the theory being that narrative would improve a type of writing), then they both have a theory; if it’s not, then neither does. In either case, this answer is wrong since the potential theory is present in both.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 9%
  2. B 10%
  3. C Credited 65%
  4. D 8%
  5. E 8%

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Discussion

  • Option C 2 replies

    Started by Minerva

  • Help 2 replies

    Started by Batman

  • Clarification 1 reply

    Started by tselimovic

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