Reading comp PrepTest 138 · Section 1 · Question 5

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        The corrido , a type of narrative folk song, comes  . from a region half in Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Corridos' subject matter (border-specific issues to commemorate and bring the community together)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Definition of "corrido": a narrative folk song with roots in 18th-c. Spanish ballads, flourished from 1836 to late 1930 in border community called Lower Rio Grande Border (first and second sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • All corridos have the same subject matter (border-specific issues) and contain the same generic elements (third and fifth sentences)
    • Example of a corrido with a border-specific issue, according to the author:
      • "El Corrido de Kiansis," which commemorated the first cattle drives to Kansas in the 1860s (fourth sentence)
    • Author's view on the purpose of corridos:
      • Corridos commemorated local events and helped bring the border community together (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "more importantly" (last sentence); "served to affirm the cohesiveness" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Corridos' language (simple, few embellishments, everyday images in metaphor when used)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Examples of simple metaphors in corridos, according to the author:
      • Thunderstorm as a metaphor for a fight in "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" and "El Corrido de Kiansis" (third and fourth sentences)
    • Author's view on the purpose of simple language:
      • Language is simple and the imagery is conventional and recognizable, which reflects the continuity of the corrido tradition (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "simply and swiftly, without embellishments" (first sentence); "highly conventional and readily recognizable" (last sentence); "reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Corridos' ready-made lines (despedida, closing verse with repeated lines)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The conventional lines that appear in many corridos is most readily illustrated by the despedida, the formal closing verse with conventional first and third lines (first, second, fourth through last sentences)
    • Example of despedida, according to the author:
      • Closing lines in one version of "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "travel easily" (first sentence); "most evident" (second sentence); "perhaps the clearest marker" (last sentence)

Main Point: By using familiar images, lines, and experiences, corridos strengthened and created continuity in border communities from around 1836 to the 1930s.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 6 (P1, S6) - Purpose of corridos is summarized

P2, S5- The scope and purpose of imagery in corridos is summarized

P1, S6 - The scope and purpose of repeated lines is summarized

Meta-Structure?

Importance of Subject - This passage utilizes an Importance of [Subject] Meta-Structure (in this case, Importance of the Corrido or Importance of a Tradition). A number of humanities passages explore a tradition, looking at its influences, its purpose, and its legacy. In this case, the author explores how corridos' purpose, subject matter, and composition made them important to border communities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In an Importance of Subject passage, the main point is generally the author's opinions on why the subject was important. To anticipate this main point, we can look for whether the author provides a conclusion that summarizes this opinion. But if the author doesn't provide such a conclusion, we'll have to summarize the author's opinions ourselves. In this case, the author provided a conclusion at the end of the first paragraph (P1, S6). But we also decided to anticipate a slightly more specific version of this statement, just to cover our bases: "By using familiar images, lines, and experiences, corridos strengthened and created continuity in border communities from around 1836 to the 1930s."

Example: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the example. In fact, the author uses an example to illustrate the point the author makes in each paragraph. We will certainly get some Minor Point or Argument Structure questions on these examples, so keep them highlighted!

Last Thoughts?

Each paragraph follows a pretty similar pattern — details are discussed, an example is presented, and then the overall point of that paragraph is summed up. In each case, the point presents the scope and purpose of something — corridos overall (Paragraph 1), their imagery (Paragraph 2), and their repeated lines (Paragraph 3). Noting this parallel structure should make it a lot easier to find any specific details or answer any structure questions.

On top of that, the end of Paragraph 1, at a very high level, outlines the rest of the passage. We know that the purpose of Paragraph 1 was to discuss the purpose of corridos overall, and it notes that the "more important[]" purpose was to affirm the cohesiveness of border communities using "familiar linguistic and thematic conventions." The discussion of imagery, metaphor, and repeated lines dives into these linguistic and thematic conventions in more detail.

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: A

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review metaphor reference in passage, consult notes, and choose an answer choice based on your understanding of that reference in the passage's overall argument

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us why the author inserted the discussion of metaphors into the second paragraph. Unless a detail conflicts with the paragraph's purpose, the author probably mentioned that detail to advance the paragraph's role. So reviewing the second paragraph’s role, which we hopefully wrote down in the notes on our scratch paper, will generally reveal why the author included that detail.Our note for the second paragraph is, "Corridos' language (simple, few embellishments, everyday images in metaphor when used)." So, the purpose of the second paragraph is to show how corridos used simple language, which supported the broader point that corridos affirmed the cohesiveness of border communities. So, the discussion about metaphor must be related to the simplicity of corridos' language or border cohesion.Are we correct in that hunch? Reviewing the second paragraph (or working off of our memory of the review we did for the previous question), metaphor is first given as an example ("such as") of a figure of speech that is rare in a corrido but uses everyday images familiar to the listeners when it does show up. Why does the author say such figures of speech are rare in corridos? To support the opening claim in this paragraph that corridos "tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments" (P2, S1). So, it looks like we were correct about the prediction we made using our notes.So let's find an answer reflecting this purpose — to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including things such as figures of speeches and, when they do, making them familiar to the listener.

Answer choices

  1. A
    elaborate on a claim Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this say the author brings up metaphors to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including figures of speeches and making them familiar to the listener when they do?

    Yes! Paragraph 2 notes that corridos are called that because they are simple and swift, with few embellishments (P2, S1). The passage discusses metaphors to back this up — these figures of speech are rarely used, and even when they are, they're simple and familiar to listeners. This answer is, therefore, correct. We can select it and advance directly to the next question.

  2. B
    counter the commonplace assertion Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this say the author brings up metaphors to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including figures of speeches and making them familiar to the listener when they do?

    No. So, we can cross this off without giving it much thought. Besides, the author doesn't counter the assertion that narrative is the main object of a corrido. In fact, the author affirms that narrative is an objective of corridos, emphasizing that corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly (P2, S1).

  3. C
    emphasize the centrality of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this say the author brings up metaphors to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including figures of speeches and making them familiar to the listener when they do?

    No. We can eliminate (C) without further debate. And at any rate, the author says corridos tell their stories "without embellishments" (P2, S1), so poetic language isn't central to them.

  4. D
    point out the longevity Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this say the author brings up metaphors to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including figures of speeches and making them familiar to the listener when they do?

    Nope. We can cross this off without thinking about it too deeply. Besides, it's unclear why a discussion of metaphor would point out the longevity of something, and nothing in the passage suggests that the discussion here has this goal. Maybe if the passage highlighted a metaphor that was severely dated by now — a metaphor that would only make sense to people from long ago — but that's not what happens.

  5. E
    identify an element common Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say the author brings up metaphors to provide an example of how corridos tell their stories swiftly and simply, rarely including figures of speeches and making them familiar to the listener when they do?

    No. We can eliminate (E) immediately. Besides, this answer choice is trying to get us to mix up metaphors with despedidas. The passage discusses variants of "Gregorio Cortez" in the context of the despedida, not metaphor. This answer choice conflates two sections of the passage that the author doesn't connect.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 79%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 5%
  4. D 5%
  5. E 8%

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