Reading comp PrepTest 139 · Section 3 · Question 2

Passage

Questions 1-7  .       The prevailing trend in agriculture toward  . massive and highly mechanized production, with its  . heavy dependence Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • A problematic trend (massive/mechanized farms run on credit) and an alternative approach (Whatley's small farming guidelines)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view on a problematic trend:
      • Mass/mechanized production funded by debt has led to small farm bankruptcies (first sentence)
    • Whatley's alternative approach:
      • Small farms can do something else to make money if they follow his guidelines (second and last sentences(
    • Author's attitude: "prevailing trend" (first sentence);

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines (crop variety, grow what people ask for)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines:
      • Small farms need year-round cash (first sentence)
      • 10+ crops in case 1 fails (second sentence)
      • To minimize the need for loans, run "client membership clubs" and grow crops clients ask for (third and last sentences)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines ("pick-your-own" farming, which eliminates harvesting and distribution costs)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines (cont. from last paragraph):
      • Having "pick-your-own" farming eliminates harvesting costs, which amount to 50% of, and distribution costs (first and second sentences)
    • Example of a client membership club, according to Whatley:
      • A 25-acre farm needs 1,000 clients from nearby cities (third and last sentences)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines (on a road within 40 miles of 50,000+ people, irrigation, insurance)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines (cont. from last paragraph):
      • Farm on a hard-surfaced road within 40 miles of an area with 50,000+ people (first sentence)
      • Water for irrigation (third sentence)
      • $1 million liability insurance (fourth sentence)

Main Point: According to Whatley, an alternative to mass mechanized, debt-financed production for small farms involves direct interaction and sales to clients can allow a small farm to be profitable.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 (P1, S1) - A problematic trend

P1, S2 - Whatley's alternative is introduced

P4, S5 - Whatley's conclusion

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution - This passage follows a Problem/Solution Meta-Structure.* The author brings up a problem in the first paragraph: a trend towards mass, mechanized farm production that's causing small farms to rely on debt and end up in bankruptcy. The author then outlines the solution proposed by Booker T. Whatley for the rest of the passage.

Normally, in a Problem/Solution passage, the author's preferred solution is the main point or, if that's missing, her opinion on a proposed solution is the main point. Here, the author doesn't propose a solution or disclose their feelings on Whatley's solution. So, the main point is that Whatley has proposed a solution, leading to what we wrote above.

*Or so we say, you know? Many Meta-Structures work for this passage. It could be an Old Approach/New Approach passage, with Whatley representing the new approach. It could be an Innovative Subject passage, given Whatley's "innovative" approach to small farming. It could even be a Reporting a Viewpoint passage since the author mostly just reports Whatley's guidelines without offering any commentary. Any of these Meta-Structures would help you understand the passage's main point and organization.

List: Arguably, the minor Meta-Structure is even more important than the major Meta-Structure in this passage. Paragraphs 2 through 4 are organized around a list of Whatley's guidelines. We recommend highlighting each item on that list (each guideline) since several questions will likely ask about those. Having these items highlighted will allow us to scan the passage and quickly locate the relevant details.

Last Thoughts?

With very little author's attitude and a relatively straightforward structure, we expect we'll mostly get Minor Point questions. If you don't find memorizing a few details too burdensome, we recommend trying to remember a few of Whatley's guidelines. That way, we can avoid a few fact-finding missions and advance through the questions efficiently. Of course, we shouldn't commit all the guidelines to memory. But let's synthesize them into three bullet points:

  • 10+ crops
  • Grow what people ask for and let them pick it
  • Easy-to-access location

Question prompt

Based on the information Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Strategy Overview

Review your notes to recall Whatley's views, then find an answer that must be true according to the passage

Answer Anticipation

This question tasks us with finding an answer that lines up with an aspect of Whatley's plan. Normally, we'd run down the aspects of Whatley's plan to form an anticipation, but Whatley's plan was expressed throughout three of the paragraphs! That's going to require too much work upfront. So, if we don't have a few details of Whatley's plans memorized, we'll rely on our notes, which summarize a few of Whatley's guidelines. If we see something in an answer choice that's represented in our notes, we can check the passage to see if the answer choice follows Whatley's plan. If nothing in that answer choice is represented in our notes, then we'll table or eliminate it and move on to the next choice.

Answer choices

  1. A
    a farmer's planting a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with our notes on Whatley's guidelines?

    No. Our note for the second paragraph is "Whatley's guidelines (crop variety, grow what people ask for)." That suggests a farmer shouldn't plant an "unknown" crop that no one asked for! For that reason, we can eliminate (A) without reviewing the passage.

    If we had to review the passage to eliminate (A), we'd see that Whatley states that farmers should grow "only crops that clients ask for" (P2, S4). Growing a crop to test the market doesn't fit that model, so this answer is wrong.

  2. B
    a farmer's leaving large Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with our notes on Whatley's guidelines?

    Seems like it is! Our note for the third paragraph is "Whatley's guidelines ("pick-your-own" farming, which eliminates harvesting and distribution costs)." This answer choice seems to facilitate "pick-your-own" farming, so we can check the passage to make sure this is supported.

    Upon review, we'll see that Whatley argues that "pick-your-own" farming, where clients pick their own crops, is crucial to his CMC model since harvesting costs normally make up 50% of a farmer's production costs (P3, S1). Leaving lanes between plots to allow people to easily access the crops they want at harvest time lines up with this, so this is the correct answer.

    Because this answer choice isn't explicitly referenced in the passage, even experienced test-takers may elect to check the remaining answer choices before selecting this. But let's mark it as a very strong contender. We can select it confidently once we eliminate the remaining choices.

  3. C
    a farmer's traveling into Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with our notes on Whatley's guidelines?

    No. As we just saw in looking for support for (B), Whatley's plan requires the clients to harvest their own crops, so a farmer harvesting crops to sell at a farmer's market falls outside of his plan.

  4. D
    a farmer's using an Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with our notes on Whatley's guidelines?

    Nope. This answer is functionally equivalent to (C). The only change is that the farmer wouldn't have to drive into the city, but he would still have to harvest the crops in order to sell them at a stand. Since our note for the third paragraph ("Whatley's guidelines ('pick-your-own' farming, which eliminates harvesting and distribution costs)") and our review for answer choice (B) revealed that Whatley's plan requires the clients to harvest their own crops, this does not follow Whatley's guidelines.

  5. E
    a farmer's deciding that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with our notes on Whatley's guidelines?

    No, this action isn't represented in any of our notes. For that reason, we can safely eliminate — or at least table — it.

    If we had to review the passage to eliminate (E), we could run a CTRL/Command + F search for "chemicals." That would point us to the second paragraph, where Whatley says farmers should "comply with client requests" regarding chemicals (P2, S4), not to make changes based on environmental concerns.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 3%
  2. B Credited 84%
  3. C 6%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 4%

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