Reading comp PrepTest 139 · Section 3 · Question 7

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

Which one of the 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

Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to find the correct answer

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to infer, based on the entire passage, a statement that must be true. Such questions can be very challenging. These questions provide little indication as to the topic of the correct answer or where it’ll show up in the passage. Moreover, the correct answer probably won't restate something from the passage. Instead, the question will likely require us to draw a connection between a few different pieces of information.We’ll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer these questions. 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). From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn’t reflected in our notes on each paragraph, we shouldn’t check the passage to see if it was mentioned. Instead, we’ll table it and move on to the next answer choice. If something seems inconsistent with the main point, we can eliminate it. If something seems familiar, consistent with the main point, or reflected in our notes, we’ll use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be true. If we can find that confirmation, we’ll select that answer choice and move on.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The advance payment to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Our notes mention "grow what people ask for," the principle behind CMCs. But this answer choice features bold, SCOTUS-y language that's unlikely to show up in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, it's probably best to table (A) and check the remaining answer choices for something that is referenced in our notes or a bit softer in its language.

    If we had to check the passage to eliminate (A), we'd see that this answer is close, but a few details are off. First, the advance payment guarantees the clients the right to go to the farm to harvest what they require — that's not the same as harvesting what they want (P2, S3). Second, Whatley encourages farmers to grow "only crops" that clients ask for (P2, S4). Encouragement falls short of a guarantee, and Whatley doesn't encourage farmers to grow every crop that their clients ask for, just only the crops that they ask for. That's an important distinction. (To see the difference, think about watching every movie you like versus only movies you like.)

  2. B
    Hard-surfaced roads are traditionally Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Our note for the fourth paragraph references roads, so the passage may support this answer choice. Unlike the previous answer choice, it features soft, easy-to-support language ("some farmers"). It's worth digging into the passage to see if this is supported.

    Upon reviewing the fourth paragraph, we'll see that there's a "traditional view" of hard-surfaced roads as "farm-to-market" roads, which suggests they've been traditionally used to bring products from the farms to the markets in the cities (P4, S2). This is contrasted with Whatley's view of them as "city-to-farm" roads, which is a part of bringing customers to the farms from cities to harvest their own produce. Therefore, this answer is supported by the passage, making it correct. Once we can find this support, we can justifiably select (B) and wrap up this passage.

  3. C
    A typical population center Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Our notes mention "50,000+ people," so this answer choice may be supported. But this answer choice features bold, SCOTUS-y language ("should") that's difficult to prove and thus unlikely to show up in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, it's probably best to table (C) and check the remaining answer choices for something referenced in our notes but without this SCOTUS-y phrasing.

    If we had to check the passage to eliminate (C), we'd see that this answer choice connects two discrete ideas in the passage, making a very questionable assumption in the process. Whatley calculates that a CMC of 1,000 should be enough to keep a 25-acre farm profitable (P3, S3). Whatley also suggests that farms should be near population centers of 50,000 or more people (P4, S1). However, this answer choice says such a population center could support 50 farms. That makes the large assumption that every single person in a city would sign up for a CMC, which seems questionable! For this reason, (C) is not supported.

  4. D
    Consumers prefer hard-surfaced roads Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Our note for the fourth paragraph references roads, so the passage may support this answer choice. But this answer choice makes a selection ("prefer") and asserts a universal statement (as it applies to all consumers). This bold, SCOTUS-y language is difficult to prove and unlikely to show up in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, we should table (D) and check the remaining answer choices for something referenced in our notes but without this bold phrasing.

    If we had to check the passage to eliminate (D), we'd see that this answer choice is not supported. The fourth paragraph doesn't provide any reason why hard-surfaced roads are preferred or the amount of wear they cause on vehicles.

  5. E
    Most roads with hard Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Our note for the fourth paragraph references roads, so the passage may support this answer choice. But this answer choice features fairly strong language ("most," "primarily for"). That language makes this claim difficult to prove. For this reason, we should table (E) and check any answer choice we haven't already eliminated, starting with the one with the weakest, easiest-to-support language.

    If we had to check the passage to eliminate (D), we'd see that this answer choice is not supported. There's no discussion of the origin of hard-surfaced roads, so this answer choice is simply not supported.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 18%
  2. B Credited 56%
  3. C 16%
  4. D 6%
  5. E 4%

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