Reading comp PrepTest 144 · Section 1 · Question 16
Passage
. Before contact with Europeans, the Haudenosaune, . a group of nations in northeastern North America also . known as
Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Social Science
Paragraph 1
While Europeans believed that wampum was used as money, it was actually used as a form of sociopolitical communication, growing from items with religious significance to eventually encoding the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's constitution, communicating laws and messages for hundreds of years.
Key Lines:
Lines 1-5 - The phenomenon is introduced
Lines 5-7; 9-11 - A misunderstanding is noted
Lines 13-15 - The overall progression is outlined
Lines 21-22 - An extended example of early wampum use is noted (religious)
Lines 33-36 - A step in the progression is stated (strings; messages)
Lines 37-42 - The big step in the progression is noted
Line 43 - A long string of examples is started
Lines 60-62 - More timeline and effectiveness of wampum as comms
Meta-Structure:
Phenomenon - Usually when a phenomenon is described, it warrants an explanation. This one, however, doesn't—the phenomenon is the use of wampum, and the passage instead describes how it was used.
Misunderstanding - The passage highlights a misunderstanding by both "[m]ost historians" (Lines 5-6) and Europeans (Line 10). They both focused on wampum as a means of exchange/money. Note that there is evidence it was used as such—the Europeans and Haudenosaunee did trade using it. However, it wasn't it's primary purpose.
Example - Paragraphs 2 and 3 both feature examples. Paragraph 2 brings up an example of early wampum use that's much more religious (starting in Lines 21-22), but still serves as a communication method (with spirits Sapling and Flint). Paragraph 3 brings up many examples of how wampum was used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to encode law and communicate. There's a good chance we get an EXCEPT question based on the latter!
Progression - The passage lays out the progression of the use of wampum by the Haudenosaunee early on (Lines 12-17) from religious to recording messages to keeping the peace. The passage then largely goes through this progression. We get examples of it being used for religious purposes (example starting in Lines 21-22), then a note about it growing to send simple political messages (Lines 34-36), and then a long discussion of how it was used to keep the peace in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Paragraph 3).
Last Thoughts:
It would be very easy to overlook that the end of Paragraph 1 lays out a progression that is then played out in the following paragraphs if you're not looking for it. However, noting these things can make it much easier to see how everything holds together, as structured arguments with a clear progression "stick" in our minds better. This is why you'll see so many RC passages have something in the opening paragraph that outlines the argument to be made. Be on the lookout for these statements, as they make your work a lot easier in both understanding the passage and answering the questions. After all, if you have a clear understanding of the structure of the passage, then you should be able to quickly find any relevant information.
Paragraph 1
- Paragraph note
- A phenomenon and a misunderstanding are discussed
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- Phenomenon - Haudenosaunee*/Iroquois used wampum as political comms
- Misunderstanding (Most historians and Europeans) - Wampum was money (used as such in trade between Europe and Haudenosaunee)
- Transition - Religious to peacekeeping messaging
- Paragraph note
- Early wampum and then development discussed
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- Early types - loose beads in white and purple
- Ex - Sapling (good) and Flint (bad) spirits thrown bead wampum by fishermen
- Growth - Loose beads strung together to send political messages (e.g., truce)
- Paragraph note
- Major development in progression of system (end based on initial outline)
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- 1451 - Haudenosaunee Confederacy formed - wampum a arbitrary and pictorial system to convey constitution (belt) and other stuff
- Symbols, colors, and arrangement had significant
- Lots of examples
- Limited, but worked for hundreds of years
While Europeans believed that wampum was used as money, it was actually used as a form of sociopolitical communication, growing from items with religious significance to eventually encoding the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's constitution, communicating laws and messages for hundreds of years.
Key Lines:
Lines 1-5 - The phenomenon is introduced
Lines 5-7; 9-11 - A misunderstanding is noted
Lines 13-15 - The overall progression is outlined
Lines 21-22 - An extended example of early wampum use is noted (religious)
Lines 33-36 - A step in the progression is stated (strings; messages)
Lines 37-42 - The big step in the progression is noted
Line 43 - A long string of examples is started
Lines 60-62 - More timeline and effectiveness of wampum as comms
Meta-Structure:
Phenomenon - Usually when a phenomenon is described, it warrants an explanation. This one, however, doesn't—the phenomenon is the use of wampum, and the passage instead describes how it was used.
Misunderstanding - The passage highlights a misunderstanding by both "[m]ost historians" (Lines 5-6) and Europeans (Line 10). They both focused on wampum as a means of exchange/money. Note that there is evidence it was used as such—the Europeans and Haudenosaunee did trade using it. However, it wasn't it's primary purpose.
Example - Paragraphs 2 and 3 both feature examples. Paragraph 2 brings up an example of early wampum use that's much more religious (starting in Lines 21-22), but still serves as a communication method (with spirits Sapling and Flint). Paragraph 3 brings up many examples of how wampum was used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to encode law and communicate. There's a good chance we get an EXCEPT question based on the latter!
Progression - The passage lays out the progression of the use of wampum by the Haudenosaunee early on (Lines 12-17) from religious to recording messages to keeping the peace. The passage then largely goes through this progression. We get examples of it being used for religious purposes (example starting in Lines 21-22), then a note about it growing to send simple political messages (Lines 34-36), and then a long discussion of how it was used to keep the peace in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Paragraph 3).
Last Thoughts:
It would be very easy to overlook that the end of Paragraph 1 lays out a progression that is then played out in the following paragraphs if you're not looking for it. However, noting these things can make it much easier to see how everything holds together, as structured arguments with a clear progression "stick" in our minds better. This is why you'll see so many RC passages have something in the opening paragraph that outlines the argument to be made. Be on the lookout for these statements, as they make your work a lot easier in both understanding the passage and answering the questions. After all, if you have a clear understanding of the structure of the passage, then you should be able to quickly find any relevant information.
Question prompt
The last paragraph 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
Social Science
Answer choices
-
Adetail how wampum belts Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice A is not credited
Incorrect. (Line 43) Wampum belts are introduced in the paragraph with the phrase "This is evidence," suggesting that the belts are an example of a broader point. This paragraph, then, isn't meant to highlight something about belts, but rather to use belts to illustrate a broader point. -
Bdistinguish between wampum belts Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice B is not credited
Incorrect. (Line 43) As we said with answer (A), the wampum belts are used as an example to illustrate how wampum came to be used as a system of political communication. There are no other forms of wampum belts mentioned in this paragraph, and no comparative callbacks to earlier paragraphs, so this comparative answer is incorrect. -
Cillustrate how wampum functioned Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice C matches the stem
Correct. Question Type:
Argument Structure
Strategy Overview:
Review our note for the role of Paragraph 3 and then find an answer that lines up with it
Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
After reading through Paragraph 3, we said that it's purpose was to explore a major development in the progression of the use of wampum, and that progression was the main point of the passage.
Specifically, it talks about how it was used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Lines 37-39) to encode laws (Lines 44-45) and communicate between member nations (Lines 58-59). This lines up with the "end point" of the progression as described in Lines 12-15 ("a method for maintaining permanent peace among distinct nations").
So the purpose of this paragraph is to show the "endpoint" of the progression of the use of wampum, from loose beads to a "deliberate system of both arbitrary and pictorially derived symbols designed primarily for political purposes" (Lines 40-42). Let's find an answer reflecting that purpose.
Answer Explanation:
(Lines 39-42; Line 43; Line 48; Line 54) The paragraph starts—as many do—with it's topic/thesis statement. Here, it says that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy led to the development of wampum into a "deliberate system" that used "symbols" for "political purposes." That backs up most of this answer. The paragraph then goes on to highlight a specific type of wampum used for this (belts) and a variety of ways that they were used for this purpose—these examples serve to "illustrate" this point. Since this answer hits on both the overall point of the paragraph and how it goes about doing it (with examples/"illustrate"), this is the correct answer.
Key Takeaway:
We want to talk about the first word of the answers in this type of question. They generally tell you a lot more than you might expect! In general, they should directly reflect the argument or structure of the paragraph. Here, the point of the paragraph was backed up with an in-depth analysis of examples. That lines up best with "illustrate," which ended up being the right answer.. -
Doutline the Haudenosaune Confederacy's Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice D is not credited
Incorrect. (Lines 43-45) The constitution is referenced as being encoded in the wampum belts, but the actual provisions aren't mentioned at all, so this paragraph doesn't outline that constitution. -
Egive evidence of wampum's Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice E is not credited
Incorrect. (Line 60-62) The paragraph does note that this system was effective at framing and enforcing the law of the confederacy for hundreds of years. However, there's no evidence that this is the case—no discussion of how frequent there were violations of the law, or how wampum were effective in ensuring compliance rather than, say, some type of police force.
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Discussion
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Can’t see paragraphs 1 reply
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Started by Ryan-Mahabir