Reading comp PrepTest 145 · Section 1 · Question 18

Passage

 . Passage A  .       During the 1990s, the study of history witnessed  . both a dramatic integration of the study Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Social Science

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Two shifts in the study of history are described, and the implications of the second shift
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Shift 1 - Integration of study of women's history into mainstream
    • Shift 2 - Shift from subject of women to subject of gender
    • Gender involves societal systems, not individuals
    • Some historians - Shift 2 is a retreat from studying women per se
    • 3 forms of new work
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • The benefits of the shift are noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Studying "women" - too narrow, celebratory
    • Studying gender - explanatory power and analytic framework to analyze societal structures
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • The downsides of the shift
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • In first-person ("I")
    • Gender obscures - focus on structure misses individual stories
Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Roman history
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Augustus - Focused on traditional family-based morality
    • Relocating women in a domestic context (wives/mothers)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Outcome of this focus
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Rome prospered; Augustus tied it to family/women
    • Gender roles - More constrained, more visible, more political
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Reflection in art
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Artists used house images to speak about Rome
Main Point:
Passage A - While a shift in focus from the study of women's history to gender has allowed for deeper understanding of societal structures, it has lost a focus on how individual women interacted with the world.

Passage B - Augustus's focus on family-based morality made gender (roles) more constrained, visible, and political, a trend reflected in political and artistic trends of the time.

Key Lines:

Passage A:
Lines 1-4 - Two shifts are noted
Lines 7-11 - How experts reacted to the second shift
Lines 24-26 - The benefits of the second shift are noted
Lines 30-32 - What was lost with the second shift is noted

Passage B:
Lines 36-40 - A historical shift is noted
Lines 48-50 - Trends during the time period are noted

Meta-Structure - Relationship Between Passages:
These passages are written in a different tone/voice and seem to deal with different topics, but there is common ground. In both passages, a shift in the way that women and gender are viewed is noted. In Passage A, a shifting focus from women to gender is said to have some benefits (analytic framework; analyze structures) and some costs (loss of focus on individual stories). In Passage B, a shift in gender roles (more constrained, more visible, more politicized) is reflected in other aspects of society (government; art).

The bigger relationship, though, is that Passage A talks about the study of history and how it changed during a period of time. Passage B is a study of history, and it largely reflects what Passage A says. In Passage A, the Author notes that the study of history has shifted from the study of women's history to the issue of gender (Lines 1-4). Passage B is a study of history that doesn't talk about individual women but rather focuses on gender roles and how they shaped a particular time period. That's an interesting relationship!

Last Thoughts:
Not much else to say—let's head to the questions!

Question prompt

The summary given in 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.

Question Type

Social Science

Answer choices

  1. A
    seeking to uncover the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 9-11) If you're unsure what this phrase means, you can use context to help out. Passage A notes that the shift to a focus on gender issues was viewed by some as "a retreat from the effort to uncover the history of women per se," so a focus on gender is not the same as trying to uncover the history of women per se. Such attempts are aligned with the study of women's history. This section of Passage B, however, focuses on gender roles, not on women's history, and so this answer is incorrect.
  2. B
    exploring how a concept Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Method of Reasoning

    Strategy Overview:
    Reread the example in the cited lines and anticipate the type of historical analysis mentioned in Passage A that it serves as an example of

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    Lines 36-43 are in Paragraph 1 of Passage B, where we said there was a discussion of Roman history. In it, we learn that a Roman emperor argued that Rome's stability rested upon the family, "relocating women in this domestic context." So the first paragraph here explores the role of women in Augustus's Rome.

    That big-picture approach doesn't discuss the lives of individual women, so this analysis lines up with the focus on gender discussed in Passage A, not the discussion of women's history. We should look for an answer stating that.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 38-40) While this answer doesn't directly talk about gender, domesticity in Passage B is directly linked to women - Augustus relocated them as a group (gender), not as individuals, to a domestic context. Passage A also contextualizes domesticity as a gender issue (Lines 11-15). Passage B goes on to show how this influenced politics (Lines 51-54) and culture (Lines 55-57). This answer reflects the argument made in Passage B using the method of historical analysis mentioned in Passage A, so it's the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    Much as certain concepts are connected by premises in LR, concepts will be connected to each other in RC, and knowing these connections is key to answering questions that have answers using these connected concepts. Here, domesticity was connected to gender in both passages, and noting that was key to not eliminating answer choice (B) based on our anticipated answer.
  3. C
    trying to rediscover and Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 7-11) This answer seems to reflect the uncovering of the history of individual women discussed in Passage A, who would be ancestors lost to history. However, Passage B doesn't discuss individual women, and so it's not rediscovering and honoring lost ancestors.
  4. D
    evaluating the role of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 12-13) Passage B's Paragraph 1 doesn't evaluate Rome's history through that lens. While one might argue that this move on Augustus's part must be analyzed through a lens of his gender or masculinity, that's not what Passage B does.
  5. E
    arguing that gender analysis Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 28-30) The Author of Passage B doesn't ever seem stymied by his analysis, and he doesn't ask any questions that his focus on gender obscures or prevents him from answering. As such, there's no hint in Passage B that the analysis is obscuring anything, while it does argue that it reveals much about this time period.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 6%
  2. B Credited 76%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 9%
  5. E 4%

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