Reading comp PrepTest 148 · Section 2 · Question 7

Passage

This passage was adapted from an article written by three economists.  .       Roughly 40 percent of the African American  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • A phenomenon is introduced and 3 causes are listed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Phenomenon - Great Migration - 40% of African American population South for North (1915-1960)
    • 3 causes (all related to labor) - WWI, decrease in immigration, boll weevils in South

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • 3 causes/phenomenon summed up, and a question is posed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Summary - North-South income gap so big it kicked off migration
    • Question - Why did it continue/accelerate as income gap narrowed?

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Authors’s view presented, and some background research
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Authors (Explanation/Answer) - Momentum develops as migrants make it easier for others to migrate
    • Economist (assumption) - Additional earnings exceed migration costs → People migrate
    • List of migration costs (uncertainty of housing/job; moving costs; familiarization of new location)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Authors show how these costs are lowered as migration continues
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Empirical studies - Letters provided potential migrants info
    • New migrants traveled with old (lower moving costs)
    • New migrants stayed with old (easier to adapt to new area)

Main Point: By helping with moving costs and familiarization with a new location and its job and housing markets, previous migrants lowered the cost of migration for future migrants, explaining the continued and accelerating migration of African Americans even after the North-South income gap narrowed.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-4 - A phenomenon is noted

Lines 7-8 - A list is introduced (causes of phenomenon)

Lines 19-22 - A question about the phenomenon is introduced

Lines 23-25 - The Authors’s answer/explanation is previewed

Lines 25-29 - An assumption of relevant experts is noted

Lines 29-31 - Another list is introduced (factors in migration cost)

Paragraph 4 - The assumptions are addressed to support the explanation

Meta-Structure?

Question/Answer and Phenomenon/Explanation - The passage is meant to answer a question about an unexpected aspect of a phenomenon. While the “topic” of the passage is itself a phenomenon - the Great Migration - the Authors raise a question about it in Paragraph 2 that the passage is designed to answer/explain: Why did the migration continue/accelerate even when the driving force behind it lessened? (Lines 19-22). The rest of the passage is designed to answer that question and explain the phenomenon - momentum, as earlier migrants lowered the costs associated with future migration (Lines 23-25). And since the Author’s answer to a question or explanation for a phenomenon is usually the main point of the passage, we should check to see if it serves that purpose here. Since the rest of the passage is meant to highlight support for that answer, we can conclude that it is the main point.

Last Thoughts?

The Authors raise the assumptions of Economists here. Normally, when an assumption is pointed out, it’s to highlight a weakness in an argument, and that assumption is attacked or undermined. Here, however, the Authors use the implications of the assumption to build their argument. In this case, the assumption operates more as a generally accepted theory that the Authors apply.

Also, the Authors speak in the first-person (“We propose”; Line 23). When that happens, it’s important to note as it tells us that the Authors are taking a proactive role in the passage, and there’s a good chance that a question will reflect on that.

Question prompt

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the main point as we stated it after reading through the passage, then find an answer that best matches it

Answer Anticipation

This passage falls into two common argument patterns that overlap - it presents a phenomenon, asks a question about an unexpected aspect of it, and then answers/explains that unexpected aspect. When that happens, the Author’s answer/explanation is generally the main point, and that’s backed up here by the majority of the passage supporting that explanation.Here, an overarching phenomenon is noted (Great Migration, Lines 1-7) with its causes listed (Lines 7-15). This itself could make up an entire passage, but the Authors then pivot to bring up the unexpected aspect of the phenomenon - the acceleration of it even as the causes started to abate (Lines 19-22). They then immediately provide a general explanation for it - momentum (Lines 23-25) as earlier migrants lowered the cost for later migration.After that, the passage supports this explanation by establishing the relevant costs (Lines 25-40) and then showing how earlier migrants lowered them (Paragraph 4).From this, we said the main point of the passage is:By helping with moving costs and familiarization with a new location and its job and housing markets, previous migrants lowered the cost of migration for future migrants, explaining the continued and accelerating migration of African Americans even after the North-South income gap narrowed.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Approximately 40 percent of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 19-23) While a passage describing the causes of the Great Migration would be a viable RC passage, and this answer a viable main point, this passage establishes all of that in Paragraph 1 before moving on to explain a puzzling aspect of the Great Migration. As such, this answer falls short of the main point.

  2. B
    The Great Migration was Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 7-15) Similar to (A), this answer reflects only Paragraph 1, while the passage uses that as a jumping-off point to address a puzzling phenomenon related to the Great Migration.

  3. C
    Because earlier migrants helped Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 31-40) This is a very tempting answer, as it brings up the puzzling phenomenon and provides an explanation for it. However, the explanation here is incomplete. The Author cites financial costs but also other costs - personal and cultural ones. In limiting the explanation for the accelerating migration to “financial costs,” this answer misses a lot of the Author’s reasoning.

  4. D
    In migration movements, earlier Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Paragraph 4) While this answer does reflect the argument of the Authors, it fails to apply it to the Great Migration, which is a central purpose of the passage.

  5. E
    Although the Great Migration Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) (Lines 16-22; Lines 23-25) While less specific than some other answers, this one does capture the entirety of the Authors’s argument. In fact, because it’s more general, it more easily captures that main point (unlike answer (C), which gets specific and thus misses key parts of the argument). The argument starts by noting a phenomenon (the Great Migration) and providing an explanation for it. However, it then notes that this explanation is incomplete because it can’t explain how long it lasted or its acceleration (“its duration over several decades”) - momentum/costs are needed to explain that. This answer addresses the phenomena and the Authors’s view towards their causes/explanations, making it the correct answer.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 11%
  4. D 2%
  5. E Credited 79%

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