Reading comp PrepTest 148 · Section 2 · Question 9

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.

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

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.

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.