Reading comp PrepTest 153 · Section 4 · Question 27

Passage

Questions 22-27  .       Social historians have noted that European social  . and political thought of the nineteenth and early  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Social Sciences

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A history of the approach to social/political thought (19th and early 20th centuries)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Social/political thought centered on "grand theories" that explained many events with general rules
    • Examples - Marxism (economic) and Freudianism (psychological)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • The love of "grand theories" has waned in recent years for several reasons
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • They were influential enough to be seen as hard-and-fast rules
    • These theories hurt by events that don't fit them, and being linked to failed or abusive governments
    • They worked at the time, but they no longer work
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • A pivot to why "grand theories" were popular and thoughts on how to address that need with a new approach described by the author
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • They were popular because they made people feel as if history/life made sense ("historical inevitability").
    • We need something to address that need that doesn't have the problem of "grand theories"
    • Solution - An approach that focuses on contingency, unique details, "constrains" rather than "necessitates," and allows all possibilities without saying history is fully determined
Main Point:
Despite working when they were proposed, "grand theories" can no longer be seen to accurately describe the world, and we need to move to a view that includes historical contingency, perspective, and a lack of inevitability.

Key Lines:
Lines 1-5 - Introduce the background view that the Author is going to pivot away from
Lines 18-20 - The pivot to show that this view is no longer viable
Lines 37-40 - Introduces the problem that the Author is ultimately trying to solve in coming up with a new approach
Lines 42-50 - An overview of the new approach advocated for by the Author

Meta-Structure:
Old theory/New Theory
Problem/Solution

This passage combines these two structures, to bring up an old theory that has problems ("grand theories"), and then to pose the problem that needs to be addressed in order to create a new approach to the study of history. The Author then concludes with a general description of this new approach.

Last Thoughts:
The passage relies heavily in the first two paragraphs on the examples of Marxism and Freudianism, so we should expect some questions on that. The second paragraph also includes two reasons for the old theories to have fallen out of favor (events that don't fit the theories; association with failed governments), so we should expect questions there, too.

The last paragraph is a bit complex and nuanced, so we should expect there to be questions that play into the difficulty in distinguishing exactly what the Author is saying there. Knowing that it's a solution to how to incorporate what was good about the old theory (provide some type of story/sense into history) without falling into its problems (fully determined history) should help for questions that ask about it.

Question prompt

It can be inferred 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

Social Science

Answer choices

  1. A
    Since history is not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 53-56) The Author is hopeful that a new approach that provides "narrative satisfaction" can be found, so this answer is too negative.
  2. B
    Since historical contingency cannot Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 42-45) The Author is hopeful that abandoning grand theories and the "vain hope" they provide will "restore" a contemplation of contingency, so this answer runs counter to her view.
  3. C
    There are enough features Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 33-39) The Author states that the application of universal laws was the purview of these grand theories, which have fallen out of favor and don't seem to reflect reality. Thus, she doesn't believe that there are universal laws of history.
  4. D
    The works of Marx Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 4-5) The Author uses Freudianism and Marxism as examples of grand theories, which she argues against, so this answer is wrong.
  5. E
    The study of history Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Reiterate the Author's main point and overall tone, then head to the answers and compare them against our notations/the passage

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    The question stem gives us no guidance as to the topic of the correct answer, so we're going to have to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage and the Author's opinion within it. She believes that grand theories failed because they tried to provide universal truths that don't exist, and that we need to find a way to approach history that appeals to the cognitive satisfaction of historical inevitability that these theories provided while accounting for the random and unique nature of historical events.

    Let's find an answer lining up with that!

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 33-39) This answer is in many ways the opposite of answer (C), which we noted ran counter to the Author's view. She states that grand theories provided universal laws, and that's what eventually did them in as they couldn't account for the myriad and unique aspects of historical events. As such, the Author would believe that trying to impose universal laws on history is the wrong way to approach the study, making this the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    For these Must Be True questions that don't provide guidance as to the topic of the correct answer, rely on your big-picture understanding of it. Most of the time, the correct answer will reflect or at least line up with the main point. The primary exception is when the passage notes a concession made by the Author, which you note when you see, right?

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B 15%
  3. C 11%
  4. D 19%
  5. E Credited 40%

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