Reading comp PrepTest 154 · Section 3 · Question 6

Passage

 Complex societies flourished on the central plateau of southern Africa from the ninth through sixteenth centuries. Their regional political centers, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Social Science

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Background, and competing theories, with the Author taking sides
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Time period - 9th-16th century
    • A lot of background on the central plateau of southern Africa/Great Zimbabwe (GZ)
    • Phenomenon - GZ took over the area and had a high quality of life
    • Scholars - GZ controlled gold mining and trade
    • Author - GZ agricultural system was the key element in their control
Paragraph 2.1 (Lines 20-31)
  • Paragraph note
    • Problems with traditional agriculture for GZ
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • GZ population was over 10k (extraordinary), and crop agriculture wouldn't be able to feed that many because of soil, distribution, and storage
Paragraph 2.2 (Lines 31-43)
  • Paragraph note
    • GZ's agricultural solution to feeding its people
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Cattle - they grazed in different areas during the year to avoid disease
    • This required coordination, which required centralized control, which led to a ruling class
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Implications of GZ's system for society and gold mining (Scholar theory)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Crucial in understanding two aspects of GZ
    • Cattle were given out as patronage and influenced all aspects of life
    • Cattle were the incentive that led people to take on the dangers of gold mining
Main Point:
While some scholars maintain that the regional power of Great Zimbabwe was due to their control of gold mining, their complex cattle agricultural system is the actual key to understanding that power.

Key Lines:
Lines 12-19 - Both sides of the debate are presented, with the Author presenting an alternative explanation to the opposing point's
Lines 31-34 - The specifics of the Author's explanation are given
Lines 48-50 - The Author highlights how her explanation also explains the alternative explanation

Meta-Structure:
Phenomenon/Explanation. Here, the Author starts with a lot of background that highlights the phenomenon of Great Zimbabwe control over a certain region over a period of time. She presents what scholars believe explains this power before stating that the true explanation lies elsewhere.

Last Thoughts:
First, note how we broke up Paragraph 2. It was super long, and it pivoted halfway through. Some of our instructors would even draw a line at that point to physically note the shift! Breaking up a paragraph and digesting it in two pieces will both make it easier to remember and make it easier to find material when working on questions.

Second, while we can't be sure until we've headed through the questions, it seems likely to be important that the Author circles back to the alternative explanation that she says isn't the true explanation at the end of Paragraph 3. Viewpoints are important on RC, and when an Author refers back to one, it's almost always going to be important to take note of it.

Question prompt

According to the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Social Science

Answer choices

  1. A
    The system was inadequate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 20-28; Lines 31-34) The passage notes that a crop-based agricultural system couldn't have supported such an extraordinary population, but that the cattle-based one of GZ did, so this answer is essentially contradicted. (Also note that the passage talks about the 9th-16th centuries, so there's not even an implication that this system wasn't sufficient in that GZ was in decline by the 14th century.)
  2. B
    The system was practiced Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 35-37) The passage notes that the cattle grazed at higher elevations in summer and lower elevations in winter, so it's not supported that the system was ""chiefly"" at lower elevations.
  3. C
    The system exemplified effective Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 41-43) The passage says that the large-scale coordination required for the cattle economy ""favored a pattern of centralized control"".
  4. D
    The system was a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Eliminate answers that don't align with the overall point of the passage or a detail noted/remembered, and head back to the passage to confirm any that you feel good about

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    Almost the entire passage was about GZ's cattle-based agricultural system, so it's almost impossible to anticipate the correct answer here. Instead, we should refresh ourselves of the main point (you can ever re-read the answer you selected for question #1 to do so), and then use our notes to check the passage when we come across an answer that we think is right.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 48-50) The final paragraph states that cattle had a ""crucial role"" in explaining GZ's successful mining industry, so this answer is supported by the passage.

    Key Takeaway:
    Note that we anticipated this as a correct answer to some question in our post-passage discussion. How did we do it? By noting that the last paragraph tied the Author's explanation into the opposing point. Such connections between the viewpoints will almost always show up in a question—either as the basis for the question, or for the correct answer. These answers can be tricky because you're so used to selecting an answer that reflects the Author's main point and rejects an opposing point. Here, it'd be easy to throw out (D) because it talks about gold mining, and that was the topic of the opposing point. Be sure to note these connections when they show up so you don't eliminate a correct answer!
  5. E
    The system promoted the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 24-26) Paragraph 2 discusses crop cultivation as an alternative to the cattle agricultural system of GZ, not as something that supplemented it.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 14%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 5%
  4. D Credited 77%
  5. E 3%

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