Reading comp PrepTest 157 · Section 1 · Question 16

Passage

Passage A is from a newspaper article. Passage B is from UNESCO's 1999 Draft Convention on the Protection of Underwater Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary Topic: Legal

Passage A

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background on HMS Sussex discovery (agreement between N.A. company and British government is a legal breakthrough)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author's attitude: "legal breakthrough" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on ocean exploration tech and legal agreement (allows governments to recover sunken objects, end unauthorized treasure hunting)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • While technology allows for the discovery of sunken treasures, governments often lack the money, skills, and legal precedent to recover these goods (first and second sentences)
      • The HMS Sussex agreement could end the days of unauthorized treasure hunting and allow nations to oversee the recovery of their lost ships (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "could end" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Specifications of agreement (calls for "archaeological integrity"; only sell coins) and archaeologists' view (disapprove sale of artifacts)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Archaeologists' view:
      • The HMS Sussex company probably cannot maintain "archaeological integrity" (third sentence)
      • The sale of recovered artifacts prevents scholarship and public display (fourth sentence)
    • Comparison, according to the agreement:
      • A distinction is drawn between different types of artifacts on the HMS Sussex; can sell items (like coins) with less archaeological value (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "likely" (first sentence)

Passage B

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Definition of "underwater cultural heritage" (UCH) (artifacts underwater for more than 100 years)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • HMS Sussex qualifies as UCH

Paragraph 2 (includes all numbered paragraphs)

  • Paragraph note
    • UNESCO rules for recovering UCH (preserve first; don't sell; harm as little as possible; don't disturb human remains; promote public access)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Points of intersection with passage A:
      • Removing UCH "only when they make a significant contribution to knowledge, protection, and/or enhancement of UCH" matches passage A’s distinction between coins and "cultural items have greater archaeological value" (second sentence)
      • The agreement between the British government and the company recovering the HMS Sussex violates the rule against "trade, sale, barter, or speculation" (third sentence)
      • The agreement's aim to maintain archaeological integrity follows the rule that activities "shall not impact UCH more than is necessary" (fourth sentence)
      • The archaeologists' preference for scholarly analysis and public display matches the stipulation for "scientific studies" and "[p]ublic access" (sixth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "best achieved" (first sentence); "fundamentally incompatible" (third sentence); "must be as nondestructive as possible" (sixth sentence)

Main Points?

Passage A: An agreement between the British government and a company that discovered the sunken HMS Sussex could end the days of unauthorized treasure hunting and allow nations to oversee the recovery of their lost ships, although archaeologists likely disapprove of the arrangement.

Passage B: A series of UNESCO rules govern the recovery of "underwater cultural heritage."


Meta-Structure? Overall Relationship?

Relationship - Different Scopes: Both passages discuss the recovery of sunken artifacts. However, the topic of passage B is also quite a bit broader in scope than the topic of passage A. Passage B discusses general rules that apply to any artifacts that qualify as "underwater cultural heritage" (UCH). However, passage A is just about recovering artifacts from one ship that qualifies as UCH. Because the scope and topics of these passages are different (and there's very little author's opinion in either), expect very few questions to ask us to compare the passages' details or the authors' views. Expect some questions to apply the rules from passage B to the situation described in passage A.


Last Thoughts?

Hey, it's a passage that literally invites us to apply laws (passage B) to a fact pattern (passage A). Get ready for a lot more of this in law school.

Question prompt

Passage B calls for 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.

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the main point of passage B, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to eliminate the incorrect answer choices

Answer Anticipation

For these Bizarro Must Be True questions, the correct answer will either present a topic not discussed by the passage or assert a claim contradicted by information in the passage. For the former, we’ll generally use a process of elimination to get rid of each answer that does show up in the passage. For the latter — we’re in luck — as we can find a line citation to prove that the passage contradicts the correct answer. In that case, we can feel a lot more comfortable about picking it — while also likely getting it correct faster. But we won’t know if this is the case for the correct answer until after we analyze it, so we should expect to use a process of elimination. As such, we’ll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of passage B to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of passage B's main point. From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something seems familiar, consistent with passage B's main point, or reflected in our notes for passage B, it’s probably supported by the passage. We can eliminate it without checking the passage. If something seems inconsistent with passage B's main point, it’s probably the correct answer. We can use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be false. If we can find that confirmation, we’ll select that answer choice and move on. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn’t reflected in our notes for passage B, we should mark that answer choice as the possible correct answer. Once we've eliminated the remaining answer choices, we can select it.

Answer choices

  1. A
    encouraging public access to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    Is this consistent with passage B's main point or reflected in our notes for passage B?

    Yep. Our notes for passage B mention that one rule is to "promote public access." Moreover, the stipulation to "harm as little as possible" is certainly consistent with the answer choice's claim that public access should be limited to "nonintrusive activities." We can eliminate this one without checking the passage. And if we did check the passage, we'd find that this stipulation is made in rule 7 (PB, P2, S9).

  2. B
    forbidding the sale of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    Is this consistent with passage B's main point or reflected in our notes for passage B?

    Yes. Our notes for passage B mention that one rule is "don't sell." We can eliminate this one without checking the passage. And if we did check the passage, we'd find that this stipulation is made in rule 2, which argues that the sale of UCH is "fundamentally incompatible" with the protection of UCH (PB, P2, S3).

  3. C
    preserving UCH in situ
    Why choice C is not credited

    Is this consistent with passage B's main point or reflected in our notes for passage B?

    Indeed. Our notes for passage B mention that one rule is "preserve first." We can eliminate this one without checking the passage. And if we did check the passage, we'd find that this stipulation is made in rule 1 (PB, P1, S1).

  4. D
    restricting the removal of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    Is this consistent with passage B's main point or reflected in our notes for passage B?

    Yeah. Our notes for passage B mention that one rule is "don't disturb human remains." We can eliminate this one without checking the passage. And if we did check the passage, we'd find that this stipulation is made in rule 5 (PB, P2, S7).

  5. E
    prohibiting contracts with private Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    Is this consistent with passage B's main point or reflected in our notes for passage B?

    No. Our notes don't mention contracts or private companies. This was a topic of passage A. Moreover, quickly scanning what we highlighted as points of intersection between the two passages, we don't see anything about private companies. We would have noted this similarity if it was present in the passage. Plus, we used our notes to eliminate the other answer choices. We can safely select (E) without reviewing the passage.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 8%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 6%
  5. E Credited 76%

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