Reading comp PrepTest 157 · Section 1 · Question 18

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

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

Credited answer: C

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

Strategy Overview

Review the argument made by the company mentioned in passage A in our notes and the passage, if necessary, to anticipate what a representative of that passage might say about the draft convention in passage B

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to make an inference from a few details in the passage to select one of the hypothetical situations described by the answer choices, we can start by quickly finding and reviewing those details. In this case, we're asked to identify a hypothetical response a representative from the company mentioned in passage A could make to the draft convention in passage B. So, we'll review the argument made by the company mentioned in passage A and compare that to our notes about the draft provisions. According to our notes for passage A, the company calls for "archaeological integrity" and plans to only sell the coins they recover. If we review that part of the passage, we'll see that the company acknowledges that coins have less "archaeological value" and wants to sell the coins to help offset the cost of the expedition (PA, P3, S5). How does that argument stack up against the draft provisions in passage B? Let's review the notes we made summarizing those provisions ("preserve first; don't sell; harm as little as possible; don't disturb human remains; promote public access") and then find an answer choice that's consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A and works as a response to one of those provisions.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The UNESCO draft convention Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    Is this consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, and does it work as a response to one of those provisions?

    Nope. None of the provisions we summarized discuss the cost of recovering items from shipwrecks. Therefore, this doesn't work as a response to one of the draft provisions, so we can cross off (A).

  2. B
    It is better to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    Is this consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, and does it work as a response to one of those provisions?

    Nope. This isn't consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A. They want to remove the coins, not leave them "in situ" underwater. Therefore, we can cross off (B).

  3. C
    If an archaeological project Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    Is this consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, and does it work as a response to one of those provisions?

    Yes! This is consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, which asserts that coins have less "archaeological value," so they can sell the coins to help offset the cost of the expedition (PA, P3, S5). This answer choice provides one reason why these coins may have less "archaeological value" — they're all identical, so there may not be a compelling reason to preserve all of them.

    This also works as a response to the draft provision against selling items. The answer choice states that some coins can be preserved for public display and scholarship in museums, while the other virtually identical coins — which wouldn't add much to the museum displays — can be sold. This response shows that selling recovered artifacts may not be fundamentally incompatible with the preservation of UCH.

    Since this answer choice passes both of those questions, we can select it and advance to the following question.

  4. D
    Whenever an agreement includes Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    Is this consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, and does it work as a response to one of those provisions?

    Nope. None of the provisions we summarized say that agreements with the government nullify the draft provisions. In fact, our definition of UCH suggests that the artifacts on the HMS Sussex very much fall within the scope of the draft convention. Let's eliminate (D).

  5. E
    The recovery plans for Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    Is this consistent with the argument made by the company in passage A, and does it work as a response to one of those provisions?

    Definitely not. The company plans on selling the recovered coins, and one of the provisions we summarized explicitly forbids such a sale. This doesn't work as a response to one of the provisions, so we can cross off (D).

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 8%
  2. B 13%
  3. C Credited 45%
  4. D 15%
  5. E 18%

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