PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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Historians have long accepted the notion that women of English descent who lived in the English colonies of North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were better off than either . ███ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███ ██████████████████ █████████ ███ ███████████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████████ ███ █████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████████ █████ ████████ ████████████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██████████████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████████████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████████

Historical theory · Elizabeth Dexter argued for a "golden age" for early colonial women

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Academic acceptance · "Golden age" theory appeals to scholars, even skeptics

Critique · New publications show that "golden age" theory is reductive

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New direction · Modern scholarship focuses on specific changes in women's lives, not generalizations

Passage Style

Critique or debate

24.

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Question Type

Author’s attitude

Implied

In line 32, the author discusses scholars who are skeptical of golden age theory, but still accept one of its core ideas. Furthermore, this idea—that colonial women were better off before the 19th century—has recently been exposed as overly simplistic. It's hard to predict the exact word that could describe these views, though, so we're better off proceeding by elimination.

unassailable

The scholars believe that women's status declined in the 19th century. But the author doesn't think that these views are so solid as to be free from critique. This exact idea has been assailed! The point of the passage, ultimately, is to critique the theory where the idea of a 19th century decline originated.

innovative

This description is unsupported. The scholars' belief in a 19th century decline of women's status isn't innovative—it comes directly from golden age theory. And although these scholars are still skeptical of golden age theory overall, the author never describes their skepticism as innovative.

paradoxical

In other words, they hold contradictory views, which is exactly what the author shows us. These scholars have questioned golden age theory. But at the same time, they buy into the core idea of golden age theory, that colonial women were better off before the 19th century. Questioning a theory while accepting one of its core beliefs can reasonably be called "paradoxical."

69%

overly sophisticated

One of these scholars' views is that women's status declined in the 19th century. But this is a perspective that the passage later calls unsophisticated—a far cry from being too sophisticated. (D) isn't just unsupported, it contradicts the passage.

without merit

(E) correctly identifies the author's critical perspective towards at least one of the beliefs held by these scholars. But it's too strong to call their views entirely without merit. Even the idea that women were better off before the 19th century may not be totally baseless, despite being simplistic. And besides, surely there's merit to these scholars' skepticism of golden age theory.

16%

PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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