PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 25

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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

25.

It can be inferred from ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████████ █████████████ ███████████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

Question Type

Implied

The three-part division discussed in the passage is given as an example of a new scholarly focus, as discussed generally in the third paragraph. The correct answer should reflect this: it should match with one of the claims from the third paragraph about recently scholars' perspectives.

The circumstances of ████████ █████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████

The author explains in the third paragraph that recent scholarship considers many factors that contributed to women's circumstances. This is the kind of nuance that the three-part division is used as an example to illustrate. The three-part division allows us to infer scholars' recognition of these factors, because it better accounts for the complexity of their circumstances.

89%

Women’s lives in ███ ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██████████████████ ████████

If anything, the three-part division contradicts this claim. Two of the three periods are based on circumstances that were absent in England: first, how the colonial context reshaped communities, and second, the American revolution. These factors would only have made women's lives more different between North America and England, not kept them similar.

Colonial women’s status ███ █████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ████████

Although the three-fold division accounts for new patterns of family and community, the author never states that this caused negative changes. We only know that these circumstances caused changes, but the passage doesn't let us infer what kind of changes they were.

Colonial women’s status ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████

This idea is contradicted by the three-fold division, which attempts to move away from unsophisticated, primarily economic assessments. The development of a more nuanced three-fold division could only show that scholars recognized this kind of assessment should not be used.

Colonial women’s status ███ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██ ███████████

The discussion of recent scholarship doesn't focus on the rise or fall of women's status due to particular events. If anything, it does the opposite: we learn that recent scholars reject broad generalizations about status, and instead focus on specific changes. Claims about when women's status was high or low contradict the point of the three-fold division.

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PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 25

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