PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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The government of Mali passed a law against excavating and exporting the wonderful terra-cotta sculptures from the old city of Djenne-jeno, but it could not enforce it. ███ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████

Problem · Malian artifacts looted

Mali government outlawed excavating and exporting artifacts. Couldn't enforce the laws. Looting and selling on the black market. Loss of archaeological knowledge.

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Potential Solution · UNESCO declares these artifacts as "cultural property"

The artifacts are property of the culture (as opposed to private property). Many countries strengthened UNESCO doctrine by prohibiting export of "cultural property."

Application to Mali · It would seem that these artifacts are protected by UNESCO doctrine

Problem with UNESCO Doctrine · Disincentivizes good record keeping

Because records are evidence of illegal black market activities.

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Alternative Solution · Legalize, regulate, and tax

Mali could have legalized and regulated excavation and taxed export. This would have been a better solution.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

The main point of this Problem-Analysis passage is that laws intending to protect cultural artifacts often have negative unintended consequences in cases like the terra-cotta sculptures from Djenne-jeno in Mali, and that more adaptable policies may have better results.

Declarations from UNESCO ███ █████ █████████████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████

UNESCO has declared that ownership of cultural artifacts is part of an artistic and cultural patrimony, but this is not the main point of the passage. Instead, the main point of the passage is that adaptable solutions are needed for broader problem of the protection of cultural artifacts.

Preserving cultural knowledge ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████████

This is the main point. The laws prohibiting excavation and export of antiques have had negative consequences for the preservation of cultural knowledge. More flexible solutions may lead to better results.

80%

Rather than acceding ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ █████████

Actually, the author proposes that countries like Mali work with international bodies like UNESCO; the author doesn’t argue that these countries should handle the problem on their own.

The government of ████ ██████ ████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██████████████ ███ ███ ████████████

The author doesn’t specifically recommend licensing only accredited archaeologists for excavations. In fact, the author concedes that excavations done according to his recommendations may not be as good as excavations by accredited archaeologists. Also, the main point isn’t the author’s specific recommendation. Instead, the main point is that adaptable solutions are needed for such a complex problem.

The idea that █ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ █████

The author doesn’t take issue with the idea of artistic and cultural patrimony; the author just says that outright prohibitions on excavating and exporting cultural artifacts may be more harmful than alternative solutions like licensing excavations.

PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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