PrepTest 102 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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Even in the midst of its resurgence as a vital tradition, many sociologists have viewed the current form of the powwow, a ceremonial gathering of native Americans, as a sign that tribal culture is in decline. ███

Sociologists' Argument · Tribal culture is in decline

Sociologists' Argument · Intertribal movement will erode dissolve tribes and result in broader assimilation into mainstream American culture

Sociologists' Argument · Pan-Indian Theory

Sociologists believe that greater intertribal activity, greater urbanization, and increasing politicization result in greater intertribalism.

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Concession · Intertribalism has been increasing

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Critique (of Sociologists) · But unique tribal traditions have been increasingly revitalized as well

Examples · Revival of the Sun Dance; of traditional societies

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Critique (of Sociologists) · The change is more complex than just intertribalism and assimilation

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Critique · of Pan-Indian theory's assumption

The sociologists' theory assumes that minority culture will succumb to majority culture upon contact. But there's no evidence that's true.

Concession · It's true that intertribal activities are important now

For example, intertribal dances; intertribal speeches (delivered in English).

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Critique · But that misses the point

Culture borrowing has always happened. What's important is that tribes are consciously making efforts to distinguish themselves.

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Main Point · Tribalism is still very powerful

Intertribalism doesn't threaten tribalism. It reinforces native American identity along a broader front.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

15.

The author most likely states ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██

Question Type

Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

This is a purpose or function in context question. The target phrase is "cultural borrowing is, of course, old news." The author's purpose in stating this is to acknowledge that cultural borrowing isn't a new phenomenon. That it has happened throughout history. The author is then able to emphasize what is important: that native Americans make a conscious distinction between tribal and intertribal tendencies.

acknowledge that in ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████████

The Pan-Indian sociologists point to the existence of intertribal tendencies as evidence of erosion of tribal tendencies. The author weakens their position by pointing out that "cultural borrowing is, of course, old news." What's important is the native Americans' deliberate and conscious efforts to maintain distinct tribal tendencies.

65%

suggest that native ██████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████

Why would the author think that the use of English was "unavoidable?" This goes against what the author is trying to convey: that the native Americans were in control and made choices about their culture.

10%

argue that the ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ █ ██████ ███████████

This conflates two different points. The "old news" / "not recent development" refers to cultural borrowing. The author states that cultural borrowing is uninteresting and instead what is interesting is the deliberate distinction between tribal and intertribal practices.

16%

suggest that the ██████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████████

The claim here is that intertribal activity increased as a consequence of native Americans borrowing from, say, Euro-American cultures. This is unsupported. The first paragraph states the causes of increased intertribalism, according to the Pan-Indian sociologists.

indicate that the ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████████

This is unsupported. Nothing in the passage speculates the origins of the powwow. The passage only talks about the certain dances at powwow as intertribal but that's still native American. Nothing about non-native American cultures.

PrepTest 102 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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