PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 12

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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

12.

The author of the passage █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ████████ ████████████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

This Inference question asks for a statement about cultural antiquities that the author would likely agree with. Remember that we are approaching this question from the author’s perspective, and our selected answer should have support from the passage.

They must be █████ ███ █████████ ██ █ █████████ ████████ ███████

Unsupported. The author does not indicate that this is a requirement for cultural antiquities. In fact, one of the author’s proposals in P4 includes a plan to tax the export of artifacts, so the author probably wouldn’t agree that these antiquities must be owned and protected by a country’s national museum.

They must remain ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████

Unsupported. The author does not indicate that this is a requirement for cultural antiquities. In fact, one of the author’s proposals in P4 includes a plan to tax the export of artifacts, so the author probably wouldn’t agree that these antiquities must remain within the boundaries of the country in which they were found.

10%

They are too ████████ ██ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████

Unsupported. The author never indicates an opposition to exclusive state ownership of antiquities on the grounds that these objects are too valuable.

They should be █████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████████ ████ █████████

This is supported in P4. Here, the author concedes that professionally administered excavations by archaeologists may be better conducted and more informative. So, when it’s possible, then the author would probably agree that they should be done professionally.

79%

They belong to ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████

Unsupported. The author never said that these antiquities belong to whoever finds and registers them.

PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 12

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