PrepTest 149 - Section 2 - Passage 1 - Question 4

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The following passage is adapted from an article published in 1981.

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Intro topic · Chinese has many distinct dialects

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Linguists' perspective / conclusion · There's a new Chinese dialect in the US (called "Chinatown Chinese")

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Linguists' premises · Two claims to support view that Chinatown Chinese is a new dialect

(1) It's difficult for traditional dialect speakers who are new to the US to communicate with Chinatown Chinese speakers. (2) If one knows Chinatown Chinese terminology, speakers of any traditional dialect can communicate with other Chinatown Chinese speakers.

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REJECT LINGUISTS' FIRST PREMISE · The language barrier between traditional dialects and Chinatown Chinese is exaggerated

As long as the Chinatown Chinese speakers avoid or explain unfamiliar terms (which are usually references to local things) a traditional dialect speaker can communicate easily with Chinatown Chinese speakers who know the same traditional dialect.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

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Question Type

Stated

The author tells us about traditional dialects in P2: “the core of the language brought to the U.S. by Chinese people has remained intact. Thus, the new vocabulary has supplemented, but not supplanted, the traditional language in the traditional dialects. In fact, normal conversations can be conducted fairly readily between Chinese-speaking Chinese Americans and new arrivals from China, provided that they speak the same traditional Chinese dialect as each other.”

remain at their ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ████

This is the only supported answer. The author explains in P2 that the “core of the language brought to the U.S. by Chinese people has remained intact.” If a newcomer speaks the same traditional dialect as a Chinese American, then they can communicate fairly easily with each other. This suggests the core of a dialect is essentially the same.

84%

eventually merge with █████ ███████ ████████

The author doesn’t suggest that Chinese dialects spoken by immigrants will merge with other dialects.

undergo subtle changes ██ █████ ███ ███████████ █████████

The author doesn’t suggest that Chinese dialects spoken by immigrants undergo changes in sound and grammatical structure. They do incorporate new words, but this is different from new sounds and grammar.

10%

are often abandoned ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████

The author doesn’t suggest that dialects spoken by immigrants are abandoned for Cantonese. Although Cantonese is the most common dialect spoken in the U.S., this doesn’t imply that anyone abandoned another dialect in favor of Cantonese.

lose much of █████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████████████ ████████ ███████ █████

The author doesn’t suggest that dialects spoken by immigrants lose much of their vocabulary. Although they do incorporate terms influenced by English, this doesn’t imply that they lose any traditional terms.

PrepTest 149 - Section 2 - Passage 1 - Question 4

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