PrepTest 107 - Section 2 - Passage 2 - Question 15

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Tribal communities in North America believe that their traditional languages are valuable resources that must be maintained. ███

Intro to Topic · Maintenance of traditional tribal languages

Problem · Language dying

Blame is on majority culture which separates a community and its traditions.

Solution · Community self-teaching

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Solution Mechanics · Document the grammar

Example: Northern Utes created a sort of textbook on grammar.

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Obstacle 1 · Difficulty writing down oral languages

Oral languages don't have written symbolic counterparts. So, I guess the challenge is that they have to invent the written counterparts?

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Obstacle 2 · Many dialects

Which dialect should be written down and taught?

Solution / Decision · Northern Utes rejected standardization

They accept various spellings as long as meaning was the same. This may sound problematic for us but it's fine for what their community needs.

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Results · Success

Children could write and speak the language.

Opposition · Transforming an oral language to a written one is misguided and unnecessary

Rebuttal · It is necessary because language is dying

Though, perhaps language could be preserved purely orally if majority culture was avoided more thoroughly.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

15.

Based on the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████████ ██████████

Question Type

Implied

Principle or generalization

We’re looking for a principle that’s guiding those who try to preserve traditional languages. One simple way to think about this question is to look for an answer that the people who try to preserve traditional languages would agree with. The four wrong answers are the ones we don’t have evidence that the people who try to preserve traditional languages would agree with.

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Not supported, because the Northern Utes decided that they didn't need to have exact correspondence between sounds and the written language.

In deciding whether ███ ███ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ █ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ █████████

This is the best answer. We know the Northern Utes considered the needs of their community when deciding whether to standardize their traditional oral language.

83%

In determining whether ██ ████████ █ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████

Not supported, because the passage never suggests that the tribes who are trying to preserve their written language made that decision based on whether oral or written preservation was more effective. In addition, the author suggests at the end that the influence of majority culture isn’t something to be “ignored.” If majority culture has aspects that make language preservation more difficult, then we should try to protect the community from those aspects.

11%

In considering how ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ █ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██████

Not supported, because we don’t know whether the Northern Utes presented more difficult concepts first.

In adjudicating among ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██████ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████

Not supported, because the Northern Utes didn’t care about exactly how words were spelled, as long as the meaning was clear.

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PrepTest 107 - Section 2 - Passage 2 - Question 15

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