PrepTest 107 - Section 2 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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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

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

Question Type

Main point

In a Problem-Analysis passage, if the author discusses a solution to the problem, the main point should typically capture that solution (as well as the author’s opinion about it, if any). Here, the author focuses on describing a solution to the problem of traditional languages falling into disuse among tribal communities in North America. That solution is community self-teaching. The author describes this solution at the end of P1 and discusses various aspects of the solution in P2 through P4.

In the face ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████

Although the author does describe obstacles to community self-teaching, the focus of the passage isn’t on the idea that some tribes are having difficulty teaching traditional languages. Rather, the author focuses on the fact that some communities are engaged in self-teaching. The focus on the use of self-teaching as a way of preserving traditional languages, not on the difficulty that some tribes face in self-teaching.

If tribes are ██ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████

Not supported, because the author never suggests that teaching traditional language is “necessary” in order to preserve tribal culture. Although some tribes have begun teaching traditional languages to help preserve those languages, this doesn’t imply that this kind of teaching is absolutely required in order to preserve tribal culture. Since (B) isn’t supported, it can’t be the main point.

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The author doesn’t focus on tribes that use Western-style linguistics. Rather, the use of Western-style linguistics can cause difficulties in teaching traditional language, and the author points out that some tribes don’t use Western-style linguistics.

Recognizing the value ██ █████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████

This best captures the main point, which is that some tribes are engaged in community self-teaching of traditional languages.

78%

Sidestepping the inherent █████████████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████

Not supported, because the author never suggests there’s an “inherent contradiction” in preserving oral culture in writing. Although the author notes in P5 that some people think oral languages don’t need to be written down, and that there can be difficulty in translating certain sounds into writing, this doesn’t imply that there’s some inherent incompatibility between oral languages and writing. In any case, the author also doesn’t indicate that some tribes are “sidestepping” a contradiction. They’re not necessarily evading difficulties involved in teaching traditional languages.

14%

PrepTest 107 - Section 2 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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