PT116.S1.P2.Q7

PrepTest 116 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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P1

In many bilingual communities of Puerto Rican Americans living in the mainland United States, people use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, alternating between them smoothly and frequently even within the same sentence. ████ █████████████████ ███████████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ███

Phenomenon · Code-switching
Puerto Rican Americans use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, smoothly alternating between them.
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Explanation · Most instances of code-switching can be explained by situational or rhetorical factors
Some exceptional cases of code-switching cannot be explained.
P2

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Explanation · Domains or social context determine whether code-switching occurs
Main factors are setting, participants, and topic which combine into five domains: family; friendship; religion; education; and employment.
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Experimental Setup · To test effects of domains on code-switching
Researchers create hypothetical situations with 2 congruent factors or 2 incongruent factors. Then, researchers ask students to determine the third factor and which mixture of language they would use.
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Results · 2 congruent factors
Prompted with participants: parent and child and topic: how to be a good son or daughter. Students chose setting as home and language was Spanish only.
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Results · 2 incongruent factors
Prompted with participants: priest and parishioner and setting: beach, students disagreed on third factor and mix of language.
P3

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Exceptions · Unexplained code-switching
Sometimes the domain predictions about code-switching are wrong.
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Example · One family at home
Family thought they spoke only English but they code-switched to Spanish (even when situational factors didn't change) to express certain attitudes like intimacy or humor more emphatically.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
Show answer
7.

In the final sentence of ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ██

a

report evidence supporting ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ███ █ ██████████ █████

This best captures the purpose as explained below the question stem.

75%
b

show that reasons ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████

The last paragraph doesn’t involve different communities and different reasons for code-switching in these different communities. Since (B) doesn’t happen in the last paragraph, it’s not the purpose of the last sentence.

2%
c

supply evidence that █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████████

The last sentence doesn’t present evidence that conflicts with researchers’ conclusion about why the family code-switched. It supports the conclusion that the family code-switched for rhetorical effect.

5%
d

refute the argument ████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████████████

The author never suggests that it’s incorrect to believe most code-switching is explained by situational factors. So (D) can’t be the purpose of the last sentence.

10%
e

explain how it █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███████

The last sentence involves the family members’ explanation for why they code-switched. This doesn’t help explain why the family members didn’t realize that they code-switched until it was pointed out to them.

7%

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