Passage Discussion

[851869412]

Should I regard line 12 to line 15 as the topic sentence of the whole passage? The "religious significance" in that sentence is discussed in P2 and "method for maintaining permanent peace" is discussed in P3?

If so, how could I realize those things when the first time when I read it?

Actually when the first time I read it, I missed the TS and did not notice that the "loose bead -> string wampum -> wampum belt" were evolution. I simply regarded that they were merely different types of wampum. I think such misunderstanding negatively affected both my speed and accuracy. I did not realize the TS and the evolution thing until the third time I reviewed this passage~~~~(>_<)~~~~

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

You definitely should consider lines 12-15 as the author's thesis (topic sentence as you put it). Identifying the author's thesis is the most important task you face in Reading Comprehension. That should be your primary objective. To do so, look for the following clues:

- Conclusion Indicators: thus, therefore, hence, so, it follows that, etc.
- The author owning a view rather than attributing it to someone else.
- Words that indicate a positive or negative view towards an idea.
- An answer to a question.
- Recommendations, decisions, predictions, hypotheses, and solutions have a tendency to represent conclusions.

Finally, the author's thesis will often help you understand the purpose of each paragraph as it outlines the multiple points the author will eventually go on to support.

Hope that helps!

[851869412]

Thank you so much!!!!

[andrewgong01]

There didn't seem to be a scale in this passage as it seemed more focus on talking about the evolution of the wampum. Although it started out like it was going to correct a common misconception, at the same time the author never really got back to it or how it eventually became to be used as money aside from the last few lines when it said wampum was used to record and store [of value], which is the definition of money from an economics point of view.

The author does not have a point of view either as he/she seems more concerned with explaining the evolution.

P1 --> Intro to the misconception of wampum and the "real" evolution of the wampum

P2 --> Wampum as a religious significance. This was not obvious at first until after I read the paragraph and noticed it was talking about "spirits" and "cosmology" and, more importantly, the next paragraph hints that the essay is moving on to talk about the political origins of the wampum. I ended up "ignoring" what the actual religious uses was during my read and read through it quickly as I knew if there was any question on it I would be coming back anyways.

P3--> Transition to political origin/uses of wampum. Some parts of the paragraph on the details behind how the wampum functioned is still hard for me to conceptualize.