Q12

[ohthatpatrick]

This is a Specific Detail EXCEPT question, so we'll have to find line references to eliminate the 4 answers that ARE in the passage or convince ourselves that the correct answer was NOT in the passage.

In terms of where to look, we know the final 2 paragraphs discussed the actions of the Chinese settlers.

A) 43-47
B) 38-42, 50
C) 51
D) the settlers' knowledge of swamp reclamation and irrigation laid the foundation for agribusiness, but the passage doesn't say that the settlers themselves had knowledge of agribusiness practices.
E) 50-52

(D) is our answer.

[edmund.koundakjian]

I am unclear why question C is not correct and D is correct.

C says: Chinese settlers [did not have] specialized agricultural skills.
D says: Chinese settlers [did not have] knowledge of agribusiness practices.

My first inclination was to answer D, since most of the passage describes their civil engineering accomplishments. However, I noted that lines 45-46 discuss "valuable spices". Valuable implies sales and profit of an agricultural product which suggests knowledge of an agribusiness practice.

So, I dumped D.

The passage does not specifically mention agricultural skills of the Chinese settlers. It discusses civil engineering skills. See line 51. The passage does not appear to mention that the Chinese planted anything. They could have made the land suitable for agriculture and then left the agriculturing to the farmers, which were non-Chinese settlers.

So, I picked C.

[ohthatpatrick]

First of all, I want to caution you against the way you were interpreting the EXCEPT question.

You wrote:

C says: Chinese settlers [did not have] specialized agricultural skills.
D says: Chinese settlers [did not have] knowledge of agribusiness practices.


You seem to be thinking that whichever idea we pick as our answer is something the passage said was NOT true. That's incorrect.

We should really be thinking about these answer choices as

picking C means: [the psg. did not provide support for the idea that] the Chinese settlers had specialized agricultural skills.

picking D means: [the psg. did not provide support for the idea that] Chinese settlers had knowledge of agribusiness practices.

There is support for the idea that the settlers had specialized agricultural skills. The whole 3rd paragraph provides support for that. The settlers apparently knew how to utilize the fresh water and soil from a swamp ... they knew how to convert a wild mustard weed into a spice.

You were interpreting the fact that the settlers knew that mustard had value as a spice as evidence that they had knowledge of agribusiness practices.

I see where you're getting that, since knowing that an agricultural product has market value seems to be some knowledge of an agribusiness practice ("the practice of selling mustard can be successful at generating revenue").

I think, however, the contextual meaning of agribusiness in this passage is BIG business, like industrial-scale agriculture. We have no evidence the settlers knew anything about that.

The thing that helped me realize that "agribusiness" was the trap answer is that it appears in line 54, but in relation to the FUTURE of the Pacific Coast, not the settlers' initial interactions with the area.

Sometimes the easiest way to pick an answer choice in a down to 2 situation is to justify why one of the answers is DESIGNED to be a trap.

If you see (D) as designed to appeal to students because of line 54, but recognize that line 54 is NOT referring to the settlers' initial interactions with the area, then it's easier to suspect that (D) only has "fake" support.

Hope this helps.