Reading comprehension question. Please help!!

[ps63739]

Hi, this is a passage I got from GMAT club. There is no explanation for answers, can some one please explain to me?

[Edited by moderators: Please read and follow guidelines before posting. This folder is for GMATPrep questions ONLY. The text has been deleted.]

[tim]

I'm afraid this question may have been posted in the wrong forum, but in general I'd say you should probably not expect much help from our instructors in going over a passage like this. Frankly, unless the passage is written by GMAC or MGMAT it's often not worth your time our our time to review it because such questions are not typically representative of true GMAT questions. Now, if this passage came from one of those sources, please clarify where it came from and we'll be happy to help..

[windyru]

Hi, just want to clarify first, i am not a business student, and am replying to this post simply out of personal interest.

#2
The passage suggests that before the early 1970’s, which of the following was true of the study by historians of the working class in the United States?
Answer this by process of elimination. Note that the term "the study" often used in the options below is in itself, misleading, since they are actually referring to studies, and not one particular study, using the term as a sort of short form.

-(A) The study was infrequent or superficial, or both.
This is a possible inference, as the first sentence "Since the early 1970’s, historians have begun to devote serious attention to the working class in the United States." suggests that before the early 1970s, historians have not "devote serious attention to the working class in the United States".
(B) The study was repeatedly criticized for its allegedly narrow focus.
"The narrowness of this perspective ignores the pervasive recessions and joblessness of the previous decades, as Alexander Keyssar shows in his recent book." This statement means that the study was criticising on the narrowness on studies done in the previous decade, not that the study itself was narrow. Also, nothing was "repeatedly criticised". So B is out.
(C) The study relied more on qualitative than quantitative evidence.
Nothing is said on the type of study. C is out.
(D) The study focused more on the working-class community than on working-class culture.
"we now have studies of working-class communities and culture" Studies were done on both. D is out.
(E) The study ignored working-class joblessness during the Great Depression.
The study was not about the Great Depression at all. E is out.


#4
According to the passage, which of the following is true of the unemployment rates mentioned in line 15?
I am guessing that by line 15, they mean this line "during the worst years, in the 1870’s and 1890’s, unemployment was around 15 percent."
The answer is in these two sentences:
"Yet Keyssar rightly understands that a better way to measure the impact of unemployment is to calculate unemployment frequencies"”measuring the percentage of workers who experience any unemployment in the course of a year. Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger."

(A) They hovered, on average, around 15 percent during the period 1870-1920.
It was during the worse years, that means that 15% was a peak number, and cannot be the average.
-(B) They give less than a full sense of the impact of unemployment on working-class people.
"Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger." Pretty much tells you that 15% is an underestimate of the situation.
(C) They overestimate the importance of middle class and white-collar unemployment.
See above quote, it is underestimate, not overestimate, and it is unemployment rate, not importance.
(D) They have been considered by many historians to underestimate the extent of working-class unemployment.
This part is a bit tricky, compare the keywords extent from this option and impact from option B, extent here means that the actual unemployment rate is above 15% while impact means that unemployment is causing more damage than estimated.
(E) They are more open to question when calculated for years other than those of peak recession.
This is just a random option, it does not tie in with the passage at all, someone who is experienced with comprehension tasks would be able to eliminate this stright away.


#5
Which of the following statements about the unemployment rate during the Great Depression can be inferred from the passage?
This question can actually be done with a bit of common sense about the Great Depression, without scrutinising the passage.

-(A) It was sometimes higher than 15 percent.
This is true since "The unemployment rates that Keyssar calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depression standards" suggest that compared to the Great Depression, unemployment rates were not as high. Also, the word sometimes gives leeway.
(B) It has been analyzed seriously only since the early 1970’s.
Nothing is said on how "serious the studies conducted before the 1970s were.
(C) It can be calculated more easily than can unemployment frequency.
Nothing in the passage even says about comparing unemployment rate and unemployment frequency.
(D) It was never as high as the rate during the 1870’s.
The Great Depression by definition had really high unemployment rate, common sense would tell you that it is likely to be higher that the 1970s. Also, once again, "The unemployment rates that Keyssar calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depression standards" is saying that the unemployment rate during the great depression was higher than during Keyssar's study.
(E) It has been shown by Keyssar to be lower than previously thought.
Refer to above explanation.


#6
According to the passage, Keyssar considers which of the following to be among the important predictors of the likelihood that a particular person would be unemployed in late nineteenth-century Massachusetts?

I. The person’s class
"He finds that rates of joblessness differed primarily according to class: those in middle-class and white-collar occupations were far less likely to be unemployed." Class is a factor.
II. Where the person lived or worked
"Even when dependent on the same trade, adjoining communities could have dramatically different unemployment rates." Communities=where the person lived and worked. II is a factor.
III. The person’s age
"Keyssar also scrutinizes unemployment patterns according to skill level, ethnicity, race, age, class, and gender." Although all there are analysed, only the effect of class and community is reported suggest that, the other factors are not reflective of unemployment, or not considered important enough by Keyssar. Age is not a factor.
(A) I only
(B) II only
-(C) I and II only
(D) I and III only
(E) I, II, and III


#8
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support Keyssar’s findings as they are described by the author?

(A) Boston, Massachusetts, and Quincy, Massachusetts, adjoining communities, had a higher rate of unemployment for working-class people in 1870 than in 1890.
This is completely irrelevant to Keyssar's study.
(B) White-collar professionals such as attorneys had as much trouble as day laborers in maintaining a steady level of employment throughout the period 1870-1920.
Keyssar's study actually shows that white-collar prefessionals had an easier time finding work. "those in middle-class and white-collar occupations were far less likely to be unemployed"
(C) Working-class women living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were more likely than working-class men living in Cambridge to be unemployed for some period of time during the year 1873.
There was no conclusion on gender by Keyssar's study.
-(D) In the 1890’s, shoe-factory workers moved away in large numbers from Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where shoe factories were being replaced by other industries, to adjoining West Chelmsford, where the shoe industry flourished.
This finding would support Keyssar's finding that "Even when dependent on the same trade, adjoining communities could have dramatically different unemployment rates."
(E) In the late nineteenth century, workers of all classes in Massachusetts were more likely than workers of all classes in other states to move their place of residence from one location to another within the state.
"Keyssar uses these differential rates to help explain a phenomenon that has puzzled historians"”the startlingly high rate of geographical mobility in the nineteenth-century United States. " Keyssar's point was that the moving of workers was throughout the United States and not just Massachucetts.


These five questions were dependent on how closely you read and understood the passage, unlike the other 3 which were more straightforward.

Also, this website is very professional =)

[StaceyKoprince]

The original text was deleted because the poster cited "GMAT Club" as the source. This folder is for GMATPrep questions only.