16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardTwo authors on the significance of a record

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The parish's 1750 list of paupers, naming forty families, shows a village in deep poverty, argues historian Ana Kerr. Text 2 The list was drawn up the year the parish sued its neighbour over which of them must support those families, and it names everyone who might conceivably be claimed. Half the families on it were, by the parish's own rate books, paying rates the same year. The list measures the parish's legal anxiety, not its poverty.

Which choice best describes how the author of Text 2 responds to Kerr's reading?

  1. A. By arguing that the list was compiled for a lawsuit and inflated, so it cannot be read as a straight count of the poor.Correct
  2. B. By denying that the list exists.
  3. C. By agreeing that the village was in deep poverty.
  4. D. By claiming the list names too few families.

Answer: A. By arguing that the list was compiled for a lawsuit and inflated, so it cannot be read as a straight count of the poor.

Drawn up for a lawsuit; half were ratepayers.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. By denying that the list exists.
Not disputed.
C. By agreeing that the village was in deep poverty.
The reverse.
D. By claiming the list names too few families.
Too many, if anything.

More Craft and Structure questions

Not affiliated with the College Board. SAT is a trademark of the College Board.