Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me : Reading Comprehension (RC)

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Sajal12

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Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

26 Jun 2021, 11:17

Hi experts,

Please explain how to identify main idea of this passage?

L

kntombat

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Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

26 Jun 2021, 11:44

Sajal12 wrote:

Hi experts,

Please explain how to identify main idea of this passage?

Sajal12, please read the answer above your comment

L

Sajjad1994

GRE Forum Moderator

Joined: 02 Nov 2016

Posts: 13954

GPA: 3.62

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

26 Jun 2021, 11:51

Expert Reply

Sajal12 wrote:

Hi experts,

Please explain how to identify main idea of this passage?

You can read the post in the link below, I hope it will be helpful

https://gmatclub.com/forum/antonia-cast ... l#p2811970

Good luck

nkrnkr

Intern

Joined: 23 Apr 2020

Posts: 3

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

17 Jul 2021, 05:39

Hi,

Self introduction - a long time lurker, a first time poster.

Q3 has placed me in a very uncomfortable position. I usually get the answers right for both RC and CR, but I am missing something here in this particular question.

Q3 is a strengthen question and refers to authors 'explanation' explicitly in QS.

Again, passage explicitly states 'the laws explain'... OK, so far so good.

Now the divergence: Option-C says 'some'. OK, 'some' means at least 1, yeah maybe 2, but definitely not 'many' or even 'several'. Not convinced. Doesn't have the objectivity of scale.

Option-E: 'most' - great! Hispanic men - OK, if we consider between Hispanic Vs rest. So California belongs to Hispanic people, awesome.

Now, I connect this piece with QS 'explains', and passage 'explains' - which refers to 'the law'. And what does the law states - that women will eventually inherit the property! I mean, as I guy, if I know that even if currently the property belongs to a girl's father (Hispanic men) but there is a law that guarantees that it will go (at least equally) to her daughter after his death - then that's a motivation to pursue such an alliance!

I mean, come on! 'Law' means a 100% guarantee. And a daughter of a rich elite guy is still 'elite', even though presently she doesn't have the properties in her name - she will definitely inherit that eventually.

What am I missing? Honestly, I get the logic clear, but here 'blank'.

GMATNinja
AndrewN
ANY expert?

Posted from my mobile device

nkrnkr

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Joined: 23 Apr 2020

Posts: 3

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

17 Jul 2021, 21:32

Hi AndrewN,

Appreciate your analysis.

Just a few more points:
1. I was tricked due to the use the word 'some': I have seen numerous official answer choices rejected explicitly because of the implicit interpretation of 'some' as 'irrelevantly few' (including some of your analyses, which are wonderful, as always!). Of course, I have seen 'some' also work as a deciding factor in correct choices when it's more about a 0/1 logic, rather than a logic of scale (less/more).

This is the first time, I have encountered 'some' used at a place where scale matters, which is evident from the use of the word 'stereotypical'. You need 'several' instances to make something 'stereotypical'.

If we start interpreting 'some' as maybe 'several' or 'many', then many official questions can be debated. I think we better let 'some' refer to less magnitude.

2. Another confusion was because of the exact wordings of the passage 'For Castaneda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot'. I read it literally to imply the law got to do something with this whole plot. So 'inheritance law' to act as an incentive. It's such a common plot in movies and period dramas: pursuing the daughter of a king for greed of anticipated property/power. I didn't think of this reasoning as a 1-step removed logic.

Also, author just refers to 'elite Californianas' - daughter of 'elite' family is 'elite', ain't she? Author didn't refer only to Californianas who own properties as elite.

3. I interpreted AC5 as a distinction between Hispanic and Rest (not between Hispanic men and women), so I thought of it as a strengthener.

4. It's a bit funny to think that on one hand there is an inheritance law that provides equal right to women, while on the other hand 'most' properties for the complete 19th century (1801-1900) were controlled by 'men'. Quite a paradox, unless the law and ground reality were different, making the law essentially a dummy law. Or perhaps, the women willingly gave up their inheritance right.

Can we latch on to this 'disconnect' to rule out AC5: 'a law' not same as 'ground reality', both can be different?

5. Your distinction between the property right and inheritance right is to the point. Californianas can work hard and owe property by their own efforts. Good point.

6. I liked your message to keep my mind focussed on the story plot - a plot to pursue a women directly for greed of property is different from indirectly pursuing her. That can be a different plot, where the father needs to die first.

I consider official questions and the correct answer choices as words of Zeus: they MUST be foolproof. It's I that may be missing something here.

Anyway, enough blabbering. You do not need to reply, but still would appreciate if you can give your thoughts on my (lame) commentary. Other experts opinion also would be very helpful, always great to have a diverse range of opinions (VeritasKarishma, egmat, @CrackVerbalGMAT). In fact, I came to this question seeing one of the videos put up by GMATNinja.

Thanks all, thanks the community!

Posted from my mobile device

nkrnkr

Intern

Joined: 23 Apr 2020

Posts: 3

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

19 Jul 2021, 07:28

Hi, AndrewN

You got me this time right at the heart of my misunderstanding. Cheers to you!

I messed up between reality and fiction plot. Here, the use of 'some' is more of a 0/1 condition, as even a couple of instances of Californianas owning valuable properties is sufficient to fuel the creativity of the fiction writers. We do not need 'several' instances.

Also, the scope of the passage is limited only to 'literary depictions', which do not need to have any (significant) bearing with the ground reality. And the target group is only limited to those fiction writers.

Just the presence of a law won't fuel the creativity of the writers to romanticize the Californianas (that would be a very boring novel indeed!) - they actually would require some such elite Californianas holding those valuable properties to relate more to the common people.

My prior reasoning of 'inheritance' seems a boring motivation for such story plots. Unless it's established that Californianas did owe properties themselves, there is no strong reason to write such fiction novels of pursuing them just because a law guarantees them inheritance.

Test writers are indeed experts (on steroids).

Thanks again, Andrew. As a native speaker, you help bring out nuances that non-native speakers don't notice.

Hi VeritasKarishma,

Really appreciate your response. Your response is apt and touches the exact same misunderstanding that Andrew pointed out in his last post.

You guys seriously have such a great command on the language and at the same time, are humble enough to take your time to patiently address the queries of random students on the forum. I am indeed grateful to you all.

Thanks again. Have a great day.

Posted from my mobile device

B

AkhilAggarwal

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Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

22 Jul 2021, 15:17

AbdurRakib wrote:

The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018 New RC

Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women's studies and Mexican-American history to examine nineteenth-century literary portrayals of Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of women's history observe that in the Unites States, male novelists of the period─during which, according to these scholars, women's traditional economic role in home-based agriculture was threatened by the transition to a factory-based industrial economy─define women solely in their domestic roles of wife and mother. Castañeda finds that during the same period that saw non-Hispanic women being economically displaced by industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial California protected the economic position of "Californianas" (the Mexican women of the territory) by ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights equal to those of males.

For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot created primarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: the story of an ambitious non-hispanic merchant or trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana. These novels' favourable portrayal of such women is noteworthy, since Mexican-American historians have concluded that unflattering literary depictions of Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States public's support for the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The importance of economic alliances forged through marriages with Californianas explains this apparent contradiction. Because of their real-life economic significance, the Californianas were portrayed more favourably than were others of the same nationality.

1. The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in line 29 refers to the discrepancy between the

A. legal status of Mexican women in territorial California and their status in the United States
B. unflattering depiction of Mexicans in novels and the actual public sentiment about the Mexican-American War
C. existence of many marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants and the strictures against them expressed in novels
D. literary depiction of elite Californianas and the literary depiction of other Mexican individuals
E. novelistic portrayals of elite Californianas’ privileged lives and the actual circumstances of those lives

2. Which of the following could best serve as an example of the kind of fictional plot discussed by Antonia Castañeda?

A. A land speculator of English ancestry weds the daughter of a Mexican vineyard owner after the speculator has migrated to California to seek his fortune.
B. A Californian woman of Hispanic ancestry finds that her agricultural livelihood is threatened when her husband is forced to seek work in a textile mill.
C. A Mexican rancher who loses his land as a result of the Mexican-American War migrates to the northern United States and marries an immigrant schoolteacher.
D. A wealthy Californiana whose father has bequeathed her all his property contends with avaricious relatives for her inheritance.
E. A poor married couple emigrate from French Canada and gradually become wealthy as merchants in territorial California.

3. Which of the following, if true, would provide the most support for Castañeda’s explanation of the “stereotypical plot” mentioned in lines 18-19?

A. Non-Hispanic traders found business more profitable in California while it was a territory than when it became a state.
B. Very few marriages between Hispanic women and non-Hispanic men in nineteenth-century territorial California have actually been documented.
C. Records from the nineteenth century indicate that some large and valuable properties were owned by elite Californianas in their own right.
D. Unmarried non-Hispanic women in the nineteenth-century United States were sometimes able to control property in their own right.
E. Most of the property in nineteenth-century territorial California was controlled by Hispanic men.

4. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. trace historical influences on the depiction of Mexican Americans in the nineteenth century
B. explain how research in history has been affected by scholarship in women's studies
C. describe the historical origins of a literary stereotype
D. discuss ways in which minority writers have sought to critique a dominant culture through their writing
E. evaluate both sides in a scholarly debate about a prominent literary stereotype

RC00548-01.02

Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo VeritasKarishma Veritas egmat ManhattanPrep Other experts

Please explain Q3,Q4? What does hispanic and non-hispanic in passage refers to?

L

KarishmaB

Tutor

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Location: Pune, India

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

23 Jul 2021, 04:25

Expert Reply

AkhilAggarwal wrote:

AbdurRakib wrote:

The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018 New RC

Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women's studies and Mexican-American history to examine nineteenth-century literary portrayals of Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of women's history observe that in the Unites States, male novelists of the period─during which, according to these scholars, women's traditional economic role in home-based agriculture was threatened by the transition to a factory-based industrial economy─define women solely in their domestic roles of wife and mother. Castañeda finds that during the same period that saw non-Hispanic women being economically displaced by industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial California protected the economic position of "Californianas" (the Mexican women of the territory) by ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights equal to those of males.

For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot created primarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: the story of an ambitious non-hispanic merchant or trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana. These novels' favourable portrayal of such women is noteworthy, since Mexican-American historians have concluded that unflattering literary depictions of Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States public's support for the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The importance of economic alliances forged through marriages with Californianas explains this apparent contradiction. Because of their real-life economic significance, the Californianas were portrayed more favourably than were others of the same nationality.

1. The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in line 29 refers to the discrepancy between the

A. legal status of Mexican women in territorial California and their status in the United States
B. unflattering depiction of Mexicans in novels and the actual public sentiment about the Mexican-American War
C. existence of many marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants and the strictures against them expressed in novels
D. literary depiction of elite Californianas and the literary depiction of other Mexican individuals
E. novelistic portrayals of elite Californianas’ privileged lives and the actual circumstances of those lives

2. Which of the following could best serve as an example of the kind of fictional plot discussed by Antonia Castañeda?

A. A land speculator of English ancestry weds the daughter of a Mexican vineyard owner after the speculator has migrated to California to seek his fortune.
B. A Californian woman of Hispanic ancestry finds that her agricultural livelihood is threatened when her husband is forced to seek work in a textile mill.
C. A Mexican rancher who loses his land as a result of the Mexican-American War migrates to the northern United States and marries an immigrant schoolteacher.
D. A wealthy Californiana whose father has bequeathed her all his property contends with avaricious relatives for her inheritance.
E. A poor married couple emigrate from French Canada and gradually become wealthy as merchants in territorial California.

3. Which of the following, if true, would provide the most support for Castañeda’s explanation of the “stereotypical plot” mentioned in lines 18-19?

A. Non-Hispanic traders found business more profitable in California while it was a territory than when it became a state.
B. Very few marriages between Hispanic women and non-Hispanic men in nineteenth-century territorial California have actually been documented.
C. Records from the nineteenth century indicate that some large and valuable properties were owned by elite Californianas in their own right.
D. Unmarried non-Hispanic women in the nineteenth-century United States were sometimes able to control property in their own right.
E. Most of the property in nineteenth-century territorial California was controlled by Hispanic men.

4. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. trace historical influences on the depiction of Mexican Americans in the nineteenth century
B. explain how research in history has been affected by scholarship in women's studies
C. describe the historical origins of a literary stereotype
D. discuss ways in which minority writers have sought to critique a dominant culture through their writing
E. evaluate both sides in a scholarly debate about a prominent literary stereotype

RC00548-01.02

Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo VeritasKarishma Veritas egmat ManhattanPrep Other experts

Please explain Q3,Q4? What does hispanic and non-hispanic in passage refers to?

AkhilAggarwal - Once you go through the explanation given on the link above, I think you will agree that the passage "describes the historical origins of a literary stereotype". Let me know if you still have doubts.

B

AkhilAggarwal

Intern

Joined: 08 Sep 2020

Posts: 45

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

25 Jul 2021, 09:41

VeritasKarishma wrote:

AkhilAggarwal wrote:

AbdurRakib wrote:

The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018 New RC

Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women's studies and Mexican-American history to examine nineteenth-century literary portrayals of Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of women's history observe that in the Unites States, male novelists of the period─during which, according to these scholars, women's traditional economic role in home-based agriculture was threatened by the transition to a factory-based industrial economy─define women solely in their domestic roles of wife and mother. Castañeda finds that during the same period that saw non-Hispanic women being economically displaced by industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial California protected the economic position of "Californianas" (the Mexican women of the territory) by ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights equal to those of males.

For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot created primarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: the story of an ambitious non-hispanic merchant or trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana. These novels' favourable portrayal of such women is noteworthy, since Mexican-American historians have concluded that unflattering literary depictions of Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States public's support for the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The importance of economic alliances forged through marriages with Californianas explains this apparent contradiction. Because of their real-life economic significance, the Californianas were portrayed more favourably than were others of the same nationality.

1. The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in line 29 refers to the discrepancy between the

A. legal status of Mexican women in territorial California and their status in the United States
B. unflattering depiction of Mexicans in novels and the actual public sentiment about the Mexican-American War
C. existence of many marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants and the strictures against them expressed in novels
D. literary depiction of elite Californianas and the literary depiction of other Mexican individuals
E. novelistic portrayals of elite Californianas’ privileged lives and the actual circumstances of those lives

2. Which of the following could best serve as an example of the kind of fictional plot discussed by Antonia Castañeda?

A. A land speculator of English ancestry weds the daughter of a Mexican vineyard owner after the speculator has migrated to California to seek his fortune.
B. A Californian woman of Hispanic ancestry finds that her agricultural livelihood is threatened when her husband is forced to seek work in a textile mill.
C. A Mexican rancher who loses his land as a result of the Mexican-American War migrates to the northern United States and marries an immigrant schoolteacher.
D. A wealthy Californiana whose father has bequeathed her all his property contends with avaricious relatives for her inheritance.
E. A poor married couple emigrate from French Canada and gradually become wealthy as merchants in territorial California.

3. Which of the following, if true, would provide the most support for Castañeda’s explanation of the “stereotypical plot” mentioned in lines 18-19?

A. Non-Hispanic traders found business more profitable in California while it was a territory than when it became a state.
B. Very few marriages between Hispanic women and non-Hispanic men in nineteenth-century territorial California have actually been documented.
C. Records from the nineteenth century indicate that some large and valuable properties were owned by elite Californianas in their own right.
D. Unmarried non-Hispanic women in the nineteenth-century United States were sometimes able to control property in their own right.
E. Most of the property in nineteenth-century territorial California was controlled by Hispanic men.

4. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. trace historical influences on the depiction of Mexican Americans in the nineteenth century
B. explain how research in history has been affected by scholarship in women's studies
C. describe the historical origins of a literary stereotype
D. discuss ways in which minority writers have sought to critique a dominant culture through their writing
E. evaluate both sides in a scholarly debate about a prominent literary stereotype

RC00548-01.02

Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo VeritasKarishma Veritas egmat ManhattanPrep Other experts

Please explain Q3,Q4? What does hispanic and non-hispanic in passage refers to?

AkhilAggarwal - Once you go through the explanation given on the link above, I think you will agree that the passage "describes the historical origins of a literary stereotype". Let me know if you still have doubts.

Hi VeritasKarishma

Could you please explain what does "hispanic" and "non hispanic" mean here? I have already a spent a lot of time on this RC,but I am unable to understand these words.
When I have googled these words,I have got the below explanation for "hispanic",whereas I haven't found anything for non hispanic
Hispanic:"Hispanics are people from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America (this excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language)"

P

GMATaxe001

Manager

Joined: 19 Jun 2019

Posts: 189

Location: India

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

03 Aug 2021, 18:27

GMATNinja, Can you kindly help to understand why C and Not A is the primary purpose of the passage?
I Marked A, thinking that the depiction of 19th century Mexican Americans were influenced by a variety of factors. but I was not crystal clear about my idea. Kindly help.

Thanks a lot.

B

aditijain1507

Intern

Joined: 16 Nov 2021

Posts: 49

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

13 Jan 2022, 03:10

GMATNinja , can you please help with Q4? How is it not A?

L

bM22

Retired Moderator

Joined: 05 May 2016

Posts: 792

Location: India

Schools: IIM (A) IIM (A) IIM-A '24 (A) ISB '24 (A)

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me [#permalink]

15 Jan 2022, 09:27

aditijain1507 wrote:

GMATNinja , can you please help with Q4? How is it not A?

Hi aditijain1507,

Please refer the below reply by expert here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/antonia-castaneda-has-utilized-scholarship-from-women-s-studies-and-me-242693-20.html#p2516676

https://gmatclub.com/forum/antonia-castaneda-has-utilized-scholarship-from-women-s-studies-and-me-242693-20.html#p2555124

Let us know if you still have doubts.

Thanks.

B

BansalT

Intern

Joined: 15 Aug 2022

Posts: 44

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

19 Nov 2022, 02:49

Hi cn someone please explain ques 4. the primary purpose of the passage?

L

Sajjad1994

GRE Forum Moderator

Joined: 02 Nov 2016

Posts: 13954

GPA: 3.62

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

19 Nov 2022, 03:54

Expert Reply

BansalT wrote:

Hi cn someone please explain ques 4. the primary purpose of the passage?

Read the explanation in the post in the link below

https://gmatclub.com/forum/antonia-cast ... l#p2516676

Best.

B

Utkersh

Intern

Joined: 14 Jul 2022

Posts: 15

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

13 May 2023, 14:34

Hi, can someone please explain Q-4 as well. Struggling to identify the main idea of the passage. I went with A (more of a guess).

L

Sajjad1994

GRE Forum Moderator

Joined: 02 Nov 2016

Posts: 13954

GPA: 3.62

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

13 May 2023, 23:35

Expert Reply

Explained here

https://gmatclub.com/forum/antonia-cast ... l#p2516676

Utkersh wrote:

Hi, can someone please explain Q-4 as well. Struggling to identify the main idea of the passage. I went with A (more of a guess).

S

Sneha2021

Senior Manager

Joined: 20 Dec 2020

Posts: 287

Location: India

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

27 Jun 2023, 08:51

GMATNinja KarishmaB

A. trace historical influences on the depiction of Mexican Americans in the nineteenth century
Why can't we consider "Mexican Americans" as "Californians" described in the passage? Californianas were Mexican women living in California. So we can call them Mexican American. In that case, A will be correct.
As the overall passage focused on stereotypical plot focused on "Californianas", the passage traces influences on the depiction of "Californianas"

Thank you for your help!

L

KarishmaB

Tutor

Joined: 16 Oct 2010

Posts: 14816

Location: Pune, India

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

27 Jun 2023, 22:40

Expert Reply

Sneha2021 wrote:

GMATNinja KarishmaB

A. trace historical influences on the depiction of Mexican Americans in the nineteenth century
Why can't we consider "Mexican Americans" as "Californians" described in the passage? Californianas were Mexican women living in California. So we can call them Mexican American. In that case, A will be correct.
As the overall passage focused on stereotypical plot focused on "Californianas", the passage traces influences on the depiction of "Californianas"

Thank you for your help!

Sneha2021 - Which question are we discussing here?

gmatclubot

Re: Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from womens studies and Me [#permalink]

27 Jun 2023, 22:40

GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Me

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