LoneSurvivor wrote:
Can anyone please help me with the Question 1 . Central Idea of the Passage.
Careful! The question does not ask us what central
idea of the passage is. It asks us:
Quote:
1. Which of the following most accurately states the central purpose of the passage?
Well, here's how the passage breaks down in terms of structure and purpose:
- P1: Comparable worth has become a critical social policy issue in the last decade, as it's been more widely considered and adopted by institutions.
- P2: But one question remains: Are the corresponding gains in pay equity precedent-setting, or are they transitory (temporary)?
- P3: For many reasons, comparable worth pay adjustments are precedent-setting (perhaps even more so than major precedent-setting policies of the past).
Overall, the author is presenting a social policy change (widespread adoption of comparable worth principles) and explaining what kind of impact that change has made (a lasting impact). The question the author asks in P2 —
has this change of policy really made a lasting impact? is the lynchpin of this entire passage. Everything before is the setup, and everything after is the answer.
Let's review the answer choices and eliminate any choice that doesn't match our understanding of the passage's central purpose:
Quote:
A. To criticize the implementation of a new procedure
Explaining why the results of a policy are precedent-setting is not at all a form of criticism of that policy. Eliminate (A).
Quote:
B. To assess the significance of a change in policy
Bingo! This captures what the author is doing with each paragraph, from start to finish. Let's keep (B) around.
Quote:
C. To illustrate how a new standard alters procedures
This sounds good, but if we follow the wording precisely, it doesn't reflect the central purpose of the passage.
The author does NOT use paragraphs 1 and 2 to present existing
procedures, then use paragraph 3 to illustrate how comparable worth pay adjustments alter those
procedures.
Rather, the author uses paragraphs 1 and 2 to present a policy and
ask whether adoption of that policy has really made a lasting impact. Then the author uses paragraph 3 to answer that question in terms of outcomes (i.e, perceived unjustified pay differences are eliminated and more comprehensive valuation of work takes place across dissimilar jobs).
(C) misses the central point of the passage, which is why we eliminate it.
Quote:
D. To explain how a new policy is applied in specific cases
Nope. Not only does choice (D) miss the central point of the passage (to evaluate the impact of comparable worth policy), (D) doesn't even match up with the literal content of the passage — because none of the paragraphs was written to explain how comparable worth policy is
applied in specific cases.
Eliminate (D) and move on.
Quote:
E. To summarize the changes made to date as a result of social policy
The author's objective in writing this passage is not to
summarize changes made, so we can get rid of (E) as well.
We cannot answer this type of question by looking for answer choices that seem to match some part of the passage. Instead, we need a solid understanding of
why the author wrote the passage as whole, and what each paragraph contributes to that purpose.
With that understanding in hand, it becomes much easier to reject answer choices that might
sound accurate, but don't come close to expressing the central purpose of the passage.
I hope that helps!
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