In a 1918 editorial, W.E.B. Du Bois advised African Americans to stop

goforgmat,




The first sentence of the passage tells us that "W.E.B. Du Bois advised African Americans {...} to proclaim their solidarity with White Americans for the duration of the First World War", implying that Du Bois advocated for African Americans to support the war effort. The last paragraph summarizes factors contributing to Du Bois's wartime position; one of those factors was that "Du Bois believed that African Americans’ contributions to past war efforts had brought them some legal and political advances." In other words, because of his historical knowledge of gains (ie legal and political) African Americans had made during past wars, Du Bois advocated that African Americans should proclaim their solidarity with White Americans for the duration of the First World War.
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P1 - about DB, his views + WW1 , + and - with BTW. last +Trotter
P2 - BD + long term goals same ; Change of heart when know ...
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Q1 :- The passage is primarily concerned with

A. identifying historical circumstances that led Du Bois to alter his long-term goals. --- only P2
B. defining “accommodationism” and showing how Du Bois used this strategy to achieve certain goals --- P2
C. accounting for a particular position adopted by Du Bois during the First World War.--- in P1 DB takes a position. in P2 he take action on grievances of the communities. covering both p1 and p2.
D. contesting the view that Du Bois was significantly influenced by either Washington or Trotter --- p2
E. assessing the effectiveness of a strategy that Du Bois urged African Americans to adopt --- assessing is more like evaluate. that is not true for this strategy.
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Q2 :- The passage indicates which of the following about Du Bois's attitude toward Washington ?
Lines to look for - a chief opponent of the accommodationist tactics urged by Booker T.Washington. however, Du Bois aligned himself with Trotter, Washington’s militant opponent, less for ideological reasons than because Trotter had described to him Washington’s efforts to silence those in the African American press who opposed Washington’s positions.
B. It underwent a shift in 1903 for reasons other than Du Bois's disagreement with Washington's accommodationist views.

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Q3 :- The passage suggests which of the following about the contributions of African Americans to the United States war effort during the First World War ?
C. The contributions did not end discrimination against African Americans in the military.

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Q4 :- The author of the passage refers to Washington's call to African Americans in 1895 primarily in order to
PRE-THINKING - this is mentioned to give example on db's shift.
D. support an assertion about Du Bois's tendency to shift his political positions
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Q5 :- According to the passage, which of the following is true of the strategy that Du Bois's 1918 editorial urged African Americans to adopt during the First World War ?
Furthermore, Du Bois believed that African Americans’ contributions to past war efforts had brought them some legal and political advances.
E. It was advocated by Du Bois in part because of his historical knowledge of gains African Americans had made during past wars.

Just a note. The passage seems poorly copied and pasted with several words missing and no paragraph breaks; This makes it cumbersome to read.

I don't think this is a particularly good way to ask about a question, either, as other members of this forum are more interested practicing sample questions, rather than merely explaining an answer.

Nonetheless, I believe the answer should be something like: "discussion of Du Bois's dynamic tactics."


A. identifying historical circumstances that
led Du Bois to alter his long-term goals.
No mention of long term goals.

B. defining “accommodationism” and showing
how Du Bois used this strategy to
achieve certain goals
accounting for a particular position
adopted by Du Bois during the First
World War.
"Accomodationism" was by no means the subject of the article.

D. contesting the view that Du Bois was significantly
influenced by either Washington
or Trotter.
Not D. he made no mention that people thought this way.

E. assessing the effectiveness of a strategy
that Du Bois urged African Americans to
adopt.
Not E, He didn't talk about effectiveness at all.

Folks,

My apologies if I annoyed some of you. I got this passage in one of the GMAT sets and pasted it as I got it. So whatever, spell errors you see are inherent. THe correct answer as per the solution is B. I fail to completely understand how this can be the answer.

For those who wanted to know the other questions. I am attaching a word file, with the passage and the questions. Hopefully this time, it will look better.

Bumping for review and further discussion*.

*New project from GMAT Club!!! Check HERE
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Can anyone explain question 2 here?
Basically I couldn't understand the whole part here
"In 1903, however, Du Bois aligned himself with Trotter, Washington’s militant opponent, less for ideological reasons than because Trotter had described to him Washington’s efforts to silence those in the African American press who opposed Washington’s positions."

The part you quoted above basically means: Du Bois agreed with Trotter who opposed Washington. The passage before this sentence mentioned that Du Bois likes Washington idea about African American issue. Therefore, the rest of the sentence that you quoted explained why Du Bois change his position. Du Bois supported Trotter because Washington brought a negative impact on African American "Washington’s efforts to silence those in the African American press who opposed Washington’s positions."
I am not expert but I hope this explanation helpful for you.

Q5 :- According to the passage, which of the following is true of the strategy that Du Bois's 1918 editorial urged African Americans to adopt during the First World War ?
DB's 1918 editorial advised African American people to stop agitating and to support White for the 1st W War. Now, this is because of two reasons that are mentioned in the paragraph 2 - 1> Govt. opposed African american press for voicing grievances 2> DB believed past war support led to advances for African Americans.
With this pre-thinking, let's do the process of elimination.

A. It was a strategy that Du Bois had consistently rejected in the past. - Incorrect: Passage states in the first paragraph that DB changed position. Thus, DB had not rejected this strategy throughout the past.

B. It represented a compromise between Du Bois's own views and those of Trotter. - Incorrect: There is no mention of a compromise between DB's and Trotter's position. In fact, Trotter position is mentioned briefly with which DB aligned

C. It represented a significant redefinition of the long-term goals Du Bois held prior to the war. - Incorrect: 1st line of the second para rejects this choice "Du Bois's wartime position thus reflected not a change in his long-term goals but rather a pragmatic response in the face of social pressure"

D. It was advocated by Du Bois in response to his recognition of the discrimination faced by African Americans during the war. - Opposite answer choice - Clearly, the last sentence of the passage states that this line of thought is the reason why DB recalled African Americans from the war i.e. going back on his 1918 wartime recommendation

E. It was advocated by Du Bois in part because of his historical knowledge of gains African Americans had made during past wars. - Correct answer choice - Matches pre-thinking and is stated in the paragraph 2 as one of the reason behind DB's line of thought during wartime.

The passage is primarily concerned with

A. identifying historical circumstances that led Du Bois to alter his long-term goals.

B. defining “accommodationism” and showing how Du Bois used this strategy to achieve certain goals

C. accounting for a particular position adopted by Du Bois during the First World War.

D. contesting the view that Du Bois was significantly influenced by either Washington or Trotter

E. assessing the effectiveness of a strategy that Du Bois urged African Americans to adopt

Reg Q1), can someone pls explain why the ans is C) and not D)

Is it because D) uses "contesting"?
What if D) used "accounting" instead of "contesting" ? Would D) be right then?

Or is it that the entire passage (2 para's) is viewed in entirety to answer the 1st statement made by Du Bois in support of Washington (1st few lines of the 1st para)? Hence the entire passage serves to account for that one controversial position held by Du Bois?

Thanks in advance

All Correct but timing was bad.
Total time:0:08:42.10, ,
1, 0:02:54.87, 0:02:54.87 [Para]
2, 0:00:32.67, 0:03:27.55
3, 0:01:20.33, 0:04:47.88
4, 0:01:10.94, 0:05:58.82
5, 0:00:55.21, 0:06:54.03
6, 0:01:47.76, 0:08:41.80

14Min...
I got 4 right and last one wrong..
Anyone's suggestion on how to increase speed as I have taken 5 min to read and answer 1st Question and rest 9 minutes for 4 Question.

Thanks in advance.

9 min 39 sec all Correct.
Any good strategies to reduce the time taken. ?
Thank you

Hi Goforgmat,

Regarding Q5, answer for the question can be clearly inferred from the below lines in the 2nd paragraph.

"Furthermore, Du Bois believed that African Americans’
contributions to past war efforts had brought them
some legal and political advances."

Thanks

Anyone pls explain how Q4(The author of the passage refers to Washington call ... In order to) the answer is d.
I am getting option a (also same(...continuum...) is included in passage just before mentioning Washington's call and also in og solution also same mentioned for a)

Posted from my mobile device

It asked why this pat is mentioned. What you need to do is read a line before this. however, Du Bois often shifted positions along the continuum between Washington and confrontationists such as William Trotter. For giving example of this line author has mentioned this part.
In 1895,when Washington called on African Americans to concentrate on improving their communities instead of opposing discrimination and agitating for political
rights,


D is on these line. straight and easy. Hope it helped.

The OA is in fact (D), as listed in the 2017 Verbal review (question #77).


On one end of the spectrum, you have Washington, an accommodationist. On the other end, you have Trotter, a confrontationist. Rather than aligning himself with either side consistently, "Du Bois often shifted positions along the continuum between Washington and confrontationists such as William Trotter."

Du Bois was often viewed as a "chief opponent of the accommodationist tactics urged by Booker T.Washington." However, in some instances, he would be on Washington's side. For example, Du Bois supported Washington's call to African Americans in 1895. This is evidence that Du Bois would shift his political views rather than firmly aligning himself with either side.

(A) is wrong because Du Bois did not have a "characteristic position on the continuum between accommodationism and confrontationism." The call to African Americans in 1895 does not show that Du Bois regularly aligned himself with accommodationism. Rather, it showed that he was willing to SHIFT his position along the continuum.

(D) is the best answer.
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can anyone explain question 1?

Q1 :- The passage is primarily concerned with

Pre-thinking: P1 introduces Du Bois and his editorial (which is conflicting). In P2, we discussed why he acted that way. 2 reasons - press freedom, historical reasons.

Let us now do POE.

A. identifying historical circumstances that led Du Bois to alter his long-term goals. P2 begins with a statement saying there is no change in Long term goals.

B. defining “accommodationism” and showing how Du Bois used this strategy to achieve certain goals No definition

D. contesting the view that Du Bois was significantly influenced by either Washington or Trotter Out of scope, influence is not dicsussed

E. assessing the effectiveness of a strategy that Du Bois urged African Americans to adopt No, we did not discuss about the results

C. accounting for a particular position adopted by Du Bois during the First World War. Yes, position stated in P1. Explanations in P2

Wow, I found this to be the most challenging RC passage I've read in quite some time. I did this passage yesterday at the end of my study session, and so it could have just been inpart due to fatigue from doing tons of Verbal, but I did nonetheless take longer than usual and get 1 question wrong. That said, I figured revisiting this today and sharing my thoughts right help both me and you.

Post Initial Read Thoughts:

Paragraph 1
- Notice that the passage immediately starts by rattling off examples and supporting evidence of an opinion that is to be formed later.
- Du Bois is a political figure that seems to have ideologies that lie on a spectrum, rather than with a single party.
- Du Boise has shown this by publicly supporting/endorsing the opinions of both Booker T.Washington and Trotter.

Paragraph 2
- This paragraph opens by referencing the first sentence of the entire passage, which simultaneously serves the role of first example of how Du Bois is focused on principles vs political party
- The author then offers up an additional piece of support, while also putting name to Du Bois' passive/accommodating stance: accommodationism.

From my experience, what made this passage particularly challenging was the subtle references made between the two paragraphs. The complexity with these 'hard' level questions (rated as "hard" by the OG book's Wiley software) seems to be that the passage is less direct, and information is not presented in a sequential manner. It's not to say that the information is presented in an illogical manner, but rather, just a more challenging one to readily digest. It certainly makes those 'inference' questions a little more labor intensive.

For instance, I think Q5 is a prime example of this:


The correct answer choice for this question - answer choice (E) - synthesizes Paragraph1/Sentence1 and Paragraph2/Sentence2. Recognizing the trigger word "furthermore" in Paragraph2/Sentence2 and making the connection that Du Bois' wartime position presented in his 1918 editorial was motivated by social pressures that he thought could negatively impact African Americans’ contributions to past war efforts, which had brought them some legal and political advances.