In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry, women were emp

In 7:31 min. My picks are BAA. Got all correct. the 3rd Qs took more than 2 mins.
1st Q: Line 17-20. Pretty clear explanation in passage.
2nd Q: A is correct. All other out of scope or incorrect.
3rd Q: Eliminated BDE. I was stuck between A & C.
Hope somebody can explain the 3rd Qs properly.

For 43.. I am confused between A and B...
Since the passage mentions two factor for high concentration of women in particular jobs-
1) limited opportunities due to their role as a child bearer
2) they want work from home

Now, does not B provide an alternate explanation why there can be limited opportunities for women to acquire high skills for high pay jobs (than presented in the message).. After all in option A, we are just providing an alternate explanation that it is their unwillingness to work outside than motivation to bear child why they prefer low paid jobs..

Where am I wrong..?? Please help..

@ Zerosleep
Though late but i will try to explain difference between A & B . A suggests that women unlikely to work even though they have limited opportunity. This weakens the stated argument in the passage where it is mentioned they were willing to work even from home also.

Why B is wrong: This is because its our probable thinking that parents were not interested to teach the daughters.If we go with this thinking then also it says women(daughters) unlikely to work.

B A A - 6min 34sec - All correct
42)Given in the passage these jobs could not be done at home. Hence, B

43)
(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor. --contradicts the second point of the theory
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons. --irrelevant
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. --the theory says that participation was high but more than required
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children. --strengthens
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to
produce. --very specific. We're looking at the bigger picture

Hence A

44) A
Theory explains why women were not able to get high skilled jobs but does not explain the difference in wagres

Took 4 mins 30 seconds, including 2 mins to read

42. The passage suggests that combing and carding differ from weaving in that combing and carding were
(B) low-skill jobs that were not performed in the home - In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home.

43. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?
(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.
- Women's role as child bearers, however, results in interruptions in their participation in the job market (as compared with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work.

44. The author of the passage would be most likely to describe the explanation provided by the human capital theory for the high concentration of women in certain occupations in the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry as
(A) well founded though incomplete - There were, however, differences in pay scales that cannot be explained by the human capital theory.

question 3 is hard. in fact, I do not see choice A is good but just a best answer.
passage dose not say any thing about the human theory regarding concentration of job. but passage say generally about the human theory. we can not infer A is correct.

but because other choices are wrong clearly, i choose choice A.

"there is some cases which can not be explained by theory", the first sentence of paragraph 2, can be used to infer choice A

GMATNinjaTwo GMATNinja


Can you please explain Q2.

As per me, according to the human capital theory the high concentration of women in low skilled jobs was because they had to bear children and because they had to stay at home, they could only take occupations which could be carried from home.

I was not able to perform POE well here on lines of thinking about alternate cause.

Got all 3 correct in just under 4.5 minutes.

4:45 mins and all 3 correct. Is this a good time for a passage of this kind?

1st Passage, line 4 says..Theory is USEFUL---- Positive Word
2nd Passage first line says ....Differences in pay scales cannot be explained by the human capital theory--- So theory is incomplete

Answer is A, Well founded though incomplete.

Hi GMATNinja,

I was wondering could you please explain why option B is incorrect? I understand the reasoning behind option A but I am not still not able to let go of option B. In the paragraph it says, "Women's role as child bearers, however, results in interruptions in their participation in the job market (as compared with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work.". We need a statement that will tell us that it wasn't because of women's role as child bearers but instead something else which explains why they weren't able to work. My reasoning behind option B was that if parents were teaching the skills to their sons only and not to their daughters, this helps weaken the conclusion that the low opportunities resulted from their role as child bearers. Instead it was because of the parents who didn't teach their daughters the necessary skills. Could you please tell me where I went wrong in my reasoning? Would greatly appreciate it!

Hello singhgaurav957

Let me help you.
To improve the RC skills you need following things-
1. Read a lot. And try to cover a variety of topics like science, economics, sociology, anthropology etc.
2. Try to understand what the author is trying to say. Best way to achieve this is by thinking that you need to explain the same to one of your colleagues. So read carefully.
3. Try to know the tone of the author. Positive, Critical, Skeptical or neutral. These are only some examples.
4. Practice a lot. Do it every day and try to learn maximum from each error.
5. The most important thing - Read very slowly. Don't think about your timing. Once you master these techniques, you will need very less time to answer.

Hope it helps.

I have eliminated A because the question asks about" the explanation provided by the human capital theory for high concentration of women in certain occupations" .
At the end of the first para it is specified clearly .
So how could it be incomplete?
the next para talks about the differences in the pay scale that is incomplete and is not related to "theory for high concentration of women in certain occupations" .

My mind is clumsy. please help!!
and one more question.
Is this really a sub 600 level paragraph?

Note that the author's logic is very focused: Women's role as child bearers results in interruptions in their participation in the job market and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work.

Because this explanation is concerned with the loss of opportunity to acquire training in the job market for child-bearing women, we want the answer choice that most directly weakens this logic. Choice (A) does exactly that by providing evidence that women could actually take advantage of flexible hours to participate in the job market.

Choice (B) does much less to challenge the author's statements. Even if true, this information only tells us about learning opportunities for boys and girls under the supervision of their parents. Because (B) doesn't tell us anything about occupational skills that grown women could learn in the job market, it doesn't do much to weaken the specific claim being made by the author.

(A) remains the best choice.

1. The passage suggests that combing and carding differ from weaving in that combing and carding were
Relevant text: "HC explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home"

(A) low-skill jobs performed primarily by women employees (those jobs are actually similar in this regard
(B) low-skill jobs that were not performed in the home correct
(C) low-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees the relevant text discusses females
(D) high-skill jobs performed outside the home tries to trap you by using words from the text "a high (concentration)"
(E) high-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees incorrect as this follows from the above comments

2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?
Relevant text: "In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home". So this is clear that the main factor was claimed to be child rearing that required women to stay at home

(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor. correct since answer this suggests that women didn't choose even those occupation that offered flexible hours, showing that perhaps child rearing wasn't the key factor afterall
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons. this seems a bit broad because it mentions "parents", and it gives an irrelevant comparison of children who were thought skills
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. this still doesn't give an alternative reason that would explain why women tended to concentrate in one occupation than in some others
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children. well if the majority had, then I think it's more likely that the theory is correct
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to
produce. this gives information about weaving a relative proportion of women who worked there, but it doesn't relate this info to the other occupations, and so it cannot explain any differently the HC theory

3. The author of the passage would be most likely to describe the explanation provided by the human capital theory for the high concentration of women in certain occupations in the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry as
Relevant text: "In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home". So this is clear that the main factor was claimed to be child rearing that required women to stay at home

(A) well founded though incomplete correct because the author does not show any signs of disagreement. The words "but not in others" express the author's concern that this may be a gap that the HC leaves out. Note that the flaw is mentioned in relation to pay.
(B) difficult to articulate difficulty is not discussed in this context
(C) plausible but poorly substantiated this is a trap because it redirects your thinking about the second paragraph
(D) seriously flawed "seriously" is already alarming
(E) contrary to recent research and what research would that be

I did poorly in on this passage. But I hope my debrief will be helpfull

2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?

(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children.
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.


I have read the posts and still couldn't figure out as to why choice A is correct.
A makes sense to me if domestic tasks include child rearing. But it does not then it does not weaken the argument.

Also, I thought B was correct since it presented another reason that the one stated by the theory. And if we are giving an alternate explanation are we not weakening the explaination provided by the human capital theory?

Please let me know where my understanding is incorrect. Thanks in advance.

2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?

(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children.
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.

Answer A
Portion from the passage : Women's role as child bearers, however, results in interruptions in their participation in the job market (as compared with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work