It is natural to believe that the world’s leading cities would be foun

Question

It is natural to believe that the world’s leading cities would be found to be in a constant state of change, evolving to accommodate new waves of immigrants, work/life balance, modes of transport and architectural style. With such a process of reinvention and renewal, and often sprawl, these places must become almost unrecognizable over long periods of time, say, for example, 100 years. However, when you get down to it and have a careful look at how these cities have changed over such a period, you are immediately struck not by the way they have changed but in the ways they haven’t. In particular, most of the broad patterns of socio economic class remain the same, as do many local socioeconomic characteristics. Most of the poorest areas will still be found to be poor. The architectural style of slum may have changed; low-rise, multi-occupied hovels may well have been knocked down to be replaced with high-rise flats on sprawling heartless estates, but the social malaise caused by poverty and unemployment remains. A road that was notorious 100 years ago as a place frequented by drunks and members of the criminal class may well be found to suffer the same challenges. Only the language used to describe the nature of the problem will have changed and perhaps the problems will be attributed to drugs rather than alcohol and gangs of alienated youths rather than a criminal class.    1 
 1. Which of the suggested answers best expresses the key point of the passage?

A. The social geography of the world’s leading cities changes over long periods less than you might expect.
B. In the last 100 years, the world’s leading cities have changed beyond recognition architecturally, but socially they have hardly changed at all.
C. The world’s leading cities are in a constant state of change, evolving to accommodate new waves of immigrants, work/life balance, modes of transport and architectural style.
D. When you get down to it and have a careful look at these cities you are struck not by the way they have changed, but in the ways they haven’t.
E. The world’s great cities are just that because they are in a constant state of flux.

2 
 2. Which of the following statements would the author of the passage be most likely to disagree with?

A. The architecture of the world’s great cities is being constantly revamped.
B. The language with which we describe the social geography of our great cities is constantly evolving.
C. The social geography of our great cities is in a constant state of transformation.
D. The social geography of our great cities appears invariable.
E. Tomorrow’s archeologists will find our architectural styles and modes of transport novel.

3 
 3. In the context of the passage, the word ‘sprawl’ means:

A. spread out one’s limbs
B. disorganized expansion
C. an ungainly movement
D. an industrial area
E. a mix of residential and industrial developments

RC Butler 2022  -  Practice Two RC Passages Everyday.   
Passage # 30 Date: 19-Jan-2022
 This question is a part of RC Butler 2022 .  Click here for Details

Source: How to Pass the GMAT

100mitra · Answer

12 mins - 2/3 correct 
  Passage summary:   Changes in evolving cities, but socio-economic remains the same.

2. Which of the following statements would the author of the passage 
be most likely to disagree with ? 
A. The architecture of the world’s great cities is being constantly revamped.
  Correct:    as mentioned in the passage, “It is natural to believe that the world’s leading cities would be found to be in a constant state of change”

B. The language with which we describe the social geography of our great cities is constantly evolving.
  Correct : it can be inferred from the passage, from earlier part of used to describe about great cities,
” With such a process of reinvention and renewal, and often sprawl, 
these places must become almost unrecognizable over long periods of time, say, 
for example, 100 years”

C. The social geography of our great cities is in a constant state of transformation.
  Wrong:  as mentioned in the passage, author uses contrast information, to describe, no changes has reflected, 
“In particular, most of the broad patterns of socio-economic class remain the same, as do many local socioeconomic characteristics”

D. The social geography of our great cities appears invariable.
  Correct:  this stem is opposite to Option C

E. Tomorrow’s archeologists will find our architectural styles and modes of transport novel
  Correct:  it can be inferred from the passage, 1st line, “It is natural to believe that the world’s leading cities would be found to be in a constant state of change, evolving to accommodate new waves of immigrants, work/life balance, modes of transport and architectural style”

3. In the context of the passage, the word ‘sprawl’ means:  
  Explanation    : as mentioned in the passage,
”With such a process of reinvention and renewal, and   often sprawl  , 
these places must become almost unrecognizable over long periods of time,”

Here Author tried to describe the evolving of a great city spread by word   “often sprawl”   
it means, city A starts developing in its certain region, 
it has started developing in the same region, 
 Example . Initial location Industrial area was in East direction, 
all industries will start developing in this region irrespective of organized area of city, 
rather than finding opportunities in other part/region/sector of the city, 
industrialization sector tends to grow in length in same region in a defined pattern, 
same may appear to other sectors based on density, which makes city structure un-organized or distorted

A. spread out one’s limbs –  Not the intended meaning, in line with passage explanation   Trap! 
  B. disorganized expansion - Correct  
C. an ungainly movement  - Wrong 
D. an industrial area – Highlight specific region or sector  - Wrong 
E. a mix of residential and industrial developments  – Wrong: highlight the specific region, but in a pattern

100mitra · Answer

Sajjad1994 , please can you share explanation for Question 1
Thank you in advance.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

1. Which of the suggested answers best expresses the key point of the passage?

Difficulty Level:   700

Explanation

This is a global question, so we cannot read any particular text from the passage again. Keeping in view the requirement of the global question, the answer must keep hold of all the passages and must not concentrate on a particular portion. Let's read each answer choice one by one.

A. The social geography of the world's leading cities changes over long periods less than you might expect.

This seems OK. It outlines the whole of the passage in one sentence. However, if you are curious why it is saying "less than one might expect", we cannot measure the expectation of any person, so to limit the generalizability, the author has used less than and not more than.

B. In the last 100 years, the world's leading cities have changed  beyond recognition  architecturally, but socially they have hardly changed at all.

According to the passage, this option seems most relevant, but this is one word-off answer choice. The problem is with the word   "beyond recognition"  , which makes it an extreme and out-of-scope answer choice. The author has explicitly mentioned  "almost unrecognizable"

By using the word "almost" the author has limited the generalizability of recognition. Because of the word "almost" the cities could be 50% unrecognizable or 99.99% unrecognizable but not 100% unrecognizable. But this choice says that cities change to the limit of 100% unrecognizable.

C. The world's leading cities are in a constant state of change, evolving to accommodate new waves of immigrants, work/life balance, modes of transport and architectural style.

This option ignores almost complete one side of the coin. Out

D. When you get down to it and have a careful look at these cities you are struck not by the way they have changed, but in the ways they haven't.

This option is also a trap! It says almost correct but not 100% but it ignores the reference to the aspect of these cities that has not changed. It also ignores to mention of the world's leading cities, which is the subject of the passage.

E. The world's great cities are just that because they are in a constant state of flux.

Same as (C) miss out on a big portion of the passage.

Answer: A

PS: A global question can be pharased out in many ways and in my opinion, this question is not phrased out in the best possible way. Always keep in mind we have limited options to judge the answer; we have five options and we have to find among those five the best. We can defend (A) against the other four.

Cheers

It is natural to believe that the world’s leading cities would be foun

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