In 1955 Maurice Duverger published The Political Role of Women, the fi

Official Explanation

Q1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. evaluate a research study
B. summarize the history of a research area
C. report new research findings
D. reinterpret old research findings
E. reconcile conflicting research findings
Main idea
Determining the primary purpose comes from examining what the author does in the entire passage. In the first paragraph, the author explains Duverger’s work on women’s electoral participation. In the second paragraph the author points out both the successes and failures of that work. The purpose of this passage, then, is to evaluate Duverger’s study.
A. Correct. The author evaluates Duverger’s study of women’s electoral activities.
B. This passage examines only one research study, not an entire research area.
C. Duverger’s work was published in 1955; its findings are not new.
D. The author explains and evaluates Duverger’s findings but does not reinterpret them.
E. The author’s discussion of Duverger’s work does not reveal or attempt to reconcile conflicting findings.
The correct answer is A.

Q2. According to the passage, Duverger’s study was unique in 1955 in that it
A. included both election data and survey data
B. gathered data from sources never before used in political studies
C. included an analysis of historical processes
D. examined the influence on voting behavior of the relationships between women and men
E. analyzed not only voting and political candidacy but also other political activities
Supporting ideas
This question is based on information specifically stated in the first sentence of the passage. The author introduces Duverger’s work by calling it the first study of women’s electoral participation ever to use election data and survey data together (lines 3–5).
A. Correct. Duverger’s work was unique because it used election data and survey data together.
B. The two data types had never before been used together in such a study; they may well have been used separately in many earlier political studies.
C. The second paragraph states that Duverger placed his findings in the context of historical processes, but not that he was unique in doing so (lines 15–17).
D. Duverger compared the frequency and direction of voting between men and women, not the effect that their relationships had on voting (line 27).
E. Duverger’s work analyzed political activism, but the author does not claim that it was unique in doing so (lines 5–6).
The correct answer is A.

Q3. Which of the following characteristics of a country is most clearly an example of a factor that Duverger, as described in the passage, failed to consider in his study?
A. A large population
B. A predominantly Protestant population
C. A predominantly urban population
D. A one-party government
E. Location in the heart of Europe
Inference
In the second paragraph, the author notes Duverger’s failure to consider … the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men (lines 22–27). This question requires checking this list from the passage against the possible answers; the only point of convergence is the system of government. A system of government in which there is only one political party is a type of political regime.
A. The author does not say that Duverger failed to consider the size of the population.
B. No evidence shows that Duverger failed to consider the predominance of a religion.
C. The author does not say that Duverger failed to consider the location of the population.
D. Correct. According to the author of the passage, Duverger failed to consider the influence of political regimes.
E. Duverger is not faulted for failing to consider the location of the countries that he studied.
The correct answer is D.

Q4. The author implies that Duverger’s actual findings are
A. limited because they focus on only four countries
B. inaccurate in their description of the four countries in the early 1950s
C. out-of-date in that they are inapplicable in the four countries today
D. flawed because they are based on unsound data
E. biased by Duverger’s political beliefs
Inference
Since the question uses the word implies, the answer involves making an inference based on the information in the text. The second paragraph evaluates Duverger’s work. The author notes that Duverger placed his findings in the context of many of the historical processes. Because these contexts have changed since 1955, the author holds that Duverger’s approach has proved more durable than his actual findings. The actual findings, then, are out-of-date and irrelevant to the countries today.
A. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph have no connection to the number of countries studied.
B. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that the findings were inaccurate; rather, they were, in the author’s view, significantly incomplete.
C. Correct. The actual findings, unlike the research method, are out-of-date and inapplicable today.
D. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that Duverger’s data were unsound; rather, in the author’s view, they were incomplete and have become dated.
E. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that Duverger’s findings were politically biased; rather, in the author’s view, they did not take full enough account of politics.
The correct answer is C.

Q5. The passage implies that, in comparing four European countries, Duverger found that the voting rates of women and men were most different in the country in which women
A. were most politically active
B. ran for office most often
C. held the most conservative political views
D. had the most egalitarian relations with men
E. had possessed the right to vote for the shortest time
Inference
The comparison of voting rates is discussed at the end of the first paragraph and forms the basis for the required inference. Duverger found that women voted somewhat less frequently than men but that this difference narrowed the longer the women had the vote (lines 9–11). That is, there was an ongoing process of convergence in voting rates for women and men, as the time period for which women had the vote lengthened. This suggests that at one end, when women had been voting for the shortest time, voting rates were most dissimilar, and at the other end, when women had been voting for the longest time, the rates were most similar.
A. Women’s political activism is not suggested as a reason for the difference.
B. Women’s political candidacy is not suggested as a reason for the difference.
C. Women’s political views are not suggested as a reason for the difference.
D. Women’s egalitarian relations with men are not suggested as a reason for the difference.
E. Correct. Duverger’s finding is of (apparently steady, ongoing) convergence in voting frequency rates between women and men over time. This supports the inference that the shorter the time period, the less convergence—i.e., the more divergence—there is in voting-frequency rates.
The correct answer is E.

Q6. The author implies that some behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women’s
political participation that followed Duverger’s study did which of the following?
A. Ignored Duverger’s approach
B. Suffered from faults similar to those in Duverger’s study
C. Focused on political activism
D. Focused on the influences of political regimes
E. Focused on the political and social relations between women and men
Inference
The final sentence of the passage links Duverger’s study to behavioralist work in general. After noting Duverger’s failure to consider several important elements, the author observes, Duverger’s study foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behavioralist approach to the multinational study of women’s political participation (lines 27–30). Thus, it is reasonable to infer that the author is of the opinion that the behavioralist research that followed Duverger’s study suffered from the same limitations.
A. The author does not imply that other behavioralists ignored Duverger’s approach.
B. Correct. The author says that Duverger’s work revealed the enduring limitations also found in later behavioralist research.
C. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.
D. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.
E. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.
The correct answer is B.