The factors cited by historians as having motivated American territori

Question

The factors cited by historians as having motivated American territorial expansion between 1800 and 1860 are as varied as those  scholars’ theses  themselves, but one such factor—the precipitous drop in transportation costs during that period—is reliably cited by them all, and for good reason. No other influence pushing settlers westward had nearly the same transformative power as the sudden affordability of “getting out there”, or indeed of sending products back east. Large swaths of land abruptly became viable as potential additions to the United States economy. What caused these dramatic gains in the cost-effectiveness of long-distance transportation? Some of that progress was attributable to developments far beyond American shores, such as British advances in railroads and canals. The bulk of it, however, came from the resourcefulness of Americans who innovated to solve problems that literally lay before their eyes.

The steamboat, devised for American interior waterways, exemplifies this type of  responsive invention : While the potential for steam-powered transport had been obvious since a steam engine first pumped water out of a coal mine a century earlier, the labor and expenses of its actual development waited for the promise of profit, which in 1800 was only just coalescing. Soon enough, Robert Fulton—an American who was already renowned for the submarines he had designed in France—had designed and built the  Claremont , the first working steamboat, whose first journey down the Hudson River in New York marked the beginning of an era.

Other Americans quickly recognized the great economic potential of Fulton’s invention and quickly set about appropriating its design to better suit local needs. By 1820, steamboats worked the Atlantic seaboard, the Great Lakes, and  the western rivers —after having been adapted to each unique combination of environment and task. Along the Atlantic coast, sleek elongated steamboats plied long-established sailboat transportation networks, serving travelers who were willing to pay premium fares for speed and reliability. Their counterparts on the wide-open Great Lakes continually pushed boundaries of size and capacity as they carried ever more passengers and cargo. Steamboats on the western rivers were short and wide, a combination that maximized their ability to carry cargo while navigating the tortuous curves of the rivers and remaining afloat in as little as 2 feet (60 cm) of water.

1 
 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. compare and contrast the approaches of various scholars to a historical question
B. consider competing explanations for an observation from historical economics and then argue in favor of one of those explanations
C. describe a series of historical innovations and explain the economic effects of some specific inventions from that series
D. explain the origins of a historical phenomenon in general terms and then illustrate that explanation with an example
E. provide reasoning and examples to confirm a causal relationship asserted by numerous historians

2 
 2. The author would most likely agree that the “scholars’ theses” mentioned in the highlighted text differ in

A. how their authors consider and evaluate the reliability of the source materials that they cite
B. the degree to which they emphasize domestic American innovations in transportation between 1800 and 1860 as compared to those from abroad
C. the relative importance they accord to the increased affordability of transportation among causative factors in the westward expansion of the United States
D. the secondary causes of American territorial expansion that they consider
E. their explanations of how long-distance travel within the United States become more cost-effective between 1800 and 1860

3 
 3. The passage does NOT describe any instance in which the process of "responsive invention" (see highlighted text)

A. focused on the modification of existing designs to suit local operating conditions, rather than on the invention of altogether new designs
B. created the first physical prototypes of an innovation whose designer was not the first to have conceptualized it
C. proceeded to material production only once substantial returns on the effort and investment of production were reasonably assured
D. was catalyzed by an initial migration of population and industry into new territory
E. was used to capture market share from an existing business entity

4 
 4. Which of the following, if true of the region that includes the “western rivers” cited in the highlighted text, would best explain a specific design adaptation of early steamboats operated in that region?

A. Almost all of the western rivers empty into the Mississippi River, which is several miles wide near the end of its course.
B. In parts of the region, some winters are so frigid that the rivers freeze over for several weeks.
C. Much of the region’s soil is high in clay, which makes it susceptible to unpredictable shifting and therefore unsuitable for the building of roads or railroads.
D. Several of the region's major products are natural resources such as timber, which do not spoil and do not need to be protected from harsh weather.
E. Summers in the region are long and dry, with nearly all of the water in many rivers evaporating before it is replenished by autumn rains.

RonPurewal · Accepted Answer

1/ D

The first paragraph opens by citing widespread academic agreement that reductions in transportation costs were the most important reason why Americans began to settle territory to the west of the original colonies. The narrator then asks “What forces drove that increase in efficiency?” and answers that question in general terms: Foreign innovations played a role, but the primary cause was American innovation to overcome logistical problems.

The rest of the passage is dedicated to the steamboat, which (as the narrator explicitly says near the beginning of the second paragraph) is a specific example of “American innovation to overcome logistical problems”. The second paragraph says more about what actually kicked off the process of invention, and the third paragraph shows how the steamboat was adapted by American innovators to suit three different local operating environments.

The answer is D.

INCORRECT ANSWERS:

(A) Scholars’ approaches are mentioned only at the very beginning of the passage, so they cannot possibly be the PRIMARY topic of the passage. Moreover, the passage only “compares” the scholars’ respective theses on one point, and does not “contrast” them at all.

(B) The “observation from historical economics” can only be the decrease in American transportation costs over the period 1800-1860. The passage does NOT “consider   competing   explanations” for this phenomenon: The two contributing factors described (foreign inventions and American local innovations)   combined   to make transport more economical. There is no indication that these factors “competed” or opposed each other in any way.

(C) The passage describes the invention of, and then several adaptations of, the early American steamboat, but these are not a “series”. (The invention came first, of course, but all of the subsequent adaptations were made separately and independently of each other—not in a well-defined sequence as indicated by the word “series”.) Furthermore, the passage does not   explain   any specific mechanism by which steamboats helped to make transportation cheaper in general, so the “explain the economic effects” part of this answer choice isn’t satisfied either.
Finally, this choice leaves out the general historical pattern (paragraph 1) of which the steamboat is an EXAMPLE (as explicitly stated in paragraph 2: “exemplifies this type of invention”). The primary purpose is not merely to list a bunch of specific inventions.

(E) The “causal relationship asserted by historians” is the idea that cheaper transportation costs accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. The specifics about steamboats here are illustrations of the causal relationship between American local innovation and more efficient transport—a different relationship entirely.

.

2/ D

“The author would   MOST LIKELY agree  ” means that the answer isn’t going to be something that’s explicitly stated in the text (if it were, you’d see words like “The passage indicates...” or “According to the author, ...” instead). Still, like all GMAT RC answers, the correct choice here must be  proved  by the information in the text; in other words, we must be able to  derive the answer as a logical consequence  of statements that actually ARE in the passage. In this sense, this problem works like an IMPLY/INFER/SUGGEST question.

The passage tells us exactly two things about the scholars’ theses:
• They mention a wide variety of factors behind the westward expansion of the United States between 1800 and 1860.
• All of them mention the drop in transportation costs—which (according to the author) was THE primary catalyst of settlement farther west—as one such factor.

That’s all we have about the scholars or their theses. What can we PROVE from these two statements?
Well... they all cited what the author says is the definite Number 1 factor, but beyond that, they mentioned a bewildering diversity of factors. So, that diversity must be among factors that the author does NOT consider to be primary causes. That’s choice D.

INCORRECT ANSWERS:

(A) Nothing in the passage has anything to do with cited source materials at all, let alone with specific methods of verifying the integrity of such sources. (The word “reliably” is used here to mean “consistently” or “in consensus”, a meaning that is completely unrelated to the “reliability” = historical accuracy/integrity of reference sources.)

(B) Domestic vs. foreign innovations are mentioned by the passage author to support an idea that is not connected to the scholars’ theses. Nothing in the text indicates that the historical scholars dealt with geographical groups of inventions.

(C) We know that the increased affordability of transportation is mentioned by all of the scholars, but we are told nothing about whether the different scholars gave differential levels of emphasis to this factor—this statement COULD be true, but it could just as well be false. 
(The declaration that this was the No. 1 factor in the westward expansion of the U.S. is made by the passage author, not by any of the scholars. It’s  possible  that some of the scholars actually made this a secondary point—but equally possible that they all agreed that it was the most important factor. We just don’t know.)

(E) We’re told only that the scholars cite the drop in transportation costs as one of many catalysts of the westward expansion of the young United States. Whether the scholars actually  explained WHY  transportation costs fell is not even known in the first place, so certainly we can’t say that they gave  DIFFERENT  explanations for it!

.

3/ D

This question asks us for the choice containing something that the passage does NOT mention. It’s impossible to directly search a text for something that the author DOESN’T say—so we’re forced to use a process of elimination, in which we eliminate the four choices for which the author DOES supply specific instances/examples.

Before diving into the eliminations, we need to clarify exactly what we’re looking for:  What is “responsive invention”?  Remember that, when you see highlighted text, you will ALWAYS need to look  elsewhere  in the passage to define, contextualize, or otherwise clarify the highlighted words. (In other words, you’ll never get a GMAT problem on which all you have to do is read the words  that they’ve already highlighted for you . No GMAT problem is completely trivial.)
The phrase “responsive invention” is preceded by “THIS type of”—which tells us that the clarification we need is in the preceding lines. Looking at the end of the preceding paragraph (the other half of this topic transition), we find the definition of responsive invention: “innovat  to solve problems that literally lay before their eyes.”

The only   instances   of this process in this passage are the invention and then the various adaptations of the early American steamboat. So, the process here boils down to:   Eliminate the 4 things that steamboats DID do / WERE used for  .

Let’s go:

(A) The passage spends an entire paragraph talking about how steamboats were adapted to operating needs on the Atlantic coast, on the rivers of the western territories, and on the Great Lakes—so you could actually re-eliminate this choice several times if you want to.

(B) According to the author, the basic conceptualization of steam-powered transport vehicles was “obvious” from the birth of steam power itself. If that idea was “obvious” for 100 years before anybody actually produced any such thing, then that’s 100 years during which huge numbers of people would have independently dreamed up the idea of steam-powered land and/or water vehicles—starting before Robert Fulton (the eventual producer of the first prototype steamboat) was even born. Eliminate.

(C) The author asserts that “the labor and expenses of   actual development waited for the promise of profit”, which is identical to the content of this answer choice. (Importantly, “the   promise  ” of profit” means an  assurance  or  guarantee  of eventual profit—not just a possibility of it.) Eliminate.

(D) This choice says that the migration of people and industry came  first . The primary historical pattern underlying almost the entire passage is the reverse—the innovations in transportation came first,   making    possible  a   subsequent   influx of settlers and business interests—so the order here is backwards. The passage doesn’t contain any examples of the reverse causal order, so choice D is UNSUPPORTED—and is therefore the CORRECT answer.

(E) On the Atlantic coast, premium passengers from the existing sailboat lines switched to the new steamboat lines—transferring that segment of market share from sailboats to steamboats. Eliminate.

.

4/ E

We need a choice that helps to explain WHY designers made one of the “design adaptations” mentioned in the passage. (Not “one or more”! GMAT answers will not work in two separate ways, unless the question specifically gives two criteria and asks for a choice that meets both of them.)

So, let’s list those adaptations:
• Short, wide boats
• ... with as much room as possible to carry goods,
• ... that can make sharp turns,
• ... that can run in shallow water (as little as 2 feet deep).

The answer choice that would  motivate the creation of a boat with one of these features  is the correct answer. We don’t know which bullet point is going to be the ‘winning’ one, so we need to check whether each choice would motivate  any  of them.

(A) Extreme width does not motivate any of the design features listed above. If anything, this statement makes it LESS important for the boats to be able to navigate tight curves.

(B) The boats could not operate on frozen rivers, so the ice could not possibly have influenced  anything  about their design.

(C) If it’s not possible to build roads or railroads, then water transport becomes more essential to the viability of the economy. So this choice would make steamboats more important—but it doesn’t speak to any of the specific design choices that went into them.

(D) This fact could well have motivated the design of steamboats with   open   cargo areas (a potential adaptation that is NOT mentioned in this passage), but it cannot explain the development of any of the bullet points above. (In fact, this choice somewhat undermines the choice to make the boats short and wide, since “timber”—felled trees—is much longer than other conceivable types of cargo.)

(E) If the western rivers become extremely shallow for a defined period of time every year, then we have a perfect explanation of why the boats were engineered to be operable in as little as 2 feet of water. This is the correct answer.

RonPurewal · Answer

Fresh new RC for you all! The answers are "deferred" to promote discussion; I'll reveal them in a few days.

Ron

Legallyblond · Answer

Whats the source of this passage? Is this from official guide?

Sravan9918 · Answer

Reveal the answers man. I am breaking my head.

bb · Answer

From the Secret Official Guide!

RonPurewal · Answer

a little bird sang it to me upon a lilting morning breeze

RonPurewal · Answer

I'll post them tomorrow or Friday. There isn't much new post activity for RC, so I want to make sure a decent number of people get to see it without the answers first.

SoumyaaR20 · Answer

Great read!

Can we post the answers we marked and the reasoning we used to mark them or should we wait until the answers are revealed? (so that more people see the RC without any answers?)

RonPurewal · Answer

Absolutely go ahead and start a discussion

RonPurewal · Answer

2 correct, 2 incorrect.

Remember to find the  exact  ideas in the passage that correspond to phrases in the answers. E.g., "a causal relationship asserted by various historians":  Exactly  what cause/effect relationship is this? Does the author supply any extra evidence to confirm  THIS  cause/effect relationship?

SoumyaaR20 · Answer

1- C (the passage starts by talking about historical innovations of british and then zeroes in on the innovation of steam engines and why they lead to reduction in transportation cost)
2- D (passage suggests that all of them reliably cite cost reduction in transporation as a reason. Hence, it would be the other, secondary reasons on which they differ)
3- E (found it hard to understand what the question was asking. Marked E because it seemed out of scope)
4- E (can infer that evaporation of nearly all water from rivers in summers makes the condition fit for only those boats that can function in shallow rivers)

PK456 · Answer

These are my answers
Please confirm if they are correct

1D, 2D, 3E, 4C

Tucky · Answer

My answers are 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4E.

RonPurewal · Answer

Can you show me where the red thing happens?

Yes.

Ok. What DID you understand about the question? (I won't accept "I didn't understand anything", since you and I both know that's not true.)

Indeed. Choice E points to the motivation behind designing boats that can keep floating in as little as 2 feet of water (the very last detail in the passage).

RonPurewal · Answer

Answers are now posted, and full explanations are available in the "Most Helpful" sticky post (immediately following the questions).

100%. Nicely done.

2/4. Please see the explanations above. If anything remains unclear then please feel free to ask.

bestreturn · Answer

Got 3 right, but it took me almost 11 minutes. Too long

RonPurewal · Answer

If you're early in your prep process and are still learning how these problems work, it's important to take as long as you need to get things right. It's not possible to get better and get faster at the same skill set simultaneously, so it's essential to take care of "better" before turning your attention to "faster" (which will mostly just come with practice and intuition anws; forcing/rushing things never works out well).

The factors cited by historians as having motivated American territori

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

The factors cited by historians as having motivated American territori

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards