During the final decades of the nineteenth century, America

Question

During the final decades of the nineteenth century, America experienced unprecedented technological innovation and industrial expansion. Railroads spanned the country, linking the eastern and western states. Steam-powered engines fueled the mighty factories built along the waterways of the Northeast. The west offered seemingly endless resources: timber, gold and silver. As people left their farms and immigrants arrived to work in the booming urban centers, the labor force changed from skilled artisans to assembly-line workers, who felt chained to the machines of industrial progress. America's transformation from an agrarian to an industrialized economy was a time when great fortunes were amassed by the speculative industrialists and financiers, known as robber barons, who used such unscrupulous tactics as vertical and horizontal integration to increase profits and create monopolies. As profits grew, so did America's standard of living, as per capita income and production exceeded those of any other nation, excluding Britain. But not all shared in the newfound wealth. The exploding population of cities created disease-ridden slums that grew larger with the influx of immigrants, exploited by corrupt political bosses with the promise of work in exchange for their votes. Men, women and children worked long hours for low pay in unsafe factories to keep up with the demand for cheap, mass-produced products.

By the early twentieth century, many of the Protestant, college-educated, middle-class citizens were disturbed by the materialism, corruption and economic polarization, and felt a moral and social obligation to reshape the American landscape on a path aligned with what they believed the nation's founding fathers had intended. From 1900 to 1918, these progressives led a movement to battle the problems of industrialization and urbanization. Legislation was enacted that restricted child labor, established a minimum wage, regulated working conditions, and gave the public increased control of government through primaries to elect political leaders. Theodore Roosevelt departed from the laissez-faire approach and extended the executive branches of government to curtail monopolistic practices and ensure competition. Industries, like meat-packing, railroads and banks, became federally regulated. This precedent of addressing social and economic issues at the federal, state and local levels was significant for it changed the expectations of the role that government would play in society and inspired the recovery from the Depression of 1929.   1 
01. All of the following points are supported by the passage, EXCEPT:
a. By the end of the nineteenth century, America had essentially transitioned from an agrarian to an industrialized society.
b. The administrations prior to Roosevelt did not strongly interfere with the operations of big businesses.
c. The "progressives" believed that the ideals of democracy had dramatically shifted away from their original intent.
d. The business practices of many of the early "robber barons" were intentionally designed to handicap competition.
e. The Progressive Movement created a national awareness of the problems brought about by industrialization and urbanization.
 2 
02. Which of the following situations is most consistent with the progressives' principles and actions?
a. A group of legislators forms a series of town hall meetings to determine which reforms citizens desire most.
b. Citizens from neighboring towns form a multidistrict Parent-Teacher Organization to formulate solutions for budget cuts in lower-income schools.
c. A laid-off factory worker writes his congressman to ask for subsidies for his declining industry.
d. Students at a university stage a sit-in at the dormitory cafeteria to campaign for healthier dining options.
e. Prominent musicians band together for a benefit concert to raise money for victims of an overseas natural disaster. 3 
3. The passage suggests which of the following about American society prior to the early twentieth century?
a. Though assembly-line workers did not receive much of the value that their work produced, they felt that they did not have a choice but to continue to work in the industrial factories.
b. Farming was becoming less important, which is why many farmers left their land to work in the factories.
c. Prior to industrialization, workers had better working conditions and were less exploited.
d. There was less wealth polarization between America's upper-class and its labor force.
e. The United States became the world leader in applied technology and production.

LordStark · Accepted Answer

OE for Q2
Correct Answer: B

The progressives sought more equitable opportunity for the nation's working class, and worked collectively across the nation to implement changes. Answer choice B, the correct answer, follows a similar path, as citizens from multiple communities act collectively to provide more equitable opportunity for poorer schools. In answer choice A, the solutions come from the legislators, and not the citizens. Answer choice C is incorrect because the worker acts alone, and only requests change, but does not provide his own solution. Answer choice D is incorrect because the students don't act across a broad scope, only encompassing one school, and because the cause is not one of equal opportunity. Answer choice E is incorrect because the actors in the situation are not citizens seeking assistance for their own cause, and because the cause is not one of equal opportunity, but rather charity for another group.

sanathadiga · Answer

Such a difficult passage. I thought i understood the passage after spending close to 4 minutes. Got the 1st answer right. But got the next 2 wrong and my goal was to finish before 6 min and yet i could only finish by 7 min. This is the kind of passages that screws one in the exam. Either one takes too much time addressing each inference question or one gets most of them wrong ang get a hit on the score( Guilty of being on both sides at some or the other point of time). I have decided not to spend more time on a passage , with my experience screwing with time makes it very much harder to get back on track.

Been trying to train my brain to put a hard stop on time for RCs

Been trying to train my brain to put a hard stop on time for RCs

madhukaramar · Answer

PeepalTree  - The choices are quite confusing. Could you please post the official explanations.

LordStark · Answer

OE for Q1
Correct Answer: E

This is a Specific and Except question. Four of the answers will be supported by information contained within the passage. Your job is to find the one that is not justified by the passage's content. For choice A, the first paragraph states that America had transformed from an agrarian to an industrialized economy. Thus, A is supported, and therefore incorrect in this Except question. Similarly, choice B is supported by the fourth sentence of the second paragraph, which says that Roosevelt departed from the laissez-faire' approach and curtailed unfair business practices, implying that prior administrations did not necessarily do so. Choice C is mentioned in the first sentence of the second paragraph, which states that the progressives wanted to realign America's direction on a path they believed that the founding fathers intended. (Choice D is supported (and therefore made incorrect) by the sixth sentence of the first paragraph, which states that the robber barons used unscrupulous tactics in order create monopolies. In other words, they were deliberately trying to eliminate competition. Choice E is not supported. All that the passage states is that the progressives took action to battle the problems of industrialization and urbanization. Although they enacted legislation on a national level, we cannot assume that they also created a national awareness of society's ills. Thus (E) is the correct answer.

LordStark · Answer

OE for Q3
Correct Answer: A

This also is a Specific question. (A): The first paragraph states that the labor force changed from skilled artisans to assembly-line workers, and that new assembly line workers felt "chained to the machines of production". Therefore, this response is the correct one. (B): While the passage states that farmers left their land to work in the urban centers, it does not say that farming was becoming less important, making this answer incorrect. (C): Although the tone of the passage is negative toward the industrialized working conditions, nowhere does the passage state that prior to industrialization were working conditions better or that workers were not exploited, making (C) incorrect. (D): Again, the passage does not say that the disparity of wealth was more extreme in one period of American history than another. (E): The first paragraph states that America's per capita income and production exceeded those of any other nation, excluding Britain. Thus, the US was not the world leader. It may have tied with Britain, but it did not surpass it.

PriyankaPalit7 · Answer

Can any expert please explain how choice A is correct for question 3.

Q3) The passage suggests which of the following about American society prior to the early twentieth century?
Choice A) Though assembly-line workers did not receive much of the value that their work produced, they felt that they did not have a choice but to continue to work in the industrial factories.

Passage states "As people left their farms and immigrants arrived to work in the booming urban centers, the labor force changed from skilled artisans to assembly-line workers, who felt chained to the machines of industrial progress". But how can we conclude that  "assembly-line workers did not receive much of the value that their work produced"?

GMATNinja   GMATNinja Two  VeritasKarishma

KarishmaB · Answer

Here are the relevant lines from the first paragraph:

As people left their farms and  immigrants arrived  to work in the booming urban centers, the labor force changed from skilled artisans to  assembly-line workers ,  who felt chained to the machines  of industrial progress.

But not all shared in the newfound wealth. The exploding population of cities created disease-ridden slums that grew larger with the  influx of immigrants , exploited by corrupt political bosses with the promise of work in exchange for their votes.  Men, women and children worked long hours for low pay in unsafe factories  to keep up with the demand for cheap, mass-produced products.

Immigrants worked as assembly line workers in bad conditions with low pay and felt they were chained to the machines.
So answer to Q3 is (A)

AkshdeepS · Answer

VeritasKarishma  :

Can we justify the word "dramatically" (given in Q1 answer choice C) from the passage. Or we don't need to justify it?
I think passage nowhere says the shift was "dramatical".

KarishmaB · Answer

The first paragraph discusses how the society saw a major transformation. So that justifies "dramatically".

thangvietnam · Answer

question 2 and 3 are hard. information needed to answer comes from a detail in the dense passage. we can locate the position. this is one step. the second step is harder. making inference.

this inference is high and is time consuming. gmat want us to read meaning X and understand meaning Y. meaning x is in the passage and meaning y is in the answer choice. 
this is called "fully understanding the passage".

at first, we learn to understand the passage. latter , we practice to make inference. focus only on understanding the passage is not enough . making inference can be hard.

practicing making inferences is a good way to practice reading and enhance english proficiency. we can master english only when we can make inference from the information in the test you read.

at lower level, we read and we see grammar in the text. this is to master grammar and sentence patterns.
 at higher lever, we read and we make inferences. this is for full undersanding of the passage. the world of ideas, not limited vocabolary , is the obstacle to the advanced learners. the language can be simple but the ideas can be hard. only when we can make inferences, we can master a language. (we dont need master a good vacabolary).

so, remember 2 things. read to understand passage and read to make inferences.

aniket16c · Answer

Dear  VeritasKarishma ,
can you please explain question 2.
 "felt a moral and social obligation to reshape the American landscape on a path aligned with what they believed the nation's founding fathers had intended. From 1900 to 1918, these progressives led a movement to battle the problems of industrialization and urbanization."

From this information, I inferred that the progressives principle - improve the degraded condition, action - form of protests

Option D: Principle - Improve degraded conditions in cafeteria ; action - form of protest
Option B: While the principle matches with that of the progressives, from the passage I could infer that the progressives devised solutions.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

This is a reasonable passage, but the questions are a bit sketchy, particularly #2. That one really doesn't have a correct answer. It's not clear enough how any of these line up with the actual actions of progressives. If anything, A is the closest. B makes no sense at all--what is progressive about cutting funding to low-income schools? As usual, we are best served by studying official verbal sources!

During the final decades of the nineteenth century, America

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

During the final decades of the nineteenth century, America

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