Tribal communities in North America believe that their traditional

Question

Tribal communities in North America believe that
their traditional languages are valuable resources that
must be maintained. However, these traditional
languages can fall into disuse when some of the effects
 (5)  of the majority culture on tribal life serve as barriers
between a community and its traditional forms of
social, economic, or spiritual interaction. In some
communities the barrier has been overcome because
people have recognized that language loss is serious
 (10)  and have taken action to prevent it, primarily through
community self-teaching.

Before any community can systemically and
formally teach a traditional language to its younger
members, it must first document the language’s
 (15)  grammar; for example, a group of Northern Utes
spent two years conducting a thorough analysis and
classification of Northern Ute linguistic structures. The
grammatical information is then arranged in sequence
form the simpler to the more complex types of usage,
 (20)  and methods are devised to present the sequence in
ways that will be most useful and appropriate to the
culture.

Certain obstacles can stand in the way of
developing these teaching methods. One is the difficulty
 (25)  a community may encounter when it attempts
to write down elements (particularly the spellings of
words) of a language that has been primarily oral for
centuries, as is often the case with traditional
languages. Sometimes this difficulty can simply be a
 (30)  matter of the lack of acceptable written equivalents
for certain sounds in the traditional language: problems
arise because of an insistence that every sound in the
language have a unique written equivalent—a desirable
but ultimately frustrating condition that no written
 (35)  language has ever fully satisfied.

Another obstacle is dialect. There may be many
language traditions in a particular community; which
one is to be written down and taught? The Northern
Utes decided not to standardize their language,
 (40)  agreeing that various phonetic spellings of words
would be accepted as long as their meanings were
clear. Although this troubled some community
members who favored Western notions of standard
language writing or whose training in Western-style
 (45)  linguistics was especially rigid, the lack of standard
orthography made sense in the context of the
community’s needs. Within a year after the adoption of
instruction in the Northern Ute language, even
elementary school children could write and speak it
 (50)  effectively.

It has been argued that the attempt to write down
traditional languages is misguided and unnecessary;
after all, in many cases these languages have been
transmitted in their oral form since their origins.
 (55)  Defenders of the practice counter that they are writing
down their languages precisely because of a general
decline in oral traditions, but they concede that
languages could be preserved in their oral form if a
community made every effort to eschew aspects of the
 (60)  majority culture that make this preservation difficult.  
 1 
 1. Which one of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?

(A) In the face of the pervasive influences of the majority culture, some tribes are having difficulty teaching their traditional languages to younger tribe members.
(B) If tribes are to continue to hold on to their cultures in the face of majority culture influences, it is necessary for them to first teach their traditional languages to younger tribe members.
(C) Responding to doubts about the value of preserving oral forms of culture, some tribes, using techniques of Western-style linguistics, have taught their traditional languages to younger tribe members.
(D) Recognizing the value of their traditional languages, some tribes, despite the difficulties involved, have developed programs to teach their traditional languages to younger tribe members.
(E) Sidestepping the inherent contradiction of preserving oral forms of culture in writing, some tribes are attempting, eschewing the influences of the majority culture, to teach their traditional languages to younger tribe members.

2 
 2. According to the passage, the first step in preparing to formally teach a traditional language is to

(A) analyze and classify its linguistic structures
(B) develop a hierarchy of its grammatical information
(C) determine appropriate methods for its presentation
(D) search for written equivalents for each of its sounds
(E) decide whether its syntax and spelling will be standardized

3 
 3. Based on the passage, those who hold the view described in lines 51–54 would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements?

(A) Even if left exclusively in oral form, traditional languages are likely to survive.
(B) There has been a decline in communication among tribal members in general.
(C) Some oral customs do not need to be preserved orally.
(D) External influences have little effect on tribal customs.
(E) Tribes must focus on establishing a written tradition.

4 
 4. Which one of the following scenarios is LEAST compatible with aspects of traditional-language preservation discussed in the passage?

(A) A community decides that the best way to maintain its traditional language is to rejuvenate its oral culture.
(B) A community arranges the grammatical structures of its traditional language sequentially according to the degree of their complexity.
(C) A community agrees to incorporate words from the majority culture in its traditional language to make it easier to teach.
(D) A community determines the most appropriate methods for presenting its traditional language to students.
(E) A community deliberates about which dialect of its traditional language should be taught to students.

5 
 5. Which one of the following most accurately describes the organization of the passage?

(A) A problem is identified, followed by a list of obstacles to its solution; examples of the obstacles are discussed; a solution is proposed; methods of implementing the solution are described; an alternative to the solution is introduced and endorsed.
(B) A problem is identified, followed by solutions to the problem; methods of implementing the solutions are discussed; obstacles to implementing the solutions are described; an alternative method of implementing one of the solutions is proposed.
(C) A problem is identified, followed by a solution to the problem; a method of implementing the solution is discussed; obstacles to implementing the solution are described; a challenge to the solution is introduced and countered.
(D) A problem is identified, followed by examples of the problem; a solution is proposed; a method for implementing the solution is described; examples of successful implementation are discussed; the solution is applied to other similar problems.
(E) A problem is identified, followed by a proposal for solving the problem; benefits and drawbacks of the proposal are discussed; examples of the benefits and drawbacks are described; a challenge to the proposal is introduced and the proposal is rejected.

6 
 6. Based on the passage, the group of Northern Utes mentioned in lines 38–42 would be likely to believe each of the following statements EXCEPT:

(A) Standardizing traditional languages requires arbitrary choices and is sometimes unnecessary.
(B) Written languages should reflect one standard dialect rather than several dialects.
(C) Traditional languages can be taught even if they are not rigorously standardized.
(D) Variant spellings of words are acceptable in a language if their meanings are clear.
(E) The extent to which a language should be standardized depends upon a community’s needs.

7 
 7. Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude toward the goal of having a written language exactly match its oral equivalent?

(A) conviction that an exact match is all but impossible to achieve
(B) doubt that an exact match is worthy of consideration even in principle
(C) faith that an exact match is attainable if certain obstacles are eliminated
(D) confidence that an exact match can easily be accomplished in most languages
(E) suspicion that the motives behind the attempts to achieve the goal are not entirely benevolent

8 
 8. Based on the passage, which one of the following appears to be a principle guiding the actions of those attempting to preserve their traditional languages?

(A) In writing down an oral language, one should always be concerned primarily with the degree of correspondence between spoken sounds and written symbols.
(B) In deciding whether and how to standardize and teach a primarily oral language, one should always keep the needs of the community and the culture foremost.
(C) In determining whether to preserve a language orally or preserve it in writing, one should always strive to ignore the influences of the majority culture and focus on which method is most effective.
(D) In considering how to present the grammar of a primarily oral language to students, one should always employ a sequence that tackles more difficult concepts first.
(E) In adjudicating among variant spellings of words from different language traditions, one should always favor the spelling preferred by the majority of the community.

thouhid · Answer

DISCUSSION: The main idea is that some tribes can preserve their languages, despite various problems.

___________

A. The difficulties aren’t the main point. The passage tells us that tribes can overcome these difficulties.
B. This isn’t even true. The passage didn’t say whether cultures were at risk as well as languages. 
C.The last paragraph says that tribes recognize the value of oral forms of language. Oral culture isn’t mentioned. It doesn’t seem likely that tribes think culture is unimportant.
 D.CORRECT. This doesn’t cover the last paragraph, but it gets everything else. The tribes go through the difficulties because they recognize the value of their traditional languages.
E.Huh? What inherent contradiction? If the tribes thought there was an inherent contradiction in writing down oral languages, they wouldn’t bother with written languages.

thouhid · Answer

DISCUSSION: This is a very hard question. Most people choose B, because paragraph two says documenting grammar is the first step. But a hierarchy of grammar isn’t mentioned.
Q-2
That’s why B is wrong. An example of documenting grammar is given in lines 15-17: ‘analyzing and classifying’ a language’s structure. That’s why A is right.

___________

A.CORRECT. See discussion. 
B. See discussion. Hierarchy comes later.
C.Grammar is the first step. See lines 14-18.
D.Grammar is the first step. See lines 14-18.
E.Grammar is the first step. See lines 14-18.

thouhid · Answer

Question-3
DISCUSSION: The people in lines 51-54 think it is unnecessary to write down languages. Presumably, they think the languages will still survive: they seem to value oral languages.

If writing isn’t necessary, then that means the languages can survive without writing.

___________

A. CORRECT. See discussion. 
B.Communication can happen using any language. The people in lines 51-54 didn’t mention anything about communication in general.
C.They are arguing for oral preservation of a custom. That’s hardly evidence that they believe some oral customs don’t need oral preservation. 
D.We have no idea what they think about external influences on all tribal customs. We only know about language.
E.The people mentioned are arguing against writing down languages.

thouhid · Answer

Question-4:
DISCUSSION: You should be able to prove these questions using a line from the passage. The passage doesn’t directly disprove C, but rest are consistent with the passage.

___________

A.Lines 55-60 support this possibility. 
B.Lines 16-20 mention this.
C.CORRECT. The passage doesn’t say explicitly that this is bad, but it can be inferred from lines 4-7 and 55-60. Tribes see the majority culture as an obstacle to keeping their languages. 
D.Lines 20-22 mention this.
E.Lines 36-38 mention that this is an important question a community must address.

thouhid · Answer

Question-5:DISCUSSION: Take these questions one line at a time, and eliminate wrong answers methodically. If one sentence is wrong then the answer is wrong.

___________

A.This says that obstacles to the solution (community self-teaching) are mentioned in paragraph one. Paragraph 1 mentions obstacles to keeping languages, paragraphs 3 and 4 mention obstacles to the solution. The difference is subtle, but real.
B.This says “solutions” (plural) are proposed. But only one solution was proposed: community self-teaching. The final paragraph is also flawed. The critics weren’t proposing an alternative. They just said the proposal is unnecessary. 
C.CORRECT. The terms are abstract. I’ve listed what they refer to.
Problem: Languages disappearing. Solution: Community self-teaching. Method: Classifying grammar and writing down language. Obstacles: How to write the language and whether to standardize. Challenge: “Writing isn’t necessary”. Response: That’s true, but only if the majority culture is kept out. 
D.The description of the first paragraph is wrong. No examples are given. 
E.This sounds good, but look at the end. It says the proposal was rejected! That’s not true, the passage supports the idea of writing down languages.

thouhid · Answer

Question-6:DISCUSSION: The Northern Ute decided not to standardize.

___________

A.This sounds fine. The Ute decided not to choose between different versions of the same word. So choosing was unnecessary. 
B. CORRECT. The Ute decided not to make their written language match a single dialect. 
C.This seems true. The Ute succeeded in teaching their language despite not standardizing. 
D.Lines 40-42 support this.
E. Who could disagree with this statement? It’s so bland. To disagree, you would have to say: “We should standardize, even if it hurts the community.”

thouhid · Answer

QUESTION-7: DISCUSSION: Lines 32-36 are the key here. No language has ever had it’s written and oral forms match exactly.

___________

A. CORRECT. If no language has been an exact match then it’s probably impossible for the tribes to achieve that goal. 
B. This is extreme. There are plenty of things that are good to imagine in principle even if they are impossible in practice. In any case, the author doesn’t mention this.
C. Lines 32-36 contradict this. If no language has succeeded, why should the author think a match will occur? 
D. This is pretty extreme. The author doesn’t say anything like this, and lines 32-36 seem to contradict it. 
E.You need a sentence from the passage to support your answers. The author doesn’t mention motives.

thouhid · Answer

QUESTION-8:DISCUSSION: The people trying to preserve their languages are ready to face the difficulty of transferring oral languages into written forms. And they’re willing to abandon oral forms in exchange for keeping their languages alive using written forms. It’s better than letting the languages die.

Their main goal seems to be to keep their languages alive. They’ll focus on what works, and what works for the community.

___________

A.Lines 32-36 contradict this. It isn’t always possible to directly correspond sounds to writing. 
B.CORRECT. The examples show flexibility. It’s clear that the needs of the community and overall effectiveness of the program take precedence over any ideological convictions. 
C. Think about what this says. It says that when you decide how to preserve your language, you should ignore the majority culture. That isn’t supported. Some academic research from the majority culture might be useful in deciding whether to use an oral or a written language, for example.
 You could keep the language free of outside influence, while using outside influences to determine how to protect the language.
d. Why would you hurt kids’ brains with hard concepts, right at the start? Lines 15-20 talk about a sequence of complexity, but the passage doesn’t say when to teach hard concepts.
E.Lines 42-47 imply that in some cases we should never choose between two different versions of words.

ShubhamPatil · Answer

For Q7 I was stuck A & B. 
Option A seemed an extreme choice due to the word "impossible", hence I went ahead with Option B.

Please help me the OE for this question.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

A and B

We don’t get much authorial opinion in this one, but this question focuses on one of the few things the author does seem to tell us in her own voice, above and beyond the purely descriptive tone of her narrative. The notion of written equivalents comes up in  Paragraph 3  as part of the difficulties faced in writing down a predominantly oral language. At the end of the paragraph, the author states that creating written equivalents for every traditional sound is  “a desirable but ultimately frustrating condition that no written language has ever fully satisfied.”  The prospect of having a written language exactly matches the oral? Sounds like this author believes it can’t be done— choice (A) .

(B)  flies in the face of the author’s assertion that such a goal is  “desirable.”

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

2. According to the passage, the first step in preparing to formally teach a traditional language is to

Explanation

It’s not difficult to recognize the language in the stem as that found almost verbatim in the first sentence of  Paragraph 2. “Before any community can . . . formally teach, . . . it must first document the language’s grammar.”  So a choice that reads  “document a language’s grammar”  would be grand but is not to be found. In fact, if you focused exclusively on the notion of grammar, you may have gravitated mistakenly to choice  (B) , which, alas, is wrong because sequencing the grammatical information—that is,  “developing a hierarchy”  of it—comes second in the process, not first. We have to use the example of the Utes here to nail down that first step, and  “conducting a thorough analysis of linguistic structures”  (an example of the documentation of grammar) is a perfect paraphrase of  (A) .

(B) ,  (C)  No, these things come next (see above).

(D)  Getting further away—this  “written equivalents”  business comes up later in  Paragraph 3  during a discussion of the first obstacle.

(E)  And even further away: Decisions regarding standardization is an issue in  Paragraph 4  and is far removed from the preparation process described in  Paragraph 2 .

Answer: A

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

1. Which one of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?

Explanation

We get a Global Main Idea question to start off; nothing out of the ordinary. Stick to the topic, scope, purpose and passage structure just discussed and you’ll be okay. The choices are fairly long, but that’s okay—only one will contain all of the relevant elements of the passage, and here it’s  (D):  The notion of traditional language as a valuable resource is given up front in the very first sentence. To preserve such languages, the strategy of community teaching of the young is introduced and described. Finally, the obstacles, or  “difficulties”  of the endeavor, certainly take up a large part of the passage. Put it all together and we have the main thing this author set out to describe.

(A)  distorts the ideas in the passage. The influence of the majority culture is the reason why such crash courses in language preservation are necessary. The obstacles to instructing the young in the traditional languages are linguistic in nature (spelling, dialect, etc.), so  (A)  confuses the role here of the  “majority culture”  in this situation and thus can’t be the main idea.

(B)  is too extreme: The tribes are worried about language loss, but nowhere is that equated with the potential loss of their entire culture.  (B)  suggests that without the language programs, these tribes won’t be able to maintain their culture, also goes too far.

(C)  has things all mixed up. There’s no doubt about the value of preserving the oral traditions, as  (C)  would have it—the programs are in response to doubts about the ability of tribes to do so in the face of majority culture influences. The reference to  “western-style linguistics”  in the second half of the choice is off as well: The only place this is mentioned is in the case in  Para 4  in which western-style linguistics (the favoring of standard linguistic representations) was shunned.

(E) “Inherent contradiction”  is a little too strong here. Sure, there are difficulties in translating from the oral to written form, but that’s not necessarily the same as an inherent contradiction. But even if we equate  “obstacle”  with  “contradiction,”  the fact is that the tribes don’t at all sidestep this difficulty but rather seek ways to overcome it. The stuff at the end of the choice about  “eschewing the majority culture”  refers to the final sentence of the passage, which is basically an offhand concession that shouldn’t be included as part of the main idea.

Answer: D

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

7. Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude toward the goal of having a written language exactly match its oral equivalent?

Explanation

We don’t get much authorial opinion in this one, but this question focuses one of the few things the author does seem to tell us in her own voice, above and beyond the purely descriptive tone of her narrative. The notion of written equivalents comes up in  Para 3  as part of the difficulties faced in writing down a predominantly oral language. At the end of the paragraph, the author states that creating written equivalents for every traditional sound is  “a desirable but ultimately frustrating condition that no written language has ever fully satisfied.”  The prospect of having a written language exactly match the oral? Sounds like this author believes it can’t be done— choice (A) .

(B)  flies in the face of the author’s assertion that such a goal is  “desirable.”

(C), (D)  Opposite: No written language has ever pulled this off, according to the author, so there’s no reason to assume the author would think that it could be done now—not to mention being accomplished  “easily”  for  “most”  languages. The statement quoted above (especially the  “ultimately frustrating”  part) suggests just the opposite of such  “faith”  or  “confidence”  on the author’s part.

(E)  Motives are beyond the scope here, and the notion of the author’s suspicious nature just doesn’t jibe with the even-keeled descriptive tone of the passage.

Answer: A

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

8. Based on the passage, which one of the following appears to be a principle guiding the actions of those attempting to preserve their traditional languages?

Explanation

In this final question, we need to find a principle consistent with the strategies of language preservation mentioned in the passage.  Lines 45-47  provide the clue: The Northern Utes’ lack of standardization made sense in the context of their particular community—it served their needs. The principle in  (B)  accords perfectly with this.

(A)  We’ve just seen in the previous question how the author states that an exact match of sounds to written words is impossible to achieve. If this is so, then it would be foolish to make this correspondence the primary concern in such a translation process. The difficulties here are cited as an obstacle, but nowhere is it stated or implied that this degree of correspondence should be the primary consideration driving the process.

(C)  is another choice that distorts the role in the passage played by the majority culture. We’re told that ignoring the majority culture can be useful in preserving the oral traditions; nowhere are we told that ignoring the majority culture has anything to do with deciding between preserving a language in oral or written form.

(D)  In  Paragraph 2 , we find out that methods are devised to present the material in the optimal order. However, we never find out whether such a method involves presenting the difficult concepts first, or the simpler ones first with the difficult ones coming later on. The passage doesn’t specify what the method should be, only that a method should exist to determine the most useful sequence, whatever that may be for various tribal cultures.

(E)  Preferences of the majority? Where does this come in? There is no blanket suggestion of how to deal with spelling variances outside of the notion of doing what best serves a particular community’s needs. Taking a vote on it simply isn’t mentioned as part of the decision-making process.

Answer: B

nikitathegreat · Answer

GMATNinja  - Can help explain why option A is incorrect in Q1. Also, if you can help summarise each para.

My synopsis of the passage
I understand the tribe have realised the importance of preserving their traditional language. Then the next para speaks that to preserve the language, it must be in written form. another para talks about how to write the traditional language - grammar should be in place, equivalent words for oral sounds should be there, etc. Now while writing this down, they faced challenges. The last para talks about how writing down the language is unnecessary. We can actually record in oral form as long as we are able to overcome the majority influence.

Q1 Option choice A

(A) In the face of the pervasive influences of the majority culture, some tribes are having difficulty teaching their traditional languages to younger tribe members.

The first para talks about that some community has been able to overcome the barriers..can I conclude from here that some have not been able to overcome the barriers?? Also, the tribes are having difficulty in teaching their traditional language because it cannot be written down effectively?

Option Choice D

(D) Recognizing the value of their traditional languages, some tribes, despite the difficulties involved, have developed programs to teach their traditional languages to younger tribe members.
How do we know some tribes have developed programs? Is it talking about Northern Utes? or the first line in the passage that some communities have been able to overcome the barriers?

Thanks

GMATNinja · Answer

The first paragraph does tell us that the influences of the majority culture can cause traditional languages to fall into disuse. This notion is asserted again in the final sentence:
 
In other words, the influences of the majority culture make it hard to preserve the traditional languages  in their oral form .

But notice that choice (A) talks about the difficulty TEACHING traditional languages to younger tribe members. Yes, the influences of the majority culture make it harder for tribes to preserve their  oral  traditions -- but the passage does not suggest that those influences make it harder to TEACH those traditional languages to younger tribe members.

In fact, the example of the Northern Utes shows that community self-teaching can be very effective:
 
The Northern Utes had to overcome some challenges in order to implement the self-teaching, as described in paragraphs 3 and 4. Why did they bother facing and overcoming those challenges? Because they recognized the value of preserving their traditional languages. The juice was worth the squeeze!

So (D) is a better fit. Knowing that there would be challenges, some tribes (e.g. the Northern Utes and presumably others like it) made the decision to put in the work and teach their traditional languages to younger tribe members.

I hope that helps!

VerbalBot · Answer

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