V32-21

Question

Up until the mid-19th century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America to escape starvation. Despised for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.
 
    The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish Americans whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the New World.

Which of the following supported by the passage?

A. There were many rich Irish immigrant families in the early 19th century in America 
B. By the mid 19th century the Irish enjoyed more privileges than other immigrants. 
C. The American politicians attempted to take advantage of the growing Irish numbers by appeasing to their cultural heritage. 
D. The Irish who came to America before 1845 were significantly more educated than those who came after. 
E. President Harry Truman was the first major politician to consider the Irish immigrants as a formidable group to shape the American democracy.

souvik101990 · Answer

Official Solution:

Up until the mid-19th century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America to escape starvation. Despised for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.
 
    The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish Americans whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the New World.

Which of the following supported by the passage?

A. There were many rich Irish immigrant families in the early 19th century in America 
B. By the mid 19th century the Irish enjoyed more privileges than other immigrants. 
C. The American politicians attempted to take advantage of the growing Irish numbers by appeasing to their cultural heritage. 
D. The Irish who came to America before 1845 were significantly more educated than those who came after. 
E. President Harry Truman was the first major politician to consider the Irish immigrants as a formidable group to shape the American democracy.

C is correct. The passage states how the Green Machine and other Irish demography made them a formidable political demography which was then exploited by American politicians.

Answer: C

londonconsultant · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate. Appeasing to cultural heritage doens't make sense and creates ambiguity in the answers.

The answer is much clearer when it is "appealing"

bapism07 · Answer

Hi

I have a question here - the passage ("a political power that had yet to be exploited") mentions that the demography of the Irish people made them likely to be exploited by American Irish (politicians - may be or may be American politicians). So it is explicitly stated that Irish demography could have been politically exploited. In option c, it states that they were exploited.

Could someone please explain? I am in doubt.

Sdpl0118 · Answer

This is just a long and annoying question after all, but once its read through, the answer is pretty straightforward.

A. There were many rich Irish immigrant families in the early 19th century in America -  never mentioned in the passage --> out of scope 
B. By the mid 19th century the Irish enjoyed more privileges than other immigrants. -  never mentioned in the passage --> out of scope 
C. The American politicians attempted to exploit the growing Irish numbers by appeasing to their cultural heritage. - a  general statement  that fits into the topic of Irish Americans' progression towards empowerment & recognition during the period of mid 19th to mid 20th century
D. The Irish who came to America before 1845 were significantly more educated than those who came after. -  never mentioned in the passage --> out of scope 
E. President Harry Truman was the   first major politician   to consider the Irish immigrants as a formidable group to shape the American democracy. -  Extreme  and the passage never mentioned anything about other major political figure's stance on this issue.

Alex14006 · Answer

Dear Gmat Club test makers, please give complete explanations to your questions. (Provide a reason why each of the answer choices is wrong or right).

wippersnapper07 · Answer

Hello I have some confusion regarding option D
 D. The Irish who came to America before 1845 were significantly more educated than those who came after. 
According to the passage
 
According to this information can't we infer that previously present Irish were comparatively more educated?

TheBigNit · Answer

The answer choice C is surely not what the passage mentions. As per passage the Irish were yet to be exploited, however as per choice C they were exploited by American politicians.

Alaabebo204 · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation.

AVARGUR · Answer

The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with  a political power that had yet to be exploited . They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls.
For option C, there is no mention of politicians exploiting the Irish numbers, it was the other way around.

For option D states 'significantly more educated' which is a use of strong language but this option is more appealing as it is stated in the para: ' Most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish....'

Someone please provide a detailed explanation for the answer!

struggle_bus · Answer

I agree with the comments above, the term "exploit" doesn't seem to have enough support from the passage to say that the intent of the politicians were directly trying to exploit them...

bb · Answer

Thank you. I think the word exploit has a few meanings and while one is malicious such as exploiting an individual, another can be simply to "use". The word exploit is also found in the text "yet to be exploited" but I don't think we need to make question ambiguous and will change "exploit" to "leverage" or another single-meaning word.

harshitasinghal · Answer

Why is option D) wrong?

"When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America"

hr1212 · Answer

Hi  harshitasinghal ,

D is not correct because the passage doesn’t provide any information about the education of earlier Irish who belonged to the Protestant middle class. While it’s tempting to infer a stark education gap based on the mention of uneducated Irish Catholics, the passage never explicitly confirms that such a difference existed. It’s possible the primary disparity was financial rather than educational. So between options C and D, I’d go with C as it’s the one I can directly support with evidence from the passage.

bb · Answer

This is because we are not told about the education and affluence levels of the Irish who came BEFORE this event. We are just told that they were poor and uneducated. I am not sure that those who came before were better off, simply because the text does not support that detail.

V32-21

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