CAT — Culture & Identity RC
16 questions, free to view. Click any question to see the answer and explanation.
For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting - land-focused and inward-looking.
My new book "Writing Ocean Worlds" explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. . . . Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking - full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They are all very different - from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader's mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. . . .
The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. . . .
For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay. . . . It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.
This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. . . . African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that of the wider world.
Which one of the following statements is not true about migration in the Indian Ocean world?
The Indian Ocean world's migration networks connected the global north with the global south.
Geographical location rather than geographical proximity determined the choice of destination for migrants.
The Indian Ocean world's migration networks were shaped by religious and commercial histories of the region.
Migration in the Indian Ocean world was an ambivalent experience.
The Indian Ocean world's migration networks connected the global north with the global south.
The passage describes the Indian Ocean world as connecting the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia, and describes it as a south-south interconnection. The passage never mentions the Indian Ocean world's migration networks connecting the global north with the global south. The connections described are entirely within and between southern regions.
On the basis of the nature of the relationship between the items in each pair below, choose the odd pair out:
Indian Ocean novels : Outward-looking
Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing
Indian Ocean world : Slavery
Postcolonial novels : Anti-colonial nationalism
Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing
The passage explicitly associates Indian Ocean novels with being outward-looking, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. Postcolonial novels are described as land-focused and inward-looking, supporting anti-colonial nationalism. Border-crossing is specifically a quality of Indian Ocean novels, not postcolonial novels, making the pair postcolonial novels and border-crossing a mismatch.
All of the following statements, if true, would weaken the passage's claim about the relationship between mainstream English-language fiction and Indian Ocean novels EXCEPT:
the depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by a postcolonial nostalgia for an idyllic past
the depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by an Orientalist imagination of its cultural crudeness.
very few mainstream English-language novels have historically been set in American and European metropolitan centres.
most mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel and adventure.
most mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel and adventure.
The passage's claim about mainstream English-language fiction is that it centres Europe and the US, assumes a background of Christianity and whiteness, and features places like Paris and New York. Option D, stating that most mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience, actually reinforces the passage's claim rather than weakening it.
All of the following claims contribute to the "remapping" discussed by the passage, EXCEPT:
Indian Ocean novels have gone beyond the specifics of national concerns to explore rich regional pasts.
the world of early international trade and commerce was not the sole domain of white Europeans.
cosmopolitanism originated in the West and travelled to the East through globalisation.
the global south, as opposed to the global north, was the first centre of globalisation.
cosmopolitanism originated in the West and travelled to the East through globalisation.
The passage's remapping involves showing that the Indian Ocean world was the first centre of globalisation, that it is centred in the global south rather than the global north, and that non-European, non-white characters played active roles in world history and trade. Claiming that cosmopolitanism originated in the West and spread east through globalisation directly contradicts the passage's argument that the Indian Ocean world, which is in the global south, was the original centre of globalisation and cosmopolitan culture.
Once a society accepts a secular mode of creativity, within which the creator replaces God, imaginative transactions assume a self-conscious form. The tribal imagination, on the other hand, is still to a large extent dreamlike and hallucinatory. It admits fusion between various planes of existence and levels of time in a natural and artless manner. In tribal stories, oceans fly in the sky as birds, mountains swim in water as fish, animals speak as humans and stars grow like plants. Spatial order and temporal sequence do not restrict the narrative. This is not to say that tribal creations have no conventions or rules, but simply that they admit the principle of association between emotion and the narrative motif. Thus stars, seas, mountains, trees, men and animals can be angry, sad or happy.
It might be said that tribal artists work more on the basis of their racial and sensory memory than on the basis of a cultivated imagination. In order to understand this distinction, we must understand the difference between imagination and memory. In the animate world, consciousness meets two immediate material realities: space and time. We put meaning into space by perceiving it in terms of images. The image-making faculty is a genetic gift to the human mind—this power of imagination helps us understand the space that envelops us. With regard to time, we make connections with the help of memory; one remembers being the same person today as one was yesterday.
The tribal mind has a more acute sense of time than the sense of space. Somewhere along the history of human civilization, tribal communities seem to have realized that domination over territorial space was not their lot. Thus, they seem to have turned almost obsessively to gaining domination over time. This urge is substantiated in their ritual of conversing with their dead ancestors: year after year, tribals in many parts of India worship terracotta or carved-wood objects representing their ancestors, aspiring to enter a trance in which they can converse with the dead. Over the centuries, an amazingly sharp memory has helped tribals classify material and natural objects into a highly complex system of knowledge. . .
One of the main characteristics of the tribal arts is their distinct manner of constructing space and imagery, which might be described as 'hallucinatory'. In both oral and visual forms of representation, tribal artists seem to interpret verbal or pictorial space as demarcated by an extremely flexible 'frame'. The boundaries between art and non-art become almost invisible. A tribal epic can begin its narration from a trivial everyday event; tribal paintings merge with living space as if the two were one and the same. And within the narrative itself, or within the painted imagery, there is no deliberate attempt to follow a sequence. The episodes retold and the images created take on the apparently chaotic shapes of dreams. In a way, the syntax of language and the grammar of painting are the same, as if literature were painted words and painting were a song of images.
Non-human living forms exhibit human emotions in tribal narratives because tribal narratives:
have a self-conscious form.
accommodate existential fluidity.
abandon all rules and regulations.
are rudimentary and underdeveloped.
accommodate existential fluidity.
The passage describes tribal narratives admitting fusion between different planes of existence and levels of time, allowing oceans to fly and mountains to swim, all driven by an association between emotion and narrative motif. This fluid, boundary-crossing quality, where objects and animals can take on human emotions without being restricted by spatial or temporal logic, is best described as accommodating existential fluidity.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly contrasts tribal imagination with the self-conscious form that arises once a society adopts secular, individual creativity, so tribal narratives are described as the opposite of self-conscious.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: The passage clarifies that tribal creations do have conventions and rules, just different ones based on emotional association, so saying they abandon all rules misrepresents the passage.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: The passage does not characterise tribal narratives as rudimentary or underdeveloped, it presents their fluid, hallucinatory quality as a distinct and rich mode of imagination, not as deficient.
Why Option B is Correct: This matches the passage's description of tribal narratives freely fusing planes of existence and time, where animals and natural elements take on human emotions without the constraints of ordinary logic.
Key Takeaway: Look for terms that precisely capture a passage's specific descriptive language, rather than options that contradict explicit statements elsewhere in the text.
On the basis of the passage, which one of the following explains the main difference between imagination and memory?
Imagination is a genetic gift to humans whereas memory is central to human consciousness.
Tribal groups value memory over imagination when it comes to creating art and literature.
Imagination needs to be cultivated whereas memory is more intuitive because it is racial and sensory.
Imagination helps humans make sense of space while memory helps them understand time.
Imagination helps humans make sense of space while memory helps them understand time.
The passage explains that imagination helps put meaning into space through images, while memory helps us connect with time, recognising ourselves as the same person across days. This direct mapping, imagination to space and memory to time, is the core distinction the passage draws.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: This restates two separate facts about imagination and memory but does not capture the core functional distinction, that one relates to space and the other to time.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: This describes tribal groups' preference, a separate point made later in the passage, not the general explanation of the difference between imagination and memory itself.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: This refers to a different distinction, between cultivated imagination and racial or sensory memory in tribal artists specifically, not the general definitional difference asked about.
Why Option D is Correct: This precisely reflects the passage's statement that imagination helps us understand space while memory helps us connect across time.
Key Takeaway: When a passage gives a direct definitional contrast, prefer the option that mirrors that exact contrast over options describing related but distinct ideas.
Which one of the following best explains why tribals in India worship their dead ancestors?
For tribals, conversing with the dead becomes a way of seeking control over time.
Tribals show respect to their ancestors through terracotta and carved-wood objects.
Tribals possess a sophisticated knowledge system that is based on memory.
Tribals seek territorial domination over the spaces that they inhabit.
For tribals, conversing with the dead becomes a way of seeking control over time.
The passage states that tribal communities, realising domination over territorial space was not their lot, turned to gaining domination over time instead, and that the ritual of conversing with dead ancestors substantiates this urge for control over time.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: This describes the form the worship takes, terracotta and carved-wood objects, but not the underlying reason the passage gives for why tribals perform this worship.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: This refers to a separate point about tribals' knowledge system built from memory, not the specific explanation for ancestor worship.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly states tribals turned away from seeking territorial domination, making this the opposite of what the passage argues.
Why Option A is Correct: This matches the passage's explicit reasoning, that the ritual of conversing with dead ancestors is a manifestation of the tribal urge to dominate time, since domination over space was unavailable to them.
Key Takeaway: Trace a described ritual back to the specific motivation the passage assigns to it, rather than to incidental details about how the ritual is performed.
All of the following, if true, would weaken the passage's claims about the hallucinatory tribal imagination EXCEPT that:
tribal art excludes the depiction of the mundane reality of everyday life and objects.
tribal narratives exhibit a chronological beginning, middle, and end.
tribal stories depict the natural world in accordance with rational scientific knowledge.
shamanic rituals involving conversing with the dead often feature in tribal stories.
shamanic rituals involving conversing with the dead often feature in tribal stories.
Options A, B and C all describe scenarios that would directly contradict the passage's claims about tribal art being hallucinatory, fluid, and unbound by sequence or scientific rationality. Option D, mentioning that shamanic rituals of conversing with the dead feature in tribal stories, is consistent with the passage's own description of tribal ancestor worship and trance rituals, so it does not weaken the claims about hallucinatory imagination.
Why Option A is
Incorrect (as a candidate for the exception): If tribal art excluded depictions of everyday life, this would contradict the passage's claim that the boundary between art and non-art is invisible and that epics can begin from trivial everyday events.
Why Option B is
Incorrect (as a candidate for the exception): If tribal narratives followed a clear chronological structure, this would contradict the passage's claim that there is no deliberate attempt to follow a sequence in tribal narratives.
Why Option C is
Incorrect (as a candidate for the exception): If tribal stories depicted nature according to rational scientific knowledge, this would contradict the passage's examples of oceans flying and mountains swimming, which is explicitly dreamlike and not scientifically rational.
Why Option D is Correct: This aligns with the passage's own description of tribal rituals involving trance-like conversations with ancestors, so it does not weaken the hallucinatory characterisation, it actually supports it.
Key Takeaway: In a "weaken except" question, watch for an option that actually restates something the passage already claims, since this will not weaken but rather support the argument.
Umberto Eco, an Italian writer, was right when he said the language of Europe is translation. Netflix and other deep-pocketed global firms speak it well. Just as the EU employs a small army of translators and interpreters to turn intricate laws or impassioned speeches of Romanian MEPs into the EU's 24 official languages, so do the likes of Netflix. It now offers dubbing in 34 languages and subtitling in a few more. . . .
The economics of European productions are more appealing, too. American audiences are more willing than before to give dubbed or subtitled viewing a chance. This means shows such as "Lupin", a French crime caper on Netflix, can become global hits. . . . In 2015, about 75% of Netflix's original content was American; now the figure is half, according to Ampere, a media-analysis company. Netflix has about 100 productions under way in Europe, which is more than big public broadcasters in France or Germany. . . .
Not everything works across borders. Comedy sometimes struggles. Whodunits and bloodthirsty maelstroms between arch Romans and uppity tribesmen have a more universal appeal. Some do it better than others. Barbarians aside, German television is not always built for export, says one executive, being polite. A bigger problem is that national broadcasters still dominate. Streaming services, such as Netflix or Disney+, account for about a third of all viewing hours, even in markets where they are well-established. Europe is an ageing continent. The generation of teens staring at phones is outnumbered by their elders who prefer to gawp at the box.
In Brussels and national capitals, the prospect of Netflix as a cultural hegemon is seen as a threat. "Cultural sovereignty" is the watchword of European executives worried that the Americans will eat their lunch. To be fair, Netflix content sometimes seems stuck in an uncanny valley somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, with local quirks stripped out. Netflix originals tend to have fewer specific cultural references than shows produced by domestic rivals, according to Enders, a market analyst. The company used to have an imperial model of commissioning, with executives in Los Angeles cooking up ideas French people might like. Now Netflix has offices across Europe. But ultimately the big decisions rest with American executives. This makes European politicians nervous.
They should not be. An irony of European integration is that it is often American companies that facilitate it. Google Translate makes European newspapers comprehensible, even if a little clunky, for the continent's non-polyglots. American social-media companies make it easier for Europeans to talk politics across borders. (That they do not always like to hear what they say about each other is another matter.) Now Netflix and friends pump the same content into homes across a continent, making culture a cross-border endeavour, too. If Europeans are to share a currency, bail each other out in times of financial need and share vaccines in a pandemic, then they need to have something in common—even if it is just bingeing on the same series. Watching fictitious northern and southern Europeans tear each other apart 2,000 years ago beats doing so in reality.
Based on information provided in the passage, all of the following are true, EXCEPT:
European television productions have the potential to become global hits.
Netflix has been able to transform itself into a truly European entity.
only half of Netflix's original programming in the EU is now produced in America.
national broadcasters dominate in the EU in terms of total television viewing hours.
Netflix has been able to transform itself into a truly European entity.
The passage describes Netflix as having offices across Europe but notes that ultimately the big decisions rest with American executives, and that Netflix originals tend to have fewer specific cultural references than domestic rivals. This is the opposite of being a truly European entity.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly cites shows like Lupin becoming global hits, directly supporting the claim that European productions have the potential to become global hits.
Why Option B is Correct: The passage explicitly says Netflix has American executives making final decisions, that its content is sometimes stripped of local quirks, and that it used to have an imperial commissioning model. None of this supports the idea that Netflix has transformed into a truly European entity.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly states that now only half of Netflix's original content is American, down from 75% in 2015, directly supporting this claim.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly states that streaming services account for only about a third of all viewing hours even in well-established markets, with national broadcasters dominating, directly supporting this claim.
Key Takeaway: For "all true except" questions, identify the option that directly contradicts something explicitly stated in the passage rather than the one that is simply not mentioned.
The author sees the rise of Netflix in Europe as:
a unifying force.
filling an entertainment gap.
a looming cultural threat.
an economic threat.
a unifying force.
The final paragraph explicitly argues that Netflix and similar American companies actually facilitate European integration by pumping the same content into homes across the continent, making culture a cross-border endeavour. The author directly says Europeans should not be worried about Netflix as a cultural hegemon and presents it as a unifying force.
Why Option A is Correct: The final paragraph makes the author's position explicit, that Netflix sharing content across European borders is analogous to sharing a currency or vaccines, framing it as a mechanism for cultural integration and unity.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: The passage does not frame Netflix primarily as filling an entertainment gap, it frames it as facilitating cultural integration across Europe.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: While the passage acknowledges that European politicians see Netflix as a cultural threat, the author explicitly says they should not be worried, indicating that the author does not share this view.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: The passage does not present Netflix as an economic threat to Europe, it focuses on cultural concerns and then explicitly dismisses them in favour of a unification narrative.
Key Takeaway: When an author explicitly contradicts a concern raised earlier in the passage and offers an alternative framing, use the author's own conclusion rather than the concerns they are addressing.
Based only on information provided in the passage, which one of the following hypothetical Netflix shows would be most successful with audiences across the EU?
An Italian comedy show hosted by an international star.
An original German TV science fiction production.
A murder mystery drama set in North Africa and France.
A trans-Atlantic romantic drama set in Europe and America.
A murder mystery drama set in North Africa and France.
The passage states that whodunits and historical dramas featuring Romans and tribesmen have more universal appeal across borders, while comedy sometimes struggles to cross borders. A murder mystery drama set in North Africa and France combines the universally appealing whodunit format with a cross-national European and African setting, maximising cross-border appeal.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: The passage explicitly notes that comedy sometimes struggles to travel across borders, making an Italian comedy show a risky choice for EU-wide success regardless of the host's fame.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: The passage notes that German television is not always built for export, making an original German science fiction production a less likely candidate for EU-wide success.
Why Option C is Correct: This combines two features the passage identifies as universally appealing, the whodunit format and a setting spanning two distinct cultural spaces that are nonetheless within the broad European and Mediterranean world, making it most likely to succeed across EU audiences.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: The passage warns that Netflix content can get stuck in an uncanny mid-Atlantic valley when it tries to appeal too broadly, and a trans-Atlantic romantic drama set across Europe and America seems more likely to fall into this trap of having local quirks stripped out.
Key Takeaway: Apply the passage's specific criteria for cross-border success directly to each option, since the correct answer will satisfy more of those criteria than the others.
Which one of the following research findings would weaken the author's conclusion in the final paragraph?
Research shows there is a wide variance in the popularity and viewing of Netflix shows across different EU countries.
Research shows that Netflix has been gradually losing market share to other streaming television service providers.
Research shows that Netflix hits produced in France are very popular with North American audiences.
Research shows that older women across the EU enjoy watching romantic comedies on Netflix, whereas younger women prefer historical fiction dramas.
Research shows there is a wide variance in the popularity and viewing of Netflix shows across different EU countries.
The author's final paragraph argues that Netflix facilitates European integration by providing common cultural content across borders, implying that people across EU countries are watching the same shows. If research showed wide variance in the popularity of Netflix shows across different EU countries, this would directly undermine the claim that Netflix is creating a shared cultural experience that unifies Europeans.
Why Option A is Correct: If Netflix viewing patterns vary widely across EU countries, the shows are not in fact being shared across a common European audience, directly contradicting the author's claim that Netflix makes culture a cross-border endeavour.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: Netflix losing market share to other streaming services would not weaken the argument that Netflix facilitates European cultural integration, since the argument is about what Netflix does, not whether Netflix is commercially dominant.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Netflix shows being popular in North America is irrelevant to the author's conclusion about Netflix facilitating European integration specifically.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Different demographic groups within the EU watching different genres is not the same as different countries watching different content. Even if older women and younger women prefer different genres, they could both be watching Netflix, which still supports the cross-border cultural connection the author describes.
Key Takeaway: To weaken a conclusion about shared cultural experience, find evidence that the sharing is not actually occurring uniformly across the relevant group.
Languages become endangered and die out for many reasons. Sadly, the physical annihilation of communities of native speakers of a language is all too often the cause of language extinction. In North America, European colonists brought death and destruction to many Native American communities. This was followed by US federal policies restricting the use of indigenous languages, including the removal of native children from their communities to federal boarding schools where native languages and cultural practices were prohibited. As many as 75 percent of the languages spoken in the territories that became the United States have gone extinct, with slightly better language survival rates in Central and South America ...
Even without physical annihilation and prohibitions against language use, the language of the "dominant" cultures may drive other languages into extinction; young people see education, jobs, culture and technology associated with the dominant language and focus their attention on that language. The largest language "killers" are English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Hindi, and Chinese, all of which have privileged status as dominant languages threatening minority languages.
When we lose a language, we lose the worldview, culture and knowledge of the people who spoke it, constituting a loss to all humanity. People around the world live in direct contact with their native environment, their habitat. When the language they speak goes extinct, the rest of humanity loses their knowledge of that environment, their wisdom about the relationship between local plants and illness, their philosophical and religious beliefs, as well as their native cultural expression (in music, visual art and poetry) that has enriched both the speakers of that language and others who would have encountered that culture ...
As educators deeply immersed in the liberal arts, we believe that educating students broadly in all facets of language and culture ... yields immense rewards. Some individuals educated in the liberal arts tradition will pursue advanced study in linguistics and become actively engaged in language preservation, setting out for the Amazon, for example, with video recording equipment to interview the last surviving elders in a community to record and document a language spoken by no children.
Certainly, though, the vast majority of students will not pursue this kind of activity. For these students, a liberal arts education is absolutely critical from the twin perspectives of language extinction and global citizenship. When students study languages other than their own, they are sensitized to the existence of different cultural perspectives and practices. With such an education, students are more likely to be able to articulate insights into their own cultural biases, be more empathetic to individuals of other cultures, communicate successfully across linguistic and cultural differences, consider and resolve questions in a way that reflects multiple cultural perspectives, and, ultimately extend support to people, programs, practices, and policies that support the preservation of endangered languages.
There is ample evidence that such preservation can work in languages spiraling toward extinction. For example, Navajo, Cree, and Inuit communities have established schools in which these languages are the language of instruction, and the number of speakers of each has increased.
In the context of the passage, which one of the following hypothetical scenarios, if true, is NOT an example of the kind of loss that occurs when a language becomes extinct?
The Nicobarese language describes 20 different moods of the ocean. By the time the last speaker is educated in a Central Board school, they will have forgotten their language.
The Lamkangs of Manipur have only 3 remaining native speakers of the language. When they die, we will lose one more group from the government list of indigenous tribes.
The Andamanese language has a word to describe someone who has lost a step-sister. When the language dies, we will lose the concept of the word and the emotions it evokes.
The Inuits of Alaska have 35 different words to describe the texture of snow. When the language becomes extinct, we will lose that understanding of nature.
The Lamkangs of Manipur have only 3 remaining native speakers of the language. When they die, we will lose one more group from the government list of indigenous tribes.
The passage describes the loss of a language as a loss of worldview, culture, environmental knowledge, philosophical and religious beliefs, and cultural expression. Option B describes the loss of the last speakers of Lamkangs and the removal of one group from the government list of indigenous tribes, which is an administrative loss, not a loss of knowledge, culture or worldview. Being removed from a government list is a bureaucratic consequence, not the kind of cultural or epistemic loss the passage is concerned with.
Which one of the following hypothetical scenarios, if true, would most strongly undermine the central ideas of the passage?
Most liberal arts students will pursue jobs in publishing and human resource management rather than doctorates in linguistics.
A liberal arts education requires that, in addition to being fluent in English, students gain fluency in two of the top five most spoken languages globally.
Schools that teach endangered languages can preserve the language only for a generation.
Recording a dying language that has only a few remaining speakers freezes it in time: it stops evolving further.
A liberal arts education requires that, in addition to being fluent in English, students gain fluency in two of the top five most spoken languages globally.
The passage argues that a liberal arts education sensitises students to cultural differences, helps them support endangered languages, and produces some specialists who document dying languages. If a liberal arts education only required fluency in the top five most spoken global languages, this would make students more proficient in the very dominant languages the passage identifies as the biggest killers of minority languages, directly contradicting the passage's argument that such an education supports diversity and preservation.
It can be inferred from the passage that it is likely South America had a slightly better language survival rate than North America for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
European colonists allowed children of native speakers to stay at home with their families.
the colonial government was unable to mainstream the locals.
not many native speakers were killed by European colonists.
locals were provided job opportunities in the colonial administration.
locals were provided job opportunities in the colonial administration.
The passage states that South America had a slightly better language survival rate than North America, and it attributes this to differences in the colonial treatment of native populations, specifically the physical annihilation and language restrictions seen in North America. The passage does not mention job opportunities in the colonial administration as a reason for better survival rates in South America.
The author believes that a liberal arts education combined with participation in language preservation empower students in all of the following ways EXCEPT that they will
overcome cultural barriers to communication.
learn different languages.
establish schools to preserve languages spiralling towards extinction.
develop a better understanding of their own culture.
establish schools to preserve languages spiralling towards extinction.
The passage describes several ways a liberal arts education empowers students, articulating cultural biases, empathising with other cultures, communicating across linguistic differences, and supporting policies for language preservation. It also separately mentions that some specialists will set up recording expeditions. However, establishing schools to preserve endangered languages is presented as an example of what preservation efforts look like, specifically the Navajo, Cree and Inuit communities, not as something a liberal arts education equips students to do.
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