PrepTest 127, Section 4, Question 27
During most of the nineteenth century, many French(465 more words not shown)
The author would most likely(14 more words not shown)
- AThey espoused reforms(10 more words not shown)
- BThey were fundamentally(8 more words not shown)
- CThey were well-meaning(11 more words not shown)
- DThey were reasonable,(9 more words not shown)
- EThey were not(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The proposals failed, but the writer doesn't treat their effort as worthless. They sought greater equality, ran into enormous obstacles, and later helped justify successful reform. My rough reaction is that they were ahead of what their setting would accept, even though neither envisioned complete equality.
What we’re looking for
Let's look for that sympathetic but qualified assessment.
Working the answers
- A
Their limitations don't make them modest by the standards of their day. Even those incomplete reforms encountered immense obstacles. Measuring them against full equality today would miss the historical setting.
- B
The writer acknowledges incomplete equality without condemning the proposals as fundamentally unethical. Their unrealized vision is treated as something later reformers could draw on.
- CCorrect
Well-meaning efforts within severe historical limits fit the account. This doesn't mean the proposals were certain to pass—or even that passage proved possible. They were attempts to advance equality as far as the reformers could envision within that setting. Their limitations and rejection show how restrictive the circumstances were.
- D
The writer points to cultural and political obstacles. The exact legislative history isn't supplied, but failure isn't presented as inexplicable.
- E
This turns a limitation of the proposals into the reason they failed. The writer doesn't say fuller equality would have secured adoption. The point is that even these limited proposals couldn't overcome the obstacles.
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