PrepTest 145, Section 3, Question 25
In contrast to the mainstream of U.S. historiography(459 more words not shown)
The author of the passage(13 more words not shown)
- AMembers of a(9 more words not shown)
- BTerritorial sovereignty is(9 more words not shown)
- CEarly African American(14 more words not shown)
- DThe most prominent(16 more words not shown)
- EHistorians who employed(19 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The final paragraph gives us a nation-building project without a sovereign territory: historians help a dispersed people see themselves as sharing a culture and historical roots. The author therefore distinguishes building a national identity from already possessing an independent state.
Working the answers
- A
A shared historical origin in Africa does not establish a common country of origin. Africa is not presented as one country, and the author's conception of a diaspora does not impose that narrower requirement.
- BCorrect
These historians could contribute to a form of nation building even though the community lacked sovereign territory. Their work built a shared identity through history and culture, so territorial sovereignty was not a prerequisite for that project.
- C
The author describes reconstructing a glorious past and even qualifies the proposed single culture as potentially mythical. Rejection of mainstream nationalism therefore does not establish an abstention from historical myth-making of any kind.
- D
Some leaders favored emigration, but the author does not identify the most prominent historians or attribute that position to them as a group. A position held by some leaders cannot establish this ranking and attribution.
- E
Different historical approaches need not study entirely different events. Historians could select or interpret the same events differently. The author does not establish the complete separation of subject matter this answer asserts.
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