Reading Comprehension

PT104 · S3 · P2 · Q8 Hopi Personal Names

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Personal names are generally regarded by European thinkers in two major ways, both of which deny that names have any significant semantic content.

Central Topic / Purpose

significance of Hopi Names / Clarify Misconception (or Highlight Something Overlooked)

Main Point

Unlike Mill's point of view (that names are meaningless) or Strauss's (that names confer social rank), the correct view of Hopi names is that they were extremely meaningful things that not only helped to indicate social relationships but also provided aesthetic delight because of their poetic beauty or significance.

Passage Map

P1 - Introduce other views on function of names before pivoting into Passage's focus: Hopi Names.

P2 - Background information on when and how Hopis receive names

P3 - Elaboration on naming process, illuminated by an example, culminating in a takeway that the names are like tiny poems

P4 - Author's summary of Hopi names, showing how neither of the views on function in names from P1 are adequate in describing Hopi names.

Other Commentary

In trying to solve the passage from the 1st paragraph, there are a few foreshadowing hints: 1st sentence:

The fact that there are two views on how to regard personal names would prompt us to think, .

The wording that "X is generally thought of as Y" foreshadows a Clarify a Misconception / Highlight Something Overlooked type passage.

When we see the 3rd sentence say, "Consequently, X has been neglected", we would think, .

In this sense, we could see the passage as a Illustrate by Example, in which the discussion of Hopi names is just the example used to illustrate the broader point that some societies use names for functions that go beyond what our two guys enumerated in the 2nd sentence.

8.

Which one of the following statements most accurately summarizes the passage's main point?

  1. Unlike European names, which are

    Wrong Takeaway

    The author isn't saying in the end, "It's not what Mill is saying; it's not what Strauss is saying. It's both." The author is saying in the end, "Hopi names are definitely not what Mill is saying, and they do more than what Strauss is saying." This answer leaves out the main idea, that Hopi names do have semantic content and poetic properties (meaning, and even beauty).

    10% picked this

  2. Unlike European names, Hopi names

    Wrong Takeaway / Contradicted

    Again we would want to compare this language to that in the final paragraph. The author isn't saying that Hopi names do not identify or socially classify. She says that "Hopi names do several things simultaneously" and two of those are indirectly indicate social relationships and directly individuate persons.

    11% picked this

  3. Lacking knowledge of the intricacies

    Wrong Emphasis

    The subject of this sentence is "European thinkers". Were they the central topic of the passage? No they were just a setup in order to discuss Hopi names, which was the central topic of the passage. Hence, Hopi names (or the significance of them) needs to be the subject of our main point correct answer choice. The author is discussing Hopi names because the general functions of names from European thinkers wouldn't fully encompass Hopi names. But if she could reduce this passage down to one sentence, it wouldn't be: "European thinkers can't figure out the significance", it would be "The significance is rich in meaning and beauty, and goes beyond mere identification and social classification."

    9% picked this

  4. Although some Hopi names may

    Wrong Emphasis: process of naming

    If the author could only leave us with one idea, would it be that "all Hopi names conform to the same formula"? Probably not. She framed this discuss not as a how-to-make a Hopi name conversation, but rather a "What is the significance of a name?" conversation. The main point needs to address that main theme. Nothing in this answer choice reinforces the Purpose of going against the typical sense of a name having no semantic content and existing only to identify or socially classify.

    2% picked this

  5. Correct

    While performing the functions ascribed

    Why this is right

    This reinforces the "Hopi names perform several functions at once" framing idea of the last paragraph. They do identify (as Mills thought) and socially classify (as Strauss thought), but equally important is their poetic quality, an oral text that produces aesthetic delight. We can support the idea that these thinkers have not adequately recognized this quality from the first three sentences of the passage, in which we learn that European thinkers generally regard names as being devoid of semantic content, and in which the author says that other functions of names have been neglected.

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    68% picked this

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