Historiography

Answer choices

1. A

   Supported4% picked this

   Examining the actions not only of Asian settlers but of other cultural groups of the Pacific Coast of the U.S. is necessary to a

   This answer choice sounds a ton like the final sentence in the passage. That final sentence only talks about needing to appreciate the input of Chinese settlers. It doesn't mention that examining any other cultural group would be necessary. But our author definitely thinks that historiographers shouldn't confine themselves to a narrow record of experience. If historiographers only looked at Asian settlers, then they would ignore all the actions of the European American explorers. The author certainly isn't going to advocate that. She wants historiographers to take into account every group's influence in order to get a full understanding.

   4%
2. B

   Supported Extreme Disagree Position5% picked this

   The significance of certain actions to the writing of history may be recognized by one group of

   This is very hard to disagree with because it's so softly worded ("may be"). In order to pick this answer, we'd have to support the idea that in the author's mind, "every group of historiographers will recognize the same set of actions as significant and the same set of actions as insignificant." If there is ever ANY action where one group would say "significant" and another group would say "not significant", then this answer is true. In addition to the fact that no person would ever disagree with a statement this mild, we have the context from the early part of the 2nd paragraph where it's saying, "in furthering this investigation, some historiographers have recently recognized the need to expand their definition of what a source is. The sources traditionally accepted as documenting the history have too often omitted the response of Asian settlers to this territory." It sounds like there's some disagreement among historiographers over whether the actions of the Asian settlers are significant.

   5%
3. C

   Supported Extreme Disagree Position6% picked this

   Recognizing the actions of Asian settlers adds to but does not complete the writing of the history of the

   It's easy to support that the author thinks "recognizing the actions of Asian settlers adds to the writing of the history of Pacific Coast U.S." The 3rd paragraph starts with "as a case in point", which is signaling that the author thinks the story of the Asian settlers is an example of something you need to know to have a full understanding of Pacific Coast history. The final sentence of the passage also echoes this. We don't have any support sentence for the idea that "the actions of the Asian settlers does not complete the writing of the history", but it would be pretty extreme to disagree with that. Disagreeing with that would mean that you believe, "Now that we've recognized the actions of the Asian settlers, we are 100% done with writing the history of the Pacific U.S. It's complete."

   6%
4. D

   Supported8% picked this

   By recognizing as evidence the actions of people, historiographers expand the definition of what

   The first two sentences of the 2nd paragraph support this. "Some historiographers have recognized the need to expand their definition of a source; they maintain that we've traditionally omitted the response (actions) of Asian settlers to this territory".

   8%
5. E

   Correct77% picked this

   The expanded definition of a source will probably not be relevant to studies of regions that have no

   Why this is right

   This goes against the last sentence of the 2nd paragraph, where the author is agreeing with historiographers who have started to recognize the truth: a full study of a culture's historical relationship to its land cannot confine itself to a narrow record of experience, such as the actions of Asian settlers (which the beginning of the 2nd paragraph tells us is an expanded definition of a source). Nothing in that general language suggests that expanding our definition of a source is only relevant for certain types of cultures. The author seems to appreciate the underlying logic of studying the actions of settlers who may not have left any written record, but whose actions still deeply inform the history of the region. That would apply to any such situation; it's not contingent on the percentage of non-Europeans immigrants.

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

   77%