Mexican American Proverb Use

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong1% picked this

   If a proverb is used to inculcate table manners, then its primary purpose is to maintain ties

   Too Strong: if/then, primary Word Salad The author does cite using proverbs to inculcate table manners, but under the umbrella of the primary purpose being instruction of the young (P2). The part about reinforcing an ethnic tradition comes in the next paragraph (P3). "Word Salad" is a trap answer term we sometimes use to remind ourselves that test writers will often grab some words from here, some words from there, and toss them together to create a new, unsupported meaning.

   1%
2. B

   Too Strong: any community23% picked this

   The frequent use of proverbs within any community functions, at least in part, to convey a sense of their ethnicity

   The author has stressed the way that proverbs reinforce ethnic consciousness within the Mexican American community, but there's isn't any text to support the idea that all communities use proverbs in part to convey ethnicity to their children.

   23%
3. C

   Too Strong: typical4% picked this

   The ways in which Mexican Americans use Spanish-language proverbs are typical of the ways in which Spanish speakers throughout

   The author tells us in the first sentence that Mexican Americans share with speakers of Spanish through the world a rich, varied arsenal of proverbs, and share a vital tradition of proverb use. But the way Mexican Americans use proverbs (didactically, to instruct the young, as well as to foster a consciousness of ethnicity) is never linked to any other community. So we can't say whether this usage is typical. It's very possible that Mexican Americans are way more likely to have these purposes since their children are growing up in a country whose primary language and culture is not Spanish. Maybe most Spanish speaking people in the world live in countries that primarily speak Spanish, so they don't use proverbs to "remind" their children of their ethnicity.

   4%
4. D

   Correct63% picked this

   There are some sayings that do not require a verbal context to be understood but whose meaning for each particular use depends on the

   Why this is right

   This is one of those brutal correct answers on Inference questions that pull together support from two separate places. The first half of this answer comes from the first paragraph, where we are told that a proverb is a self-contained saying that can be understood independent of a specific verbal context. The second half of the answer comes from the beginning of the second paragraph, where we're told that a proverb's meaning depends on the particular social context in which it occurs.

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

   63%
5. E

   Too Broad8% picked this

   The emphasis within Mexican American communities on teaching children about peer-group relationships distinguishes those communities from other communities

   This is frustratingly tempting. First of all, the meaning of the answer is a bit ambiguous: If we say that "the emphasis on X distinguishes MA communities from other communities", are we saying it distinguishes MA communities from at least some other communities or it distinguishes them from all other communities. We have a pretty close line reference in near the end of the second paragraph, but this part of text is saying that Mexican American communities are distinguished in the sense that they use proverbs particularly frequently to teach children about peer-group relationships. This answer choice is saying "the fact that they emphasize teaching children about peer-group relationships" itself distinguishes them. The passage only told us that Mexican Americans are more likely than others to use proverbs to accomplish this goal, but the passage never said that Mexican Americans are more likely than others to have the goal of teaching children about peer-group relationships.

   8%