Artistic and Cultural Patrimony in Mali

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: must3% picked this

   They must be owned and protected by a country's

   The author never says that every single antiquity should be in a museum. To the contrary, her position in the last paragraph is softer, more pragmatic, more realistic. She mentions charging a tax in order to fund "acquisitions of important pieces for the national museum", but she doesn't insist that all pieces go to a national museum.

   3%
2. B

   Too Strong: must13% picked this

   They must remain within the boundaries of the country in which

   The author never says that every single antiquity should stay in its original country. To the contrary, her position in the last paragraph is softer, more pragmatic, more realistic. She mentions charging a tax "on exported objects", so she's definitely tolerant of the idea that some of these antiquities, once removed carefully from the earth with accurate records, will then be exported to other countries.

   13%
3. C

   Too Strong: too valuable4% picked this

   They are too valuable to be owned exclusively by

   This answer barely makes sense. If something is super valuable, we should make sure the state doesn't own it? We want private citizens to own the things that are of utmost value? To support this answer, we'd need to find the author expressing concern (based on their value) that artifacts would end up entirely under state control. There's nothing like that in the passage. The author is tolerant of the private ownership of these antiquities (because she thinks when you aspire towards exclusive state ownership, it backfires and you end up with worse results). But she's never insisting on private ownership as a worthy end in and of itself.

   4%
4. D

   Correct75% picked this

   They should be excavated by professional archaeologists

   Why this is right

   The author is tolerant of amateurs digging stuff up, if the excavation is licensed and the excavators are educated that these antiquities have greater value when they're removed carefully from the earth with accurate records of location. But she's certainly more comfortable with the idea of professionals doing the digging, if possible, since they are the experts when it come to removing things carefully from the earth with accurate records of location. At the end of the final paragraph, she's saying, the excavation encouraged by such a system [that would allow regular people to excavate] may have been less well conducted and less informative than proper, professionally administered excavations. That line supports the notion that she thinks professional archaeologists will do a better job with excavations.

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

   75%
5. E

   Too Strong: finders keepers5% picked this

   They belong to whoever finds them and registers them with

   The author never says something as strong as, "If you find it and register it, it automatically belongs to you".

   5%