Reading Comprehension

PT147 · S3 · P2 · Q7 Artistic and Cultural Patrimony in Mali

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The government of Mali passed a law against excavating and exporting the wonderful terra-cotta sculptures from the old city of Djenne-jeno, but it could not enforce it.

Topic

The problem of looting Djenne-jeno's ancient sculptures, restrictive cultural property laws, and whether a more practical, regulated approach could have protected Mali’s heritage more effectively.

Framework

Problem / Solution

Main Point

Efforts to protect Mali's Djenne-jeno antiquities through restrictive laws and international doctrines (like UNESCO’s) unintentionally led to damaging looting and loss of information, and a more flexible, regulated approach might have been more effective. Most Valuable Sentence: The final paragraph’s rhetorical question () most directly captures the author’s main point.

P1: The Scope of the Looting Problem

Mali made laws to protect its historic sculptures, but these laws couldn't be enforced, so many valuable pieces were illegally taken and sold, resulting in lost archaeological knowledge.

P2: UNESCO and Protective Cultural Property Laws

International condemnation and UNESCO-led doctrine have emphasized that artifacts should be the property of the nation/culture they come from, prompting many countries to ban export and claim antiquities as state property.

P3: Unintended Consequences of Strict Regulation

While it’s rational for Mali to want control, these strict regulatory systems can ironically prevent proper recording and preservation of artifacts because people want to avoid creating documentation that could incriminate them or lead to confiscation.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

Declarations from UNESCO and other
Wrong Emphasis: where's the Solution?
The main clause of this answer is, Declarations from UNESCO gave rise to a doctrine based on the notion of artistic and cultural patrimony. We need to either here something like, "Here's what UNESCO and Mali should have done, or here's what we should do next time we have a situation like what happened in Mali". This is just a boring causal fact that "their declaration gave rise to a doctrine".
6% picked this
Correct
Preserving cultural knowledge at sites
Why this is right
The main clause of this sounds like the author's recommendation about how we handle situations like the Mali one in the future: Preserving knowledge at sites like DJ requires solutions that are more flexible than simply passing laws prohibiting excavation and export. This answer feels a little lacking because the author DID actually lay out a more specific roadmap for what such a solution might look like, whereas this answer only refers to that solution in vague terms as "more flexible". But otherwise this matches up. The Problem with the way that handled the terra-cotta situation is that by outright prohibiting non-professional excavation and export, they encouraged a black market where people illegally and secretly excavated and exported. This was the worst case scenario, because not only did Mali lose its cultural property, but science lots its ability to study and catalogue these statues that were stolen "in the dark of night". The better path that the author is recommending in the final paragraph is one in which the government and UNESCO recognize that nonprofessionals are going to dig these things out anyway, so let's find a way for them to do so in a way where the host government can benefit (via tax revenue) and where science can benefit (via a chance to keep accurate records of each unearthed statue).
Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
78% picked this
Rather than acceding to the
Too Strong: unique Contradicted
This is appealing in the sense that it is providing a Solution / Takeaway to this Problematic situation in Mali. But the solution does not resemble what the author says in the final paragraph. The author is encouraging UNESCO (the international body) to help countries like Mali in their efforts to license excavations and spread the word that, "You can dig these up; but it's important that you dig them up in the right way". There is also a very extreme tilt to saying, "Each country must come up with its own unique solution", when the author's advice in the final paragraph seems like general advice that any country could follow.
4% picked this
The government of Mali should
Too Strong: only Contradicted
In the author's final paragraph, where she traces out her Solution, she acknowledges that in following her methodology, the excavations encouraged by such a system may have been less well conducted and less informative than proper, professionally administered excavations by accredited archaeologists. She is saying that, "rather than forbidding anyone but accredited archaeologists from excavating these statues, it would have been better to let the un-accredited, less professional people still do excavations, as long as they paid a tax to export the statue and allowed local scientists to document the statue that was unearthed."
5% picked this
The idea that a culture's
Wrong Emphasis: unrelated to Solution
The main clause here is, "The idea that stuff found in a country is the property of that country does more harm than good". That sounds nothing like, "Here's what Mali should have done in regards to the terra-cotta sculptures" or "here's what countries like Mali should do if they're in a situation like the one with the terra-cotta sculptures".
7% picked this

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