Reading Comprehension

PT147 · S3 · P2 · Q9 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.

9.

The author asks the reader to suppose that Mali had imposed a tax on exported objects (middle of the final paragraph) primarily in order to

  1. draw attention to the role

    Detail-Sentence Bait

    The author showed no desire to call attention to museums. The author was just saying that Mali could have allowed excavations, taxed them, and put that money back into the cultural preservation ecosystem by using that money for the national museum. The author was trying to show how her suggested alternative approach would have been a net win for the cultural preservation concerns of Mali. On Local Purpose, there is usually a trap answer that is baiting us with language from with the detail claim itself. Meanwhile, the correct answer usually sounds more like the language from the preceding claim or two.

    2% picked this

  2. praise one of the Malian

    Opposite

    The author isn't praising a policy enacted by the Malian government. The author is proposing a policy that should have been enacted by the Malian government.

    0% picked this

  3. Correct

    present one part of a

    Why this is right

    The final paragraph is where the author sells us on the idea of an alternate universe where Mali had approached its terra-cotta sculptures differently. Suppose they had done X. Suppose they had done Y. It wouldn't have been perfect, but wouldn't it have been better than what happened? The idea that it's a "more pragmatic approach" means that it's realistic. Sure, ideally Mali like to have no amateur excavations of their precious terra-cotta cultural heirlooms. But ... if they're being realistic / pragmatic, they realize the excavations by non-professionals are going to happen either way. They could try to regulate it and raise revenue from it. The tax on exported objects was one component of the suggestions the author was making in the final paragraph.

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

    78% picked this

  4. suggest a means of giving

    Unsupported Relationship

    The passage doesn't give us any reason to think that paying an export tax on the sculpture you just dug up is going to give you an incentive to keep careful records. This answer is just doing a Word Salad of the first and second halves of this sentence. This sentence is saying that Mali could have had two wins, by choosing to allow and regulate excavations: - they could require that each object be recorded and registered (so that Mali's historians can keep careful records) - they could charge an export tax This answer is making it seem like an export tax would encourage the payer to keep more careful records, which is a new meaning created by jumbling these ideas together.

    8% picked this

  5. highlight a flaw in the

    Unsupported Relationship

    There's no relationship in the passage between the UNESCO doctrine and any export tax. This answer is just baiting people with a keyword from the previous sentence.

    11% picked this

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