Chinatown Chinese

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Narrow: intelligible to Cantonese3% picked this

   Linguists who argue that Chinatown Chinese constitutes a distinct new dialect are mistaken because it is intelligible to

   The beginning of this answer is okay because the author does reject the idea that Chinatown Chinese is a distinct new dialect, but she does so because "new arrivals from China would have no trouble conversing with Chinese Americans, as long as they shared a traditional dialect and weren't using proper nouns exclusive to San Francisco." It wasn't because "Cantonese speakers find it intelligible."

   3%
2. B

   Wrong Emphasis: missing author's view5% picked this

   Because Chinatown Chinese is unfamiliar to many native Chinese people, linguists have concluded that it constitutes a distinct

   This answer just neutrally says that "linguists have concluded it's a new dialect". This was a Challenge Position passage, so the main point is not to just summarize the position being challenged. It's to say "the position being challenged is mistaken!" The author thinks that linguists have erroneously concluded that Chinatown Chinese is a new dialect. This answer doesn't capture that at all.

   5%
3. C

   Correct87% picked this

   The primary claims supporting the view that Chinatown Chinese is a distinct new dialect do not stand

   Why this is right

   This captures the overall Challenge Position message: "the position that Chinatown Chinese is a distinct new dialect is wrong". And it nicely captures the structure, in a way that's broad enough to encapsulate the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. The position was laid out in the 2nd sentence: "some linguists have argued". The 3rd sentence explained the basis of the position: "this notion that it's a distinct dialect is based primarily on two claims". And then the author proceeds to take down each of those claims, one paragraph at a time. The 2nd paragraph undermines the 1st claim; the 3rd paragraph undermines the 2nd claim.

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

   87%
4. D

   Too Narrow: only 1 of 2 claims3% picked this

   Because visitors from China can fairly easily converse with Chinese Americans living in San Francisco, the variety of language there cannot be

   This is pretty tempting, because the main clause is correctly capturing the idea that "Chinatown Chinese cannot be designated a distinct new dialect". Technically, "cannot" is too extreme a term. Our author is definitely communicating they "should not" be considered a new dialect based on the claims offered by the linguists. But this answer also only addresses the 2nd paragraph, one of the two reasons that the linguists consider Chinatown Chinese a new dialect. Thus, this answer leaves out the discussion of the 3rd paragraph (where the author dispels the notion that someone who speaks Mandarin traditional Chinese would suddenly be able to understand someone speaking Cantonese American Chinese, as long as the Mandarin speaker learned all the local unique terms of Chinatown Chinese.) This answer should probably survive our first pass, but once we're choosing between (C) and (D), we want to ask ourselves which answer wraps its arms around more of the passage, and (C) captures paragraphs 2 and 3, whereas (D) only captures paragraph 2.

   3%
5. E

   Contradicted2% picked this

   Although Chinese dialects are difficult to define with certainty, linguists are now in agreement that Chinatown Chinese does not

   The main clause here says that "linguists agree that Chinatown Chinese does not constitute a distinct new dialect". The only linguists in this passage are the ones in the 2nd sentence, who are claiming that it does constitute a new dialect.

   2%