Reading Comprehension

PT23 · S4 · P2 · Q9 Medieval Women's Power

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Medievalists usually distinguished medieval public law from private law: the former was concerned with government and military affairs and the latter with the family, social status, and land transactions.

Topic

Relationship of medieval women to the law

Framework

Challenge a Position

Main Point

The distinction between public and private law is overly simplistic, because women were largely excluded from public roles but wielded a lot of political (public) power via their control of land (which was governed by private law).

Passage Map

Paragraph 1 Opens with the Position being challenged. (whenever we hear "X's usually say/think ____", the author will usually go against that point of view)

The 2nd sentence reveals the Author's Purpose. (yo, this position is overly simplistic)

The rest of the paragraph establishes the Author's Main Point. (woman had lots of political power via their control of land, which they acquired through a variety of legal means)

Paragraph 2

This paragraph just lists some of the legal means through which women got control of land. (partible inheritance, dower, jointure)

Paragrap 3

This paragraph comes back to reinforcing the power that women have. (widows > oldest son, women were landlords, widows could appear in court)

Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

providing examples of specific historical
Out of Scope: historical events
There are no events described in the second paragraph, just customs and laws, such as partible inheritance, dower, and jointure, that allowed women to acquire control of land.
12% picked this
narrating a sequence of events
Out of Scope: events
There are no events described in the second paragraph, just customs and laws, such as partible inheritance, dower, and jointure, that allowed women to acquire control of land.
10% picked this
Correct
explaining how circumstances described in
Why this is right
The circumstances described in the first paragraph were that, "women's control of land had important political implications / certain women exercised influence by controlling land". Does the 2nd paragraph explain how that could have occurred? Sure, I mean this answer is being intentionally dumb (the test writers could have written a much better, more apt description), but it's possible to make this language work. Since the second paragraph explained the various ways that women acquired land, and since the first paragraph described that women's control of land gave them some political power, the 2nd paragraph does provide some background on how the 1st could have occurred.
Skill tested: Paragraph Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
74% picked this
describing the effects of an
Reversed Causality
The legal means by which women gained control of land would be the cause of the political power described in the first paragraph, not the effect of it.
3% picked this
evaluating the arguments of a
Out of Scope: evaluating
The second paragraph is about as dry and detached as they come, just neutrally listing ways in which women gained land. There are no evaluative terms in the second paragraph (other than maybe "this grant had greater legal importance").
1% picked this

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