Preserving Ethnic Identity

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Passage

Recently the focus of historical studies of different ethnic groups in the United States has shifted from the transformation of ethnic identity to its preservation. Whereas earlier historians argued that the ethnic identity of various immigrant groups to the United States blended to form an American national character, the new scholarship has recent trend; it also exemplifies a problem that is common to such scholarship.

In comparing the first three generations of Japanese Americans (the Issei, Nisei, and Sansei), Fugita and O’Brien conclude that assimilation to United States culture increased among Japanese Americans over three generations, but that a sense of ethnic community endured. Although the persistence of community is stressed by the authors, their emphasis in and O’Brien themselves acknowledge that there has been a “weakening of Japanese American ethnic community life.”

Because of the social changes weakening the bonds of community, Fugita and O’Brien maintain that the community cohesion of Japanese Americans is notable not for its initial intensity but because “there remains a degree of involvement in the ethnic community surpassing that found in most other ethnic groups at similar points in sense of “peoplehood.” They argue that this sense of peoplehood extended beyond local and family ties.

Fugita and O’Brien’s hypothesis illustrates a common problem in studies that investigate the history of ethnic community. Like historians who have studied European ethnic cultures in the United States, Fugita and O’Brien have explained persistence of ethnic community by citing a preexisting sense of national consciousness that is independent of how a that have adapted to United States culture and been exposed to the pluralism of American life.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

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The question

25.

The passage suggests which one of the following about the historians mentioned in

Answer choices

Correct73% picked this
They have been unable to provide satisfactory explanations for the persistence of European ethnic communities
Why this is right
This is supportable because the author is complaining about this "common problem" that infects the work of Fugita and O'Brien as well as the work of our historians. The final paragraph is complaining that "it's lame to say that ethnic community X persists in its new homeland because of their preexisting sense of national consciousness. It's difficult to prove that a sense of peoplehood is a distinct phenomenon." In other words, don't all people have a sense of peoplehood / preexisting sense of national consciousness? If we were trying to explain why Irish immigrants weren't able to maintain ethnic community while Italian immigrants did have a persistent ethnic community, it doesn't seem legit to say "The Italian immigrants had a sense of peoplehood, but the Irish ones didn't. The Italian immigrants had a preexisting sense of national consciousness, but the Irish ones didn't." To put it another way, the one thing we know about these Historians is that they exhibit the same problematic tendency that the author doesn't like about Fugita and O'Brien's work: their explanation for persistence of ethnic community is a lame one that the author doesn't respect.
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
73%
Out of Scope: weakened ties11% picked this
They have suggested that European cultural practices have survived although the community ties of European
All we know about these historians is that they tried to explain the persistence of ethnic community among Europeans who emigrated to the U.S. in terms of the Europeans' preexisting sense of national consciousness. We weren't told that the historians claimed that the community ties of European ethnic groups have weakened. In fact, we think that historians are trying to explain why ethnic groups have persisted.
11%
Contradicted4% picked this
They have hypothesized that European ethnic communities are based on family ties rather than on a
All we know about these historians is that they tried to explain the persistence of ethnic community among Europeans who emigrated to the U.S. in terms of the Europeans' preexisting sense of national consciousness. So this answer is contradicting the one thing we know.
4%
Contradicted5% picked this
They have argued that European cultural traditions have been transformed in the United States because of the
The one thing we know about these historians is that they tried to explain the persistence of ethnic community among Europeans who emigrated to the U.S. in terms of the Europeans' preexisting sense of national consciousness. This answer is saying that traditions have been transformed; they haven't persisted. So this is contradicting what we were told.
5%
Too Strong: still as strong6% picked this
They have claimed that the community ties of European Americans are still as strong as they were when
While we know that these historians are studying the persistence of ethnic community, we don't know something as specific as what this answer is saying. We could say that an ethnic community has persisted without implying that it is still as strong as when the immigrants first arrived.
6%

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