A Comprehensive Survey of the United States, At the end of the Civil War GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

A comprehensive survey of the United States, at the end of the Civil War, would reveal a state of society that bears little resemblance to the country 50 years later. Almost all those commonplace fundamentals of existence, the things that contribute to our bodily comfort while they vex us with economic and political problems, had not yet made their appearance. The America of Civil War days was a country without transcontinental railroads, without telephones, without European cables, or wireless stations, or automobiles, or electric lights, or sky-scrapers, or million dollar hotels, or trolley cars, or a thousand other contrivances that supply the conveniences and comforts of what we call our American civilization. The cities of that period, with their unsewered and unpaved streets; their dingy, flickering gaslights; their ambling horse-cars; and their hideous slums, seemed appropriate settings for the unformed social life and the rough-and-ready political methods of American democracy. The railroads, with their fragile iron rails, their little wheezy locomotives, their wooden bridges, their unheated coaches, and their kerosene lamps, fairly typified the prevailing frontier business and economic organisation.

But only by talking with the business leaders of that time could we have understood the changes that have taken place in 50 years. For the most part, we speak a business language that our fathers and grandfathers would not have comprehended. The word trust had not become a part of their vocabulary; restraint of trade was a phrase that only the antiquarian lawyer could have interpreted; interlocking directorates, holding companies, subsidiaries, underwriting syndicates, and community of interest—all this jargon of modern business would have signified nothing to our immediate ancestors. Our nation of 1865 was a nation of farmers, city artisans, and industrious, independent businessmen, and small scale manufacturers. Millionaires, though they were not unknown, did not swarm all over the land. Luxury, though it had made great progress in the latter years of the war, had not become the American standard of well-being. The industrial story of the United States in the 50 years after the Civil War is the story of the most amazing economic transformation that the world has ever known.

‘A comprehensive survey of the United States, at the end of the Civil War ’’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analysing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. The author’s main purpose in writing this passage is to

1. suggest that the Civil War was the lowest point in the history of the United States.
2. summarize the events leading up to and continuing after the Civil War.
3. indicate a watershed period in the development of the American economy.
4. bemoan the change from the frontier spirit that characterized the early history of the United States to the impersonal, egocentric modern attitudes.
5. introduce the tycoons who initiated the growth of the huge conglomerates that built this nation.

2. Which of the following is most likely the title of a longer article in which the passage might have appeared?

1. The History of the American Reconstruction
2. Twentieth-Century Millionaires
3. Transformation from Agricultural Society to an Industrial Nation
4. An American Military Chronicle
5. Learning the Language of Business

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