Flexible Personal Body Armor Made from Interlocking Iron

Reading Passage Question

Flexible personal body armor made from interlocking iron or steel rings was known as far back as the ancient Roman era. Used primarily as protection for elite, heavy cavalry troops, various forms of so-called "chain mail" armor — either as a complete garment or combined with other forms of protection — were relatively rare and expensive at that time, and less practical than the Roman infantryman’s lorica segmentata. The latter was the iron cuirass made from segmented steel plates hung on a leather harness, favored by the infantry of the Roman legions. For centuries after the fall of Imperial Rome, the craft of fashioning mail armor fell into disuse; then it re-emerged in the medieval period with such vigor that, by the fourteenth century, entire armies could feasibly be outfitted with practical and effective linked metal armor suits.

The type of armor historians sometimes call "chain mail" — but which was called by its contemporaries merely "mail" — had many advantages for the individual fighting man in the age of steel weapons. It combined the flexibility and suppleness of cloth with the impact-absorbing mass and cut resistance of rigid metal plates. Edged weapons, no matter how sharp, are incapable of slashing or sawing through a well-fashioned mail suit. Moreover, when struck with a blunt object, the links transfer the force through the mass of the garment, absorbing a significant quantity of impact and lessening the degree of its transfer to soft tissues underneath.

The process of manufacturing a mail shirt was enormously labor-intensive in pre-industrial times. Each of the thousands of individual links that made up a full suit or "harness" had to be individually cut from a coil of hand-drawn wire, the ends of the link flattened and drilled with tiny holes, and then the link looped into the garment and riveted closed. By varying the pattern of interlocking links, the master mailer was able to enlarge or shrink the metal garment to "knit" sleeves, mittens, hoods and other complex forms. Eventually the ascendancy of improved stabbing and piercing weapons accelerated the obsolescence of linked mail armor, and the need for greater protection spurred the development of armors revolving around cleverly articulated rigid steel plates instead. Today only a few examples of medieval-era linked metal armor suits remain.

‘Flexible personal body armor made from interlocking iron’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 4 comprehension questions.

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

Questions and Solutions

1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about ancient Roman armor?

1. The lorica segmentata fell into disuse and then had a resurgence in the medieval period.
2. Ancient Roman linked-mail armor was less effective than the armor made in the fourteenth century.
3. The improved stabbing and piercing weapons used by Rome's military opponents made flexible mail armor impractical for Roman troops.
4. Armor made from segmented steel plates was unsuitable for wear by cavalry troops.
5. The lorica segmentata was a more pragmatic form of protection for infantry than flexible mail armor.

2.  Which of the following most closely resembles the physical dynamic by which flexible linked metal armor provides protection?

1. A construction worker's hard hat provides a sloping, rigid barrier that causes falling objects to glance away.
2. A tank's reactive armor is sandwiched with explosive materials that blast outward when the surface is penetrated.
3. A material woven of ballistic nylon, when struck by a projectile, transfers force out across its surface instead of allowing the force to pass through.
4. A cyclist's helmet absorbs force by strategically crushing and breaking apart on impact.
5. Aship's compartmented hull provides barriers that successively contain and disperse the force crashing through a bulkhead.

3. Which of the following statements is best supported by the passage?

1. Military technologies in the era of steel hand weapons succeeded primarily because of the existence of an adequate network of skilled craftsmen to support them.
2. Flexible metal link armor represented a practical solution to a technological need in a particular historical era.
3. The availability of practical mail armor was limited mainly to the fourteenth century.
4. Linked metal armor was of such limited usefulness that it quickly became obsolete as soon as the superior technology of articulated metal plates became widespread.
5. The unique characteristics of flexible linked metal armor make it a useful solution to technological applications today.

4. According to the passage, all of the following were steps in the process of creating a medieval-era mail harness EXCEPT

1. flattening and drilling holes in the ends of each link
2. varying the pattern of interlocking links to form contours
3. cutting the individual links from a coil of wire
4. suspending the completed mail suit from a leather harness
5. riveting the cut ends of the metal links shut

5. The organization of the second paragraph is best described by which of the following statements?

1. An argument is delineated, and then contrasted with a counterargument.
2. An assertion is presented, followed by supporting elaboration and explanation.
3. A historical situation is elaborated in reference to the events that preceded it.
4. A specific example is extended to explain general conclusions drawn from it.
5. A group of dissimilar occurrences is expounded and the distinctions between them are explained.

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