In Tracing the Changing Face of the Irish Landscape GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

In tracing the changing face of the Irish landscape, scholars have traditionally relied primarily on evidence from historical documents. However, such documentary sources provide a fragmentary record at (5) best. Reliable accounts are very scarce for many parts of Ireland prior to the seventeenth century, and many of the relevant documents from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries focus selectively on matters relating to military or commercial interests.

(10) Studies of fossilized pollen grains preserved in peats and lake muds provide an additional means of investigating vegetative landscape change. Details of changes in vegetation resulting from both human activities and natural events are reflected in the kinds (15)and quantities of minute pollen grains that become trapped in sediments. Analysis of samples can identify which kinds of plants produced the preserved pollen grains and when they were deposited, and in many cases the findings can serve to supplement or correct (20) the documentary record.

For example, analyses of samples from Long Lough in County Down have revealed significant patterns of cereal-grain pollen beginning by about 400 A.D. The substantial clay content of the soil in this part (25) of Down makes cultivation by primitive tools difficult. Historians thought that such soils were not tilled to any significant extent until the introduction of the moldboard plough to Ireland in the seventh century A.D. Because cereal cultivation would have required (30) tilling of the soil, the pollen evidence indicates that these soils must indeed have been successfully tilled before the introduction of the new plough.

Another example concerns flax cultivation in County Down, one of the great linen-producing areas (35) of Ireland during the eighteenth century. Some aspect of linen production in Down are well documented, but the documentary record tells little about the cultivation of flax, the plant from which linen is made, in that area. The record of eighteenth-century linen (40) production in Down, together with the knowledge that flax cultivation had been established in Ireland centuries before that time, led some historians to surmise that this plant was being cultivated in Down before the eighteenth century. But pollen analyses (45) indicate that this is not the case; flax pollen was found only in deposits laid down since the eighteenth century.

It must be stressed, though, that there are limits to the ability of the pollen record to reflect the vegetative (50) history of the landscape. For example, pollen analyses cannot identify the species, but only the genus or family, of some plants. Among these is madder, a cultivated dye plant of historical importance in Ireland. Madder belongs to a plant family that also comprises (55) various native weeds, including goosegrass. If madder pollen were present in a deposit it would be indistinguishable from that of uncultivated native species. 

‘In tracing the changing face of the Irish landscape’ 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. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) Analysis of fossilized pollen is a useful means of supplementing and in some cases correcting other sources of information regarding changes in the Irish landscape.
(B) Analyses of historical documents, together with pollen evidence, have led to the revision of some previously accepted hypotheses regarding changes in the Irish landscape.
(C) Analysis of fossilized pollen has proven to be a valuable tool in the identification of ancient plant species.
(D) Analysis of fossilized pollen has provided new evidence that the cultivation of such crops as cereal grains, flax, and madder had a significant impact on the landscape of Ireland.
(E) While pollen evidence can sometimes supplement other sources of historical information, its applicability is severely limited, since it cannot be used to identify plant species.

2. The passage indicates that pollen analyses have provided evidence against which one of the following views?

(A) The moldboard plough was introduced into Ireland in the seventh century.
(B) In certain parts of County Down, cereal grains were not cultivated to any significant extent before the seventh century.
(C) In certain parts of Ireland, cereal grains have been cultivated continuously since the introduction of the moldboard plough.
(D) Cereal grain cultivation requires successful tilling of the soil.
(E) Cereal grain cultivation began in County Down around 400 A.D.

3. The phrase “documentary record” (lines 20 and 37) primarily refers to

(A) documented results of analyses of fossilized pollen
(B) the kinds and quantities of fossilized pollen grains preserved in peats and lake muds
(C) written and pictorial descriptions by current historians of the events and landscapes of past centuries
(D) government and commercial records, maps, and similar documents produced in the past that recorded conditions and events of that time
(E) articles, books, and other documents by current historians listing and analyzing all the available evidence regarding a particular historical period

4. The passage indicates that prior to the use of pollen analysis in the study of the history of the Irish landscape, at least some historians believed which one of the following?

(A) The Irish landscape had experienced significant flooding during the seventeenth century.
(B) Cereal grain was not cultivated anywhere in Ireland until at least the seventh century.
(C) The history of the Irish landscape during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was well documented.
(D) Madder was not used as a dye plant in Ireland until after the eighteenth century.
(E) The beginning of flax cultivation in County Down may well have occurred before the eighteenth century.

5. Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between the second paragraph and the final paragraph?

(A) The second paragraph proposes a hypothesis for which the final paragraph offers a supporting example.
(B) The final paragraph describes a problem that must be solved before the method advocated in the second paragraph can be considered viable.
(C) The final paragraph qualifies the claim made in the second paragraph.
(D) The second paragraph describes a view against which the author intends to argue, and the final paragraph states the author’s argument against that view.
(E) The final paragraph offers procedures to supplement the method described in the second paragraph.

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions

• During the Victorian Period, Women Writers were Measured Against A Social GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In Current Historiography, the Picture of a Consistent, Unequivocal Decline in Women’s Status GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Resin is a Plant Secretion that Hardens when Exposed to Air GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War GMAT Reading Comprehension
• It Was Once Assumed that All Living Things Could be Divided into Two Fundamental and Exhaustive Categories GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A Fundamental Principle of Pharmacology is that all Drugs have Multiple Actions. Actions that are Desirable in the Treatment of Disease are Considered therapeutic GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Scepticism is as Much the Result of Knowledge, as Knowledge is of Scepticism. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• On the surface, the Conquest of the Aztec Empire by Herman Cortes GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A One-Child Policy was Implemented in China in 1979 GMAT Reading Comprehension
• But Man is Not Destined to Vanish. He can be Killed, but he cannot be Destroyed, Because his Soul is Deathless and his Spirit is Irrepressible. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Coral Reefs Are One of the Most Fragile, Biologically Complex, And Diverse Marine Ecosystems on Earth GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Although Numbers of Animals in a Given Region May Fluctuate From Year to Year GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Antonia Castañeda has Utilised Scholarship from Women's Studies and Mexican-American History to Examine Nineteenth-Century Literary Portrayals of Mexican Women. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• By 1950, The Results of Attempts to Relate Brain Processes to Mental Experience Appeared Rather Discouraging GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In February 1848 the People of Paris Rose in Revolt Against the Constitutional Monarchy of Louis-Philippe GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Over the Last 150 Years, Large Stretches of Salmon Habitat have been Eliminated by Human Activity. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Brain Contributes to the Adaptive Success of Animals through the Control and Coordination of Muscle Contractions. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Geology of the Grand Canyon Area Exposes One of the Most Complete and Studied Sequences of Rock on Earth. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Pioneers of the Teaching of Science Imagined that its Introduction into Education would Remove the Conventionality, Artificiality, and Backward-Lookingness GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Single-Celled Parasite known as Toxoplasma Gondii Infects more than Half of the World's Human Population GMAT Reading Comprehension