bySayantani Barman Experta en el extranjero
Reading Passage Question
Many educators in Canada and the United States advocate multicultural education as a means of achieving multicultural understanding. There are, however, a variety of proposals as to what multicultural
(5) education should consist of. The most modest of these proposals holds that schools and colleges should promote multicultural understanding by teaching about other cultures, teaching which proceeds from within the context of the majority culture. Students should
(10) learn about other cultures, proponents claim, but examination of these cultures should operate with the methods, perspectives, and values of the majority culture. These values are typically those of liberalism: democracy, tolerance, and equality of persons.
(15) Critics of this first proposal have argued that genuine understanding of other cultures is impossible if the study of other cultures is refracted through the distorting lens of the majority culture’s perspective. Not all cultures share liberal values. Their value
(20) systems have arisen in often radically different social and historical circumstances, and thus, these critics argue, cannot be understood and adequately appreciated if one insists on approaching them solely from within the majority culture’s perspective.
(25) In response to this objection, a second version of multicultural education has developed that differs from the first in holding that multicultural education ought to
adopt a neutral stance with respect to the value differences among cultures. The values of one culture
(30) should not be standards by which others are judged; each culture should be taken on its own terms. However, the methods of examination, study, and explanation of cultures in this second version of multicultural education are still identifiably Western.
(35) They are the methods of anthropology, social psychology, political science, and sociology. They are, that is, methods which derive from the Western scientific perspective and heritage.
Critics of this second form of multicultural
(40) education argue as follows: The Western scientific heritage is founded upon an epistemological system that prizes the objective over the subjective, the logical
over the intuitive, and the empirically verifiable over the mystical. The methods of social-scientific
(45) examination of cultures are thus already value laden; the choice to examine and understand other cultures by these methods involves a commitment to certain values
such as objectivity. Thus, the second version of multicultural education is not essentially different from
(50) the first. Scientific discourse has a privileged place in Western cultures, but the discourses of myth, tradition, religion, and mystical insight are often the dominant
forms of thought and language of non-Western cultures. To insist on trying to understand nonscientific
(55) cultures by the methods of Western science is not only distorting, but is also an expression of an attempt to maintain a Eurocentric cultural chauvinism: the
chauvinism of science. According to this objection, it is only by adopting the (often nonscientific) perspectives
(60) and methods of the cultures studied that real understanding can be achieved.
“Many educators in Canada and the United States advocate’ 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.
Questions and Solutions
- Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?
(A) Proponents of two proposals for promoting multicultural understanding disagree about both the goal of multicultural education and the means for achieving this goal.
(B) Proponents of two proposals for promoting multicultural understanding claim that education should be founded upon an epistemological system that recognizes the importance of the subjective, the intuitive, and the mystical.
(C) Proponents of two proposals for promoting multicultural understanding claim that it is not enough to refrain from judging non Western cultures if the methods used to study these cultures are themselves Western.
(D) Critics of two proposals for promoting multicultural understanding disagree about the extent to which a culture’s values are a product of its social and historical circumstances.
(E) Critics of two proposals for promoting multicultural understanding claim these proposals are not value neutral and are therefore unable to yield a genuine understanding of cultures with a different value system.
Answer: E
Explanation: A is not correct as it does not disagree about the goal. Option B, C and D are also not correct. But the discussion is how to achieve that goal Option E is the correct answer as it matches our understanding. Critics of both proposals agree that these proposals don’t represent true value to understanding a different culture.
- Critics who raise the objection discussed in the second paragraph would be most likely to agree with which one of the following?
(A) The social and historical circumstances that give rise to a culture’s values cannot be understood by members of a culture with different values.
(B) The historical and social circumstances of a culture can play an important role in the development of that culture’s values.
(C) It is impossible for one culture to successfully study another culture unless it does so from more than one cultural perspective.
(D) Genuine understanding of another culture is impossible unless that culture shares the same cultural values.
(E) The values of liberalism cannot be adequately understood if we approach them solely through the methods of Western science.
Answer: E
Explanation: A is wrong as we don’t know whether cultural values can be understood with different values, it is not given in the passage. B is the conclusion given in the end and is aligned with what the second proposal says. C is wrong, as no such argument is given in the second proposal critics' critique. Similarly, option D is also wrong. E is the correct choice.
- Which one of the following most accurately describes the organization of the passage as a whole?
(A) Difficulties in achieving a goal are contrasted with the benefits of obtaining that goal.
(B) A goal is argued to be unrealizable by raising objections to the means proposed to achieve it.
(C) Two means for achieving a goal are presented along with an objection to each.
(D) Difficulties in achieving a goal are used to defend several radical revisions to that goal.
(E) The desirability of a goal is used to defend against a number of objections to its feasibility.
Answer: C
Explanation: A is wrong as it does not contrast benefits vs difficulties. B is wrong because It can be realizable if another culture is understood by adopting the perspectives and methods of the cultures studied. C is correct. As we can see, option C gives a structured proposal.
- The version of multicultural education discussed in the first paragraph is described as “modest” (line 5) most likely because it
(A) relies on the least amount of speculation about non-Western cultures
(B) calls for the least amount of change in the educational system
(C) involves the least amount of Eurocentric cultural chauvinism
(D) is the least distorting since it employs several cultural perspectives
(E) deviates least from a neutral stance with respect to differences in values
Answer: B
Explanation: Thought: Why is the majority culture considered modest? Because modesty is some middle path that doesn’t deviate from average. We cannot say that the textbook or teachings from it will necessarily be ethnocentric. However, the probability is higher than if the book were written or taught by someone with roots in the cultures being discussed. In other words, the "modest" proposal is the safest—i.e. to study an outside culture from afar, through the lenses of others within the dominant group. B is the correct choice.
- Given the information in the passage, which one of the following would most likely be considered objectionable by proponents of the version of multicultural education discussed in the third paragraph?
(A) a study of the differences between the moral codes of several Western and non-Western societies
(B) a study of a given culture’s literature to determine the kinds of personal characteristics the culture admires
(C) a study that employs the methods of Western science to investigate a nonscientific culture
(D) a study that uses the literary theories of one society to criticize the literature of a society that has different values
(E) a study that uses the methods of anthropology and sociology to criticize the values of Western culture
Answer: D
Explanation: Option A is wrong as it agrees that there should be differences between the moral codes of different cultures. B is wrong as Agree that each culture should be studied based on its own standards. C is correct. The basis of one culture should not be based to judge another culture. So educators of the second proposal would disagree with this claim.
- Which one of the following, if true, would provide the strongest objection to the criticism in the passage of the second version of multicultural education?
(A) It is impossible to adopt the perspectives and methods of a culture unless one is a member of that culture.
(B) Many non-Western societies have value systems that are very similar to one another.
(C) Some non-Western societies use their own value system when studying cultures that have different values.
(D) Students in Western societies cannot understand their culture’s achievements unless such achievements are treated as the subject of Western scientific investigations.
(E) Genuine understanding of another culture is necessary for adequately appreciating that culture.
Answer: E
Explanation: To answer this, I need to find an option that if I add this option then it contradicts what Critics say. Critics may not disagree with this claim. There is nowhere mentioned that non-genuine understanding can help. however, it can be objected. E is the correct choice. The rest of the options are not relevant.
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