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Source: Official Guide Revised GRE 1st Ed. Part 8; Section 4; #23

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The passage indicates that Cressy would agree

The passage indicates that Cressy would agree with which of the following statements about the organizers among the English immigrants to New England in the 1630s? In a recent study, David Cressy examines two central questions concerning English immigration to New England in the 1630s: what kinds of people immigrated and why? Using contemporary literary evidence, shipping lists, and customs records, Cressy finds that most adult immigrants were skilled in farming or crafts, were literate, and were organized in families. Each of these characteristics sharply distinguishes the 21,000 people who left for New England in the 1630s from most of the approximately 377,000 English people who had immigrated to America by 1700. With respect to their reasons for immigrating, Cressy does not deny the frequently noted fact that some of the immigrants of the 1630s, most notably the organizers and clergy, advanced religious explanations for departure, but he finds that such explanations usually assumed primacy only in retrospect. When he moves beyond the principal actors, he finds that religious explanations were less frequently offered, and he concludes that most people immigrated because they were recruited by promises of material improvement. Some of them offered a religious explanation for their immigration., They did not offer any reasons for their immigration until some time after they had immigrated., They were more likely than the average immigrant to be motivated by material considerations.

4 Explanations

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Sakcham Tiwari

Why "organizers" are referred to as "principal actors" in the line in the passage : "When he moves beyond the principal actors, he finds ..."?

Jul 21, 2018 • Comment

Sam Kinsman

Hi Sakcham,

That's a very good question! It's possible that, since the organizers were the ones who were planning the immigration, and were the ones getting everyone together to make the voyage, they are being referred to as the "principal actors." In other words, without these main actors who, by organizing things, made the immigration possible, the immigration would not have happened. Perhaps that's why they are being called "principal actors."

However, we don't really need to know the exact reason why the author chose to use those words. If you watch the video explanation carefully, you'll note that each part of the question can be answered without really referring to that sentence. So that sentence is not really a key to answering this question - so we don't need to worry about it too much :)

I hope that helps!

Best,
Sam

Jul 24, 2018 • Reply

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Pronob Kumar Barman

Choice C is incorrect: the passage refers in lines 13–14 to “promises of material
improvement” as a factor that in Cressy’s view motivated most immigrants other than
“the principal actors.” This suggests that Cressy regards the principal actors, such as
organizers, as having been less, not more, motivated by material considerations than
average immigrants were. Therefore it cannot be inferred that Cressy would agree with
the statement in Choice C.

I do not understand the ets explanation.Can you please explain it?

Apr 21, 2017 • Comment

Adam

Hi Pronob,

Happy to help :)

Choice (C) says that the organizers were more likely to be motivated by material considerations than
average immigrants. The relevant text says:

Cressy does not deny the frequently noted fact that some of the immigrants of the 1630s, **most notably the organizers and clergy, advanced religious explanations for departure**, but he finds that such explanations usually assumed primacy only in retrospect. When he moves beyond the principal actors, he finds that religious explanations were less frequently offered, and he concludes that **most people immigrated because they were recruited by promises of material improvement.**

So the **organizers** are the ones who left for religion. By contrast, most OTHER immigrants went for material improvement. Therefore, (C) is incorrect, because we can infer that organizers were less motivated by material improvement than were the majority of immigrants.

Apr 21, 2017 • Reply

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Gravatar Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Vardan,

Happy to clarify :) I agree that "they" refers to the organizers. In his explanation, Chris is not saying that "they" could be referring to others who were not organizers but rather is too general of a term because "they" refers to all of the organizers. In other words, B is saying that all of the organizers "did not offer any reasons for their immigration until some time after they had immigrated." This may be true for some of the organizers, and we are told in the passage that "advanced religious explanations" usually gained importance after these people had already immigrated. Because the passage does not indicate that all of the organizers waited until after immigrating to offer reasons for their decision, B is not correct.

I hope that helps to clear up your doubts :)

Apr 25, 2016 • Comment

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Chris Lele

Oct 10, 2012 • Comment

Vardan Papyan

I don't understand why B is incorrect.
The passage says "organizers and clergy, advanced religious explanations ... such explanations usually assumed primacy only in retrospect".
The video claims the problem in answer B is that the word "they" is too general. However, the question asks about the organizers only and thus the word "they" corresponds to the organizers.

Apr 23, 2016 • Reply

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Section 4: Verbal Reasoning

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