DanaJ wrote:Q4. I agree with the OA here. The main purpose of Robertson's work is stated in the first paragraph: "British colonialism imposed European-style male-dominant notions upon more egalitarian local situations to the detriment of women generally". Her research also considers that specific point, whether or not the Empire imposed its own set of values on African society.
Q5. Again, I agree with the OA. Women in Ghana were more independent as compared to women in other African countries (see Kenya), so colonialism affected their lives the most, since they went from independent to legal minors.
E is incorrect, IMHO, because you have this phrase here: "In contrast with Ghana, where women had traded for hundreds of years and achieved legal majority (not unrelated phenomena), the evidence regarding central Kenya indicated that women were legal minors". You have that "contrast" right there that proves that E is incorrect.
Q6. I don't know about this one. IMHO it should be C, because that's what the passage does: compare one situation (Ghana) to another (Kenya). It is of course part of the argument about Robertson's revised attitude, but that's much more of a general thing, or macro level if you must... I wouldn't expect to see such an ambiguous question in the GMAT.
I agree Q4=C, Q5=B
But for Q6 the question is much more specific than the lines it points you to in passage.
"The author of the passage mentions the status of age as a principle of social organization" means we can only consider answer choices which offer explanations which can be drawn from mentioning the age qualifier of authority.
This part: Before colonialism, gender was more salient in central Kenya thanit was in Ghana, although age was still crucial in determining authority.
Thus it must be A or C.
B - We recieve no further details to contrast their lives, only that age affected authority as well as gender.
D - Logical fallacy. You cannot mention something with the purpose of explaining it. Mutually exclusive.
E - The mention of age would be an explanation of why she missed it in the first place. Not a factor that led her to revise her hypothesis. It would be the opposite. The factor that led her to revise was the presence of Gender>age social status.
C - Incorrect due to question's phrasing. "Why did she mention age? to differentiate between precolonial status of K and G? No, because age is what they have in common. old women have power in both, young women only in ghana.
Answer to Q6 is A by elimination. Only arguable answer is B.
just my opinion.