Reading Passage Question

Schools expect textbooks to be a valuable source of information for students. My research suggests, however, that textbooks that address the place of Native Americans within the history of the United States distort history to suit a particular cultural value system. In some textbooks, for example, settlers are pictured as more humane, complex, skillful, and wise than Native Americans. In essence, textbooks stereotype and deprecate the numerous Native American cultures while reinforcing the attitude that the European conquest of the New World denotes the superiority of European cultures. Although textbooks evaluate Native American architecture, political systems, and homemaking, I contend that they do it from an ethnocentric, European perspective without recognizing that other perspectives are possible. One argument against my contention asserts that, by nature, textbooks are culturally biased and that I am simply underestimating children’s ability to see through these biases. Some researchers even claim that by the time students are in high school, they know they cannot take textbooks literally. Yet substantial evidence exists to the contrary. Two researchers, for example, have conducted studies that suggest that children’s attitudes about particular cultures are strongly influenced by the textbooks used in schools. Given this, an ongoing, careful review of how school textbooks depict Native Americans is certainly warranted.

Solutions and Explanation

1. Which of the following would most logically be the topic of the paragraph immediately following the passage?

(A) Specific ways to evaluate the biases of United States history textbooks
(B) The centrality of the teacher’s role in United States history courses
(C) Nontraditional methods of teaching United States history
(D) The contributions of European immigrants to the development of the United States
(E) Ways in which parents influence children’s political attitudes

2. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) describe in detail one research study regarding the impact of history textbooks on children’s attitudes and beliefs about certain cultures
(B) describe revisions that should be made to United States history textbooks
(C) discuss the difficulty of presenting an accurate history of the United States
(D) argue that textbooks used in schools stereotype Native Americans and influence children’s attitudes
(E) summarize ways in which some textbooks give distorted pictures of the political systems developed by various Native American groups

3. The author mentions two researchers’ studies (lines 22-25) most likely in order to

(A) suggest that children’s political attitudes are formed primarily through textbooks
(B) counter the claim that children are able to see through stereotypes in textbooks
(C) suggest that younger children tend to interpret the messages in textbooks more literally than do older children
(D) demonstrate that textbooks carry political messages meant to influence their readers
(E) prove that textbooks are not biased in terms of their political presentations

4. The author’s attitude toward the content of the history textbooks discussed in the passage is best described as one of

(A) indifference
(B) hesitance
(C) neutrality
(D) amusement
(E) disapproval

5. It can be inferred from the passage that the researchers mentioned in line 19 would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?

(A) Students form attitudes about cultures other than their own primarily inside the school environment.
(B) For the most part, seniors in high school know that textbooks can be biased.
(C) Textbooks play a crucial role in shaping the attitudes and beliefs of students.
(D) Elementary school students are as likely to recognize biases in textbooks as are high school students.
(E) Students are less likely to give credence to history textbooks than to mathematics textbooks.

6. The author implies that which of the following will occur if textbooks are not carefully reviewed?

(A) Children will remain ignorant of the European settlers’ conquest of the New World.
(B) Children will lose their ability to recognize biases in textbooks.
(C) Children will form negative stereotypes of Native Americans.
(D) Children will develop an understanding of ethnocentrism.
(E) Children will stop taking textbooks seriously.

“Schools expect textbooks to be a valuable source of information” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Nominees must have a firm understanding of English GMAT reading comprehension. There are 6 comprehension questions in this GMAT Reading Comprehension section. GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are conducted to examine candidates' skills to decipher, interpret, and utilize knowledge or ideas. Candidates can actively prepare by answering GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• Direct Observation of Contemporary Societies at the Threshold GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Jon Clark’s Study of the Effect of the Modernization of a Telephone Exchange GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Utilitarian Models of the State, Subordinating Individual Rights to a Calculus GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Bracken fern has been spreading from its woodland strongholds for centuries GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Anthropologists once thought that the ancestors of modern humans began to walk upright GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Passage into U.S. Law on October 3, 2008, of the $700 Billion GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Commonplace Items Sometimes Play Surprising Roles in World Development GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Once Surrounded and Protected by Vast Wilderness, Many of the National Parks are Adversely Affected by Activities Outside their Boundaries GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Traditional Means of Reducing Traffic Congestion Promote Supply-Side Solutions GMAT Reading Comprehension
• As Urbanization Continues to Accelerate GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Recent Criticism has Sought to Align Sarah Orne Jewett GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Improvements at Company AWA GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Until Recently, Scientists did not Know of a Close Vertebrate Analogue GMAT Reading Comprehension
• What is the Relationship Between Science and Magic? GMAT Reading Comprehension
• After Suffering a Countercyclical Decline in the Prosperous 1920s GMAT Reading Comprehension
• History gives a Cruel Experience of Human Nature GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Like our Political Society, the University is Under Severe Attack Today and Perhaps for the Same Reason GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Surviving Sources of Information About Women Doctors in Ancient Greece and Rome are Fragmentary GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The controversial Canadian Media Intellectual Marshall McLuhan First Began to Garner Public Attention with his Book GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Four Legal Approaches May be Followed in Attempting to Channel GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Roger Rosenblatt’s Book Black Fiction, In Attempting to Apply Literary GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914), One of The Most Widely Acclaimed GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The latest prominent principle of criminal sentencing is that of "selective incapacitation" GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Correspondences were a Method of Thought and Expression GMAT Reading Comprehension
• During the Past Fifteen Years, Historians of Mexican American, or Chicano GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In a 1984 Book, Claire C. Robertson Argued that, Before Colonialism GMAT Reading Comprehension
• ‘Women’s literature’ refers to literature written by women GMAT reading comprehension
• Frederick Douglass was unquestionably the most famous African American of the nineteenth century GMAT reading comprehension
• A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity GMAT reading comprehension
• Most people associate bartering with poor or undeveloped societies GMAT reading comprehension
• Government policy in Frieland has traditionally favored foreign investment GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Mechanisms for Recognizing Kin are Found Throughout the Plant and Animal Kingdoms GMAT Reading Comprehension
• No One can Say where the Bones of Machiavelli Rest GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Plate Tectonics is a Scientific Theory that Describes the Large-Scale Motions of Earth's Lithosphere GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Current Kneejerk Preference for Organic Over Mechanistic Organizational Structures GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Debate Over the Extent of Regulation Needed Over Internet Providers GMAT Reading Comprehension
• With the Explosion of the Technology Industry in the Late 1990s GMAT Reading Comprehension
• New Observations about the Age of Some Globular Clusters in Our Milky Way Galaxy GMAT Reading Comprehension
• But Man is Not Destined to Vanish GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Pioneers of the Teaching of Science Imagined that its Introduction into Education GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Seeking a Competitive Advantage, Some Professional Service Firms GMAT Reading Comprehension
• JIT Stands for Just-In-Time. More Than a Standardized Methodology or Systematic Process GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Until Recently Most Astronomers Believed That the Space Between the Galaxies GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A Fundamental Principle of Pharmacology is that all Drugs GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Critics have Long been Puzzled by the Inner Contradictions of Major Characters GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Justice is the First Virtue of Social Institutions, as Truth is of Systems of Thought GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Coral Reefs Are One of the Most Fragile, Biologically Complex GMAT Reading Comprehension
• On the surface, the Conquest of the Aztec Empire by Herman Cortes GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Career of Trumpeter Miles Davis was one of the Most Astonishingly GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Extensive research has shown that the effects of short-term price promotions on sales GMAT Reading Comprehension