PREP2 ESSAY3 Q9

alpaca

Essay #3.114(21569-!-item-!-188;#058&00114-00)

Ethnohistoric documents from sixteenth-century Mexico suggesting that weaving and cooking were the most common productive activities for Aztec women may lead modern historians to underestimate the value of women's contributions to Aztec society.Since weaving and cooking occurred mostly (but not entirely) in a domestic setting, modern historians are likely to apply to the Aztec culture the modern Western distinction between "private" and "public" production.Thus, the ethnohistoric record conspires with Western culture to foster the view that women's production was not central to the demographic, economic, and political structures in sixteenth-century Mexico.

A closer examination of Aztec culture indicates that treating Aztec women's production in Mexico in such a manner would be a mistake.Even if the products of women's labor did not circulate beyond the household, such products were essential to population growth.Researchers document a tenfold increase in the population of the valley of Mexico during the previous four centuries, an increase that was crucial to the developing Aztec political economy.Population growth--which could not have occurred in the absence of successful household economy, in which women's work was essential--made possible the large-scale development of labor-intensive chinampa (ridged-field) agriculture in the southern valley of Mexico which, in turn, supported urbanization and political centralization in the Aztec capital.

But the products of women's labor did in fact circulate beyond the household.Aztec women wove cloth, and cloth circulated through the market system, the tribute system, and the redistributive economy of the palaces.Cotton mantles served as a unit of currency in the regional market system.Quantities of woven mantles, loincloths, blouses, and skirts were paid as tribute to local lords and to imperial tax stewards and were distributed to ritual and administrative personnel, craft specialists, warriors, and other faithful servants of the state.In addition, woven articles of clothing served as markers of social status and clothing fulfilled a symbolic function in political negotiation.The cloth that was the product of women's work thus was crucial as a primary means of organizing the flow of goods and services that sustained the Aztec state.

Question #9.114-02(21661-!-item-!-188;#058&000114-02)

According to the passage, Aztec women's cloth production enabled Aztec society to do which of the following?

(A) Expand women's role in agriculture

(B) Organize the flow of goods and services

(C) Develop self-contained communities

(D) Hire agricultural laborers from outside the society

(E) Establish a higher standard of living than neighboring cultures

这个题选B，我选了E  看了半天还是不明白……
谁能给解答一下呢？谢谢啦~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question #9.114-02(21661-!-item-!-188;#058&000114-02)

According to the passage, Aztec women's cloth production enabled Aztec society to do which of the following?

(A) Expand women's role in agriculture

(B) Organize the flow of goods and services

(C) Develop self-contained communities

(D) Hire agricultural laborers from outside the society

(E) Establish a higher standard of living than neighboring cultures

这个题选B，我选了E  看了半天还是不明白……
谁能给解答一下呢？谢谢啦~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

alpaca

ding~!

雨潇

你把第三段的意思弄明白了这道题就知道该选谁了，第三段说妇女做的衣服cloth circulated through the market system，这个对应了选项中的goods，还有后面讲到作为进贡的， paid as tribute to local lords and to imperial tax stewards and were distributed to ritual and administrative personnel, craft specialists, warriors, and other faithful servants of the state，就是对应选项中的services

我要攻下GMAT！

貌似很久以前的帖子，今天做这题时错了，求解答
我选的C，self-contained这词我认为源自于第三段“...and were distributed to ritual and administrative personnel, craft specialists, warriors, and other faithful servants of the state." 我哪里想偏了，求更正

啊喂我是蚊子

请定位到文章最后一句