Entry Exam Category: College Admission Exams
Course: Accuplacer
Exam: Accuplacer Reading Passage-Based Practice Test
Practice Question
Extract
In many accounts of the American West, the Lewis and Clark expedition (1803–1806) mistakenly marks the beginning of recorded history, with the captains’ journals constituting a baseline of information about the region. The earlier history of the West is frequently seen as an unimportant backstory. Although the Lewis and Clark expedition was a momentous event, it was only a subplot in a historical drama of time, place, and people that had been playing for thousands of years. The 'new lands' that Lewis and Clark explored were in fact very old: the explorers did not bring the West into United States history; they brought the United States into the history of the West.
In context, the metaphor in the third sentence ('it was... years') chiefly serves to:
Answer Choices
- A: Call attention to the age of the United States as a nation
- B: Question the literary value of the writings by Lewis and Clark
- C: Trivialize the accomplishments of the Lewis and Clark expedition
- D: Place the Lewis and Clark expedition into a broad context
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The metaphor describing the expedition as a 'subplot in a historical drama' emphasizes that while the Lewis and Clark journey was significant, it was part of a much longer and more complex history that preceded and extended beyond it. The purpose is not to diminish its importance, but to reframe it within the larger historical narrative of the American West that includes Native peoples and events over thousands of years.