Entry Exam Category: College Admission Exams
Course: Accuplacer
Exam: Accuplacer Reading Comprehension 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 only a subplot in a historical drama of time, place, and people that had been playing for thousands of 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 compares history to a drama or story that had already been unfolding for thousands of years, highlighting that the expedition was just one part of a much larger historical narrative. This serves to reframe the expedition as significant but not central or foundational, placing it within a broader context of Western history that long predates U.S. involvement.