Kaplan GRE Practice Question of the Day

GRE Practice Question for July 1st

Having rejected Catholicism, English society after the Protestant Reformation felt compelled to impose new order on an uncertain universe. Claiming knowledge of a divine plan that linked the celestial and natural worlds into one "great chain of being," some English thinkers depicted humans as the highest link on that portion of the chain belonging to the natural world and human society, in turn, as comprising a series of vertical political hierarchies. Echoing the assertion of Queen Elizabeth I to a discontented parliamentary delegation that "the feet do not rule the head," Edward Forset in 1606 elaborated one hierarchy in which the body was topped, literally and morally, by head and soul. In Forset's scheme, both soul and monarchy possessed "unity" or "indivisibility," each uniting and reigning over subordinate links contained in their respective segments of the worldly chain. Given popular acceptance of the idea of stability as God's will, Elizabeth and her immediate successors possessed a potent, though short-lived, ideological restraint on unrest.

The passage suggests that the idea of a new social order was seen by many English people as

Read the passage strategically

Topic: Post-Reformation England

Scope: Hierarchical theories of the universe (in particular, Forset's) emerging in post-Reformation England

Purpose: To establish a relationship between English hierarchical philosophies and the political power structure of Elizabethan England

Analyze the question stem

This is an Inference question, as indicated by the word, "suggests." The correct answer will be something that is known with certainty from the passage, though it won't be stated explicitly in the passage.

Research

The research clue in the question stem is "idea of a new social order." This wording appears in the first sentence of the passage: "Having rejected Catholicism, English society after the Protestant Reformation felt compelled to impose new order on an uncertain universe."

Make a prediction

The author's choice of the word "compelled" indicates that the people felt a very strong need to impose a new order. The sentence begins "Having rejected Catholicism," so the reason people needed a new order had to do with their rejection of Catholicism and their feeling that the universe was "uncertain."

Evaluate the answer choices

(E) is a fairly direct paraphrase of the idea stated in the passage's opening sentence, with the well-supported inference that the Catholic church formerly provided structure and stability to English society.

(A) is incorrect because there is nothing to suggest that the monarchy was declining. Quite the contrary, according to the rest of the passage: Elizabeth and other monarchs managed quite well to maintain their grip on power, temporarily anyway. The passage also implies something contrary to (B); rather than being seen as eccentric or peculiar, the "divinely inspired" hierarchical view of Forset and others won wide acceptance. Contrary to (C), the need for order was felt to be "compelling," as it's put in the first sentence. As for (D), there's no evidence for this idea. The passage mentions the Catholic Church simply as having been rejected but says nothing about any attempt to regain its position.

TAKEAWAY: Sometimes the answer to an Inference question is just a paraphrase of something from the passage. Don't overthink Inference questions.

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GRE Practice Question for July 1st

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GRE Practice Question for July 1st

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