[Spoiler] Big Book Test 2 Section 1 Question 19

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

The test asked:

The passage implies that which of the following is a factor conducive to a more equitable representation of women in the United States armed forces than has existed in the past?
(A) The all-volunteer character of the present armed forces
(B) The past service records of women who had assignments functionally equivalent to men’s assignments
(C) The level of awareness on the part of the larger society of military issues
(D) A decline in the proportion of deterrence-oriented noncombat assignments
(E) Restrictive past policies governing the military assignments open to women

And this is the short passage:
image

I chose (E) because I misread it as “restrictive past policies regarding military assignments are now opened to women”. (A) is the answer but I eliminated it as a choice, because I think I misunderstood the first sentence of the passage. Is it saying:

  • That the armed forces was previously not all-volunteer and has recently changed to all-volunteer? (I suspect this is the right interpretation)
  • That the recent change is related to either the “ethos of institutional change oriented toward occupational equality” or the “federal sanction of equal pay for equal work”?
2

I’ve also found the first sentence of this passage confusing.

Is it saying:

  1. There has been a recent change to the all-volunteer armed forces?
  2. The armed forces has recently been changed to become all-volunteer?

I think the hint is supposed to be the fact that it says “all-volunteer armed forces”, rather than “THE all-volunteer armed forces”. The lack of “the” probably implies it became “all-volunteer”, so the second would be correct.

I think so, yeah.

This is the same as (1) I mentioned above, and I think it’s not correct.

It’s tough for sure!

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