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Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Adapted from Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by John A. Lomax (1910)

The big ranches of the West are now being cut up into small farms. The nester has come, and come to stay. Gone is the buffalo, the Indian warwhoop, the free grass of the open plain—even the stinging lizard, the horned frog, the centipede, the prairie dog, the rattlesnake, are fast disappearing. Save in some of the secluded valleys of southern New Mexico, the old-time round-up is no more; the trails to Kansas and to Montana have become grass-grown or lost in fields of waving grain; the maverick steer, the regal longhorn, has been supplanted by his unpoetic but more beefy and profitable Polled Angus, Durham, and Hereford cousins from across the seas. The changing and romantic West of the early days lives mainly in story and in song. The last figure to vanish is the cowboy, the animating spirit of the vanishing era. He sits his horse easily as he rides through a wide valley, enclosed by mountains, clad in the hazy purple of coming night,—with his face turned steadily down the long, long road, "the road that the sun goes down." Dauntless, reckless, without the unearthly purity of Sir Galahad though as gentle to a woman as King Arthur, he is truly a knight of the twentieth century. A vagrant puff of wind shakes a corner of the crimson handkerchief knotted loosely at his throat; the thud of his pony's feet mingling with the jingle of his spurs is borne back; and as the careless, gracious, lovable figure disappears over the divide, the breeze brings to the ears, faint and far yet cheery still, the refrain of a cowboy song.

Why does the author open the passage with a list of disappearing species of the plains?

To compare the cowboy to other disappearing figures of the American West

To describe the sparse economic resources that cowboys had available to them

To highlight the bravery of the cowboys

To give the reader important quantitative data about the ecology of the American West

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Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Why does the author open the passage with a list of disappearing species of the plains?

Your answer:

To describe the sparse economic resources that cowboys had available to them

Your answer:

To highlight the bravery of the cowboys

Your answer:

To give the reader important quantitative data about the ecology of the American West

Correct answer:

To compare the cowboy to other disappearing figures of the American West

Explanation:

The author starts the paragraph by describing how the whole of the western landscape, including the animals that live there, is changing. He then shifts into a discussion of cowboys with this transition: “The last figure to vanish is the cowboy, the animating spirit of the vanishing era.” In this way, the author puts the cowboy into context by comparing him to other classic—and disappearing—figures of the American West.

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Adapted from Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by John A. Lomax (1910)

The big ranches of the West are now being cut up into small farms. The nester has come, and come to stay. Gone is the buffalo, the Indian warwhoop, the free grass of the open plain;—even the stinging lizard, the horned frog, the centipede, the prairie dog, the rattlesnake, are fast disappearing. Save in some of the secluded valleys of southern New Mexico, the old-time round-up is no more; the trails to Kansas and to Montana have become grass-grown or lost in fields of waving grain; the maverick steer, the regal longhorn, has been supplanted by his unpoetic but more beefy and profitable Polled Angus, Durham, and Hereford cousins from across the seas. The changing and romantic West of the early days lives mainly in story and in song. The last figure to vanish is the cowboy, the animating spirit of the vanishing era. He sits his horse easily as he rides through a wide valley, enclosed by mountains, clad in the hazy purple of coming night,—with his face turned steadily down the long, long road, "the road that the sun goes down." Dauntless, reckless, without the unearthly purity of Sir Galahad though as gentle to a woman as King Arthur, he is truly a knight of the twentieth century. A vagrant puff of wind shakes a corner of the crimson handkerchief knotted loosely at his throat; the thud of his pony's feet mingling with the jingle of his spurs is borne back; and as the careless, gracious, lovable figure disappears over the divide, the breeze brings to the ears, faint and far yet cheery still, the refrain of a cowboy song.

Which of the following options best expresses the meaning of the underlined and bolded section of the passage?

While cowboys might not be spoken about in as lofty terms, their behavior is as praiseworthy as that of Arthurian knights

None of these

Arthurian knights and cowboys are exactly the same

While their behavior is similar, cowboys are more venal and greedy than Arthurian knights

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Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Which of the following options best expresses the meaning of the underlined and bolded section of the passage?

Your answer:

None of these

Your answer:

Arthurian knights and cowboys are exactly the same

Your answer:

While their behavior is similar, cowboys are more venal and greedy than Arthurian knights

Correct answer:

While cowboys might not be spoken about in as lofty terms, their behavior is as praiseworthy as that of Arthurian knights

Explanation:

This sentence makes a comparison between Arthurian heroes and cowboys. The key distinction here is one of class, while the knights are high class, and thus ascribed in legend a level of "purity" the cowboys are working class people. They are not valorized as pure or virtuous in the same way, but according to the author his behavior would justify such a comparison.

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Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

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Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

Flashcards: Social Science Passages

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Complaint Details

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