GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: NO3

Feelings of hopelessness among medieval workers trapped in the poverty cycle gradually lessened as it became possible for women's labor to supplement a family's money income by more than pennies. By 1300, women spinners could be found working on their own for wealthy sponsors, even after the introduction it Italy and France of a prohibition against advancing money for supplies to women spinners. Historians have usually interpreted this prohibition simply as evidence of women's economic subjection, since it obliged them to turn to usurers; however, it was also almost certainly a response to a trend toward differential reward for women's higher skill. Yarn can be spun irregularly and lumpily, but perfectly smooth yarn is worth more. Working for merchant entrepreneurs on time rates.women had been paid hardly more than children; working as entrepreneurs themselves and producing good work by the piece, they could break into the rational system of differential rewards.

Question List: 1 2 3 4 5

The passage implies that feeling of hopelessness among medieval workers

  • A resulted primarily from the lack of a rational system of differential rewards
  • B disappeared completely once medieval textile workers were able to break the cycle of poverty
  • C were more prevalent among female workers than among male workers
  • D came into being in part because of women's limited earning capacity
  • E were particularly common among textile workers in Italy and France

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