Over 600 languages are spoken in New York City in addition to English—one can find Amharic spoken in the neighborhood...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Over 600 languages are spoken in New York City in addition to English—one can find Amharic spoken in the neighborhood of Norwood, or Ilocano in Woodside. Most speakers of Chinese languages reside in the neighborhood of Flushing (part of New York City's borough of Queens) and in Chinatown, in the borough of Manhattan. New immigrants from north China, where Mandarin is the primary first language, tend to settle in Queens, while new immigrants from south China, where many people speak Cantonese or Fuzhounese as a first language, tend to settle in Manhattan. It can therefore be inferred that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
languages tend to change more rapidly in areas where many languages are spoken than in areas where few languages are spoken.
languages spoken by immigrant peoples can differ significantly in vocabulary and pronunciation from those same languages in their country of origin.
there is a positive correlation between the physical size of a country and the number of languages spoken in that country.
correlations in a country between languages and regions where they are spoken can replicate themselves in a new country to which the original country's citizens emigrate.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Over 600 languages are spoken in New York City in addition to English—one can find Amharic spoken in the neighborhood of Norwood, or Ilocano in Woodside." |
|
| "Most speakers of Chinese languages reside in the neighborhood of Flushing (part of New York City's borough of Queens) and in Chinatown, in the borough of Manhattan." |
|
| "New immigrants from north China, where Mandarin is the primary first language, tend to settle in Queens," |
|
| "while new immigrants from south China, where many people speak Cantonese or Fuzhounese as a first language, tend to settle in Manhattan." |
|
Passage Architecture
Main Point: Chinese immigrants to NYC settle in different areas based on their regional origins within China, with northern Chinese speakers going to Queens and southern Chinese speakers going to Manhattan.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes NYC's linguistic diversity, then focuses on Chinese speakers' geographic distribution. It reveals that settlement patterns correlate with the immigrants' regional origins in China.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The key pattern is that Chinese immigrants settle in NYC areas based on their regional origins in China
- Northern Chinese speakers (Mandarin) go to Queens, while southern Chinese speakers (Cantonese/Fuzhounese) go to Manhattan
- This suggests that regional language distributions from the home country can be recreated in the new country
languages tend to change more rapidly in areas where many languages are spoken than in areas where few languages are spoken.
Claims languages change faster in multilingual areas
- The passage doesn't discuss language change at all, only settlement patterns
languages spoken by immigrant peoples can differ significantly in vocabulary and pronunciation from those same languages in their country of origin.
About languages changing from their original forms in new countries
- The passage doesn't mention any changes to the languages themselves
there is a positive correlation between the physical size of a country and the number of languages spoken in that country.
Connects country size to number of languages spoken
- The passage gives no information about country size or total language counts
correlations in a country between languages and regions where they are spoken can replicate themselves in a new country to which the original country's citizens emigrate.
Captures how regional language patterns from China are replicated in NYC
- Directly matches the evidence about settlement patterns