GED Practice Question Answer: Political Cartoon
How’s the GED studying goin’? Last time, I gave you a GED question about a political cartoon. It’s important to remember that the GED test is about understanding pictures and things, also… I mean, you have to do a lot of reading, but you also have to look at things. Like political cartoons. So, here was the practice question I gave you:
It reads: Woman Devotes Her Time to Gossip and Clothes Because She Has Nothing Else to Talk About. Give Her Broader Interests and She Will Cease to Be Vain and Frivolous.
Now the question:
The cartoonist’s point of view is that:
1) women shouldn’t vote because they’re too frivolous.
2) women will gossip about voting if they’re allowed to vote.
3) giving women more rights will stop gossip and being frivolous.
4) women don’t have time for anything but gossip and clothes.
5) none of the above.
What’d you make of this question? It asks about point of view…that’s one of the things the GED test really wants you to know. How do different people think differently? What’s the person saying when they write or draw something? So, what’s this cartoon say about the cartoonist’s point of view? In other words, what does the writer mean?
The first answer says that women shouldn’t vote because they’re frivolous… that means kind of like silly and not interested in important things. Just interested in gossip and things that aren’t important. The cartoon text says the word “frivolous” and the picture shows the woman gossiping… but the text says “give her broader interests and she’ll cease to be vain and frivolous.” And in the picture, the woman is peaking over the fence, outside her “sphere.” The writer is saying to give women better things to think about, and women will stop being so silly. Well, I don’t know that women were only thinking about clothes and things, but that’s not the point. The point is, that answer 1 doesn’t seem right… the writer seems to want to give women other things to think about, not stop women from voting. See what I mean?
Answer 2 seems wrong, too. The cartoon mentions gossiping, but it seems to really be saying that women only gossip because they’ve got nothing better to do. That’s what answer 3 says…. women need something else to do, so they don’t spend their time gossiping and buying clothes. Well, that’s sort of a backhanded reason to give women the vote! But I guess that was lots of people’s ideas about how women were back then.
I’m sure answer 3 is right. What do you think?
Get going with that GED studying! And remember to think about different people’s points of view.
For more information about the GED test and GED preparation, visit The GED Academy.
