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The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti

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The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink] New post   18 Jun 2023, 00:30
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The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. Before the battle, the people of England lived under constant threat of invasion by Napoleon's troops, but after the decisive victory of the British fleet under Admiral Nelson, French naval forces were never again strong enough to invade. As the battle loomed, however, such a victory may not have seemed such a foregone conclusion to the British. Their fleet was outnumbered and outgunned by the combined French and Spanish fleet; indeed, one Spanish ship, the Santisima Trinidad, was the most heavily armed ship in the world at the time. Furthermore, Nelson took a risk by employing an unorthodox battle plan. By approaching the opposing line of battle head-on, the British ships would be open to enemy broadsides without being able to return fire. The risk paid off, and the British were victorious, capturing or de-stroying twenty-two enemy ships without losing a single ship of their own. There was one significant loss for the British, though. During the battle, a French marksman shot Admiral Nelson, who died three hours later; upon learning this, King George III is said to have exclaimed, "We have lost more than we have gained."

Consider all that apply


Which of the following statements would the author of the passage likely agree with?

I. Acting contrary to conventional military wisdom may contribute to a victory in battle.
II. The loss of Admiral Nelson outweighed any strategic benefits gained by the British victory.
III. The British would have lost the Battle of Trafalgar had Admiral Nelson used more conventional tactics.



The author mentions the Santisima Trinidad in order to

A. suggest that it was the main target of Admiral Nelson's plan of attack
B. give an example of a common ship design of the era
C. show why the Spanish felt confident that they would be victorious
D. explain why Admiral Nelson thought that the British fleet would lose the battle
E. point out one difficulty the British fleet would need to overcome to win the battle


ShowHide Answer Question #1
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A
ShowHide Answer Question #2
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E
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Re: The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink] New post   18 Jun 2023, 12:43
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Q1:

I) The author makes a point that the unconventional methods (attacking head-on, and leaving the ships weak to flanks) paid off for British. So likely, the author would agree with that.
II) The author does not make a value judgement on the loss of Nelson vs the gains from the battle. Only a quote (which may or may not be from King George III) is given at the end of the passage. There is no reason to believe the author would agree with this.
III) The author does not make any claims on what would have happened if the British had used conventional tactics. The author claims that using the unconventional strategy was a risk, but does not state anything on what might have happened if the British were to use conventional tactics.
A

Q2:
A) The author makes no such statement - the ship is given as an example, rather than a point of focus of the plan.
B) If anything, the author describes how unique the ship was ("it was the most heavily armed ship..")
C) The author makes no statement in the passage about the feelings of the Spanish
D) The author makes no statement of Admiral Nelson.
E) Correct. The author states that "their fleet was outnumbered and outgunned", and cited that ship (which was the most heavily armed ship) as a prime example of what the British were up against.

E
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[#permalink] New post   20 Jun 2023, 04:00
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QUESTION #1


A According to the passage, Nelson's tactics were unorthodox, so they could be described as "contrary to conventional military wisdom." They're also described as a risk that "paid off," so the author must think that they contributed, at least in part, to the British victory. (A) is correct. (B) may seem tempting because it lines up with what King George III said in regard to Nelson's death, but there is no way to know whether the author agrees with it, so it's incorrect. (C) is incorrect because it's too extreme; the author thinks that the unconventional tactics contributed to the victory, but again, there is no way to know whether she believes they were essential to the victory.
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Re: The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink] New post   20 Jun 2023, 04:00
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QUESTION #2

E This Logic question asks why a particular detail was used. The Santisima Trinidad was mentioned in the middle of the passage as an example to support the point that the British fleet was outgunned and that victory did not seem certain. (E) is a good match for this prediction; the British may not have been confident of victory because of the more powerful enemy fleet. (A) is incorrect; all that was said about Nelson's battle plan is that it was "unorthodox." (B) is contradicted by the passage; if this ship was a common design, then it wouldn't be "the most heavily armed ship in the world." (C) may seem tempting, since the ship is used in support of the idea that the British weren't certain that they'd be victorious; however, there's no dis-cussion of what the Spanish thought about their chances in the battle. (D) is too extreme; the British may not have been entirely confi-dent that they'd win, but that doesn't mean Nelson thought that they would lose.
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Re: The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink] New post   25 Jun 2023, 09:25
For question 1, if point III was like "may have lost"(doubtful) instead of "would have lost" can we select this option too
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The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink] New post   25 Jun 2023, 09:43
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No because the inference is such that

Nelson used more conventional and this is false

He used UNconventional tactics and contributed to the victory. Even though not sure 100% they contributed

I hope this helps
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The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was, perhaps, the most important Briti [#permalink]
25 Jun 2023, 09:43
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