Explanation

23. A
Choice A is correct: the organizers are mentioned in the second paragraph, where the passage says that Cressy “does not deny” that organizers “advanced religious explanations” for leaving England and immigrating to New England in the 1630s. This suggests that Cressy would agree with the statement in choice A about the organizers. Choice B is incorrect: in lines 10–11, the passage says that Cressy finds that religious reasons for immigration “assumed primacy” only in retrospect, but this is not the same as Cressy’s concluding that no reasons were given at the time of immigration. Therefore it cannot be inferred that Cressy would agree with the statement in Choice B. Choice C is incorrect: the passage refers in lines 13–14 to “promises of material improvement” as a factor that in Cressy’s view motivated most immigrants other than “the principal actors.” This suggests that Cressy regards the principal actors, such as organizers, as having been less, not more, motivated by material considerations than average immigrants were. Therefore it cannot be inferred that Cressy would agree with
the statement in Choice C.

24, The last sentence says that Cressy “concludes that most people immigrated because they were recruited by promises of material improvement.” Because this suggests that Cressy believes immigrants were motivated by these promises to go to New England, sentence 5 (“When he . . . improvement) is the correct choice. The preceding sentence suggests that Cressy does not believe religion was a primary motive influencing immigrants’ decision to immigrate in the 1630s. Thus, although this sentence provides an opinion of Cressy’s concerning some immigrants’ stated reasons for immigrating, it does not say what motive he believes was actually behind the immigration, and therefore does not answer the question.

25. The passage is about Cressy’s investigation of English immigration to New England in the 1630s, and it summarizes his findings concerning who immigrated and why. Choice A, “summarizing the findings of an investigation,” is therefore the best description of the author’s primary concern in the passage. The passage does not analyze a method of argument, so Choice B is incorrect. Choice C is incorrect because the passage is not primarily concerned with evaluating a point of view: it does not assess the merits or demerits of Cressy’s viewpoint. The passage is concerned with reporting Cressy’s findings, not with hypothesizing or with establishing categories, so Choices D and E are incorrect.