Read the following passage.
A. In a Toronto courtroom in 1879, members of the city's medical establishment were called as witnesses for a doctor who had never held a licence. The accused was Emily Stowe, charged with having performed an abortion, and she had run a practice on Richmond Street since 1867. During the lengthy trial her qualifications were tested, and the witnesses spoke about her character, skill and professional conduct. Among them was Dr. William Aikins. She was acquitted, and on July 16, 1880, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario suddenly granted her a licence. Whether the evidence from the trial changed the college's mind remains unclear.
B. Stowe was born Emily Howard Jennings in 1831 in Norwich Township, Upper Canada, the eldest child of Quaker farmers. At 15 she began teaching school. In 1852 Victoria College in Cobourg refused her because she was female, so she entered the Normal School in Toronto and graduated with first-class honours in 1854. She was then hired as principal of a public school in Brantford, the first woman in Ontario to hold such a post, and she taught there until she married John Stowe in 1856. After he contracted tuberculosis in 1863, she began to look into possibilities for medical training.
C. Since no Canadian medical school would accept women, Stowe studied at the New York Medical College for Women, a homoeopathic institution, and received her degree in 1867. In 1870 Aikins, the president of the Toronto School of Medicine, opened it to her and Jenny Kidd Trout for one session, but there is no record that Stowe ever sat the licensing examinations. The two women later became rivals. When Trout and others established a women's medical college at Kingston in 1883, Stowe disagreed with them, because she thought it more important for women to have exactly the same qualifications as men.
D. Stowe is best known for her work to win women the vote. In 1877 she founded the Toronto Women's Literary Club, which in 1883 became the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association. In 1889 she became the first president of a national group, the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association, and she held the position until her death. She also led a deputation to the Ontario legislature to demand the vote. In May 1893, at a women's convention in Chicago, she fell from the platform and broke her hip, and the injury ended her medical practice. In February 1896 she played a lead part in a mock parliament in Toronto that exposed the inequalities women faced.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: D
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says that at a women's convention in Chicago she fell from the platform and broke her hip. The injury ended her medical practice. A fall is an accident, and ending her practice means she could no longer work as a doctor.
Passage Reference: In May 1893, at a women's convention in Chicago, she fell from the platform and broke her hip, and the injury ended her medical practice.
Tips: Start with Chicago, then read what happened to her there. Check that it stopped her work as a doctor.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A is about her 1879 trial and the licence she received afterwards, not about the end of her work.
- B: Paragraph B covers her childhood, her teaching and her husband's illness, well before any accident.
- C: Paragraph C takes her to New York to study, which is the start of her medical career, not its end.
- E: The fall in Chicago and the end of her practice both come in the fifth sentence of Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: She was then hired as principal of a public school in Brantford, the first woman in Ontario to hold such a post, and she taught there until she married John Stowe in 1856.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B does call her a first, but only as a school principal in Ontario. No paragraph says she was the first woman doctor in Canada, so this claim is not in the text.
Tips: The statement makes a big claim, 'the earliest Canadian woman to work openly as a doctor'. Read each claim the text makes about her, and check what it is really about.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph says she practised for years without a licence, yet it never ranks her against other women doctors.
- B: Paragraph B makes her the first woman principal in Ontario, which is a different first.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it names Jenny Kidd Trout, another woman in medicine, but does not say who came first.
- D: Notice that paragraph D calls her the first president of a national group, not the first woman doctor.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: The accused was Emily Stowe, charged with having performed an abortion, and she had run a practice on Richmond Street since 1867.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A tells us she was charged with having performed an abortion and that doctors spoke as witnesses. It never says who brought the charge, so we cannot tell whether opponents of women doctors were behind it.
Tips: Notice that Paragraph A names the witnesses but not the person who accused her.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph has doctors in court as witnesses for her, but who started the case is left out.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it ends in 1863 with her husband's illness, long before any court case.
- C: The rivalry with Trout over a college, in paragraph C, has nothing to do with the 1879 charge.
- D: The fourth paragraph follows her campaign for the vote and her fall in 1893, with no charge in it.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The accused was Emily Stowe, charged with having performed an abortion, and she had run a practice on Richmond Street since 1867.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says she had run a practice on Richmond Street since 1867. The college granted her a licence on July 16, 1880. That is thirteen years of work before the licence.
Tips: Find the year her practice began and the year she got her licence. Put them side by side and count.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Look at paragraph B: it ends before she trained as a doctor, so she had no patients yet.
- C: The third paragraph says she never sat the licensing examinations, but gives no date when she got a licence.
- D: The fourth paragraph mentions her medical practice only when an injury ends it in 1893.
- E: Both dates are in Paragraph A: the practice from 1867 and the licence in 1880.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In a Toronto courtroom in 1879, members of the city's medical establishment were called as witnesses for a doctor who had never held a licence.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says members of Toronto's medical establishment were called as witnesses in the 1879 trial. The medical establishment means respected doctors, and they spoke about her skill and character.
Tips: Find the 'court case'. Check who backed her up there, and whether they were respected local doctors.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Look at paragraph B: it has a college that refused her, but no court and no witnesses.
- C: Notice that paragraph C shows Aikins helping her to attend classes in 1870, which happened in a school, not a court.
- D: The fourth paragraph has her speaking to the Ontario legislature, not doctors speaking for her in court.
- E: Look at paragraph A: it opens with the witnesses from the medical establishment in the courtroom.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In 1889 she became the first president of a national group, the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association, and she held the position until her death.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says that in 1889 she became the first president of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association. She held the position until her death. Enfranchisement means the right to vote.
Tips: Her work for women's votes involves several organizations. Ask which one she led, and check how long she stayed in charge.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A deals with the trial and her licence. No group for the vote comes up.
- B: The second paragraph makes her the head of a school in Brantford, not of a national organization.
- C: The third paragraph describes a quarrel over a women's college in Kingston, not a group seeking the vote.
- E: Her presidency of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association sits in the middle of Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: In 1852 Victoria College in Cobourg refused her because she was female, so she entered the Normal School in Toronto and graduated with first-class honours in 1854.
Why this is correct: Victoria College in Cobourg refused her in 1852 because she was female. Paragraph B gives this early in her story. It was years before 1863, when she began to look into medical training.
Tips: Several colleges appear. Look for the one in Cobourg.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph has a college of doctors that finally gave her a licence, which is the opposite of turning her away.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it says Canadian medical schools would not take women. But that was later, and it names no college in Cobourg.
- D: Notice that paragraph D is about her groups for the vote and a mock parliament.
- E: Cobourg and the refusal of 1852 are both in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: When Trout and others established a women's medical college at Kingston in 1883, Stowe disagreed with them, because she thought it more important for women to have exactly the same qualifications as men.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says she disagreed with the Kingston college. She thought it more important for women to have exactly the same qualifications as men. Weaker training would not be the same.
Tips: Find where her view on how women doctors should be trained comes up. Check that she wanted training equal to what men received.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it tests her qualifications in court, but it does not give her view on training for women.
- B: Notice that paragraph B shows her own schooling and honours, not her opinion about women doctors.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about equal voting rights and the mock parliament, not medical training.
- E: Her view on equal qualifications is the reason for the quarrel in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: She was then hired as principal of a public school in Brantford, the first woman in Ontario to hold such a post, and she taught there until she married John Stowe in 1856.
Why this is correct: In Brantford she was hired as principal of a public school, as paragraph B tells us. A principal is in charge of a school, and this came before her medical training.
Tips: The third paragraph has a man leading a school. Look for the school she led herself.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph names Aikins, but only as a witness, and it does not put her in charge of anything.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it has Aikins as the president of a medical school, but that school was not led by her.
- D: Notice that paragraph D makes her president of a national group for the vote, not the head of a school.
- E: The Brantford school where she was principal is named in Paragraph B.
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