BB Test 4 CR SECTION 2 EXPERTS!!

<p>I got the answer right and I've read the answer explanation for question no. 15 on the college board website but don't think i got the gist of it.</p>

<p>The part of passage 1 that I don't get, or I am not sure that I do get, is this:</p>

<p>"The fifth class comprises large numbers of the population that have no occupation; but it requires no argument to prove that the wife, the mother, th mistress of an English family -- fills offices and discharges duties of no ordinary importance; or that children are or should be occupied in filial or household duties, and in the task of education, either at home or at school."</p>

<p>Okay, the collegeboard website says that "the fifth class" of Victorian women are those who do not have jobs, as expatiated by the phrase "no occupation." But what are the "offices" in this paragraph? Personally, I thought that the "fifth class" women were those who had jobs in factories and offices and whatnot, but just weren't socially recognized as having them.</p>

<p>Back to question 15, I picked E as the answer because I thought in the seventeenth century, there weren't many independent factory-working and socially-unrecognized women; rather, there were many couples who were recognized as business owners, including women.</p>

<p>Can you help me understand the quoated part of Passage 1?</p>