# PTE SWT #30: Historical Impact of Prohibition on...

Summarize Written Text #30 - Level 3 - Feeds Writing + Reading

> Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence. Type your response in the box at the bottom of the screen. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. Your response will be judged on the quality of your answer.

In 1920, the eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution created yet another setback for the American wine industry. The National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, importation, delivery, or possession of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes. Prohibition, which continued for thirteen years, nearly destroyed what had become a thriving and national industry. One of the loopholes in the Volstead Act allowed for the manufacture and sale of sacramental wine, medicinal wines for sale by pharmacists with a doctor's prescription, and medicinal wine tonics (fortified wines) sold without prescription. Perhaps more important, prohibition allowed anyone to produce up to two hundred gallons yearly of fruit juice or cider. The fruit juice, which was sometimes made into concentrate, was ideal for making wine. People would buy grape concentrate from California and have it shipped to the East Coast. The top of the container was stamped in big bold letters: caution: do not add sugar or yeast or else fermentation will take place! Some of this yield found its way to bootleggers throughout America who did just that. But not for long, because the government stepped in and banned the sale of grape juice, preventing illegal wine production. Vineyards stopped being planted, and the American wine industry came to a halt.

## Answer

Prohibition, introduced by the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act in 1920, nearly destroyed the thriving American wine industry; although loopholes allowed sacramental and medicinal wine and home production of fruit juice that was often made into wine, the government eventually banned grape juice sales, so vineyards stopped planting and the industry came to a halt.

## Explanation

A successful summary must identify the core conflict: the legislative restrictions imposed on the industry and the subsequent creative, albeit temporary, workarounds used by consumers before total enforcement.

## Hints

- Focus on the primary legislative event mentioned at the start of the text.
- Note how the industry attempted to survive through loopholes before the government intervened.

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