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#78690
Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!
 Catherine.Sims
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#47814
The question referenced lines 25 - 29 which didn't specify which scientists are having the debate so I looked at lines 17 - 25 to figure out who was having the debate. When I first read the passage I wasn't sure who they were referring to and even after looking at it again while answering the question, it still wasn't clear to me.

This paragraph looks like it's giving us the "thesis" lines 18 - 21 then the "antithesis" lines 21 - 32 so I reasoned that the lines referring to the nature of protoplasm was a debate between cytologists and biochemists. Is the correct answer A because the protoplasm debate is actually a part of the "thesis" that the biochemists are trying to clarify with the antithesis?
 James Finch
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#47828
Hi Catherine,

The difficulty of this question comes from the ambiguity of the word "debate;" there is both a debate between cytologists and biochemists over how much structure cells actually had (lines 17-25) as well as a second debate (which this question is concerned with) over what form the structure took. As we are told explicitly that biochemists did not involve themselves in the second debate, we can infer that only cytologists were involved (as they would be the only ones left).

Hope this helps!
 olivia
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#78619
For some reason I'm still not understanding how this debate is carried on among cytologists. The beginning of the second paragraph made it sound like it was carried on between cytologists and biochemists.

Thanks!
 Paul Marsh
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#78650
Hi Olivia! The question is asking us about who took part in the "debate over the structural nature of protoplasm" referenced around line 26. The beginning of that paragraph does indeed talk about biochemists. However, let's take a look at the sentence that the question stem is actually referring to(beginning with "Also, they..."). That sentence specifically tells us that biochemists did not take part in that debate.
Also, they stood apart from the debate then raging over whether
protoplasm, the complex of living material within a cell, is homogeneous, networklike, granular, or foamlike.
The "they" in that sentence is referring to "biochemists", the subject of the previous sentence. And "stood apart" here means "did not take part in". So that sentence is telling us, "Biochemists did not take part in the debate then raging over whether protoplasm is homogenous". As a result, we can safely cross out any answer choice that contains biochemists (B, C, and E).

Hope that helps!

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