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 cmckelvey
  • Posts: 3
  • Joined: Mar 15, 2015
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#18739
I seem to have the most difficulty with these questions in general. For example, December 1994 questions 9-13. I chose contentious challenge because the author eventually states, "however, [the authors] underemphasize" and provides an example of a black male who had to move away because of the dangers of slavery. Why would the answer be "qualified approval?" I get these questions wrong all of the time. Do you have any tips?
 Lucas Moreau
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 216
  • Joined: Dec 13, 2012
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#18751
Hello, cmckelvey,

Attitude/Tone questions can be tricky - there's certain words and types of words you want to look out for. My favorite thing to spot is adverbs - if the author in a passage says "The researchers concluded that A is true," that doesn't show attitude; but if the author says "The researchers, unwisely, concluded that A is true," or "The researchers, happily, concluded that A is true," those indicate how the author feels about the researchers' conclusion. :)

Adverbs are one good thing to look for. In this passage, the approval is best found in the first paragraph, where the author describes the book as "contribut[ing] significantly to a recent, welcome shift". The approval is qualified by the author noting that Breen and Innes underemphasize some things: here, "qualified" means "with limitations," so their approval comes with acknowledgement that the book is not perfect.

I can see how you got a challenge out of that, but this passage as a whole doesn't really oppose the book strongly enough for this to be a contentious challenge. Overall, the author seems to approve of the work, though he/she has concerns about it.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau

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