#24 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

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

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[cgleeson]

Hi,
I chose E on this one and I know its wrong. I was never really sure about it but the word "assert" and I wasn't sure the author was asserting with the reference. When an answer choice uses the word assert do I want to take this as something an author is strongly supporting? The odd thing for me was when I checked the answers and saw I missed this one, it made sense. When I looked at answer choice B I was questioning myself "how did I miss this?" Any clarification on the usage of the word "assert" in RC would be helpful. Many thanks in advance.
Chris

[Adam Tyson]

To assert something is to claim that it is true, so there is an element of support involved. If an author makes an assertion, they are saying "this is true; I believe this."

Answer E is incorrect for at least two reasons, Chris. First, the author never takes any position about undermining objective ethnography. This answer is describing something that didn't happen in the passage, and so cannot be correct.

The second reason, though, is that it does not match what you should have prephrased for this question. After being asked the purpose of a statement or phrase or word in the passage, our job is to return to the text and use context to determine why the author said that. The referenced text was part of this larger context:

as is often the case with life-passage studies, it presents little of the central character's psychological motivation.

The prephrase should be clear here: the purpose of mentioning psychological motivation was to show something that was typically left out of life-passage studies. With that prephrase in hand, and not before, we turn to the answers to find the one that is the closest match, and we should reject any answer that is nothing like what we are looking for, like answer E. Answer B is a clear choice because it is what we knew we wanted before we even saw it! That's the power of prephrasing, and should highlight how important it is to form your answer before you look at the answer choices. You'll be much less likely to be distracted by incorrect answers, and much more likely to quickly and confidently select the correct answer.

[cgleeson]

Thank you sir. I really appreciate this, your explanation really helped me.

To assert something is to claim that it is true, so there is an element of support involved. If an author makes an assertion, they are saying "this is true; I believe this."

Answer E is incorrect for at least two reasons, Chris. First, the author never takes any position about undermining objective ethnography. This answer is describing something that didn't happen in the passage, and so cannot be correct.

The second reason, though, is that it does not match what you should have prephrased for this question. After being asked the purpose of a statement or phrase or word in the passage, our job is to return to the text and use context to determine why the author said that. The referenced text was part of this larger context:

as is often the case with life-passage studies, it presents little of the central character's psychological motivation.

The prephrase should be clear here: the purpose of mentioning psychological motivation was to show something that was typically left out of life-passage studies. With that prephrase in hand, and not before, we turn to the answers to find the one that is the closest match, and we should reject any answer that is nothing like what we are looking for, like answer E. Answer B is a clear choice because it is what we knew we wanted before we even saw it! That's the power of prephrasing, and should highlight how important it is to form your answer before you look at the answer choices. You'll be much less likely to be distracted by incorrect answers, and much more likely to quickly and confidently select the correct answer.