#6 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[lathlee]

Hi. For this question, I couldn't pin the relevant lines that could form the MP global. where would those lines be?

[Adam Tyson]

One common indicator to help in finding the Main Point to an RC passage is to take note of questions posed by the author in the passage. Frequently, the author poses a question at the beginning of or in the middle of the passage, and then proceeds to answer that question. The Main Point in such cases is usually tied directly to answering that question. In other words, the Main Point is usually something like "the answer to the question that I asked is X."

It's a little different when a question is asked at the very end of a passage, in the last paragraph and especially in the final line. In those cases, we are rarely getting an introduction to the Main Point. Instead, we are usually getting some additional information that will enhance the tone or overall purpose of the passage (the purpose might be to stimulate debate, or to encourage further study). Thus, the question posed in the 4th paragraph sets us up to find the Main Point in the 5th paragraph, but the question posed in the last paragraph seems instead to just add some further detail or to limit the implications of what we read earlier.

[bukkaabh]

Hi, I am confused as to why the answer to this question is A and not D. I thought that most of the passage deals with the theory of the multiverse. The 5th paragraph talks about the concept of "fine-tuning" and how there could be different physical laws compatible with life, but then the 6th paragraph goes right back to talking about what implications this has for the multiverse theory. Can you please explain what makes D wrong and A right?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi bukkaabh,

The mistake you've made on this question is one I find many students making on Main Point questions in the Reading Comprehension section. The main point of a reading comprehension passage is not just the subject that the author discusses most frequently (or in the most paragraphs or lines). Rather, it's the idea or notion that the author wants to persuade the reader of. And, in this case, it's also the special contribution the author wants to make to the field or subject matter he or she is discussing.

Sometimes an author spends a lot of passage space discussing a subject for reasons that are not the main point: (1) to ensure the reader understands a complex subject, or (2) to convey to the reader the sense that the author is in command of a position that author wants to argue against, etc. Here, for example, a lot of "wind up" time in the passage is spent on the background of the multiverse theory, because it is a complex subject and the author seems to sense that the reader needs background and context to understand it.

The reason answer choice D is wrong is that the author has something other than answer choice D, something special in the field of multiverse theory that the author is trying to convey to the reader: namely, that people haven't been studying fine-tuning in the right way. They've been tweaking one element at a time in their experiments (see the beginning of paragraph 5). The author wants to change that, and get people studying fine tuning by "manipulating multiple constants at once," because different results arise--new hypothetical universes where complex structures and perhaps even intelligent life could arise. So the purpose of the passage is really to get people thinking about another, different, way of studying fine-tuning. And that is best articulated in answer choice A, which states the possibilities this new way of studying reveals: that "there may be more sets of physical laws that are compatible with life than commonly thought."

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[claudiagarin]

Hi there,

I answered B on this one and I don't know why its wrong. A to me isn't convincing because I don't see where they say this " there may be more sets of physical laws that would be compatible with life than commonly thought."

Rather, in B the final paragraph address exactly what is said in this AC.

[Adam Tyson]

The problem with answer B, claudiagarin, is that it completely ignores everything about the author's research, and of course this author is writing in order to tell us about their research. What does that research tell us? That there could be many sets of rules that could result in life in various universes, and that this concept, which the author and their colleagues have been testing, is still compatible with the overall concept of the multiverse. The Main Point has to deal with the author's attempt to answer the question posed in the 4th paragraph, which is answered by reference to their research.

Don't ignore the author's purpose and viewpoint when thinking about the Main Point! It all has to be in there. An answer might be true, like answer B, but being true isn't enough to make it the Main Point, just like a premise, while true, is not the conclusion of an argument.