#21 - In 1578 Moroccan troops defeated a Portuguese army on

[est15]

I'm having trouble deciding between (A) and (D). I can see for (A) that the discussion about the Portuguese officers means that the ignorance of Sebastian's death could no longer explain the omission. On the other hand, I feel like (D) also works because the discussion about the Portuguese officers supports the idea that they could not write about Sebastian's death due to psychological reasons of embarrassment. Can you explain why (D) is incorrect?

Thanks.

[KelseyWoods]

Thanks for your question, est15!

Answer choice D is tempting, but the discussion about the two Portuguese officers doesn't really support a psychological principle. A principle would be a broad rule that you can then apply to specific situations. Telling us that these Portuguese officers had knowledge of the king's death but did not report it, does not support a psychological rule. In fact, it might not even be enough to support the author's conclusion that they were psychologically embarrassed--maybe the Portuguese chose not to write about the king's death as a deliberate part of their military strategy because they didn't want to appear weak.

A is a much better answer because telling us they had knowledge of the king's death clearly eliminates ignorance as a possible explanation of why the death is not mentioned in the records.

Hope this helps!

Kelsey