#5 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

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

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

[Anothertesttaker]

I was able to get to the right answer choice E by finding information in both paragraph 2 (17-18) and paragraph 3 (39-40) that support that answer choice. However, I am struggling to identify why the other answer choices are wrong. Am I on the right track?

A) Wrong because lines 8-12 support this concept be emphasized by risk communicators
B) Is this wrong because of lines 8-12 as well?
C) This seems wrong because the overall viewpoint of the authors disagrees with this concept and therefore it would not be emphasized by the authors
D) This is really attractive answer but I don't know why it is wrong. I did not choose it simply because answer choice E had more support in the passage.

[Robert Carroll]

Another,

Your evaluation of answer choice (A) looks good, as it seems to be something the people in the first paragraph would emphasize over the authors.

Answer choice (C) also looks bad because the authors emphasize that people are actually pretty good about weighing risks when properly informed.

Answer choice (B) can be rejected by seeing where a similar concept was discussed - line 32 discusses a flaw in studies, not a flaw in the judgment of the lay people in the studies. This answer is trying to attribute the flaw to the lay people. That's just not an accurate analysis of that sentence.

The disproof of answer choice (D) can be found in line 25, where the authors point out that lay people are actually good at this; the word "inability" in this answer says the opposite.

Robert Carroll