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

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

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

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


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

[cindymoon14]

A was a contender, but I chose E because I thought it accurately describes what is happening at the end of the passage around 58, where author mentions stealing thunder's potential negative effect, that it "forms a cognitive framework for jurors, who then filter subsequent information through this schema." Doesn't this suggest that the trying to positively frame very harmful information can sometimes be damaging and less effective than, say, "creating credibility in some cases" as stated in answer choice E?

Could you please clarify why E is incorrect? Thanks!

[Daniel Stern]

Hi Cindy:

E goes way too far afield of what is supported by the passage, whereas A stops right where it should.

You correctly assessed that the line 58 reference to "cognitive framework" means that information jurors get early in the case will influence how they think about information they receive later. And answer choice A says just that.

But E goes further, and thus cannot be our answer, by comparing the "stealing thunder" technique to some other technique, "creating credibility," which is not discussed in the passage. We only know that stealing thunder sometimes fails as a technique; we can't say that some other technique might be better.

I hope that helps!
Dan

[Dancingbambarina]

Hi Cindy:

E goes way too far afield of what is supported by the passage, whereas A stops right where it should.

You correctly assessed that the line 58 reference to "cognitive framework" means that information jurors get early in the case will influence how they think about information they receive later. And answer choice A says just that.

But E goes further, and thus cannot be our answer, by comparing the "stealing thunder" technique to some other technique, "creating credibility," which is not discussed in the passage. We only know that stealing thunder sometimes fails as a technique; we can't say that some other technique might be better.

I hope that helps!
Dan

Creating credibility actually IS mentioned in the passage explicitly toward the beginning, which is why I struggled with E and A.

Why would we so quickly reject E?

Thank you

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Dancing,

While credibility is mentioned earlier in the passage (lines 20-25), that discussion is not directly related to the discussion of "cognitive framework" (line 58) cited in this question.

Wrong answers in reading comprehension often mix two or more words/ideas that appear in the passage to state an idea that was not actually stated in the passage, as Answer E does here. These answers can be tempting to test takers who don't read the passage and the answers very carefully because they sound similar to ideas that were mentioned in the passage.

One of the best ways to avoid being tempted by these wrong answers is to prephrase your answer before you look at the answer choices. In this question, for example, it would be unlikely that your prephrase would include the idea of credibility since this wasn't mentioned anywhere in this paragraph.

In answering questions regarding why the author discussed/mentioned a certain idea, you should "zoom out" and consider what the purpose of the entire paragraph was. This paragraph discusses how positively framing negative information can be effective, but also shows a limitation on how this strategy could backfire if the negative information is too damaging.

The specific discussion of "cognitive framework" relates to how juries will filter the remaining information in the trial based on their initial view of the case (either positive or negative). A good prephrase would get at that idea, and that idea is best captured in Answer A.