#26 - Must Be True, Purpose

[reop6780]

The correct answer is A while I chose E.

They were both appealing answers.

I went back to the passage shortly, from line 5 the passage literally discussed ways to overcome the fear (debilitating effects of low cohesion).

What makes answer A better answer and answer E incorrect?

[Adam Tyson]

I see what you like about E - I think it is a very attractive answer. My analysis when I have two contenders like this is not to ask why one answer is wrong - after all, the instructions don't tell us to pick the "right" answer, but rather the "best" answer - but to ask why one answer is better than the other. So, why is answer A better here?

Answer A describes the compare/contrast nature of that portion of the passage. The first paragraph is about the positive value of cohesiveness, and only incidentally about low cohesiveness. Low cohesiveness is discussed primarily as a way to point out the advantages of cohesiveness, which is the real purpose of that paragraph. A describes the role that the discussion of low cohesiveness plays in that paragraph quite nicely.

E talks about a "proposal" for overcoming low cohesiveness. Did we really get a proposal? I would argue that we got a description of what needs to be accomplished without any proposal for how to accomplish it. I would also say that the purpose of that first paragraph wasn't to talk about fixing low cohesiveness but to talk about the value of cohesiveness, so answer E isn't as closely tied to the purpose of the paragraph as answer A is. Is E bad? Not really, but A is better, and so according to our instructions that's the one you have to pick.

As always, I hope that helped!

[reop6780]

Thank you, Adam!

I separated the first paragraph and attempted to think what it was trying to deliver as whole paragraph.

I guess I looked at individual trees not forest.

your kind explanation helped me a lot.

[Dancingbambarina]

Just when I thought Purpose was making sense

This is a tricky Question as AC A is reverberated LATER in paragraph 1 around line 14 (the exact words like "freedom" are even used), which made me think AC A was to support THIS line. But I am aware the explanation here says it supports the first sentence of the paragraph.

There are a lot of differing opinions on this AC, and I was wandering which line is supported? The first sentence or line 15 at the end of the "contrasting phase"?

I am also wandeirng if "claim" is instead an assumumption that AC A supports. A sentiment or assumption echoed in the first sentence but also reverberate nearly verbatim in line 14?

I am struggling nailing this one down with incisiveness and accurate delineation. Thank you.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Dancing,

Whenever a question asks about the purpose of a particular line, sentence, idea, etc. in a passage, it is always a good idea to "zoom out" and think about the overall purpose of that entire paragraph. In other words, what happens in that paragraph and how is that paragraph related to the overall purpose of the passage? The reason that this is helpful is that the purpose of a particular line usually is to support that broader purpose of the paragraph. And when trying to determine the purpose of a given paragraph, often the best place to look is the first sentence in that paragraph, as that sentence usually introduces the topic/main idea of that paragraph.

The first paragraph in this passage is about the benefits of high group cohesion. This is clearly indicated in the first sentence of the passage. Low cohesion is only mentioned to show by comparison why high cohesion is beneficial. The passage itself is about groupthink, which only happens when group cohesion is high. The passage doesn't really focus on/care about low cohesion at all.

You could summarize the main point of this passage as "High group cohesion is generally good, but groupthink, which can sometimes occur when there is high group cohesion, is bad." This prephrase basically matches the correct answer to question 20, the Main Point question. I mention this because clearly understanding the main point of the passage can often actually help answer other questions indirectly.