#14 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Organization

[spadmabandu]

Hi PowerScore,

I really struggled with this question, and organization questions in general, probably due to the need to make it abstract. None of the answers really jumped out as contenders to me. I knew D was a loser, based on the "applicability to a particular group is asserted". But the rest was hard for me to pinpoint what makes them incorrect.

Is answer E (the correct answer) correct because of the following?
Particular viewpoint is explained - the viewpoint of late 19th century authors that think of the 18th century as witty and amiable due to Watteau's work
Its shortcomings are discussed - that this view ignores the grim background and the historical context of war and famine
Its persistence in the face of these is noted - people still hold the same views despite these anomalies

I think when I read the answer choice I thought the last part meant that despite its shortcomings, the author still believed this viewpoint, not that others still believe this viewpoint, so that's one of the reasons it felt more like a loser than a contender to me.

Thanks!

[James Finch]

Hi Spadma,

Method RC questions require a good understanding of the structure of the passage, although some require more detail than others. This one is looking for a short, abstract summary of the role of each paragraph in the overall argument, making it a bit simpler than those that require more detail about different elements present within paragraphs. So to answer this question correctly, a few words summarizing each paragraph are helpful.

The first paragraph deals with Watteau's are and the general attitude towards it during a specific time period. The second paragraph challenges this attitude with background factual information, while the final paragraph essentially laments that the attitude discussed in the first paragraph continued to be held despite the facts, since the admirers just ignored them or misused them.

With this (or a more succinct) prephrase, we can see that only answer choice (E) works; (C) and (E) both describe a point-of-view in the first paragraph, but (C) then goes off the rails talking about competing hypotheses, while (E) accords with the criticisms in paragraph 2 and the continuance of the views about Watteau despite them in paragraph 3.

Hope this clears things up!