#11 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[nrpandolfo]

Can you explain why B isn't correct? I didn't choose A because of the language surrounding that preservation is desirable an an end in itself, i didnt think the author mentioned that in the passage?

Even though B is not specifically mentioned, i thought it was more fitting into a "most strongly supported" type of question.

[Alex Bodaken]

nrpandolfo,

Thanks for the question! This is a tricky one...the use of "most likely to agree" in the question stem is a pretty good tip off that the correct statement is not going to be directly seen in the passage, but instead will be implied from the general arguments in the passage. And, in fact, that is the case here - we aren't going to be able to directly cite our correct answer from the passage itself, but from what the author argues within it. That being said, let's move to the answer choices.

Starting with answer choice (B), it reads: "The preservation of native languages will fail without cooperation among those who speak the language, other members of their communities, and the members and institutions of society as a whole.
." The crucial issue here is with the contention that "the preservation of native languages will fail without cooperation..." The article certainly details the decline in usage of native languages, but the author never suggests that they won't be able to be preserved without his suggested methods - just that they are the best ones to use to promote additional usage of native languages.

By contrast, answer choice (A) reads: "The preservation of native languages is desirable as an end in itself, and this end will be most successfully accomplished if these languages become integrated into the daily life of native communities." The author certainly argues that the preservation of native languages is desirable as an end in itself (that is basically an assumption underlying the entire article), and then proceeds to argue that the most effective way to do this preservation is to integrate native language usage into daily life (through elder recordings, word games, etc.). Therefore, we can be confident that the author would agree with this statement, and it is the credited answer.

Hope that helps!
Alex

[Henry Z]

I feel so uncomfortable with (A), because 1) "The preservation of native languages is desirable as an end in itself" is totally out of scope. The passage never mentions the purpose of the preservation. We only know the author thinks the preservation is needed, but we don't know WHY the author thinks so. And 2) the extreme language like "will be MOST successfully accomplished" is unsupported.

Instead, (B)'s "will fail" is actually supported in the passage: "For radio programming to be effective in countering the potentially deleterious linguistic effects of the Internet, it should resonate with the living oral traditions of indigenous communities." So without the participation of indigenous communities, the deleterious effects can't be countered, thus "will fail."

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

For answer choice (B) will fail is too strong. We don't know that it will fail---we just know that the radio should resonate with the living oral traditions. That's very different than saying that it will fail unless multiple different groups participate in the preservation of the language.

Answer choice (A) on the other hand is supported by the author calling the attempts to force indigenous communities to use English misguided. We also know it will be successful because it has been successful (see line 55). We also can draw that inference from the discussion earlier in the passage about how the radio is an effective means of preserving indigenous languages.

Hope that helps!