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

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

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

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[lathlee]

Hi. I don't Even know how to approach to answer this question. In addition, the back page of( Powerscore's explanation lie) doesn't have the relevant information to answer the question, at least for me.

[Adam Tyson]

When we talk about purpose or function in Reading Comp, we are looking to answer the question "why" - why did the author include this bit of information? In answering this question for our prephrase, it also helps to consider other, related questions, like "what did they hope to accomplish by including this" and "what would the passage lose if this section were to be removed?"

Start your analysis there, lathlee, and ask yourself those questions. Your answer should be your prephrase. To help you along, I'll tell you that my prephrase here started with "to elaborate". Take another look, and then share your prephrase with us. Why did the author include the second paragraph? What did he hope to accomplish?

Go for it with fresh eyes and then let us know how it went.

[aspiringdefender]

I was not attracted to C (the right answer) because it contains the term "could". "Could" was a red flag for me, because I thought that this second passage described what "did occur", not have "could have occurred". If answer C said "explaining how circumstances in the first paragraph did occur", I would have chosen it . I think this way primarily because there is no where in the passage suggesting that the information in the second passage is based on speculation or uncertainty (therefore making it a "could" piece of information); the tone sounds quite certain to me. Am I missing anything?

[Dana D]

Hey aspiringdefender,

I think you're putting too much emphasis on the word "could" here. Looking at the first paragraph, it's describing several different relationships medival women could have with land. There are several possibilities depending on whether the woman was single, married, or widowed. The second paragraph is speaking in these same general terms, and describing how land could be transferred - how it was legally possible to do this in medieval times. There is no definite term used because the second paragraph is speaking in general possibilities, not describing with certainty what happened to one woman.

If you look at the structure of the answer choices for this question, you can see the test is really more concerned with you correctly identifying whether the second paragraph had a relationship with the first or the third and what the nature of that relationship was (explaining, narrating, evalutating, etc).

Hope that helps!