#10 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Organization

[Adam Tyson]

I think you're right about the second statement and the fourth statement, SwanQueen, and in fact, as soon as you saw that the second statement was wrong that should have been enough for you to stop reading that answer and cross it out as a loser. Answers to these "Structure" questions often go wrong quickly, and when they do there is nothing that they can do to make themselves right again. Don't waste more time and effort seeing what else the answer has to to - that train is already derailed, and we can't get it back on the tracks again!

As to the last statement, I think it's also an incorrect description of what happened. The author isn't saying "we need more research to determine whether Bordwell is correct." They have already told us that Bordwell is wrong - that question is settled. Rather, this is saying that Bordwell, and others like him, should have done something different from the start in order to avoid their mistakes.

[a.hopp]

I chose answer choice A correctly but was debating between A and D for a bit.

The main issue I had with D was the last sentence (offers a new thesis to replace the scholar's thesis). Is this the main issue with D, or is another portion of answer choice D an eliminating factor?

My question above mainly concerns the second portion of both A and D - would you interpret the second part of both answer choices (counters the thesis with an example [A] vs. provides an example illustrating the drawbacks of the thesis [D]) to mean the same thing? Or does D go wrong here as well?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi a.hopp,

The second part of these two answers: counters the thesis with an example [A] vs. provides an example illustrating the drawbacks of the thesis [D] are close enough that I wouldn't rule out Answer D based on this part.

Actually, the clearest (and, in my opinion, the easiest) way to rule out Answer D is the first part, "the author takes issue with a scholar's thesis." Remember that the correct answer must be in the correct order, as this is a passage organization question.

Did the author take issue with (in other words, attack or argue against) Bordwell's thesis at the very beginning of the passage (i.e. the first paragraph)? If you go back and look in paragraph one, there is no indication given that the author disagrees with Bordwell's thesis at this point. Of course, the author does take issue with Bordwell's thesis, but that comes later.

One helpful trick in doing these types of questions is comparing each part of the each answer. For example, Answers A, C, and E begin "the author states a scholar's thesis" while Answers B and D states "the author takes issue with a scholar's thesis." Once you double check the first paragraph, you can immediately eliminate Answers B and D. You then proceed to the next part and compare the remaining answers, etc..