#3 - Must Be True, Purpose

[kristinaroz93]

Question 3) Why is E the correct answer here?

[Steve Stein]

Hi Kristina,

Question 3 refers specifically to lines 31-38, but in order to understand the context of the excerpt, we need to consider the text from a few lines before and a few lines afterwards.

Beginning on line 26, the author discusses how traditionally moderate community leaders were jeopardizing their positions by leading a campaign of civil disobedience.
Then, lines 31-38 present a discussion of how the churches and ministers had acted as moderate mediators for generations (this underscores what a huge shift was represented by leading the campaign of civil disobedience).
Finally, on lines 40-43 the author restates that these leaders were risking their reputations as users of established channels.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

~Steve

[rjhyman]

Hi! I was between A and E but picked A, unfortunately. I see why E is correct but could use some help with understanding why A is wrong. Based on the passages descriptions of the ministers previous political involvement I thought A ("demonstrate that the tactics used by the leaders of the Downstate campaign evolved naturally out of their previous political activities") made sense because it does seem like a natural next step to be involved in local politics to protesting for your political beliefs. Can someone help me understand why E is the better choice for this question? Thank you so much!

[Adam Tyson]

I see a couple problems with answer A here, rjhyman. First, the passage never discussed the tactics used in the Downstate campaign. Other than the very general description in the first paragraph of "aggressive protest," and then "civil disobedience" in the second paragraph, how exactly did the ministers conduct themselves? What specific actions did they take in attempting to achieve their goals? That's what "tactics" refers to, and we don't see anything about it in this passage.

Second, I think it's fair to say that this shift was NOT a natural evolution. It was a pretty radical change, risking their careers and reputations. This sounds more revolutionary than evolutionary to me, wouldn't you agree? They didn't just naturally shift from their moderate approach to this much riskier one; they had to be recruited, and they put themselves in jeopardy by agreeing to try the new approach. Thus, answer A's claim that it "evolved naturally" seems to be in direct opposition to what the passage described.