#25 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

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

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


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

[Brandonhsi]

Hi,

I couldn't find the support within the passage for the correct answer choice for this question. Could you help me?

Thanks!

Brandon

[Steve Stein]

Thanks for your question. In the second paragraph the author asserts that Garcia contradicts himself somewhat in discussing the diversity of the Mexican American population at the time, while still maintaining that a consensus generally existed between the various groups. The author disagrees, noting on lines 34-36 that "Mexican American political history since 1930 has been characterized not by consensus but by intense and lively debate."

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

Steve

[gingerale]

I was between B and C and ended up choosing C. Is C incorrect because "in spite of" is too strong of language and suggests stronger disagreement between the two groups that were not necessarily explicitly stated in the passage?

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey Gingerale,

The issue with answer choice C is not with the strength of the language "in spite of." The issue with answer choice C is that it says "their common goal of liberal reform helped them reach a consensus." This is starkly different than what the author states. Here are a couple different quotes that the author states about political activists in the 1930's and 1940's in the second paragraph.

1. "He undermines his primary thesis by emphasizing an underlying consensus among various groups that tends to conceal the full significance of their differences."

2. "were often diametrically opposed."

3. "characterized not by consensus but by intense lively debate."

So essentially the answer choice is wrong because these activists did not reach a consensus. Consensus is a very strong word that means general agreement but often implies a unanimous agreement according to Merriam's dictionary. So the word consensus is the biggest issue with answer choice C.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Ryan

[TootyFrooty]

Could you please explain why its not E?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi TootyFrooty,

The key to answering this type of question is to find the answer that has direct support for it in the passage. We need to be able to infer the correct answer from the passage. In other words, the passage won't usually directly state the information in the correct answer, but will provide information that let's us conclude the correct answer.

For Answer E, there is no direct support in the passage that the Mexican American political activists did not fully achieve their goals. While it's likely true that they didn't fully achieve their goals since that is probably true for most political parties and activists (for example, I think it's probably safe to say that we haven't achieved complete equality in this country and eliminated all forms of discrimination), there is no mention of this in the passage.

One thing to careful of in this answer is to not confuse "goals" with strategies. The words "goals" is only mentioned once in the passage in line 28. The only thing that we know about the goals of these groups is that, according to Garcia, they centered on liberal reform, not revolution (lines 29-30). We don't know from the passage how successful they were at achieving these goals.

Finally, one might incorrectly assume that the Mexican American political activists didn't fully achieve their goals from the fact that some of the later reforms from the Militant Chicanos came out of similar concerns of the earlier Mexican American Generation, but this is not necessarily true. For example, the earlier group may have achieved the goals that they had set, but the later group set new goals that went beyond the goals of the earlier group. We just don't know based on the passage.