#11 - Global Reference, Weaken

[brcibake]

I was stuck between B and E but picked E.
I liked B because it no doubt weakens the argument
I still like E because it is stating that those who have actually done with the author is proposing didn't meet the author's expectation.
Why is B better than E?
Thank You!

[Eric Ockert]

Hi Brcibake!

Answer choice (E) touches on the counterargument the author mentions toward the end of the passage. But the author already countered this counter by saying, essentially, that even if the statutory knowledge was only over a fairly narrow range, the skills acquired in gaining this knowledge might still be useful. The last sentence reads: "But while the knowledge of a particular region’s statutory law is not generally transferable to other regions, the skills acquired in mastering a particular set of statutes are, making the study of statutory law an important undertaking even for law (55) schools with a national orientation."

In addition, the author mentions in L38-39 that most students intend to specialize in a chosen area that may be small. So it may be that students don't need knowledge beyond the narrow range of statutes in answer choice (E).

So ultimately, the issue isn't so much that answer choice (B) is a better option as much as it isn't clear that answer choice (E) even weakens the author's argument at all.

Hope that helps!