#2 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Zarie Blackburn]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

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

Answer choice (E):


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

[mshaikh]

Although I correctly chose answer choice D for this question, I wanted to make sure that my reasoning for choosing this answer over answer choice E was correct. The reason I did not choose answer choice E was because I felt that the answer choice was a stretch of what the author said/unsupported. Because we don't know for sure we can't choose answer choice E. Is this the correct reasoning for crossing off answer choice E? Please let me know!

[mshaikh]

Can someone please explain why answer choice E was incorrect for this passage? Thanks!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi mshaikh!

Yes, your reasoning is right--(E) "was a stretch of what the author said/unsupported. Because we don't know for sure we can't choose answer choice E." Answer (E) focuses on whether or not the author would view the general principles of law to be "not useful in adjudicating disputes between developing countries and foreign investors." This is a must-be-true question, but we don't know the author's view on this point. In fact, to me, the opposite of (E) seems more likely to be the case--the author goes on to discuss the opponents of the general-principles-of-law view, and then points out faults in the opponent's views. So it's possible, though not necessarily true, that the author might find those general principles useful.

[mshaikh]

That makes sense! Thanks so much Luke!

[Khodi7531]

When approaching these questions...I never think to myself, "this is a MBT". For RC it's hard for me to build this habit. Is that something that's necessary for someone to keep that in the back of their mind while approaching a question? Would that help get rid of answers...


I chose A over D. Not sure why A would be wrong, just can't get rid of it.

Is it because the general principles of law reference is what the author believes....(inferred by the sentence after that says however and how critics of that would respond) and since the author believes the critics reasoning is flawed...you can infer the opposite of what he's saying. Does that make sense?

[Daniel Stern]

Khodi:

I can't get rid of A either, but I know it can't be the answer -- because I can't find any support for it in the passage. Nowhere in the passage is the question of whether these principles of law "take into account the needs and interests" of the countries.

D is better, given a reading of the passage starting with the sentence that starts on line 6 ("Besides the...") through the sentence that starts on line 20 ("However...")

This section suggests: there's a risk to foreign investors of governments modifying the contract; governments try to show investors that risk is minimized by adopting these general principles of law into their contracts; and then some people erroneously still argue that the principles include the ability for government to modify the contract. So the author believes answer D, that the general principles do not include a right for the governments to modify.

Good luck in your studies,
Dan

[gavelgirl]

Hello,

For this problem I kept A as a contender, but when I saw D I eliminated A because I thought to myself A "could be true," not "must be true." I only saw D by piecing together information in the first paragraph because I recognized that the author used "they" a lot to show someone else's point of view and the author disagreeing with "they" at the end of the paragraph.

Is this line of thinking correct to finding the answer, or did I just get lucky? Thank you

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Gavel,

Great work! Thinking that an answer choice "could be true" is frequently a good hint that it doesn't have to be true. Indeed, we don't know much about these general principles from the perspective of the developing country. That might be another reason to move away from answer choice (A) here. Noticing the "they"s in the passage are a way of spotting the viewpoints of others versus the viewpoint of the author. These aren't always the same, so it's good to be on the lookout for hints in the language that help you determine what the author agrees with or disagrees with.

Fantastic job!
Rachael