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

[lilmissunshine]

Hello,

I was choosing between (B) and (C) but ended up with (C). Is it because in line 12, the author says "This discovery is especially compelling because ...."?

Could you explain? Thanks a lot!

[Vaidehi Joshi]

So you seemed to have correctly inferred from the passage as a whole (as evidenced, for example, by Line 12, which you quoted) that the author has a positive view towards Vernon's research.
Remember, however, that each of these answer choices have 2 parts. For example, the first parts of (B) and (C) are pretty similar ("admiring of its accomplishments" and "appreciative of the effort it required," respectively). However, they are not quite the same. The key difference is that (B) is better because it's more general, describing a generally positive attitude towards Vernon's research and what it has accomplished (the author recognizes that Vernon has actually ACCOMPLISHED something when she says Vernon "helps to dispel this notion" around Line 4). However, (C)'s first part is too specific--"appreciative of the EFFORT required"? Do we know that Vernon's research was hard and required great EFFORT? It probably did, but there's not really concrete evidence of effort required in the passage. And anyway, the author never specifically praises Vernon for taking great effort. (C)'s first part basically goes too far, beyond the passage (this is thus essentially a MBT question)
Even if you didn't catch the nuance between the first parts of (B) and (C), the second parts are really very different! (B) says "generally receptive to its theories," which the author definitely is throughout the passage, while (C) says "neutral towards it theories," which is incorrect since even in the line you reference, the author describes Vernon's theories as "compelling." That's not neutral, that's positve--thus, receptive. You have make sure BOTH parts of each answer choice are true from the passage, not just one.
However, it is important to ask what KIND of positive view she has--i.e., does the author view Vernon's research positively because she finds

[Michaeltinti22]

I also had trouble with this question. I thought the "effort" part of c.) was a weird word choice, but I've seen weirder word choices in correct AC, so I didn't immediately cross it out. The second part of B and C is what drove me to incorrectly choose C. For this question I saw the passage in a very general manner: paragraph 1 talks about her physical findings, and the following paragraphs discuss the theories about those findings. So even though in line 12 the author says her findings are "compelling," the author isn't talking about Vernon's theories about when rice cultivation occurred; they're talking about the discovery of African rice cultivation in general. So I didn't rule "compelling" into my evaluation of the author's tone towards the theories themselves.

Now ultimately I chose C because, when reviewing paragraphs 2-4, the author doesn't seem to use any further positive language that would indicate they believe these theories. Instead of endorsing the theories, the author just kind of explains them. Is the lack of criticism or skepticism from the author indicative of them being receptive? Or is there something else I'm missing?

[Brook Miscoski]

Michael,

This is about the author's perspective ("attitude") towards Vernon. The first sentence states that Vernon's study helps to dispel myths, and the remainder of the passage describes how.

I would first eliminate answer choices that are negative or neutral towards Vernon, since Vernon "helps." Therefore:

(A) "skeptical"--wrong
(B) okay
(C) "neutral"--wrong
(D) "skeptical"--wrong
(E) "dismissive"--wrong

This approach identifies (B) as the only possible choice. "Receptive" is justified because the author is advocating that Vernon's theory "helps." "Neutral" is not justified because the author has taken a positive stance towards Vernon.

With regard to your comment on rice cultivation, the author states around line 5 that Vernon dispelled the myth that Africans contribute only labor by showing that Africans introduced rice cultivation methods, so "compelling" does refer to Vernon's theories. However, the question does not need that level of analysis. On this type of tone/perspective question, your approach should be much more general, as illustrated above. That will improve your accuracy and save mental energy for other questions that merit more of your attention.