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#23671
Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (E)

Here, the literary historian presents a fact set, mostly regarding Shakespeare: the historian asserts that he could have written the love poetry attributed to him, but he could not have written the dramas attributed to him because that would have required spending a lot of time with powerful leaders, which Shakespeare could not have done. Francis Bacon, the author adds, did have significant access to such powerful leaders.

Answer choice (A): The author does not assert that Bacon wrote the dramas—it is only implied that Bacon could have. As for whether Bacon could have written the love poetry, the literary historian does not comment, so this answer choice is unsupported by the stimulus.

Answer choice (B): The author makes neither of these assertions, coming only so close as to say that Bacon had the access needed to write the Shakespearian dramas.

Answer choice (C): This statement cannot be logically drawn from the stimulus, whose author asserts that Shakespeare could have written the love poetry attributed to him.

Answer choice (D): The assertion is not that the poetry and dramas could not have been written by the same author—just that Shakespeare didn't have the access to rulers that would have been needed for him to write the dramas.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. The author makes this basic assertion: it is possible that he wrote the poetry, but he didn't have the access to powerful rulers necessary to be able to write the dramas.
 chian9010
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#59535
Sorry but as a ESL international student, I have some question about it. I apologize if it is a grammar problem...

From what I learned before, " someone could have done something" means in the past someone obtained the opportunity to do it but he/she didn't (which means that :longline: the thing/consequence didn't happen). Therefore, when I read the first sentence ("Shakespeare could have written the love poetry attributed to him"), I interpreted the sentence in a way that "he could have but he didn't." Therefore, I chose answer choice C
 Malila Robinson
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#61142
Hi Chian9010,
I can see how that could be confusing! You are correct that "someone could have done something" means that they had the opportunity to do it but didn't. But that is not the only way the phrase could be used. In this case "someone could have done something" means we do not have conclusive proof that the person did it, but it from what we know it seems likely that the person did in fact do it.

Hope that helps!
-Malila

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