#10 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Paul Marsh]

Complete Question Explanation

When you see a question stem like this, we want to be focusing on how the quoted portion is used in the passage and what it means. That won't always correlate nicely with the author's opinion or point of view; sometimes the quoted section is something the author is explicitly disagreeing with.

Here, the quoted section is from line 41. So we go back to that line, and briefly skim a couple of sentences before and after that quoted part. From those surrounding sentences, we know a few things about what "works of popular culture" refers to.
- We know that it is the work of "illustrators, journalists, and novelists", likely in the period right after the 1880s
- We know that these creators of these works were "previously unknown", and that their works therefore had to be "unearthed"
- We know that the creators of these works were "devotees of the railroad"
- We know that it's debated whether these works support Stilgoe's general point that the ambivalence of earlier writers towards the railroad dissipated after the 1880s (Stilgoe says they do, the author says that they don't)

Keeping all those points in mind, before we come down to the answer choices we want to Pre-Phrase a solid idea of what "works of popular culture" refers to. A good Pre-Phrase here would thus probably look something like: "The output of previously unknown illustrators, journalists, and novelists who were devoted to the railroad." We then turn to the answer choices.

Answer Choice (A): "Writers" in this answer choice is probably too narrow, as in the passage the quoted section also refers to the work of illustrators. But the bigger problem here is that (A) says these works "in Stilgoe's view [were] highly critical of the railroad". This is incorrect; as the passage suggests that the creators of these works were instead "devotees of the railroad" and that Stilgoe used these works to argue that writers after the 1880's were supportive of the railroad. Thus (A) mischaracterizes Stilgoe's view of the works.

Answer Choice (B): Again, this choice mischaracterizes the nature of the works. The passage supports that these works were from people devoted to the railroad; not those sharing the ambivalence of Hawthorne or Thoreau.

Answer Choice (C): These works are from previously unknown people, not literary giants like James, Lewis, or Fitzgerald. More pointedly, the passage makes clear that James, Lewis, and Fitzgerald share the ambivalence of Hawthorne or Thoreau - hardly the devotees that the quoted section is referring to.

Answer Choice (D): This answer choice starts off strongly. It correctly identifies that the creators of the works were illustrators, journalists, and novelists. And it correctly suggests that they were pro-railroad. However, after that it falls off the rails - pun absolutely intended. There is nothing to suggest that these works were responsible for creating enthusiasm for the railroad. In fact, since these creators were previously unknown and their works had to be "unearthed", the passage suggests that they were completely unknown to the public and therefore it is unlikely that they created much enthusiasm at all. In addition, the time period is wrong - the works were likely made in the period right after the 1880's, not in the 1830's.

Answer Choice (E): This is the correct answer. It closely matches our Pre-Phrase by correctly identifying both the creators of the works and their previously unknown nature.

[lunsandy]

I'm having difficulty in seeing why E is correct. Is it because of work of hitherto unknown illustrators" that is showing that these journalists, novelists, and illustrators received little attention other than Stilgoe? It just appears to me such a big jump from "unknown" to only Stilgoe recognizing them.

Also, in the line "perhaps that the works of popular culture greatly expanded at the time," is the author making the assumption that journalists, novelists, and illustrators are popular culture?

[nicholaspavic]

Hi lun,

I think you are recognizing a couple of the key phrases, but I would also add that the term "unearthed" provides the necessary context about Stillgo's link to the material. That's providing necessary inference that Stillgo was one of a limited number (and perhaps it was only Stillgo actually) who brought attention to these material to others. Add this into your "hitherto unknown" and I think that gives you enough information to say that (E) must be true as the purpose/function about "works of popular culture."

Thanks for the great question and I hope this helped!

[yusrak]

Hi powerscore,

Because the question is asking for what must be true about the author's use of "works of popular culture," I initially assumed that the choice would reflect the author's attitude and not the viewpoint of the scholar (Stilgoe) or any of the intellectuals. So my initial prephrase was that the Stilgoe's use of the "works of popular culture" was misleading. But then, as I read the choices I thought that the correct answer may include the author's use of the quote AND the scholar's interaction with that same quote/idea. So generally speaking, when a question like this comes up in a passage with several viewpoints, should I expect the correct choice could intermingle the different viewpoints? And thereby focus on how the quote was used in the passage rather than how only the author viewed this particular quote/concept?

Also choice A wrong because "contrariety and ambivalence" (3rd to last sentence of the passage) is not the same thing as "highly critical?" I thought that A was correct because of the sentence that says "...(writer's of the 1880s had) earlier distrust of a minority of intellectuals..." (3rd sentence in the 3rd paragraph). Honestly, the sentence that I just quoted was a word puzzle to me, it had too many negatives and it jumped between the author's opinion and Stilgoe's opinion. So maybe that was my problem? I just want feedback on my reasoning of why this answer choice is incorrect.

Thanks in advance!! I really appreciate all the time powerscore staff put into answering my questions.

Best,
Yusra

[Paul Marsh]

Hi Yusra!

You asked:

should I...focus on how the quote was used in the passage rather than how only the author viewed this particular quote/concept?

That's correct! Let's walk through this question. Please see the above full explanation that I posted.

Hope that helps!

[cgleeson]

I was down to D and E. However, looking at D I could not conclude the these works unearthed by Stilgoe was done during the 1830s. It seems to me that the passage brings us forward in time to the 1880s and beyond. Am I reading this wrong?

[Adam Tyson]

You're absolutely correct, cgleeson, and that's one of the reasons why answer D is wrong. The timeframe is off - those writers, illustrators, etc. the works of whom Stilgoe "unearthed" to prove his point, must have been writing after the 1880s, not back in the 1830s.

The other problem is the causal element of answer D. Nowhere does Stilgoe indicate that those writers "were responsible for creating enthusiasm for the railroad." It's just that they supposedly reflected a general trend of favoring the railroads. They are at least as likely to indicate an effect as a cause, so we cannot select an answer that says they were responsible.