#11 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[kappe]

Passage7 , question, 11, I chose answer choice, B appose to A, Please explain the main difference. All I see is, Relevant data, in answer choice B, and Potential short coming, couldn't that mean the same thing. I suppose I just want to know how to look out for things Like this in future reading comp situations

[BethRibet]

Hi Kappa,

Thanks for the question.
Relevant data essentially refers to fact or evidence, as opposed to the framing in answer choice A, which focuses on "interpretation". B is getting at whether facts were missed, whereas A is addressing potential limits in reasoning or analysis. In choosing between these two answer choices, refer back to lines 48-62.

The discussion contains no suggestion that Breen and Innes missed any facts, but does question their interpretation of the case of Anthony Johnson (see lines 53-56 for instance). So A fits this discussion fairly well.

Hope this helps!

Beth

[lomatuwa]

Can someone please explain this for me?

[Paul Marsh]

Hi lomatuwa! Let's walk through this one.

This is a Concept Reference question, meaning that the question refers us to a discussion in a particular section of the passage. Here, it refers us to the discussion of Anthony Johnson and asks us why the author refers to him and his family. Anthony Johnson is discussed solely in the last two sentences of the passage. So we of course want to look back at those two sentences and recall what they said: that Anthony Johnson sold his Chesapeake land and moved north; according to Breen and Innes this was to search for fresh land, but according to the author of the passage this was to escape the rising threat of forced slave labor.

Although the final two sentences are the only ones mentioning Anthony Johnson, for Concept Reference questions it is generally also helpful to view the surrounding areas of the text (e.g. re-reading at least the sentence directly preceding the ones about Anthony Johnson). Here, that preceding sentence tells us that the author of our passage believes that Breen and Innes underemphasize the evidence that African Americans were under attack from customary law prior to the 1670's, by citing specific examples from the 1660's. By examining that preceding sentence in tandem with the two sentences about Anthony Johnson, it is clear that the author discusses Anthony Johnson as a specific example of his point about how Breen and Innes miss the mark somewhat when it comes to proper emphasis on the rise of racist customary law prior to 1670.

With all that in mind, we would Pre-Phrase an answer here along the lines of: "The author mentions Anthony Johnson and his family in order to provide an example of how Breen and Innes fail to emphasize the extent to which customary law was closing in on African Americans prior to 1670." We would then come down to the answer choices.

Answer Choice (A): This is the correct answer. It uses more general language and so is not as specific as our Pre-Phrase, but that's ok. A correct answer doesn't need to match our Pre-Phrase word for word. It correctly matches up with our Pre-Phrase in describing how the author uses Anthony Johnson as an example of how Breen and Innes miss the mark in their interpretation of history.

Answer Choice (B): At no point in those last few sentences does the author point out any data overlooked by Breen and Innes.

Answer Choice (C): There is no indication that the real reason for Anthony Johnson's departure would have supported Breen and Innes's thesis.

Answer Choice (D): Nowhere does the author suggest that the standard interpretation of history (as described in the first sentence of the passage) is superior to that of Breen and Innes.

Answer Choice (E): The author never argues that a new full blown method is needed. Instead, the author is only saying that Breen and Innes are underemphasizing certain evidence.

Hope that helps!