#15 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

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!

[Mkendz]

Im having some difficulty understanding why answer choice is D is better than answer E.
The question asked you to "infer from the passage what the author assumes"

Answer choice D seems correct because the author does not make the mistake (8-9) of confusing the rudimentary knowledge of how to read with the popular access to important books and documents when analyzing the ancient greek society.

Answer choice E seems correct because throughout the passage doesn't the author also assume that even if people did know how to read fundamental documents were only available to a select few, and therefore most of their people would not participate and political decision making - because society was subject to the interpretation of literature by select few

Im missing something and just can't seem to grasp where I'm going wrong ?
thanks

[Andrew Ash]

Dear Mkendz,

Thanks for your post! For those of you following along in your course textbooks, we're looking at page 7-118. This is a Reading Comprehension passage from October 1993.

The problem with answer choice (E) is that most of the ancient Greeks actually did participate in political decision-making, such as by participating in juries - it's just that they were only allowed to participate because the educated elite decided to allow them to do so. To say that they didn't participate at all is going too far.

Also, note that this question is about "societies" in general, not just the ancient Greeks. This author doesn't discuss societies in general very much at all. As you pointed out, though, lines 7-9 provide strong support for the view that "rudimentary" readers often don't have access to "important books and documents," which supports answer choice (D). Lines 55-58 don't actually support answer choice (E) because again, the elite gets to decide whether or not everyone else participates in the political process, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people won't get to participate - it depends on what the elite decides.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Andrew