#25 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[yupyup]

Hi!

I don't really understand what makes E correct over B. I suppose E is correct due to lines 10-12, right? What makes B wrong then? I chose B because of lines 37-43.

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

I would suggest taking a somewhat broader view here, yupyup. It's not just a few lines here or there that help us with this question, but entire paragraphs. The second paragraph tells us about the change over time in England as the Parliament became more and more powerful, eventually being seen as omnipotent and able to change the Constitution whenever they wanted. The third paragraph shows that in the colonies, representative assemblies were not changing in that way, and so they continued to resemble an earlier 17th Century English model. England changed while the colonies remained the same. That's what they mean by being more loyal to English political tradition.

Answer B is incorrect because both groups remained committed to parliamentary representation. That wasn't the source of their conflict. Rather, it was the changing balance of power between the people and those institutions that caused problems. Parliament is good, but an omnipotent parliament is not.

[Zach-Fox]

So the reason B is incorrect is the use of the word "commitment." If it was worded more like "the growth of parliamentary power" that would make it more correct?

[James Finch]

Hi Zach,

What (B) is saying and what you're suggesting are two very different ideas. (B) is only saying that colonials would have objected to being represented in Parliament, which goes directly against what is stated in the passage. The problem the passage suggests the colonials had was with how powerful Parliament had become, to the point where it could effectively change the constitution on a whim; the colonials regarded a constitution (ie the colonial charters) as a more sacrosanct thing that could restrict even Parliament. So in theory your answer could be correct, but it still would be too vague to quite get to the implied dispute between parliamentary sovereignty and constitutional sovereignty that the passage suggests is the main driver of the political conflicts.

Hope this helps!

[jm.chan]

Hello!

I was wondering if someone could explain what makes E a better choice than A. The differences in political vocabulary are introduced in the opening paragraph and the final paragraph is devoted to explaining how they interpreted the meaning of the constitution differently.

Is it because E is a broader answer than A?

Thank you!!

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey Jm. Chan,

So my prephrase for this answer choice was, that the colonials source of the debates were the interpretation of what a constitution should be, and that the colonials did not like the parliament nor the tyrannical governors.

Answer choice A's stating that "their changed use of the English political vocabulary" is very specific as you said. I don't know if the colonials changed the use of the English political vocabulary. They disagreed about what a constitution should do, but I don't know if anyone "changed a political vocabulary" and that specific concept is not present in the passage anywhere, including paragraph 1. The word "change" is what is not present to be specific.

With Answer choice E, paragraph 1 states that phrase exactly with no change in meaning. "they were more loyal to the English political tradition than were the English in England." Then maybe we can assume these debates about the constitution would fall under this umbrella, but you don't necessarily have to assume that to pick this answer choice over answer choice A, because of the problems with answer choice A I mentioned above.

I hope this all helps and I wish you all the luck.

Best,
Ryan

[dshen123]

Why is A wrong? TY

[Luke Haqq]

Hi dshen123!

Material in the first paragraph, starting around lines 6 to 7, provides reasons for eliminating answer choice (A). The question stem asks about what the colonials would have viewed as a source of their debates with England. Answer choice (A) states that it was "their changed use of the English political vocabulary."

The passage, however, seems to suggest that they were not aware of their changed use of the English political vocabulary. The first paragraph states, "Steeped as they were in the English political language, these colonials failed to observe that their experience in America had given the words a significance quite different from that accepted by the English with whom they debated" (lines 5-9). They wouldn't have considered their changed use of vocabulary to be the source of debates because the passage indicates that they weren't aware of the changed use of vocabulary in the first place.