#10 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

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

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[bghose]

Would appreciate if someone can weigh in on how they arrived at the right answer, by also providing the reference to the lines in the passage providing the necessary support.

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

Thanks for your question. It would be helpful to begin with how you addressed the question. What was your take on the third paragraph of the passage? For this question, did you not like the right answer, or did you find other choices appealing?

Thanks!

~Steve

[bghose]

The 3rd paragraph is relatively short.

Eliminated A) since there does not appear to be a conflict.
Eliminated D) since there is no theoretical question being answered.
Eliminated E) since there is no attack on a set of beliefs.

So down to B) or C).

I found B) to be attractive since there is mention about what the new historians ought to show us (which I assumed implies that they could engage in future research). So this is what I chose, which is Incorrect.

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. That is certainly a challenging passage. To respond to question ten, which asks about the author's main purpose in the third paragraph, it is helpful to understand the overall organization of the passage:

Paragraph One: Some historians and philosophers have suggested that scientific "knowledge" is all just conjecture, and any scientific fact has the potential to eventually be falsified.

Paragraph Two: But, it can't all be subjective--science can provide basic facts that we can all agree are factual.

Paragraph Three: On the other hand, science doesn't necessarily have all of the answers. Some answers can't simply be stumbled upon, and new scientific ideas sometimes disprove old ones.

So, what was the role of paragraph three? To qualify, or limit, the previously expressed point of view (that science can provide answers). Science can provide answers, the author concedes in the second paragraph, but don't go overboard, the author qualifies in the third paragraph--science doesn't have all of the answers.

I hope that's helpful--let me know--thanks!

~Steve

[bghose]

Yes, that helps. [I got confused about the intent of the 3rd paragraph, but your explanation is very clear].

Thanks!

[t.j.dub]

Hello,

What evidence in the Passage is associated with the correct answer for this question? I do not think i understood the main point of this paragraph well at all, and I am wondering how I can better find the main point going forwardd

[Jeff Wren]

Hi t.j.,

This passage can be a rather hard to follow, and this question is a tricky one.

To answer this question about the purpose of the third paragraph, we really need to start by looking at the second paragraph. If you're wondering why we need to understand paragraph two in order to understand paragraph three, it is because paragraph three modifies or "qualifies" the central idea of paragraph two.

In the first sentence of the second paragraph (lines 22-24), the author finds the rejection of the traditional belief that scientific views are objective reflections of the world to be implausible. This can be a bit tricky to follow as it basically contains a double negative. To simplify, the author supports the traditional belief that the scientific views are objective reflections of the world. The second paragraph continues with two examples of these object scientific facts (the molecular composition of water and the gene distribution of parents).

The first sentence of paragraph three starts with the word "However" (line 32). What this word indicates is that the author is going to provide some limitation/concession/exception/restriction/qualification to what was just stated. In paragraph three, the author concedes that even though the scientific views are objective reflections of the world, there are "interesting questions to be answered about the social processes in which scientific activity is embedded" (lines 44-47). In other words, it is worth studying the interaction of social forces with the how the science developed.

Answer C best captures the purpose of paragraph three as "qualifying" (meaning limiting or adding reservations to) a previously expressed point of view found in paragraph two.