#13 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[chian9010]

I understand why B is the correct answer. However, I don't understand why E is not the one.

from paragraph 1 line 5 "argued pioneeringly" Payne is indeed the first scientist to speculate isn't she?

[Adam Tyson]

Answer E is a classic "True but Wrong" answer choice that is so common on Main Point questions. You're right that there is support in the passage for that statement, and you've identified that support in the first paragraph. But does that answer the question that was asked? Is that the main point of the passage, or only a part of it? As you've said, B is the correct answer, and that's because it is more complete, covering all the essential elements of the passage - she was a pioneer, not widely accepted in her time due largely to a lack of certain knowledge, whose theory is now considered correct because we know more now than we did then.

Main point answers (and your prephrase of the main point) need to be comprehensive, essentially summarizing all the crucial points raised in the passage. Many wrong answers will be true statements about a part of the passage - the main point of the second paragraph, for instance - that, while accurate and supported by the text, are simply not the main point of the whole shebang.

Don't be distracted by an answer just because it's true! Be sure to go into these questions with a strong prephrase, and accept nothing less than a good match for that prephrase. Good luck!

[annie63]

Can you explain why D is wrong? Thank you!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi annie63!

Happy to address answer choice (D). First, note the three elements covered in the correct answer (B):

Cecilia Payne [1] proposed an innovative alternative to the view of the sun's composition that prevailed in her time, but, although [2] her view was ultimately vindicated, [3] other scientists were slow to accept her claim.

In other words, this answer choice covers her innovativeness, the slowness of the scientific community to accept her view, and her ultimate vindication.

By contrast, answer choice (D) states:

Cecilia Payne was the first scientist to demonstrate that the sun contains both hydrogen and helium, but her claim initially encountered widespread resistance in the scientific community.

At first blush, this looks very similar to answer choice (B), as they both cover Payne's innovativeness and the resistance of the scientific community to her view. However, this answer choice fails to cover the entire passage by failing to mention Payne's ultimate vindication as well. In this way, it covers the information from the first two paragraphs, but it fails to account for the final paragraph.

Lastly, in general, this is a very common thing to see on main point questions! It's likely that several or even all of the incorrect answer choices will correctly summarize one or another portion of the passage, but will ultimately be incorrect because the answer choice fails to account for all of the passage. Such answer choices might have been correct if the question was solely a must be true question, but when one is asked for the main point, it's essential to confirm that the answer choice indeed covers all of the paragraphs and not only some of them.

[gmsanch3]

Hello,

I was between B and D and chose D because of the word “prevail” in ac B. I think of prevail as overcoming or succeeding.... didn’t it NOT prevail since astronomers didn’t accept it at first? The last sentence in the first paragraph says “encountered strong resistance among professional astronomers”...

This kind of thing happens to me all the time where one small word throws it all off for me and i end up choosing the wrong answer.

Thanks for your help!
-Gina

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Gina,

I can tell that you're reading "prevail" in answer choice B to refer to Payne's ideas. But be careful. The word "that" in the answer is referring back to the view that was just previously stated in the answer choice, "the view of the sun's composition" that Payne proposed an alternative to. In other words, the answer is saying that the orthodox view (not Payne's view) is the one that "prevailed in her time" (the one that was prevalently accepted during her time).

So your understanding of the passage was sound, you just got tripped up by the wording of the answer choice. The fix for that in this case is to make sure you read the word "that" as referring back to the thing that was just (immediately) previously stated in the sentence.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy