#27 - Specific Reference, Parallel

[mkarimi73]

Ok, I've been ruminating over this, and I understand how I could have arrived at answer choice (E) with a better, stronger pre-phrase. I ultimately chose D because I was thrown off by "other texts" in answer choice (E). Given the pre-phrase that Ms. Kelsey Woods provided, (E) should have been written by the test-makers as follows: "vocabulary in the surviving text that is typical of the later era and not found in the original text dating from the classical period." Wouldn't you agree? This would still be considered circumstantial evidence, correct? I understand that the question stem says, "which one of the following...is most analogous...?", but this is not a well-written answer choice. Am I over-thinking this? In the grand scheme of things, getting question #27 wrong won't really matter, since this is a tough one, but how can I avoid being so detail-oriented? Thanks in advance!

[Adam Tyson]

I think it's a very well written answer choice, mkarimi73, IF you look at it from LSAC's perspective. Their job isn't to create answers that are obvious and clear, after all, but to create ones that are good enough to be fair to test takers and yet still confusing enough that some (many, even) will get it wrong. They do that by making right answers less attractive and wrong answers that are very alluring. In that sense, they did a great job here!

And it's important that the answer references more than just the original text of the play in question, since the original is not around for us to compare to. They have to reference the entire earlier period to show that these words and phrases were not in use at all during the time of the original, such that they could not have been copied directly from the original and must have been added later. That's why the evidence is circumstantial, rather than direct evidence. If we already knew those words were not in the original text, there would be no need to look at the surrounding circumstances!

[mkarimi73]

Ok that makes more sense. Circumstantial vs. direct evidence. I learned something new! Thank you Mr. Tyson.