#12 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

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

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[lathlee]

hi. I strongly believe B) is the right answer and 27-34 (the back page, where the correct inferences are located) doesn't have the relevant info to pick other nations' widows' inheritance matter. Line 27-34 doesn't mention directly about other nations' custom or law about inheritance. But I am wrong, A) is.

[Adam Tyson]

The language doesn't have to directly reference other countries in order to suggest that other countries may have similar guidelines, lathlee. Take a look at this example:

"At my school, the uniform guidelines allow for either white or blue shirts."

This language only mentions my school, but it suggests that there may be other schools with different guidelines. Here's another:

"My personal belief system dictates that I not eat meat."

This language suggests that other people may have different beliefs, wouldn't you agree?

So, in the passage, where the author says "Called "dower" in England, this grant...", and taking into account the context of the preceding sentences, this suggests that this similar systems exist in other places under different names.

As to answer B, it overstates things to call "dower" a "code of law". Maybe it's just a term of art, a bit of jargon? The passage doesn't suggest that "dower" is a code. Also, read that line again, and you will see that it has to do with surviving wives, not daughters. Answer B is off point there, too.

[lanereuden]

So more directly, Adam, when you say “preceding sentences”, you are referring to the prior line, which reads as follows: a widow was entitled to use of 1/3 of her late husband’s lands.
That is, that piece of info (ie. 1/3) is what suggests that other nations have the same policy—it’s just that they may have 1/4, 1/5 etc?

[Erik Shum]

Hi Lane,

I believe Adam was not being quite that specific. I think the "preceding sentences" to mean much of the earlier part of the passage. For example, in the sentence continuing through line 10, the feudal system of thirteenth-century England is specifically referenced, suggesting that medieval women's control of land had a different impact in feudal systems in other centuries or other states. However, more specifically, in the sentence ending on line 30, the concept of a widow's entitlement to some of her late husband's lands is introduced generally, without indicating that it is limited to England. When you read the next sentence which does specifically limit the term, but not the concept, of "dower" to England, that suggests the concept exists elsewhere under a different name.

I personally believe the correct answer can be identified simply by reading the sentence that begins at line 30: as Adam described in detail, specifying "in England" suggests that the concept of dower falls under a different term elsewhere. Otherwise, specifying "in England" would be extraneous.