#21- Global Reference, Must Be True, Main Point

[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!

[Khodi7531]

So I first chose A on 21 and was stuck between A and E.


My gut works decently well on these MP questions on RC but I decided to slow down. So I liked A but looked at E and eliminated it because I thought the Tocqueville person brought up didn't have much to do with the overall main idea. So I comfortably eliminated that.


But then I took another look at A and for some reason wasn't 100%. A is correct, and supported on line 35...but I thought for a main idea this was skeptical. The answer as well as the support says "can help explain the different kinds of resistance". But I didn't think by paraphrasing that one line, although it's true, captured the full idea of the MP - which I was thinking of as "historians have failed until recently to correctly identify the differences in slavery that took place in Russia and US". Something like that...but because it pointed to only one thing, I got rid of it.

If it was timed I would have probably circled it but couldn't here. I circled D instead - although I didn't like "questioned the value of" in the answer, I didn't look at with a negative connotation this time around. I read it as "the new studies have basically questioned the value of what it was previously thought to be (which was nothing) to what it is now (something to dig deep on). I was probably overthinking and when I look back at "questioned the value of comparing" I feel like I approached it with too much optimism. But still led me to chose that.


What do you guys think? Sorry for the long rant...wanted you to see my mindset.

[Shannon Parker]

This one is tricky. But you were correct in your initial assertion that for a MP question, you should not rely on support from a single, or even several specific sentences. In a MP question you are being asked what is the overarching point of the entire passage. This one is tricky because it appears to be almost evenly split between A and B, in that the first portion of the passage concerns the fact that historians have not undertaken an adequate comparison of the two countries, and the second portion focuses on the differences.

However, the second portion is considerably larger, and gives far greater factual detail. Moreover, for the portion, the author lays out a conclusion, "these differences in demographics partly explain differences in the kinds of resistance that slaves and serfs practiced in their respective countries," and then lays out support for that conclusion. This is the key factor in identifying it as the main point of the passage, thus making answer choice A the correct answer.

Hope this helps clear it up.
Shannon