- Mon Dec 02, 2024 7:01 pm
#110907
Hi alexis,
This question is asking how the words "mysteriously disappear" function in the sentence in Passage B. To answer these types of questions, it's critical to review the sentence itself as well as the overall tone and main point of Passage B for context. Passage B completely rejects the views of Freeman Dyson as expressed in Passage A. Not only is Passage B critical of Dyson's views in Passage A, the tone is rather contemptuous.
One tonal clue in Passage B is the description of Dyson' plea for openness to the paranormal as "ridiculous" in the first sentence. Later, the use of the word "sorry" is mocking rather than sincere, as if the author is saying to Dyson "Sorry, but you're wrong! or "I hate to break it to you, but that's not how it works!" or "Sorry, not sorry" as the more recent saying goes.
Understanding this mocking, critical tone of Passage B toward Dyson in Passage A helps to shed light on how the "mysteriously disappear" is being used. It is also being used to mock or ridicule Dyson's views on the paranormal. The author of Passage B does not believe in the paranormal and presumably believes that anyone claiming to have paranormal abilities is a fraud, so of course their powers would "mysteriously disappear" when they are actually tested in the lab, because they never actually existed at all as far as the author of Passage B is concerned.
Answer D perfectly captures how/why "mysteriously disappear" is used in Passage B, to mock/ridicule the view expressed in Passage A.
As for Answer C, the words "mysteriously disappear" do not state the main point of disagreement. While they do indicate that the author of Passage B finds the view of Passage A ridiculous, they do not actually lay out why Passage B disagrees with this view. That occurs later in Passage B.
