PrepTest 133, Section 4, Question 27

Working the answers

• A

  Neither cites a particular piece of historical scholarship as an example of failed objectivity. They discuss the standards and problems generally.

• B

  Neither builds a case that recent developments have damaged the profession's credibility. A's reference to changing interpretations doesn't establish that kind of decline.

• C

  A briefly identifies a relativist claim without summarizing the reasoning behind it. B explains how historians should engage rival arguments, but doesn't lay out one of those arguments and then expose its flaws. Recommending that practice isn't the same as supplying the summary described here.

• D

  A does compare historians with judges and invokes judicial standards. B doesn't similarly recommend adopting another profession's standards. Its newscaster example criticizes mechanical neutrality rather than presenting that practice as a model to copy. So the proposed method isn't common to both.

• E
  Correct

  This sharpens our rough prediction about requirements by naming what gets in the way. A identifies external loyalties, partisanship, and bias. B identifies wishful thinking, attachment to pleasing interpretations, and inability to understand rival views. Both advance their accounts by explaining obstacles to objectivity.