PrepTest 141, Section 3, Question 14
One of the more striking developments in modern(447 more words not shown)
The passage suggests that the(26 more words not shown)
- AThey were partly(21 more words not shown)
- BThey were partly(23 more words not shown)
- CThey were incorrect(20 more words not shown)
- DThey were incorrect(18 more words not shown)
- EThey were incorrect(20 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We need the author's view about the colleagues, not a statement the author agrees on with them. The key judgment is explicit: their belief that effective data gathering can and must occur from complete detachment is now recognized as unrealistic, and the author welcomes that recognition.
What we’re looking for
So predict that they were wrong about the possibility or necessity of total detachment. Keep that specific criticism separate from a general claim that personal involvement improves scientific rigor.
Working the answers
- A
The dances' physical demands explain part of the colleagues' caution, but the author doesn't endorse their recommendation as partly correct on an injury rationale. A possible concern is not automatically a judgment the author adopts.
- B
Dunham learned techniques through participation, but the author doesn't use improving skill to vindicate advice about initial caution. This supplies an assessment of the colleagues that the text doesn't make.
- C
The colleagues were wrong to insist on complete detachment. But that doesn't establish the much broader principle that extensive personal investment generally increases scientific rigor. Dunham benefited from participation; that general claim about scientific rigor doesn't follow.
- DCorrect
The author expressly rejects the idea that research can proceed from complete detachment. That supports rejecting the assumption that social scientists can gather data in an entirely objective manner. The key is entirely, matching the unrealistic ideal under criticism.
- E
This gets their supposed mistake backward. It faults them for treating dance as capable of rigorous study. The author instead presents valuable dance research and criticizes the demand for complete detachment, not dance's status as a research subject.
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