PrepTest 158, Section 1, Question 14
Passage A is adapted from an essay by(467 more words not shown)
Passage A(235 more words not shown)
Passage B(240 more words not shown)
Both passages are concerned with(7 more words not shown)
- AHow did the(9 more words not shown)
- BDuring what historical(7 more words not shown)
- CHow has the(9 more words not shown)
- DWhat are the(7 more words not shown)
- EHow is the(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Recall the central concern we identified: how should historical analysis treat the moral significance of plagiarism? A warns against reducing honesty and dishonesty to power. B agrees with that warning but argues that studying different past attitudes need not excuse wrongdoing.
What we’re looking for
We need a question that brings those concerns together, rather than a request for a timeline or a definition neither historian supplies.
Working the answers
- A
Neither account traces the development of the modern idea of an author. Writers appear because the discussion concerns plagiarism, not because authorship itself is the historical subject being explained.
- B
We aren't told when moral objections to plagiarism began. Discussing how to study those objections is different from identifying their date of origin.
- C
Moral standards and power are part of the dispute, but neither writer traces how their relationship changed over time. The question is whether a power-based interpretation adequately explains the moral issue.
- D
A insists that the distinction matters, but doesn't lay out a detailed comparison defining plagiarism and imitation. B focuses on the legitimacy of historical interpretation. Our attribution example helps clarify the issue; it doesn't turn the texts into definitions of these categories.
- ECorrect
This combines the historical and moral dimensions. Ricks insists that historical analysis must not erase the dishonesty of plagiarism, while Kewes explains how studying past perspectives can coexist with moral judgment.
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