Two recent publications offer different assessments of the career of t

This question asks you to identify the author's primary concern in the last paragraph of the passage.

The best answer is D. In the last paragraph, the author cites examples of Nightingale's achievements to support the author's conclusion that Nightingale's achievements to support the author's conclusion that Nightingale is worthy of respect and has earned "an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers".
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Hey thanks a lot I was really doubtful regarding this anwer

In the final paragraph, the author says that Nightingale's letters support respect for her brilliance and creativity. The author then cites the following example: "When counseling a village schoolmaster to encourage children to use their faculties of observation she sounds like a modern educator."

The inference is that Nightingale was promoting an educational philosophy (encouraging children to use their faculties of observation) that was ahead of her time (i.e. a philosophy that would later be adopted by modern educators). If Nightingale came up with this approach on her own, then that would certainly support the idea that she was creative.

However, if educational philosophy in Nightingale's time normally emphasized children's ability to observe, then Nightingale would NOT have been coming up with a creative educational philosophy. Instead, she would have simply been promoting something that had already been created.

Without (A), the evidence does NOT support that Nightingale was creative, so (A) is the best answer.
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Could some1 plz explain the answer to Q5? Why is D the correct answer choice?

Are you sure you're clicking into the right OA? The correct answer choice to Q5 is (C).


In order to answer this question, we need a clear understanding of the different interpretations AND where the author stands.

• P1 gives us one interpretation by Summers: Nightingale's importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated, and the contribution of nurses to relieving the wounded in this conflict was marginal at best.
• P2 gives us a contrasting interpretation drawn from Nightingale's letters: Nightingale had a huge influence on contemporary and future generations, with regards to administration and training.
• P3 very clearly gives us the author's take: The author accepts P1 and P2, but believes that Nightingale deserves continued respect when the sum of her life's work is considered. The author believes that Nightingale's positive contributions to education and social work far outweigh her lack of accomplishment during the Crimean War.

Now let's take a look at our choices:

This is very tempting, but does the author ever claim that Summers misunderstood these things? No. The author doesn't reject what is presented in P1 and doesn't question Summers' understanding of what Nightingale achieved or didn't achieve during the Crimean War. The author even admits that "Nightingale may not have achieved all other goals during the Crimean War" in P3. Choice (A) mischaracterizes the author's assessment of Summers' argument, so eliminate it.


Nope. The author definitely accepts "the evidence of her letters," as stated in the first sentence of P3. At no point does the author say that Nightingale's letters exaggerated her influence on subsequent generations. Eliminate (B).


This is much closer to what we've read. The author does admit that Summers' account may be accurate. But the author also agrees with the importance of Nightingale's subsequent achievement, and the author states that "her breadth of vision and ability to realize ambitious projects have earned her an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers." (C) is a spot-on match with the structure and language used by the author, so we'll keep it around.


The author never says that the editors of Nightingale's letters were mistaken, and spends all of P3 explaining why the letters contribute to a more complete picture of Nightingale's accomplishments. Eliminate (D).


This couldn't be further from what the passage tells us. P2 definitely does not support P1. Eliminate (E).

I hope this helps!
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question no 6 .. between A and C.. please dont provide ans with Negated technique...i want it in general way

Hi pragya007,

Please refer the requested answer here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/two-recent-p ... l#p2090322


Let me know if this helps.
Thanks.

Overall difficulty level of this RC passage is 650

Thanks

Dear moderators,

GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo bm2201 CharuKapoor


My understand in passage structure is:
psg1: (-)tone of the writing of historical FN's biography
psg2: (+)tone of the writing of historical FN's biography
psg3: (+)tone of the author, supporting psg2

Why C is over B?

1. I'm not sure whether this can be biography, or
2. The whole passage, itself, focuses more on significance of FN than writing of historical FN's biography

Hey TorGmatGod, I'm not a moderator but see if this helps.
Your 2nd point answers your question. The passage revolves around the significance of FN rather than her biography. Also, the 2nd and 3rd paragraph do not talk about any biography. They support her historical significant using difference accounts such as letters.

Hope this helps!

Hi VeritasKarishma GMATNinja, can you please help with Q7



Last paragraph



Isn't option D too specific? I mean yes the author did cite the evidence as we can see from the first line of the paragraph, but towards the end of the paragraph author also states that In sum, although Nightingale may not have achieved..... which to me implies that author is providing his/her reasoning on why Summers take on Nightingale is not correct, hence isn't the author summarizing the two points of view presented in the first two paragraphs?

Or am I way off the target here?

Hi TorGmatGod

Although I am not moderators, please let me try to evaluate my understanding



This option is focusing on ''approaches to the writing'' but the first sentence clearly states that "offer different assessments". Moreover, if the passage is talking about historical thing, it will be more focusing on the timeline of event or the story of FN's life.

Hope this helps!

7. In the last paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with

(A) summarizing the arguments about Nightingale presented in the first two paragraphs

When the author says "although Nightingale may not have achieved all other goals during the Crimean War," he is conceding a point to the opposition but in the entire paragraph he presents data to support that she deserves her reputation.
Paragraph 1 says that her reputation is exaggerated and no nurse could have made much difference. Paragraph 2 says that she influenced her own age and later generations. Paragraph 3 says that Nightingale deserves her reputation by giving more evidence. He does concede a point to the opposition but goes to establish his own position. So last paragraph is not just a summary of what he discussed in the two paragraphs above.

(B) refuting the view of Nightingale's career presented in the preceding paragraph

He supports the view discussed in the preceding paragraph.

(C) analyzing the weaknesses of the evidence presented elsewhere in the passage

He doesn't analyse weakness of any previous evidence.

(D) citing evidence to support a view of Nightingale's career

He supports the view that Nightingale was a social pioneer and he uses paragraph 3 to cite evidence supporting his view. Correct.

(E) correcting a factual error occurring in one of the works under review

Not correct.

Answer (D)

[quote="talismaaniac"]
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7. In the last paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with

(A) summarizing the arguments about Nightingale presented in the first two paragraphs
(B) refuting the view of Nightingale's career presented in the preceding paragraph
(C) analyzing the weaknesses of the evidence presented elsewhere in the passage
(D) citing evidence to support a view of Nightingale's career
(E) correcting a factual error occurring in one of the works under review

IMO, These points are the reason why I selected D over A:-
1. The author provides new information with relevant examples and not just summarises the old point of view.
2. Author only considers Summers point of view (MAY NOT HAVE ACHIEVED ALL THE WAR GOALS), but the Author only accepts the editor's point of view.

GMATNinja,

Thank you for answering this question! I feel a bit confused about the option (A). Even though the author does not explicitly say that Summers "misunderstood" the importance of Nightingale nor does he reject Summers' accounts of Nightingale, the author does kind of imply that Summers does not get the importance either in the last paragraph.

I have two specific questions:

1. If the option (A) were revised into "Summers misunderstood Nightingale's subsequent influence on British policy," would it be a correct answer? In the original option (A), the first part (the importance of Nightingale's achievements in the war) is not okay but the second part seems acceptable.

2. Does "do not understand" share the same meaning of "misunderstand"? This may be a basic question, but I hope to confirm. "Misunderstand" means "think you have understand something when you have not," according to the dictionaries. I think the use of the word "misunderstand" is too strong to be correct here, but if it were replaced with "do not understand" or "is not clear," would the option (A) deserve more consideration?

Finally, I have one question about the correct answer (C).



I also chose (C) but feel very doubtful about the use of the word "ignore." How can we be sure that Summers ignored Nightingale's subsequent achievement? It is possible that Summers is aware of these "accomplishments" but she think that they are not worth mentioning or they are just not great enough to offset Nightingale's insufficient contribution during the war.

I know that GMAT RC questions test stated ideas and inferred ideas, but I am not sure which type this question is. If it were a "according to the passage" type question, (C) should be out as the author never explicitly says that Summmers "ignored" the evidence. If it is an inference question, I could accept (C) as the correct answer. But the question stem does not have such hints as "suggest" or "could be inferred that."
Could you provide some suggestions? Many thanks!

Question 5

Great questions! I'll run through them one-by-one:

1. On the proposed rewrite of option (A): you're correct that the main issue with (A) is the bit about the Crimean War -- the author never really disagrees with Summers on that point, and even implies that Summers is right. So, the author likely wouldn't think that Summers "misunderstood" that issue.

If you remove that piece of the answer choice, then yes, you could argue that (A) would be correct. However, it's not the best practice to experiment with alternate answer choices -- instead, just evaluate the ones that are given to you, and eliminate based on their exact wording.

2. That's an interesting point about "misunderstand" vs. "not understand," -- there is a subtle difference in meaning, as you've suggested. To "misunderstand" something means that you think you understand that thing, but you're mistaken. To "not understand" something could potentially mean the same thing, but could also mean that you ARE fully aware that you don't "get it".

This distinction really doesn't have an impact on (A) -- either way, the author doesn't think that Summers is necessarily wrong about Nightingale's role in the Crimean War. So, (A) would still be off even if "misunderstand" was softened to "did not understand."

3. Regarding (C): you're barking up the right tree by looking at the exact language of the question. Question 5 asks us to find the answer choice with which the author "would[...] most likely agree." In other words, we're not looking for something that is explicitly stated in the passage, but something that is likely given what we know about the author's argument.

In the first paragraph, the author introduces Summers' view: she thinks that Nightingale's "place in the national pantheon... is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters." To support this view, Summers discusses Nightingale's role in the Crimean War.

Then, the author discusses another view on Nightingale, which investigates the nurse's role after the Crimean War. The author agrees with this view, saying that Nightingale's post-war efforts "have earned her an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers."

So, even though the author never directly states that Summers ignored Nightingale's post-war contributions, the author would likely agree that Summers only considered part of the picture.

(C) is the correct answer to question 5.

I hope that helps!
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Could someone explain Q2 options (A) and (E)? The improvement of survival rate (A) isn't mentioned in the passage BUT neither has it explicitly stated that the organization was "monitoring" the living conditions. Would like to know how could we infer (E)

Can an expert please help understand Q6?
TIA!

This is the author's assessment:

I believe that the evidence of her letters supports continued respect for Nightingale's brilliance and creativity. When counseling a village schoolmaster to encourage children to use their faculties of observation she sounds like a modern educator. Her insistence on classifying the problems of the needy in order to devise appropriate treatments is similar to the approach of modern social workers. In sum, although Nightingale may not have achieved all other goals during the Crimean War, her breadth of vision and ability to realize ambitious projects have earned her an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers.

6. Which of the following is an assumption underlying the author's assessment of Nightingale's creativity?

(A) Educational philosophy in Nightingale's day did not normally emphasize developing children's ability to observe.

Correct. The author says that N was brilliant and creative. She illustrates that with some examples. The first one - she encourages kids to use observation (so N sounds like a modern educator). The author's assumption is that observation was not normally used by kids in N's time. Educators these days encourage kids to do that. So N was ahead of her times in her thinking.


(B) Nightingale was the first to notice the poor living conditions in British military barracks in peacetime.

Not correct. She may not have been the "first to notice". She may not even have been the first to do something about it. This is not the author's assumption.

(C) No educator before Nightingale had thought to enlist the help of village schoolmasters in introducing new teaching techniques.

Again, the moment we read "had thought", we should ignore the option and move on. Do we know the thoughts of all educators before N? Even if the passage said that she was the first to enlist the help, we still cannot say that no one had thought of it before. They may not have been able to do it but may have thought of it.

(D) Until Nightingale began her work, there was no concept of organized help for the needy in nineteenth-century Britain.

The passage doesn't say that this concept did not exist before her. May they organised help in other way. We just know that she insisted on "classifying the problems of the needy in order to devise appropriate treatments"

(E) The British army's medical services had no cost-accounting system until Nightingale devised one in the 1860's.

Not correct. All we know is that she came up with an accounting system in 1860s which continued for decades later. There could have been another accounting system before her.

Answer (A)

summerbummer