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Sub 505 Level|   Humanities|   Long Passage|                  
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KarishmaB
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 21 Apr 2020, 01:20
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2. Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?

I am unable to understand how (C) is the correct answer choice.

The question talks about the "editing of the life stories" so shouldn't we look at the 3rd para "Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. "

Thus, we can infer that the editors decided what elements to use and what to discard

thus (D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.
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Note these sentences in the passage
"Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers."

Editors decided what was important and what wasn't even though they were not familiar with the Native American culture.
Also, what Native Americans considered important, interviewers often considered unimportant.

Basically, interviewers and editors are taking calls about something with which they are not familiar. Mind you, they are not purposely excluding important events. They are excluding them because they don't deem them to be important. This is a gap in knowledge, not a case of malicious intent.

(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.

Correct. The announcer is not familiar with the sport but takes calls on what to say about the action.

(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.

Here, the chef purposely excludes a special ingredient so that others may not get the exact recipe.

Answer (C)
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2021, 01:55
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Quote:
5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity
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Hi GMATNinja VeritasKarishma IanStewart GMATRockstar

p1: The method of Ethonoligists wants to study
P2: some issues in this method
P3: change of method and issues
P4: Some values/Usefulness


It seems primary purpose is : to correct the impression / to look for +ve instead of --ve/ better than nothing

So with this understanding, I choose B ( after shortlisting B, D and E). I rejected C because C didn't cover the last paragraph.

How can I avoid such problem? How can I understand the last para is not part of main purpose as in this example? But , I have seen some questions in which even the change in tone with last line becomes primary purpose. Example : Here theprimary purpose

Please share your opinion
Thanks!
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2021, 02:10
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Quote:
5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

Hi GMATNinja VeritasKarishma IanStewart GMATRockstar

p1: The method of Ethonoligists wants to study
P2: some issues in this method
P3: change of method and issues
P4: Some values/Usefulness

It seems primary purpose is : to correct the impression / to look for +ve instead of --ve/ better than nothing

So with this understanding, I choose B ( after shortlisting B, D and E). I rejected C because C didn't cover the last paragraph.

How can I avoid such problem? How can I understand the last para is not part of main purpose as in this example? But , I have seen some questions in which even the change in tone with last line becomes primary purpose. Example : Here theprimary purpose

Please share your opinion
Thanks!
Show more

I applaud you for making notes on each paragraph, but my suggestion would be to NOT summarize the paragraph's content, but instead assign an active, infinitive verb to describe the FUNCTION of each paragraph, so you can track the tone of the passage as you read it the first time.

Therefore, I might change what you wrote into:

p1: to explain the method
P2: to describe issues this method had (this is important, because the author himself does not "weigh in" in this paragraph)
P3: to admit a drawback ("much was lost") ---> here is where the author begins to express his own POV
P4: to offer a correction

We can see the first two paragraphs are purely informational, and in the last two paragraphs the author expresses a lot of opinion. Therefore, this is what I would call an "I+" passage (all passages being either I, I+, or P ... you can see what I mean here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyepL_NmJp0

Therefore, I need an answer choice that has some opinion, but ideally isn't TOO strong. All the verbs in the answer choices fit quite well, with the exception of (D) which I find too unscholarly and too persuasive to consider for this passage:

(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

Therefore it comes down to TOPIC/SCOPE. What is being critiqued? As I describe in the video above, you need to track the Topic/Scope of each passage. The overall topic is a WAY of approaching scholarship, a methodology. Hence, (C) is the answer, and it certainly covers the last paragraph well.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2021, 02:18
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mSKR

Also, I find it interesting how the word "method" is used, and how the passage seems to focus on the PROCESS the ethnologists used:

At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native American customs and an increasing desire to understand Native American culture prompted ethnologists to begin recording the life stories of Native American. Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. In addition many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that Native American manners and customs were rapidly disappearing, and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.

There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,” while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.

Even more importantly, as these life stories moved from the traditional oral mode to recorded written form, much was inevitably lost. Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers. Indeed, the very act of telling their stories could force Native American narrators to distort their cultures, as taboos had to be broken to speak the names of dead relatives crucial to their family stories.

Despite all of this, autobiography remains a useful tool for ethnological research: such personal reminiscences and impressions, incomplete as they may be, are likely to throw more light on the working of the mind and emotions than any amount of speculation from an ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another culture.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2021, 03:45
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mSKR

I rejected C because C didn't cover the last paragraph.

How can I avoid such problem? How can I understand the last para is not part of main purpose as in this example?
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If you thought the last paragraph was not covered by answer C, I wonder if you might be using an incorrect definition of the word "critique". Many people think it is a synonym of "criticize", but it actually means "analyse and evaluate in detail". In this passage, the critical assessment in the middle paragraphs and the more positive appraisal in the final paragraph all can be part of a "critique", so answer C really does describe the entire passage.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 30 Mar 2021, 00:33
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Quote:
5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

Hi GMATNinja VeritasKarishma IanStewart GMATRockstar

p1: The method of Ethonoligists wants to study
P2: some issues in this method
P3: change of method and issues
P4: Some values/Usefulness


It seems primary purpose is : to correct the impression / to look for +ve instead of --ve/ better than nothing

So with this understanding, I choose B ( after shortlisting B, D and E). I rejected C because C didn't cover the last paragraph.

How can I avoid such problem? How can I understand the last para is not part of main purpose as in this example? But , I have seen some questions in which even the change in tone with last line becomes primary purpose. Example : Here theprimary purpose

Please share your opinion
Thanks!
Show more

Two things:
1. Other four options do not work. There is no misconception that is corrected in the passage. The passage says ethnologists began using method A to understand Native American culture. There are arguments against the use of method A -...(gives arguments). Still method A is useful because ...
So the main point is to "evaluate method A".
2. "Critique" means detailed evaluation. It needn't list out only the negatives though often we use it to mean "criticism"/"faultfinding".
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 24 Jun 2021, 07:57
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Can someone explain Q7? What's the problem with E? Thanks
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 25 Jun 2021, 06:11
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Can someone explain Q7? What's the problem with E? Thanks
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Hey sofronie,

This is a detail question - which of the following is something that the passage mentions as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?

So lets identify what are the aspects that are mentioned in the passage as factors that impact accuracy of ethnologist's transcriptions of life stories. The author discusses these aspects in the second and third paragraphs:

1. Autobiographies by default are not accurate, they are perversions of truth by memory: Franz Boas
2. Investigators i.e. ethnologists did not spend enough time with the tribes they were observing, so results derived too biased by investigator's emotional tone to be reliable/accurate: Paul Radin
3. Translation loss: when stories in oral mode get translated to written. One can argue that this may not impact accuracy, only amount of information. Still mentioning it here :).
4. Editors cherry-picking what needs to be said, what need not be said, as per their inclinations: we can infer this from "Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers."
5. Distortion by the native american narrators themselves (not by the ethnologists): from the last line of the third paragraph.

These are the various aspects that are mentioned in the passage, which can impact accuracy.

Notice:
Option C: is mentioned as a factor in the passage (point 2 above)
Option E: is not mentioned as a factor in the passage.

This is what makes it incorrect. Verifiability of the information (i.e. checking if the information is factually correct or not) is not mentioned as a factor that impacts accuracy in the passage.


Hope this helps!

Regards,
Harsha
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Jun 2021, 01:20
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It's a question unrelated to this topic..
"and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. "
=> Why there is a "without" after "from" ,
I can understand "from" here means "observe the cultures",
but I can't figure out why there is a "without" here, what is the meaning with this
"without",
I feel the meaning of the sentence is sufficient without this "without"
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 29 Aug 2021, 22:03
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ChrissyChien

"From without" means "from the outside." So the passage is making a distinction between observing a culture that we are a part of and observing someone else's culture, i.e. observing from within vs. observing from without.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 22 Feb 2022, 10:16
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KarishmaB GMATNinja DmitryFarber

7. The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?

(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the researchers
(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants

I have doubts in Question 7 - Option E

Since it is mentioned in passage that - Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,”. Doesn't perversion of truth by memory mean that information provided by informants might not be correct and verifiable. This is what is mentioned in E. Can you please help in understanding why option E is incorrect.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 22 Feb 2022, 19:40
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KarishmaB GMATNinja DmitryFarber

7. The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?

(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the researchers
(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants

I have doubts in Question 7 - Option E

Since it is mentioned in passage that - Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,”. Doesn't perversion of truth by memory mean that information provided by informants might not be correct and verifiable. This is what is mentioned in E. Can you please help in understanding why option E is incorrect.
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There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,” while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.

Two issues discussed here:
1. People relating the story (the natives) may have a distorted memory of the truth.
2. Investigators did not spend enough time with the tribe so results were tinged by their own emotions.

So (C) is a factor that can affect the accuracy.
The other issue is that people's memory may not serve them right. We are not given whether their stories are verifiable or not. They may remember things incorrectly and that may lead to inaccuracies. But are their stories verifiable (but too costly, say) or not, is not discussed. Hence (E) is not correct.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2022, 15:49
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Dear Experts, could you kindly explain Question 7? I am unable to understand why it's C. I had originally picked E since the passage repeatedly talks about the lack of completeness in using life stories. Any help / guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 27 Mar 2022, 16:17
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Dear Experts, could you kindly explain Question 7? I am unable to understand why it's C. I had originally picked E since the passage repeatedly talks about the lack of completeness in using life stories. Any help / guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
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Here's choice (E).

(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants

The passage does mention that the stories may not be accurate or complete when it says that people claimed that the autobiographies are "useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory" and that "much was inevitably lost."

However, those ideas are both different from what (C) is about, which is "the verifiability of the information." After all, even if something may be inaccurate or is incomplete, it could still be verified, meaning that it could be possible to confirm whether the information is correct. Yes, the information may not be correct, and it may be the case that there is no way to verify the information, but the passage does not say that there is no way to do so.

So, (E) is not something the passage says or implies.

Now, let's consider (C).

(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study

(C) is supported by this statement in the second paragraph:

"Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing."

So, the correct answer to question 7 is (C).
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 05 Oct 2022, 02:56
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KarishmaB egmat

For the below question
34. Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?

(A) A witness in a jury trial invokes the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid relating personally incriminating evidence.

(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her information on the possible future increase in a stock’s value.

(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.

(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.

(E )A politician fails to mention in a campaign speech the similarities in the positions held by her opponent for political offi ce and by herself


I understand the reasoning for C being correct

I had marked D because of the below lines, can you please correct me as to why my logic is incorrect :

Para 1 : Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without.

Para 3 : Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers.

Basis this, since they were selective for their own research they did not consider everything and hence D.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 05 Oct 2022, 03:09
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KarishmaB egmat

For the below question
34. Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?

(A) A witness in a jury trial invokes the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid relating personally incriminating evidence.

(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her information on the possible future increase in a stock’s value.

(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.

(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.

(E )A politician fails to mention in a campaign speech the similarities in the positions held by her opponent for political offi ce and by herself


I understand the reasoning for C being correct

I had marked D because of the below lines, can you please correct me as to why my logic is incorrect :

Para 1 : Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without.

Para 3 : Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers.

Basis this, since they were selective for their own research they did not consider everything and hence D.
Show more


2. Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?

(A) A witness in a jury trial invokes the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid relating personally incriminating evidence.

(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her information on the possible future increase in a stock’s value.

(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.

(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.

(E )A politician fails to mention in a campaign speech the similarities in the positions held by her opponent for political offi ce and by herself


We need to find similarity between the action of editing done by interviewers and the action of someone else.

(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.
He doesn't want to share the complete recipe. He doesn't want to let people replicate his dish exactly so that he alone can make it the best. So he purposely excludes the special ingredient.

What do the interviewers do?
investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable...
Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers.

They edited and made decisions about something they did not understand well. Did they purposely exclude some details? No, they just did not understand the importance of these details since they had not spent enough time with the tribes.

Hence, their actions are similar to option (C).

Answer (C)
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 31 Oct 2022, 21:41
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Can someone explain options b,c,and e in Q5?
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 31 Oct 2022, 23:10
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5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

For starters, I'd predict an answer by putting together my own idea of the passage's purpose. The author seems to be describing the rise of a certain practice (collecting life stories from Native Americans), outlining the criticisms that were leveled at this practice, and then asserting that the practice is still useful. So in short, they are looking at why people collect life stories and getting into the pros and cons. In the end, their overall view is still positive. (Notice that most of the negative part is describing what other people think, not the author's own perspective.)

From that perspective, ABDE all fail for more or less the same reason: the author is not trying to clarify or explain something that has been misunderstood. The author isn't arguing with the critics or disputing their criticisms, nor is the author telling us that we cannot or should not collect autobiographies. They are just evaluating something that people to do meet a goal. In alternative wording, then, they are "critiquing a methodology."
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 31 Oct 2022, 23:14
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Can someone explain options b,c,and e in Q5?
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What is discussed in each paragraph of the passage?

Para 1 introduces the methodology of recording autobiographies of Native Americans.
Para 2 gives how experts criticise the methodology.
Para 3 gives the author's criticism of the methodology.
Para 4 explain why the methodology is still useful.

So what is the purpose of the passage? It evaluates/critiques the methodology.

5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

Hence (C) is correct.

There is no misconception or ambiguity discussed. So options (B) and (E) are incorrect.
Neither is any idea discredited. The author ends with how the methodology is actually useful despite the concerns. So option (D) makes no sense.
The author evaluates a method. He doesn't question any explanation. He himself explains the good and bad of the method. So option (A) is incorrect too.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer 18 Jul 2023, 21:27
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7. The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?

(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the researchers
(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants

can someone explain why it is c and why other options are wrong
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