At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer

Anyone help me why the answer to the main idea question Q. 5 is C - critique a methodology. I mean here ethnologist want to study the native americans because of two reasons stated and they discussed how the study would help them.

Please explain why C is the best answer

First, what is the meaning of main idea question? it is summary of all paragraphs. What you are concluding is just first para, in rest two para author is criticizing this approach, mentioned in first para. even the third para look like the author's opinion.

Hope My answer is helpful for you.
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Hi DmitryFarber

Please help in answering question 7?

In passage it is mentioned that ethnologists do not spend more time with the Tribe but option C mentions length of time in relation with culture under study.
How Tribe is equivalent to culture under study?

Can you please help in understanding this? What am I missing here?

Thanks!

This question is covered in detail in this post. If you still have doubts after reading it, let us know?
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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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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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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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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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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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TBT

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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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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Hi,

Can anyone throw some more light on Q7?

I believe the answer given is C and I understand where is it coming from but what is the basis to eliminate B? The passage clearly states that reasearches only included things which they deemed important.

QUESTION 38, PAG 35, VERBAL REVIEW OFFICIAL GUIDE 2ND ED

38 It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

I chose A, i do no see why it can be wrong, and I do not finish to understand why B is the answer. I am confused since the passage mentions that during the 19th century there was an interested in linguistics, so I think researches could be interested in the different languages in different cultures, so I do not understand that "A language other than the informant's for recording life stories" is the correct answer.

The official explanation to the 2nd question is weird. The passage state clearly that "editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe", that is the interviewers were omit some information intentionally. The official guide even state in his explanation to the the 6nd that "the editors introduced bias with their choices about what was important...it is reasonable to infer that, to eliminate bias, those choices must be eliminated". Nevertheless the official explanation to the 2nd question states the opposite: "the ethnologists did not purposely exclude an item from their studies". This is not a contradiction in the reasoning? I understand why option C can be a valid answer but i found no reason to eliminate option D.

GMATNinja - I'll be glad to your insights

arvind910619

In fact the passage state that researchers may exclude some events from life stories of Native American which native american people consider important: "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"

Can someone explain why B is preferred over C for Q6 -

6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant???s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist???s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants??? descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

Hi all,

Could anyone can help me and other user answer this question? I don't understand the question and why B is the correct answer?

Hello GMATNinja,
Could you please elaborate on the question and answer of question number 6 of the above passage

"38. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data"

Thank you.

Merged duplicate topics. Please, search question before creating discussion.


ronak25, refer to this post for an explanation of question #6 (38).


siddharthfrancis, see if these two posts help with Question 34:

1) https://gmatclub.com/forum/at-the-end-o ... l#p1533938
2) https://gmatclub.com/forum/at-the-end-o ... l#p1904151

If not, feel free to use the request verbal experts' reply button to post additional, specific questions!
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