In colonial Connecticut between 1670 and 1719, women participated in

GMATNinja, I selected A for Q3 based on the following lines:
in fact, both the absolute numbers and the percentage of adult women participating in civil cases grew steadily throughout the eighteenth century, but the legal activity of men also increased dramatically, and at a much faster rate.

Could you please advice why my line of reasoning is not correct?

For question 3 - Options A and B are distortions, while option C is perfect.

(A) Both men (yes) and women (no) had more economic responsibilities at the end of the century than they had had at the beginning of the century. - Their number and %age amongst women increased, but "Single, married, and widowed women continued to pursue their own and their husbands’ debtors through legal action much as they had done in the previous century," so economic responsibilities remained the same.
(B) Women’s economic activities had become less varied by the end of the century (No); men’s economic activities had become more varied. (yes)- Again, they stayed the same.
(C) Women’s economic activities at the end of the century were similar to their activities at the beginning (ok); men’s economic activities changed considerably.(ok) -Men’s commercial interests and credit networks became increasingly far-flung, owing in part to the ability of creditors to buy and sell promissory notes (legal promises to pay debts).

GMATNinja KarishmaB MartyMurray Thank you in advance for your response.
Question 1 in the passage.

Okay, now is A correct because it says "an" author's (Dayton) instead of "the" author's (author of the passage) ? Is this a trap to be aware of? If so, I completely missed this while I was reading through the answer choices.
The author of the passage presents a fact / evidence that the women's participation gradually dropped after 1719 (1/10. 1/20 etc.). However, the author then mentions about Dayton who refutes this data and provides counter premise (different factor) why the percentage and number are deceptive. "...in fact, both the absolute numbers and the percentage of adult women participating in civil cases grew steadily throughout the eighteenth century, but the legal activity of men also increased dramatically, and at a much faster rate..."

At first glance, I was stuck between A and C and unfortunately chose C. Is C incorrect because the author of the passage never reached a conclusion, but provided evidence? And also, if "an" author is Dayton, definitely Dayton's conclusion were not evaluated, but Dayton evaluated the data presented in the beginning of the passage. So, incorrect.

C. evaluating the conclusions reached by an author

Request you to specify the question number.

In question 1, we could consider the fact that choice (A) is about an author other than the author of the passage a type of trap. It's at least a fact that we need to pick up on.


(C) is incorrect because the author of the passage does not "evaluate" the conclusions reached by Dayton or any other author.


Yes, "an author" in question 1 choice (C) is "Dayton."

At the same time, it's not correct to say that Dayton evaluated the data. Dayton offered insights related to the data but did not somehow evaluate the data.

In any case, the passage does not evaluate Dayton's conclusions. It merely presents them, as choice (A) basically says.

Edited my post, question number 1.

MartyMurray answered as well. I am good for now. Thank you both.

Can some one kindly explain it to me why Option A for Question no 2 is incorrect. I am not able to eliminate it.

anandchatterjee11@gmail.com
It looks like GMATNinja has covered this one. Let us know if you have a follow-up question.

Hi DmitryFarber KarishmaB MartyMurray



Initially when I read this line, I thought that 'along with CHD, Author of the passage also thinks that stats are deceptive' and explains how stats are deceptive. But, when I did the question#1, I struggled, didnt find the answer, went through the passage again and googled 'as X notes..sentences', and I realized my mistake.

My concern is when another person (other than author of the passage) is mentioned, I really get confused and keep questioning myself that what line is mentioned/said by whom. is there any way to come out of this ?

Any help would be appreciated !

Thanks !

Hi DmitryFarber KarishmaB MartyMurray

 

Whenever you read an argument or a passage, visualise someone saying it to you. Say a friend is saying all that is written to you. Now if this friend says, "The researcher believes that X is a member of Y species," then your friend is giving you this information. He is telling you what the researcher thinks. What does your friend think in this case about X? You don't know until and unless he says something like "and I agree with him" or "but I don't agree". So whenever the author quotes someone, it is just that - a quote - till he uses it to support his own case or till he contradicts it.  
 


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