jawele wrote:
Hello
Can somebody please comment in more detail as to why D in Q5 is incorrect? I suppose that many folks can agree that A, B, and C are easy to eliminate. Yet, answer D, at least to me, was not.
(D) the
use of introductory texts about Asian American history and culture in courses
outside the field of Asian American studies
(E) the inclusion of a
wider range of Asian American material in introductory reading lists in Asian American studies
The problem with D is that it mentions "outside" and "use". But in the first paragraph we learn that "non-experts who teach in related areas and are looking for writings for and by Asian American to include in survey courses are in an even worse position". This only
suggest that they may not be using such text although it's just a possibility, not an explicit idea. Well if that's reasonable to assume, then I guess this answer would be true.
As for E, "wider range" doesn't look well for me. To an American or British reader this may be perfectly fine. Yet, the reason why this answer choice doesn't look good to me is that "wider range" is too broad. Thus is doesn't help to decide with certainty. We learn in the second paragraph that professors' are discouraged to give more
challenging reading, but "wider range" could mean a greater number of texts, wider range of topics, and perhaps range of difficulty.
Please share your thoughts on this. Thanks
GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo
Skywalker18Question #5 asks what could result from "the existence of good one-volume reference works about Asian Americans." Let's first look at how the evidence in the passage stacks up against (D):
Quote:
(D) the use of introductory texts about Asian American history and culture in courses outside the field of Asian American studies
In the first paragraph, we learn that "excellent anthologies and other introductory texts exist." However, professors of Asian American studies " find it difficult to decide which of these to assign to students," and nonexperts in related fields are "in an even worse position." So, the problem is not that professors
cannot assign introductory materials -- the problem is that there are so many choices of material that the professors can't decide
which ones to assign.
Going back to answer choice (D): we know that professors in fields outside of Asian American studies can assign introductory texts even without good one-volume reference works. So, it is not logical that the creation of such a reference work would
result in the use of introductory texts in these outside fields, because such texts are already being used. For this reason, (D) is out.
(Note: the word "outside" in this answer choice is not hugely important. "Outside" either refers to "related fields," in which case the reasoning above stands, or it refers to completely unrelated fields, in which case the passage provides no information or support for (D). In both cases, (D) can be eliminated).
Now look at (E):
Quote:
(E) the inclusion of a wider range of Asian American material in introductory reading lists in Asian American studies
The support for this answer choice is clear: "given such [reference] works, Asian American studies professors might feel more free to include more challenging Asian American material in their introductory reading lists."
We don't need to know
exactly what "wider" means in this context -- we just need to know that, in some way, professors could assign a broader range of materials if they had good reference works than they can assign without such reference works. Because the passage tells us that professors could assign "more challenging" material if they had good reference works, we can infer that the overall range of possible material to assign would be wider. (E) is the correct answer.
I hope that helps!