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Q2: A closer look at who's concerned with "human nature"


hassu13
GMATNinjaI understand that for Q#2 option E is a restatement and hence is correct. But How can B not be correct. The author has emphasised in second para that it is because of the human nature- ie on basis of giving credit or promises- that the business flourished. it becomes quite obvious that the economic historians didnt consider this aspect. Can you pl correct me.
In the second paragraph, the author never claims that credit, promisees, and trust are part of human nature.

Instead, the author focuses explicitly on the language that people in early modern England used when doing business. The author points to this use of language as something that the typical view (which does depend on a Smith-like view of human nature) fails to consider:

Quote:
However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations, language that stressed credit, trust, obligations, and contracts, rather than self-interest.
I hope this clarifies why we eliminate (B). Choice (E) is much better supported by the passage, and directly answers the question that we're being asked: What have these economic historians failed to examine?

Q3: Why did the author write this passage?


aviejay
Hi GMATNinja

I marked option Bas the correct answer for question3 and got it wrong

My reasoning was, in the the first paragraph, the author says "Today it is typically assumed, for instance, that the development of business relations weakened the spirit of cooperation that characterized village communities and encouraged a spirit of individualism and self-betterment that ran counter to community interest.". This is a modern assumption (can also be taken as a modern theory) and this comes after the author says "Smith’s view that self-interest dominated the business that emerged in early modern (sixteenth- and seventeenth century) England has had tremendous effects on how such relations have been perceived. " So, we can see that Smith definitely had an impact of modern theories.

From here, we move on to the secong paragraph in which the author starts with "However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England..." and goes on to explain "why does the view fail".
You've got a good grasp of the passage! When we want to state the primary concern of a passage, we're basically asking, "Why, overall, did the author write this thing?"

Breaking it down once more:

  • The author wrote paragraph 1 to present today's typical view of what the development of business relations did to village communities (and to tell us that that view is informed by Smith's work).
  • The author wrote paragraph 2 to explain how today's typical view has failed to take into account language used in these village communities.

So the author wrote this passage to raise doubts about how business relations during early modern England are perceived today. Note that the main concern here is not Adam Smith. It's the conventional wisdom that his work helped to create.

Quote:
So, he is definitely evaluating the modern views which goes with option B.
Let's be careful here. Yes, the author is evaluating modern views of business relations during early modern England. However, what does answer choice (B) say?

Quote:
(B) Evaluating the impact of a particular economist on modern theories of economic history
"Evaluating modern views" is not the same as "Evaluating the impact of a particular economist." The author mentions Smith to help us understand the modern view, but as a whole this passage evaluates the view of early modern England's business relations and how we come to believe it -- not Smith's impact on modern theories. As explained earlier, that's why we eliminate (B).

aviejay
Option D would have been correct if "such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England" would not have been mentioned. The author passes his own judgement and this should be seen as evaluating.

Please explain where am I going wrong.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this hypothetical statement. To stick with the passage as it's written, the author is telling us that today's typical view fails to account for important information that could change our understanding of business relations in early modern England. The passage pushes us to question this view and consider a different interpretation of business relations.

Quote:
(D) Reconsidering accepted ideas about the history of business relations
This closely matches our understanding of why the author wrote this passage, and that's why (D) is the best answer choice as it's written.


Q1: The Question is "Why?"


sdlife
Hi CrackVerbalGMAT/ GMATNinja / Other Experts,

Thank you for the great explanations for this question. Very helpful. I usually get the questions - "the author mentions XXX in line YY in order to" - wrong in RC. This is one of the question type that I am not able to improve on. Can you please advise on how to attack these question types? I would really appreciate it.
As usual, when I'm asked for help with a specific question type, I don't have a very satisfying answer. :)

The key to RC is how well you read the passage: if you do a bulletproof job of reading for structure and purpose, then it will become easier to see how a specific detail fits in with the purpose of a paragraph or with the overall purpose of the passage. (More on these general ideas here.)

At the end of the day, this kind of question basically asks, "Why does the author mention this detail?"

This is very different from asking questions like:

  • "Does the author mention this detail?"
  • "Do you see this detail in the passage?"
  • "Would the author agree with this detail?"

This distinction may seem obvious, but in practice it can be tough to stay focused on the author's purpose, especially when you're under time pressure. If you're only looking for details that seem like they were in the passage, or kind of fit with things the author might say, then you'll have a very hard time eliminating wrong answer choices. So always remember that you're looking for the answer choice that best explains why the author has brought up the detail in this exact part of the passage.

I hope this all helps!

Hi GMATNinja CrackVerbal

In question 2, the passage talks about the language used in modern England. This may or may not be in vaiilage.
However, the option E talks about the language specifically used in village communities. So how can this be correct?
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GMATNinja

Q2: A closer look at who's concerned with "human nature"


hassu13
GMATNinjaI understand that for Q#2 option E is a restatement and hence is correct. But How can B not be correct. The author has emphasised in second para that it is because of the human nature- ie on basis of giving credit or promises- that the business flourished. it becomes quite obvious that the economic historians didnt consider this aspect. Can you pl correct me.
In the second paragraph, the author never claims that credit, promisees, and trust are part of human nature.

Instead, the author focuses explicitly on the language that people in early modern England used when doing business. The author points to this use of language as something that the typical view (which does depend on a Smith-like view of human nature) fails to consider:

Quote:
However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations, language that stressed credit, trust, obligations, and contracts, rather than self-interest.
I hope this clarifies why we eliminate (B). Choice (E) is much better supported by the passage, and directly answers the question that we're being asked: What have these economic historians failed to examine?
Hi GMATNinja CrackVerbal

In question 2, the passage talks about the language used in modern England. This may or may not be in vaiilage.
However, the option E talks about the language specifically used in village communities. So how can this be correct?
The start of the second paragraph tells us about the a gap in Smith's views:

    However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations

You're correct that this talks about the language used across the whole of early modern England. However, given that this language was used across all of early modern England, it would be reasonable to assume this language would be used in a village inside early modern England.

If the roles were reversed, you would not be able to make this shift. We could not say that language used in one village was used across the country, but we can say that language used across the country was used in villagess.

There is another clue at the end of the second paragraph:

    As a result, buying and selling, far from breaking up communities, actually created numerous bonds that held villages together.

The business transactions that relied on the use of language mentioned earlier in the paragraph "created numerous bonds that held villages together." This suggests that this language was being used in the villages of early modern England.

This gives enough justification to say that the use of "village communities" in (E) is ok.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja CrackverbalGMAT : Doubt in GMATprep RC

Can you please help me with one perspective I have of Q#1

The author of the passage refers to “truck, barter and exchange” in the highlighted text most likely in order to
(A) lend authority to the argument that commerce is characterized by self-interest

In the wealth of nations (1776), Scottish economist Adam Smith asserted that the propensity of “truck, barter and exchange” was both the foundation of commerce and a given quality of human nature, driven by individual desire.

My approach : The intent of the whole para is to say transactions are not motivated by self-interest in village communities as believed.

To say "they are not motivated by self-interest", we first need to show they are motivated by it and thats the sole reason of mentioning Adam Smith's quote, had the intent of the passage been something else Adam Smith's quote would not have been relevant and hence the big picture purpose of the quote is support that commerce is characterized by self-interest

Can you please help me know where I went wrong.
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Question 1


Rickooreo
GMATNinja CrackverbalGMAT : Doubt in GMATprep RC

Can you please help me with one perspective I have of Q#1

The author of the passage refers to “truck, barter and exchange” in the highlighted text most likely in order to
(A) lend authority to the argument that commerce is characterized by self-interest

In the wealth of nations (1776), Scottish economist Adam Smith asserted that the propensity of “truck, barter and exchange” was both the foundation of commerce and a given quality of human nature, driven by individual desire.

My approach : The intent of the whole para is to say transactions are not motivated by self-interest in village communities as believed.

To say "they are not motivated by self-interest", we first need to show they are motivated by it and thats the sole reason of mentioning Adam Smith's quote, had the intent of the passage been something else Adam Smith's quote would not have been relevant and hence the big picture purpose of the quote is support that commerce is characterized by self-interest

Can you please help me know where I went wrong.
The problem with (A) is that the author is not looking to lend authority to the idea that commerce is characterized by self-interest. As you note, the author disagrees with this idea, and the passage as a whole seeks to discredit it. For that reason, while the author may refer to "truck, barter and exchange" to explain Adam Smith's point of view, the author definitely does not want to lend authority to an argument that he/she disagrees with, and we can eliminate (A).

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja

Q2: A closer look at who's concerned with "human nature"



The author focuses explicitly on the language that people in early modern England used when doing business. The author points to this use of language as something that the typical view (which does depend on a Smith-like view of human nature) fails to consider:

Quote:
However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations, language that stressed credit, trust, obligations, and contracts, rather than self-interest.
I hope this clarifies why we eliminate (B). Choice (E) is much better supported by the passage, and directly answers the question that we're being asked: What have these economic historians failed to examine?

GMATNinja
Quote:
(A) The power of business relations to shape moral values and beliefs.
The passage does not suggest that those historians failed to consider the power of business relations to shape moral values and beliefs. In fact, the last sentence of the first paragraph demonstrates that those historians felt that business relations had the power to weaken the spirit of cooperation and encourage of individualism.

In other words, the author and those historians would disagree about how business relations shaped moral values and beliefs but not about whether business relations have the power to shape a moral values and beliefs.

As described in this post, choice (E) is a better answer.

I hope that helps

Hi experts GMATNinja AndrewN zhanbo avigutman

I've checked all explanations regarding Q2 by GMATNinja (they are as good as always!)
However, I still hope to confirm (E). In my practice, I could not make a quick call between (A) and (E).

I was hesitant about (E) because of the word "actual" in the option--(E) The actual language used by people in village communities to refer to their business dealings. When I read the second paragraph, I thought that "language" can refer to the real, verbal, or written business language (such as wording and phrasing), or refer to more abstract concepts or ideas (as seen in the b-(3) definition from Webster dictionary: the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings).

I know in the GMAT world, correct options are generally not "obviously correct," and I might be paying attention to insignificant details here. But sometimes paying attention to these details (one modifier in an option) can help me eliminate incorrect options. Could you share some of your ideas on the option (E)?

Meanwhile, for the option (A), GMATNinja has explained in a previous post why (A) is incorrect. I see that the historians maintain that the business relations have weakened the spirit of village communities, while the author goes towards a different direction by saying at the end of passage that the business helped villages bond together.

However, I hope to check the phrasing of Q2, which asks "It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that economic historians whose views have been influenced by Adam Smith have failed to examine which of the following?"

These historians have developed a theory/idea/interpretation about the power of business (that is, it weakens the village communities). I thought that (A) could be a correct option, as by choosing (A), we mean that these historians fail to "examine" (think clearly about) the role of the power of business. Thus, I could not eliminate (A) quickly.

Do I have a logic issue here? Am I wrong because these historians have thought clearly about the role of the power of business, but it is just that the historians and the author have different opinions? (I have no intention to defend (A) but I hope to learn more to improve.)

Thank you so much! :)
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GraceSCKao
I was hesitant about (E) because of the word "actual" in the option--(E) The actual language used by people in village communities to refer to their business dealings. When I read the second paragraph, I thought that "language" can refer to the real, verbal, or written business language (such as wording and phrasing), or refer to more abstract concepts or ideas (as seen in the b-(3) definition from Webster dictionary: the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings).

I know in the GMAT world, correct options are generally not "obviously correct," and I might be paying attention to insignificant details here. But sometimes paying attention to these details (one modifier in an option) can help me eliminate incorrect options. Could you share some of your ideas on the option (E)?
The word "actual" gave me pause as well, GraceSCKao, so you're in good company. It caused me to take a VERY close look at this sentence:
Quote:
However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations
I finally decided that (E) is okay because of the word "articulate". The word "articulate" disqualifies definition b-(3) from Webster.
GraceSCKao
For the option (A), GMATNinja has explained in a previous post why (A) is incorrect. I see that the historians maintain that the business relations have weakened the spirit of village communities, while the author goes towards a different direction by saying at the end of passage that the business helped villages bond together.

However, I hope to check the phrasing of Q2, which asks "It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that economic historians whose views have been influenced by Adam Smith have failed to examine which of the following?"

These historians have developed a theory/idea/interpretation about the power of business (that is, it weakens the village communities). I thought that (A) could be a correct option, as by choosing (A), we mean that these historians fail to "examine" (think clearly about) the role of the power of business. Thus, I could not eliminate (A) quickly.
I wonder if you conflated the ideas of "think clearly about" and "being correct about"? It might help to look at the definition of "examine":
inspect (someone or something) in detail to determine their nature or condition; investigate thoroughly.
You can examine something and arrive at an incorrect conclusion. That doesn't mean that you failed to examine it. It means that you examined it and reached an incorrect conclusion.
See here for further clarification.
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Thank you avigutman for your clear explanations and help as always! :)

avigutman
GraceSCKao
I was hesitant about (E) because of the word "actual" in the option--(E) The actual language used by people in village communities to refer to their business dealings. When I read the second paragraph, I thought that "language" can refer to the real, verbal, or written business language (such as wording and phrasing), or refer to more abstract concepts or ideas (as seen in the b-(3) definition from Webster dictionary: the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings).

I know in the GMAT world, correct options are generally not "obviously correct," and I might be paying attention to insignificant details here. But sometimes paying attention to these details (one modifier in an option) can help me eliminate incorrect options. Could you share some of your ideas on the option (E)?
The word "actual" gave me pause as well, GraceSCKao, so you're in good company. It caused me to take a VERY close look at this sentence:
Quote:
However, such a view fails to account for the language that people in early modern England used to articulate their understanding of business relations
I finally decided that (E) is okay because of the word "articulate". The word "articulate" disqualifies definition b-(3) from Webster.
GraceSCKao
For the option (A), GMATNinja has explained in a previous post why (A) is incorrect. I see that the historians maintain that the business relations have weakened the spirit of village communities, while the author goes towards a different direction by saying at the end of passage that the business helped villages bond together.

However, I hope to check the phrasing of Q2, which asks "It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that economic historians whose views have been influenced by Adam Smith have failed to examine which of the following?"

These historians have developed a theory/idea/interpretation about the power of business (that is, it weakens the village communities). I thought that (A) could be a correct option, as by choosing (A), we mean that these historians fail to "examine" (think clearly about) the role of the power of business. Thus, I could not eliminate (A) quickly.
I wonder if you conflated the ideas of "think clearly about" and "being correct about"? It might help to look at the definition of "examine":
inspect (someone or something) in detail to determine their nature or condition; investigate thoroughly.
You can examine something and arrive at an incorrect conclusion. That doesn't mean that you failed to examine it. It means that you examined it and reached an incorrect conclusion.
See here for further clarification.
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The phrase "truck, barter and exchange" is part of Smith's terminology and describes his view of commerce, but the author doesn't use it to argue or lend authority to the claim that commerce is dominated by self-interest. Instead, the author eventually challenges this view by emphasizing the role of trust and cooperation in early modern English business.
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overall this passage is 700+ ??
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subalrozz
overall this passage is 700+ ??

You can check the difficulty in that tag just above the first post:


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