It might seem that about Blaise Pascal, and about the two works on

@@Skywalker18 :
Question 2. The author would agree with each of the following EXCEPT:

The answer is C
(A) has decent textual support although the verbs are a bit off.
Option (C)? It's out of left field. Aberrations? That led to social exclusion? No.

• (A) Pascal’s prose style has been a point of much debate with the French.
Ouch, that sentence is horribly written. WITH? How about "among"?

ACCEPTABLE as an answer: his prose style has been analyzed by French critics down to the finest particular.
Compared to (C), which has no textual support, the italicized words lend textual support.
To examine something carefully does not mean to debate it, but "down to the finest particulars"
suggests that the analysis required hair-splitting distinctions because people did not agree during the analysis (so they debated).

• (B) Gambling was probably Pascal’s way to study mathematical probabilities. - incorrect, Even gambling may have appealed to him chiefly as affording a study of mathematical probabilities.

• (C) Pascal, due to his aberrations, was considered unwelcome in certain circles.
Not one word mentions aberrations or social exclusion.
The passage hints that some believed (or still believe) that Pascal led a decadent life.
"Debauchery" is a loaded and condemnatory word. But we hear nothing about "aberrations" or "social exclusion."
Answer C is correct. The author wouldn't agree.

• (D) Pascal is rediscovered by men of every succeeding generation due to changing attitudes of the people. - incorrect, It is not he who changes, but we who change. It is not our knowledge of him that increases, but our world that alters and our attitudes towards the world.

• (E) Pascal led a life befitting a man of means and virtue.- incorrect, He appears to have led such a life as any cultivated intellectual man of good position and independent means might lead and consider himself a model of probity and virtue.


No, analyze is not the same as debate, but that difference is okay because (C) is horrible.

"Analyze" means examine and scrutinize. "Debate" means discuss or argue about.
But "down to the finest particulars" suggests that analysis turned into debate.
(If C weren't so bad, we would have a much harder time.

Analysis of B, D, and E is good.

My conclusion: compare A to C. No contest.
(A) is not ideal, but it is not as bad as C.
***************
Question 3. Which of the following is true of Pascal from the information given in the passage?

(A) His main body of work primarily comprised two works.
It might seem . . . and about the two works on which his fame is founded,

(B) He was not fond of gambling. - incorrect; Even gambling may have appealed to him chiefly as affording a study of mathematical probabilities.
Agreed. ]Even gambling may have appealed to him.

(C) He had interests beyond just Mathematics and Physics.
YES. his religious sentiment and his theological views have been discussed again and again

(D) He was liberal in his religious views. - incorrect
Agreed. We don't know what his religious views were. (To all: do not import Pascal's wager if you know about it.

(E) He had a unique style of writing.- incorrect, we are not sure whether his writing was unique
Agreed. We know only that his prose style has been analyzed by French critics down to the finest particular.

Compare (A) and (C).

(A) His main body of work primarily comprised two works.
Supported by second phrase of the paragraph, highlighted above.

(C) He had interests beyond just Mathematics and Physics.[/color]
his mathematical and physical discoveries have been treated many times; his religious sentiment and his theological views have been discussed again and again;
Hmm. If scholars have studied his religious sentiment and his theological views, what, exactly, were they studying?
A couple of sentences that he dashed off one day in a fit of boredom? (No.)
Have the scholars studied something in which Pascal was NOT interested?
Why was he spouting about and/or writing down his religious sentiment and theological views? Because he was NOT interested in the subjects?

We have no reason to believe that an interest means "a scientific or mathematical field into which a human being delves until he makes a 'discovery' in the field."
The two phrases in the highlighted material beneath (C) are of equal weight.
-- one mentions math and physics
-- the other mentions religious sentiment and theological views

"Interest" is never defined. So we take our general understanding of the word and look at context.

I want the author of this question to make the case that religion and theology were NOT interests of Pascal.
Answer C is as good as answer A.

I could not eliminate options A and C.I chose option C as we are told that he expressed his theological views and wrote prose.

You shouldn't have been able to choose. There is no basis upon which to do so. I would ignore this question.

Hope that helps.


Sidebar
Pascal wrote one of my favorite lines in any language:
Le coeur a ses raisons que le raison ne connaît point.
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.