2/3 correct, Time taken 5 mins.

1. It can be inferred that the author makes which of the following assumptions about biographies?

A. Their main purpose is to inform readers about key aspects of the subjects’ personalities.
B. Only subjects who share traits with biographers make good subjects for biographies.
C. Compelling biographies cannot be written about ordinary citizens.
D. The biographer’s credibility with readers is a factor in the critical success of a biography.
E. Practical considerations are most important in the selection of a subject for a biography.

I got this wrong, OA is D

2. The author is primarily concerned with

A. persuading biographers to change their methods
No persuasion was done to change the biographers method. Tone was quite subtle.

B. refuting some common beliefs about a particular literary genre
This can be supported from the last paragraph, that why biography is written.
What does it try to achieve, and if it can change its methodology in some way.

C. arguing against continued reform of a historical endeavor
historical endeavor -> Nothing like this happened,

D. refuting an outdated theory of a particular literary genre
In the last para, the author has just suggested, not refuted

E. describing the working methods of certain authors
Only one author was mentioned in the 1st para, apart from that rest of the 2 paragraphs, just spoke about general terminologies

3. The author mentions Ron Chernow most probably in order to

A. provide a counterexample to a general claim about biography
B. illustrate a questionable assertion regarding biography
C. establish a favorable comparison with an established biographer
D. underscore the importance of research in biography
E. challenge a new approach to biography

My bottom 2 choices were A and E.

General claim was "One often hears that biographies are autobiographies, that the biographer is always writing about himself."
But by reading this
On the contrary, serious biographers seek and welcome the unfamiliar, however troublesome to account for. Such encounters with the unaccountable are opportunities for breaking out and breaking through, in new directions, to fresh understanding.

I thought it to be an counterexample of the claim and marked A
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If you notice any discrepancy in my reasoning, please let me know. Lets improve together.

Quote which i can relate to.
Many of life's failures happen with people who do not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

for inference questions, sometimes tone of the answer choices helps eliminate wrong answer choices.

It is preferable to eliminate strong tone answer choices for inference questions.

In qn-1, except option-D, all other options have strong tone words such as - Main purpose, only , cannot, most important.

option-D has none of these strong tone words

Thanks

Could someone please explain why D is the correct answer for Q1? There is nothing in the passage that shows that the biographers have to have a level of credibility in their field. The current responses on GMATCLUB are not helpful.

For Q1, use POE :
zac123 dcwanderer30
1. It can be inferred that the author makes which of the following assumptions about biographies?
: This question is an open ended question. The entire passage talks about authors views on bios. SO we cannot zero in on specific places.

A. Their main purpose is to inform readers about key aspects of the subjects’ personalities.
-" What pushes most biographers on in this endeavor is not necessarily affection for the subject but the feeling that they are writing a gory tod book."
The word "pushes" means encourages . In the entire passage we are nowhere talking about WHY bios write bios. The author talks about pronaliy traits to tell us how conventional autobiographers CHOOSE THEIR SUBJECTS. This in no way talks about readers

B. Only subjects who share traits with biographers make good subjects for biographies.
- "only" tpo strong .... "share" is wrong...autobiographers prefer certain traits in subject. BUT this does not mean they "share" the peronality traits

C. Compelling biographies cannot be written about ordinary citizens.
-" Does the subject need a biography? Are the materials available? How much time is needed? "
If the ordinary citizen does need a biography then why not???

D. The biographer’s credibility with readers is a factor in the critical success of a biography.
-"What pushes most biographers on in this endeavor is not necessarily affection for the subject but the feeling that they are writing a good book."
we can infer here that the biographers are concerned bout writing agood book. Now how is a book good? popular opinion is that a book which gains good audience is a good book. SO we can infer this. This may not be a conclusive argument but after POE only D remains !!

E. Practical considerations are most important in the selection of a subject for a biography.
-" what makes one subject better than another for any particular biographer varies dramatically. Some of the reasons are purely practical"
"most important" is unwarranted and unsupported !! the author tells us that "one of therrasons is practicality and not the most importnt reason"

It took me 6 min 33 seconds. Got 3/3 correct.
Q-1 was a good question and AdityaHongunti has explained it well.

Let me know in case anyone needs help. I will be more than happy to help.
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All the Gods, All the Heavens, and All the Hells lie within you.