At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native Amer

Can anyone answer 6and 8? Please explain. OAs are not completely convincing. Thanks.

6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?
(a) investigators familiar with the culture under study
(b) a language other than the informant's for recording life stories
(c) life stories as the ethnologist's primary source of information
(d) complete transcriptions of informants' descriptions of tribal beliefs
(e) stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

8. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the usefulness of life stories as a source of ethnographic information?

(a) they can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.
(b) they are most useful as a source of linguistic information.
(c) they require editing and interpretation before they can be useful.
(d) they are most useful as a source of information about ancestry.
(e) they provide incidental information rather than significant insights into a way of life.

1. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) The historical backgrounds of two currently used research methods are chronicled.
(B) The validity of the data collected by using two different research methods is compared.
(C) The usefulness of a research method is questioned and then a new method is proposed.
(D) The use of a research method is described and the limitations of the results obtained are discussed.
(E) A research method is evaluated and the changes necessary for its adaptation to other subject areas are discussed.
2. Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?
(A) A witness in a jury trial invokes the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid relating personally incriminating evidence.
(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her information on the possible future increase in a stock’s value.
(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.
(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.
(E) A politician fails to mention in a campaign speech the similarities in the positions held by her opponent for political office and by herself.
3. According to the passage, collecting life stories can be a useful methodology because
(A) life stories provide deeper insights into a culture than the hypothesizing of academics who are not members of that culture
(B) life stories can be collected easily and they are not subject to invalid interpretations
(C) ethnologists have a limited number of research methods from which to choose
(D) life stories make it easy to distinguish between the important and unimportant features of a culture
(E) the collection of life stories does not require a culturally knowledgeable investigator
4. Information in the passage suggests that which of the following may be a possible way to eliminate bias in the editing of life stories?
(A) Basing all inferences made about the culture on an ethnological theory
(B) Eliminating all of the emotion-laden information reported by the informant
(C) Translating the informant’s words into the researcher’s language
(D) Reducing the number of questions and carefully specifying the content of the questions that the investigator can ask the informant
(E) Reporting all of the information that the informant provides regardless of the investigator’s personal opinion about its intrinsic value
5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity
6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?
(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data
7. The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?
(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the researchers
(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants
8. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the usefulness of life stories as a source of ethnographic information?
(A) They can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.
(B) They are most useful as a source of linguistic information.
(C) They require editing and interpretation before they can be useful.
(D) They are most useful as a source of information about ancestry.
(E) They provide incidental information rather than significant insights into a way of life.

Please discuss Q 2 , 6 and 8

For ques 8 ans would be A
reason- see the lst few lines
Despite all of this, autobiography remains a useful
tool for ethnological research: such personal reminis-
(40) cences and impressions, incomplete as they may be, are
likely to throw more light on the working of the mind
and emotions than any amount of speculation from an
ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another
culture.
Thus , the author believes that autobiographies give how an impression is formed in one's mind, based on his cultural beliefs.

option A) They can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.
is nothing but impression of a person (how he views the world)

for question (2) option would be C (is it correct ?)
for question (6) option would be C(is it correct ?)
Reason - 2)
The ethnologist acc. to his own perception determines (by comparing it with his culture )what are the imp. points about the life story
(which may fail to drive home the point intended by the informant as he may believe other inf. to be more imp.)

Same is the case with a sports announcer(suppose he is a cricket buff and commenting on tennis); he will judge the more imp. points of the game
by comparing it with cricket (which may lead to disaster!!!)



6)
option A) incorrect -- they were conducting studies earlier also, so mute point (mentioned)
option B) incorrect -- mute point again, they were using their language earlier (what will be the use of study if they use incomprehendable lang??)
option D) incorr. -- they were editing it.
option E) incorr. -- every research(or study) has stringent guidelines to preserve data

this leaves option (C)(it is clearly mentioned that it was a marked shift from theoretical research in the passage)
pls post the OA for all the ques(1-8)

Hi,

Can anyone throw some more light on Q7?

I believe the answer given is C and I understand where is it coming from but what is the basis to eliminate B? The passage clearly states that reasearches only included things which they deemed important.

Same passage with extra questions: LINK

QUESTION 38, PAG 35, VERBAL REVIEW OFFICIAL GUIDE 2ND ED

38 It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

I chose A, i do no see why it can be wrong, and I do not finish to understand why B is the answer. I am confused since the passage mentions that during the 19th century there was an interested in linguistics, so I think researches could be interested in the different languages in different cultures, so I do not understand that "A language other than the informant's for recording life stories" is the correct answer.

Focus on the highlighted portions of the text. The text starts out with what ethnologists started doing in 19th century. In arguments against the methods used, it talks about interviewers not spending enough time and hence probably not being properly familiar with the culture. So (A) is not correct. We cannot say that the research used investigators familiar with the culture under study.
Also, English was used to record the life stories of informants (which is different from informant's language) as is evident from the last highlighted portion. So (B) is correct.

Hi Aves,

38. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

It's easy to eliminate A, D and E.

No information related to D.
About E, in the last sentence of paragraph 1: "it was important to preserve for posterity", it does not mention to "stringent guidelines". E is incorrect.
About option C: 'they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations' (line 4 and 5) so life stories are supplemented sources.

OA is B.

Hope this helps.

The official explanation to the 2nd question is weird. The passage state clearly that "editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe", that is the interviewers were omit some information intentionally. The official guide even state in his explanation to the the 6nd that "the editors introduced bias with their choices about what was important...it is reasonable to infer that, to eliminate bias, those choices must be eliminated". Nevertheless the official explanation to the 2nd question states the opposite: "the ethnologists did not purposely exclude an item from their studies". This is not a contradiction in the reasoning? I understand why option C can be a valid answer but i found no reason to eliminate option D.

GMATNinja - I'll be glad to your insights

A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert

The reason why D can not be the answer is because Chef know his prizewinning dessert and he known what to excludes because he invented the dessert .
No on the other hand passage says that researchers may exclude some events from life stories of Native American which native american people consider important.
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Arvind

arvind910619

In fact the passage state that researchers may exclude some events from life stories of Native American which native american people consider important: "Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers"

Can someone explain why B is preferred over C for Q6 -

6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?

(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant???s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist???s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants??? descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

Refer to the following portion:


The ethnologists wanted to use the personal stories to supplement their own field observations. We cannot accurately infer that the ethnologists wanted to use life stories as their primary source of information. Thus, (C) can be eliminated.


As for choice (B), we are told that "Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English." This implies that English must have been used to record at least some of the Native Americans' life stories. We can infer that English was not the language of the Native Americans (the informants), so choice (B) is the best answer.

The problem with D is that it describes the intentional omission of one element with the purpose to conceal. The chef doesn't want everyone to be able to perfectly recreate his prizewinning dessert, so he withholds a key piece of information. In the passage, however, editors are choosing what they feel is important. They are not trying to hide the key facts. On the contrary, they think they are sharing all the most valuable information! However, since these stories are not their own, or even from their own culture, their choices can introduce problematic distortions.

Now, imagine C. I'm trying to tell you about the progress of a cricket match, but as an American, I'm not clear on all the rules and objectives. Even if I try my best to report accurately, I may leave out some important details in order to focus on distractions that turn out not to matter much. That sounds a lot like our hapless ethnologists.

Can anyone please tell me the meaning of the question? What does it ask for? And how does C make sense?
I had no idea about this one

Hi all,

Could anyone can help me and other user answer this question? I don't understand the question and why B is the correct answer?