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25 Sep 2024, 03:31
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Support for translating as spirit: Taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks.
Weakens that support: The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit.
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
55%
(hard)
Question Stats:
61% (02:19) correct
39%
(02:22)
wrong
based on 1660
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
Translator: I was trying to determine the meaning of a particular passage from a certain nineteenth century author. The phrase would literally be translated as 'The duck rose and fell as on a seesaw." But there was only a one-letter difference between the word for duck in the original language and the word for spirit in the original language. I had competing interests: first, I wanted to be faithful to the words as they were written by the original author, but second, I had to consider how likely it was that the author meant to write spirit and whether there was a typographical error by either the author or the publisher.
Select for Support for translating as spirit the statement that, if true, provides the strongest support for translating the word in question as spirit. For Weakens that support, select the statement that, if true, most weakens that supporting statement. Make only two selections, one in each column.
Select for Support for translating as spirit the statement that, if true, provides the strongest support for translating the word in question as spirit. For Weakens that support, select the statement that, if true, most weakens that supporting statement. Make only two selections, one in each column.
| Support for translating as spirit | Weakens that support | |
| Taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks. | ||
| Last month there were newspaper cartoons in the original language that showed ducks on playground equipment. | ||
| The publisher of the author's works was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. | ||
| The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit. | ||
| The author was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. |
ShowHide Answer
Official Answer
Support for translating as spirit: Taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks.
Weakens that support: The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit.
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30 Sep 2024, 08:23
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1. The question asks us to find the statement that best supports the passage and the statement that best weakens the supporting statement.
2. After reading the text, we can understand that the translator had a decision to either translate the word as spirit, or leave it as duck.
3. Now, we can look at the statements:
- Taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks. This would imply that the author most likely meant the word to be spirit rather than duck. So, the statement works as a support for translating as spirit.
- Last month there were newspaper cartoons in the original language that showed ducks on playground equipment. The statement is irrelevant since we don't know if the newspaper cartoons influenced the author. So, this statement doesn't work as any.
- The publisher of the author's works was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. Here, the publisher would've been unlikely to have meant spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
- The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit. This would mean that author most likely meant the word to be duck rather than spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
- The author was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. Here, the author would've been unlikely to have meant spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
4. Even though we found the supporting statement, there are 3 possible weakening statements. Now remember that the weakening statement must weaken the support, not necessarily the passage. "The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit" best fits this.
5. That means our answer will be: Support - "taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks"; Weaken - "the work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit".
2. After reading the text, we can understand that the translator had a decision to either translate the word as spirit, or leave it as duck.
3. Now, we can look at the statements:
- Taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks. This would imply that the author most likely meant the word to be spirit rather than duck. So, the statement works as a support for translating as spirit.
- Last month there were newspaper cartoons in the original language that showed ducks on playground equipment. The statement is irrelevant since we don't know if the newspaper cartoons influenced the author. So, this statement doesn't work as any.
- The publisher of the author's works was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. Here, the publisher would've been unlikely to have meant spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
- The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit. This would mean that author most likely meant the word to be duck rather than spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
- The author was meticulous and rarely made typographical mistakes. Here, the author would've been unlikely to have meant spirit. So, the statement might work as a weakening statement.
4. Even though we found the supporting statement, there are 3 possible weakening statements. Now remember that the weakening statement must weaken the support, not necessarily the passage. "The work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit" best fits this.
5. That means our answer will be: Support - "taken as a whole, the author's collected writings have vastly more references to spirit than they do to ducks"; Weaken - "the work in which the sentence occurs has more references to ducks than to spirit".
General Discussion
25 Sep 2024, 10:58
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Its clear that only the first option supports the translation as spirit. Stateemnt-2 is irrelevant, rest S-3,4,5 weakens the support for translation as spirit but we are precisely being asked to weaken the support as claimed by the correct option and not the passage per se. So only 4th statement counters first.
