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Explanation

4. Given the information in the passage, the author can most reasonably be said to use which one of the following principles to refute the advocates’ claim that computer conferences can function as communities (line 15)?

Explanation

The stem cites line 15, but since the “refutation of the claim” doesn’t occur until paragraph 3, that’s where we must go. As we said before, ultimately the conference-as-community argument fails because computer conferences lack the kind of “genuine diversity” (line 58) that tie people together in “a sense of interdependence” (a phrase from line 4 that’s echoed in Paragraph 3). (E) correctly cites that diversity as a necessary condition of community.

(A) can’t be “refuting” the claim of conference-as-community, because (A) sums up why advocates make that claim in the first place (lines 36-41).

The adoption of etiquette conventions (B) is a characteristic of computer conferences that make them more respectful and supportive, but the author never asserts that, for instance, actual neighbors living next door have to have such etiquette conventions. They already are a community, because they live nearby and have mutual interests.

(C) is tricky. Proximity is listed in paragraph 1 as an aspect of “traditional communities.” But the question has to do with how the author refutes a claim, and the two necessary conditions of community in that refutation are a lack of discrimination (lines 44-47) and the presence of diversity (lines 47-59), and (C) mentions none of that.

(D) is easier to reject, since it’s a 180; diversity, not sameness, is what characterizes community.

Answer: E
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brindapr
Can someone explain why E, and not C, is the answer for question 4?

It's pretty dang tricky.

When you struggle with an RC passage, you need to check carefully these three things:

1). Have I misread/misinterpreted/misunderstood/missed detail in the passage or in the question itself?

2). Have I set a good prediction/goal for the right answer of that question to achieve?

3). Have I chosen an answer that matches a good prediction/goal for this question?

It seems most likely to me your struggles come from #1 here, particularly regarding the *question itself*.

What, *exactly*, does this question ask for?
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Explanation

2. Based on the passage, the author would be LEAST likely to consider which one of the following a community?

Explanation

The four wrong choices all demonstrate elements that are a part of the author’s definition of community: shared interest (line 49)—note that the four wrong ones all use the words “the same”—as well as “genuine diversity” (lines 55-59). But in (C), there’s a sameness of interest with little diversity. Indeed, (C) could have been written as a clear illustration of conferences as described in lines 53-55.

Answer: C
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