Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present

Question

Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures. Comparative study of traditional narratives from widely separated epochs and diverse cultures reveals common themes such as creation, tribal origin, mystical beings and quasi-historical figures, and common story types such as fables and tales in which animals assume human personalities.

The evidence cited above from the study of traditional narratives most supports which one of the following statements?

(A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures.
(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture.
(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures.
(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.
(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers.

AdityaHongunti · Accepted Answer

ParthSanghavi

To be honest I don't like the OA but it is the best among the rest.

Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures. Comparative study of traditional narratives from widely separated epochs and diverse cultures reveals common themes such as creation, tribal origin, mystical beings and quasi-historical figures, and common story types such as fables and tales in which animals assume human personalities.

The evidence cited above from the study of traditional narratives most supports which one of the following statements?

Understand the stimulus:
- storytelling appears to be universal aspect means storytelling is practiced all over the world . It was practiced in past and in present.
- when we compare narratives(literature) from different regions or tribes around the world we can see a common theme a common origin. The basic idea is almost the same all around the world but with few tweaks of respective tribes...

Inference- question

What can we infer??
We know that narratives of many cultures have same origin same theme ..then is it possible that whatever the narratives are based on are common? For eg: When we smile , our lips tend to move in a upward slope..now in almost all the cultures or areas you visit you will find the same gesture.. no one will make a sad face when they smile( not the normal ones at least)...so this is a universal gesture ...on a similar line if there is same origin same basic theme then is it possible that these cultures have something in common?? Can be anything!! In our case the basic ideas on which the narratives are based
... Now let's dig in

A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures.
- "routinely" mean regularly
.do we know storytellers do this routinely?? Nope.. they may just do it once or twice and then build upon the basic idea.

(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture.
- "long understood" ..we just know about the practice"storytelling" ..we do not know anything about the storytellers per se.. how well they knew what they knew how long they knew...no idea..

(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures.
- "all" this word is what troubled me.. the rest of the words are actually what I prethought but the word "all" is not really supported here...let's look for another choice ..we won't discard it just yet as rest of the choice can fairly be inferred..

(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.
- do we know anything about respective importance of two periods?? It may be less important or it may be more important we absolutely have no data to conclude this..

(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers.
"Best way" classic GMAT Ans choice... Please take a note of this choice... In many CR questions you will be presented with A WAY to solve a problem but we are nowhere given that this way is the best .the answer choices for such questions include an answer choices worded as "this is the best way" ...as long as we are not given any hint or explicit information about the way being the best we can discard it...the author never tells us that this way is the best.

So out of all , C is the least worst... 90% supported.. nevertheless had this been a MUST BE TRUE question , you wpuld not have encountered this answer choice

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ParthSanghavi · Answer

AdityaHongunti   nightblade354

Please help

IshanVirdhi · Answer

AdityaHongunti  : the word universal seems to convey the meaning of "all" here. Storytelling appears to be UNIVERSAL...

your thoughts on this..

manishcmu · Answer

Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures. Comparative study of traditional narratives from widely separated epochs and diverse cultures reveals common themes such as creation, tribal origin, mystical beings and quasi-historical figures, and common story types such as fables and tales in which animals assume human personalities.

The evidence cited above from the study of traditional narratives most supports which one of the following statements?

(A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures. The passage never mentions that Storytellers borrowed themes. Maybe they created their own themes which turned out to be common
(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture.This appears to be true to the author, not to the storytellers. Story tellers may not be aware of this.
(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures. Here certain human concerns and interests refer to common themes and story types. -- tribal origin, mystical beings and quasi-historical figures. These themes and story types would not have originated without human concerns and interests( Just think about it - can you develop stories on tribal origin etc without any concern with humans?) .Since they were common in both past and present cultures (all cultures), we can say that some human concerns and interests did arise in all cultures
(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.We never compared the importance of story tellingin ancient cultures and modern cultures
(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers. I just stopped reading at best

Skywalker18 · Answer

Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures. Comparative study of traditional narratives from widely separated epochs and diverse cultures reveals common themes such as creation, tribal origin, mystical beings and quasi-historical figures, and common story types such as fables and tales in which animals assume human personalities.

The evidence cited above from the study of traditional narratives most supports which one of the following statements?

(A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures.- out of scope; every storyteller arrives at those themes on his or her own- Comparative study of traditional narratives from widely separated epochs and diverse cultures reveals common themes
(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture. - out of scope
(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures. - Correct
(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.- out of scope; there is no discussion of relative importance.
(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers. - out of scope

Answer C

navderm · Answer

In option C, 
Certain human concerns and interests arise in     of the world???s cultures.

Nowhere in the text are we told that all the world's cultures were studies or analyzed. How can one make this assertion that  ALL THE WORLD'S CULTURE  has similar human concerns and interests?

GMATNinja   daagh   Skywalker18 . what is wrong with my understanding here?

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

(A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures.  Nothing in the passage suggests that some storytellers "borrowed themes" from other cultures. Eliminate.

(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture.  This suggests that all the story tellers in the past had some sort of mutual understanding about what to put in the stories - a highly unlikely event and unsupported by the passage. All story tellers may have come up with common themes independently without any universal understanding. Eliminate.

(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures.  Correct answer, since storytelling is called a "universal" aspect.

(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.  There is nothing in the passage about the  comparative  importance of storytelling to ancient and modern cultures. Eliminate.

(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers.  Nothing in the passage about  understanding  cultures. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

GMATNinja · Answer

The question does not ask which of the answer choices  must be true . It also doesn’t ask which of the answer choices is found in the passage. Instead, it asks for an answer choice that is  most supported  by the evidence given in the passage. This subtle distinction is crucial as we examine (C).

The word “ all ” can seem problematic here. Researchers definitely haven’t studied  every  culture. But the question doesn’t ask which statement we can definitively conclude or prove on the basis of the passage. Instead, it asks whether each answer choice is supported by the passage.

The author states that “storytelling appears to be a UNIVERSAL aspect of both past and present cultures.” He/she goes on to state that research reveals common themes and story types across “ widely separated epochs and diverse cultures .” So certain themes and story types appear independent of time period or culture. The fact that storytelling is universal and common themes and story types appear across cultures definitely SUPPORTS the idea that certain concerns and interests may arise in all of the world’s cultures. Sure, we can’t  conclude  that definitively. But the passage definitely  supports  that idea. That's why (C) is correct.

I hope that helps!

Fdambro294 · Answer

Question brings up an interesting issue and I’d like to know what everyone thinks.

Given a question such as:

“Which of the following is most supported by the passage?”

VS

“Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?”

Would you agree there is a difference between the type of Answer Choice GMAC considers correct?

For the first question, it seems like we are looking for a conclusion that the facts would ALMOST definitely support if an author made it his conclusion.

For the second question, we are looking for an answer that must be true based on the facts: the 100% truth test.

What do others think? I’ve noticed the subtle shift in the words contained in certain questions. It doesn’t seem like we can classify every question stem into an exact “type” all the time.

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MBAB123 · Answer

I agree with your point. A few words and nuances can change the answer, especially on the difficult questions. Your classification seems apt to me, I am no expert though but yes that is what I look for.

vv65 · Answer

About D: Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures

D is comparing the importance in ancient cultures and in modern. The argument never made any such comparison, so that's reason enough to eliminate.

Remember to be careful about answer choices that make comparisons: these answer choices are usually traps. Before choosing such an answer, make sure you can find the comparison in the passage.

This point is sometimes very useful as a guessing tool for difficult questions. Eliminate the answer choice that makes a comparison. It improves the chances of getting the question right (it's better than a random guess)

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Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) Storytellers routinely borrow themes from other cultures.
This may not be true since it's possible that these cultures where part of their spectrum rather than copying from other cultures-Hence out

(B) Storytellers have long understood that the narrative is a universal aspect of human culture.
We cannot decied on the same since it's possible that they never understood the significance-Hence out

(C) Certain human concerns and interests arise in all of the world’s cultures.
Since storytelling in an inspiration or rather the repitition of themes the same can be infered from the fiven passage -Hence in

(D) Storytelling was no less important in ancient cultures than it is in modern cultures.
This thoroughly out of context the same was never discussed -Hence out

(E) The best way to understand a culture is to understand what motivates its storytellers
Similar reasoning as D -Hence out 
Therefore IMO C

sssanskaar · Answer

Late to the party but as everyone else has pointed out- options A, B, D, and E are straightaway out of scope. Only option C addresses the argument completely. Clear winner.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present

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Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present

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