Can anybody explain why C is also the correct answer? I am watching Greg’s PP Review video, and I understand that we need to select the options that explain the origin or the reason for the popularity of the stance. But how does C meet the criteria for either of those?
This is a logic question that asks you to provide an explanation for an observation drawn in the passage. This means we need an answer choice that explains and address both the “hand-in” pose AND the reason for utilizing such a pose in the 18th century. <— this is important and should be included in the answer choice.
I would ask yourself what logic you used to select choice [A]. If you reasoned that because this manual written in the 18th century told gentlemen to pose a certain way because it meant they were of a certain class, then you’ve identified the 2 necessary ingredients for make this the correct answer choice: 1) 18th century evidence 2) something that explains why gentlemen would use the “hand-in” pose.
Choice [B] is similar. We get a primary source from an 18th century passage. And, even though “hand-in” isn’t expressly mentioned, it is strongly implied by the answer choice: " […] what stance to adopt when his portrait is painted." If we want, we can try and take the entire sentence to task word for word, but all the words hold up, i.e., they do not overreach.
Hey! Thanks for the reply. However, I’m still a little confused here.
From this sentence in the passage: “Such explanations, however, illuminate neither the source of this curious convention nor the reason for its popularity”, I inferred that the author needs (1) the source (the origin) of the stance or the (2) reason why this stance was so popular.
[A] meets the criteria because if there was a manual regarding the “hand-in” stance, people would have likely followed, which provides the reason for its popularity.
[B] does not explain the reason nor the origin – this information would merely provide the proportion of portraits with the stance, which is not what the author is looking for
[C] I thought that C was incorrect because the example is of a gentleman considering what stance to adopt for the portrait, which does not provide information on HOW or WHY this particular stance got so popular. Greg explained that this choice provides the reason for its popularity, but the connection is not so clear to me.
I think it can be strongly implied, since we are looking at a source—a novel, which is a work of fiction—from the 18th-century and we have numerous examples of 18th-century gentlemen with their “hand-in” poses. The fact that the novel writes about how it’s characters used the “hand-in” pose implies that this was a cultural phenomenon that took place in the 18th-century, thereby confirming that there was some degree of popularity—at least enough popularity that warranted an 18th-century author to write about it in their book.
I think that it is important that it is stated that the person “considers” what stance to adopt. Consideration implies an evaluation of the reasons for and against something.
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That makes sense! But so far, I still think I’m convincing myself – it doesn’t really clearly stand out to me that “consideration” explains “why”.
I might be overthinking here, but for example, if a popular fruit of the 21st century is bananas, and you want to know how or why bananas (among other fruits in the world) gained its popularity… then you found a novel about a gentleman who considers which fruit to eat – does that properly explain the popularity of bananas?
Maybe I just need to re-wire my brain but I’d like to learn what I’m missing from the logic!
Maybe the novel did explain the popularity of tasty bananas, maybe the novel said bananas were actually gross. However, I’d also consider the question stem: “which of the following might provide an explanation […]”
Choice [C], if you’re going to scrutinize it word by word still is able to hold its own against the question stem. As that consideration might’ve been for or against the popularity of the stance. The difference is that it contains both elements that connect the logic of the passage, allowing us to maybe get an explanation of why gentlemen used the “hand-in” stance.
Choice [B] is unlike [A] or [C] because no matter how true it is, it cannot offer an explanation for or against the popularity of the “hand-in” stance.
All [B] lets us do is collect data on how many “hand-in” portraits vs. non-“hand-in” portraits there are.
Using the same logical as above, let’s take a look at choice [A] again. The answer choice only states “implications.” Can implications be both positive AND negative? Yes. So this answer choice could explain the popularity. Or, it could actually say it’s horrible etiquette.