Self-study
Support In his book, published in 1892, Grey used the same metaphor that Jordan used in her book, which was published in 1885. ███ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ █████████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that Grey most likely read Jordan’s book. This is because Grey’s book features a metaphor that’s too unique to have been created by two people independently. That metaphor also appeared in Jordan’s book, which was published several years before Grey’s book.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the metaphor in question first appeared in Jordan’s book, rather than in some other piece of writing by Grey that appeared before 1885, or in some book by another author that both Jordan and Grey could both have read.
4.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
A text that ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████████
This strongly weakens the argument. Rather than Grey borrowing from Jordan, as the author claims, both borrowed from another author. This provides an explanation of how both writers happened to use the same metaphor, without requiring Grey to have read Jordan's book.
b
The passage in ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████
Even if the relevant passages express different ideas through the metaphor, we know from the premises that the metaphor itself is so unusual that it’s very unlikely both writers could have independently created it. We're looking for another way to explain how the metaphor ended up in both authors' books. This answer choice doesn't give us that.
c
Both Grey's book ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ █████████
Irrelevant. We’re not interested in who the books were written for. We care about the source of the metaphor.
d
Jordan used the ████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ██ █████
This doesn't weaken the argument, because the fact still stands that Jordan also used the metaphor earlier, in 1885. We want to know if the metaphor has some other, earlier source than the 1885 instance.
e
According to most █████████ ████ ███ █████████ █ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████
We don’t care about how inventive Grey was with metaphors in general. The notion that Grey was just so creative she came up with this metaphor independently doesn't fit with the premises, which tell us that this particular metaphor is so unusual that it's very unlikely for two people to have come up with it separately. We need an explanation of how it ended up in both authors' writings.