PrepTest 158 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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Passage A is adapted from an essay by historian Christopher Ricks; passage B is from the introduction, by historian Paulina Kewes, to a book in which Ricks's essay appears.

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Rosenthal's Purpose · To question definition of plagiarism

Rosenthal's answer · The required postmodern answer

Postmodern answer = there's no difference between plagiarism and things that people don't think are plagiarism. It's just about power; if people in power don't like certain copying, it's plagiarism.

Rosenthal's assumption · Plagiarism doesn't involve a moral issue; it's about power

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Ricks' perspective · Political history should involve moral considerations

Although there's no universal moral standard, that doesn't mean moral standards shouldn't exist. (Not sure what "political history" means, but clearly Rosenthal's book is an example of it.)

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Intro topic · Plagiarism

Accusations of plagiarism in history have been very fluid, and are influenced by commercial, artistic, and legal views. Sometimes the same act has been called plagiarism and not plagiarism.

Ricks' perspective · Critical of historical approach to ethical issues

He thinks it leads to moral relativism, which he thinks is bad.

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Author's criticism · Ricks paints with too broad a brush

Some historical approaches might be good, even if others are bad.

Concession · Ricks is right to criticize some scholarship

Not all moral standards are just about power, and it can be wrong to project modern-day ideologies onto past events. Ricks is right to make these points.

Author's perspective · Ricks is too extreme

Some historical scholarship can still be good, even if there's a lot of bad scholarship out there. Recognizing different historical understandings of plagiarism doesn't imply any agreement with one or more of those understandings.

Passage Style

15.

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Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

We’re looking for an answer choice that the authors would probably both agree with.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any answer choices that author A would disagree with or else would not have an opinion on. Then, after passage B, eliminate any remaining answer choices that author B would disagree with or else would not have an opinion on. There will only be one answer choice that both authors would likely agree with.

Sequential Approach: The authors agree that, at least in some sense, plagiarism is an issue of morality, even if it’s been understood differently throughout history. They also agree that postmodernism can wrongly reduce “moral standards to expressions of power.” Knowing this, we can use POE on the answer choices to determine which one the authors would likely both agree with.

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Author A disagrees with this. He argues that Rosenthal thinks there isn’t a difference between plagiarism and imitation, but that, in reality, plagiarism is morally wrong. This is enough reason to eliminate (A). Author B likely disagrees with (A) as well. She suggests that plagiarism is morally wrong in some sense, even if it’s been understood differently throughout history.

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Author A explicitly disagrees with this. He thinks that just because no moral standard is universal does not mean that moral standards are simply expressions of power. He argues that they’re still valuable and worthy of respect. This is enough reason to eliminate (B). Author B disagrees with this as well. She thinks that author A “is rightly dismissive of the postmodern reduction of moral standards to expressions of power.”

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Author A doesn’t express an opinion about this. He doesn’t discuss the current “widespread views regarding plagiarism,” nor does he argue that these views are more stringent than past views of plagiarism. This is enough reason to eliminate (C). Author B doesn’t express an opinion about this either. She just says here that whatever our perspective on plagiarism is today, it’s probably different than our predecessors’ perspectives. But she doesn’t say which perspective is “more stringent.”

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historical scholarship that ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████████ ███ █████ ███████

Author A disagrees with this. He argues that plagiarism is dishonest and that Rosenthal wrongly dismisses the moral considerations of plagiarism. He doesn’t think that Rosenthal’s work “absolves plagiarists of responsibility.” This is enough reason to eliminate (D). We have no reason to believe that author B thinks that historical scholarship absolves plagiarists of responsibility either.

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Both authors agree with this. Author A argues that Rosenthal’s book wrongly projects current ideological preoccupations— the postmodern idea that plagiarism can be reduced to an issue of power rather than of morality— onto past understandings of plagiarism. Author B also thinks that there is some “shoddy scholarship” that wrongly projects current ideologies onto past issues.

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PrepTest 158 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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