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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Which one of the following ██ █ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████
to trace the ██████████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████████ ████
This is not a purpose of passage A. Rosenthal’s book looks at the history of plagiarism in a certain era, but author A never traces the development of plagiarism throughout history. He just criticizes Rosenthal’s arguments. This is enough reason to eliminate (A). It’s also not a purpose of passage B. Author B notes that the idea of plagiarism “has a history” and has changed over time, but she doesn’t trace its development throughout history.
to find fault ████ █ ███ ██ ███████████ █ █████████ █████
This describes a central purpose of both passages. The central purpose of passage A is to criticize Rosenthal’s way of approaching the historical understanding of plagiarism. A central purpose of passage B is to find fault with author A’s way of approaching his argument. She thinks that author A is too extreme in his dismissal of historical approaches, even though he’s right in some ways. She also finds fault with the postmodern approach that reduces moral standards to expressions of power.
to examine shifting █████████ █████████ ██████ █ ██████████ █████
This is not a purpose of passage A. Author A only examines one scholarly attitude toward plagiarism: Rosenthal’s. He never examines any other scholarly attitudes, nor does he suggest that Rosenthal’s attitude is “shifting.” This is enough reason to eliminate (C). It’s also not a purpose of passage B. Author B says that the idea of plagiarism has shifted over time, but she doesn’t examine any scholarly attitudes toward plagiarism.
to explain why █ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████████
This is not a purpose of passage A. We have no reason to believe that Rosenthal’s scholarship about plagiarism “has become dominant.” Even if it has, author A doesn’t try to explain why it’s dominant. This is enough reason to eliminate (D). It’s also not a purpose of passage B. Author B never discusses any type of scholarship that has become dominant.
to argue that █ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████████
This is a central purpose of passage A. Author A argues that Rosenthal’s book is deeply problematic. But this is not a central purpose of passage B. She criticizes author B’s approach, but his argument is in an essay, not in a book. She also admits that author B is right in some of his arguments, so she may not think that his argument is “deeply problematic.”
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