Why is 26 B and not E? I was between the two and wrongly landed on E. The long discussion on land transformation pointed to land that was initially inhospitable for growing rice. While I understand that this transformation was painted in a positive light, because it gave former slaves a sense of ownership, that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a difficulty. I don't see how both B and E don't accurately represent difficulties.

For Question 15 I changed my answer from D to E, after reading question 19. Can someone explain why that was wrong.

Agreed. I chose D because the passage clearly stated that the LCs mourned the demise of women's culture. That certainly felt like it would prevent them from addressing new realms.

The "view that was already held by many scientists" wording confused me. The passage says, "a new study debunks the persistent belief . . ." At the beginning of the passage, the author also states that the dominant theory that glass flows downward is in science textbooks. To me, this makes B sound more appealing. Upon further consideration, it seems A would have been wrong, and B may have been right, had A said "most" scientists. The word many does not rely upon the general consensus, but may be solely focused on glass researchers, a group mentioned early on in the passage. I think the question writers used these things against us, knowing we would be inclined to think that, because some scientists disagree with Zanotto, A cannot be correct.

Does anyone have more specific reasoning for why A is wrong, but B is right? I answered A and it's hard to determine how B is better, even after watching the explanation video. They seem to be similar answer choices.

I answered D as well, but upon reflection, I think it's wrong because of the words, "functions primarily to." While the sentence asserts that literary works are not a map, that is not the purpose of the sentence. The sentence is comparing and contrasting literary works to a map to make the point that a reader must be guided by a text to some degree, but not to the degree that one may rely on a map. B matches this better, but the wording is definitely tricky.