PT83.S3.Q12 - greek tablets

Leah M B

J.Y., can you help us on this one? PT83.3.12 "In a scene in an ancient Greek play..."

Honestly, I was completely stumped on test day on this one and the answer choices still mostly seem irrelevant to me. I don't understand how to process it at all. Any insight?

EvetteCee

Hiii, I know you asked J.Y. but I figured I'd take a shot.

The question is basically asking us which AC is false according to the stimulus. Below is my thought process and how I approached this question --- I hope it helps you.

For the most part, you're right. Most of the AC's are irrelevant to the stimulus, which is why you can't really reject them.

Answer Choices:

(A) We can't reject this based on the stimulus because nothing in the stimulus addresses this. It could be true or false.

(B) We don't have enough information to know whethere this is true or not. So, we can't reject it.

(C) Again, this could or could not be true.

(D) Correct. This we can reject because Demosthenes was reading silently to himself. This is why his companion pressed him for information about what the oracle had written.

(E) We know that the prophecy in the stimulus was writte down on writing tablets, but we don't know if this was a rare occurence or not. So, we can't reject it.

J.Y. Ping

@EvetteCee Good!

I'll talk more about (D). From the information in the stimulus, we can loosely infer that Demosthenes was not reading aloud from the tablet / was just reading very quietly or silently to himself. This follows from the description of (1) him looking at the tablet; (2) his expression of amazement at the contents; (3) his companion reacting to his expression of amazement by asking him for the information of the content; and finally (4) his explanation of the contents. It's a play after all. You can picture the actors on stage performing all this. What has happened?

Demosthenes did not read the contents of the oracle tablet aloud. If he had read it aloud, then it doesn't make sense that the companion would ask for information nor does it make sense that Demosthenes should have to explain. After all, he would have just read it aloud.

Because we can make this loose inference, we can reject (D) for stating its contradiction.

I say "loose" because this question is as to an MBF as an MSS is to an MBT. In other words, this is an "almost must be false" question.

Does that make sense? If not, please say why or where and I can expand.

I'm not talking about the other answers precisely because they're so peripheral to the information in the stimulus that they cannot be rejected. But if any of the answers seem attractive, I can talk about them.

Leah M B

@"J.Y. Ping" said:
@EvetteCee Good!

I'll talk more about (D). From the information in the stimulus, we can loosely infer that Demosthenes was not reading aloud from the tablet / was just reading very quietly or silently to himself. This follows from the description of (1) him looking at the tablet; (2) his expression of amazement at the contents; (3) his companion reacting to his expression of amazement by asking him for the information of the content; and finally (4) his explanation of the contents. It's a play after all. You can picture the actors on stage performing all this. What has happened?

Demosthenes did not read the contents of the oracle tablet aloud. If he had read it aloud, then it doesn't make sense that the companion would ask for information nor does it make sense that he should have to explain. After all, he would have just read it aloud.

Because we can make this loose inference, we can reject (D) for stating its contradiction.

I say "loose" because this question is as to an MBF as an MSS is to an MBT. In other words, this is an "almost must be false" question.

Does that make sense? If not, please say why or where and I can expand.

I'm not talking about the other answers precisely because they're so peripheral to the information in the stimulus that they cannot be rejected. But if any of the answers seem attractive, I can talk about them.

Yes, this does help. Thank you, both of you! I think that was also part of my problem, the wording of the stem. It was almost like a "Least strongly supported"? "Most weakly supported"? Haha. It was a little difficult to parse exactly what they were asking. I think even understanding that relationship helps clear it up some for me.

mepstlsat

@J.Y. Ping. But D says in "Ancient Greece" and the stimulus says in an ancient Greek play. Does the fact that the play is Greek mean that its being performed in Greece? What if its an Ancient Greece play that is being performed in London? I totally see the reasoning for why its right but I crossed it out because I thought it being in Ancient Greece was out of scope, as they never tell us where the play is being performed. Am I just overthinking this?

Thanks for your help anyone!

pioneer321

@mepstlsat said:
@J.Y. Ping. But D says in "Ancient Greece" and the stimulus says in an ancient Greek play. Does the fact that the play is Greek mean that its being performed in Greece? What if its an Ancient Greece play that is being performed in London? I totally see the reasoning for why its right but I crossed it out because I thought it being in Ancient Greece was out of scope, as they never tell us where the play is being performed. Am I just overthinking this?

Thanks for your help anyone!

I dont think it matters where the play is performed. The fact that the play itself is ancient Greek, is what allows us to make the inference about the ancient Greece that we need to choose D.

J.Y. Ping

I didn't even see that.

But yes, right. It's a ancient greek play with greek characters. It could be performed anywhere. Or it could have been a movie!

lsat4life

@mepstlsat said:
@J.Y. Ping. But D says in "Ancient Greece" and the stimulus says in an ancient Greek play. Does the fact that the play is Greek mean that its being performed in Greece? What if its an Ancient Greece play that is being performed in London? I totally see the reasoning for why its right but I crossed it out because I thought it being in Ancient Greece was out of scope, as they never tell us where the play is being performed. Am I just overthinking this?

Thanks for your help anyone!

I dont think it matters where the play is performed. The fact that the play itself is ancient Greek, is what allows us to make the inference about the ancient Greece that we need to choose D.
@"J.Y. Ping" said:
I didn't even see that.

But yes, right. It's a ancient greek play with greek characters. It could be performed anywhere. Or it could have been a movie!

But Madame Butterfly is an Italian opera set in Japan. So does the fact that this is an "Ancient Greek play" mean it was set in Ancient Greece?

J.Y. Ping

@thrillhouse Good point! It could be that the ancient Greek play, Knights, was set in ancient Persia and those characters were Persian since it wasn't explicated stated that these were Greek characters. But there is evidence that's not the case: guy's name is Demosthenes and there's an oracle, which is very Greek.

This question isn't an MBF, it's an almost-MBF just like how MSS are almost-MBTs. The inferences don't have to be air tight.