PT83.S2.Q26 - The passage can most accurately be described...

So__What

I don't entirely understand why the answer is B and not E.

I think E probably is not the answer, in hindsight, because it is not "one writer's version of the theory" but at the same time the passage does say things like "She (Gilman) argued."

I have trouble with the "intellectual controversy" part of answer choice B, it didn't seem like a controversy to me, just an interpretation.

Can anyone explain?

Thx

J.Y. Ping

Ah good question! The answer is to be found in lines 9 - 14 "some of these Social Darwinist theorists held that..." and lines 14 - 20 "Another, more activist group of Social Darwinists held that..."

That's the controversy.

Next paragraph: "Gilman identified herself with this latter ideological camp..."

This largely explains why (B) is right.

As for why (E) doesn't work, it's because Gilman isn't presenting her version of the theory of evolution, which is a theory whose domain is biology. She's taking the theory of evolution and applying it to a different domain, society. See lines 6 - 7 "Darwin's theory of evolution did not directly apply to..."