PrepTest 133 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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Passage A.

Historical scholarship · Ideal of objectivity is central

Facts vs. interpretations · Judge interpretations based on how well they account for the facts

According to the objectivity ideal, historians can have different interpretations of an event, but that doesn't mean the events don't have a fixed meaning.

Analogy to judges · Objective historians are like neutral judges; they should not advocate

Historians should be balanced and nonbiased.

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Historical scholarship · Requires self-discipline to be different from propaganda

Objectivity vs. neutrality · Historians can be objective without being neutral

Objectivity is about detaching from values for the purpose of achieving a deeper understanding. But it's OK to have values.

Passage Style

24.

The author of passage B ███ ███ ████ ██ █████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

What’s a point of disagreement between Passage B and the objective historians described in Passage A? Well, the main point of Passage B was that objectivity doesn’t require neutrality. However, the objective historians do think objectivity requires neutrality. So, the correct answer is likely to relate to what objectivity requires.

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Does Passage B disagree with (A)? No. In the second paragraph, Passage B states: “The objective thinker does not value detachment as an end in itself but only as an indispensable means of achieving deeper understanding.” This indicates that Passage B thinks detachment can be helpful for objective thinkers in understanding history. It’s not clear whether understanding history is the same as “achieving an objective view of past events,” but the point is that we can’t say Passage B thinks detachment does not help achieve objectivity. So (A) is not a point of disagreement.

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(B) is very close to what we could predict about the point of disagreement. The objective historians of Passage A believe objectivity requires “insulation from political considerations.” But, to the contrary, the author of Passage B believes “objectivity is perfectly compatible with strong political commitment.”

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historians today are ████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████

Neither the objective historians nor Passage B mention any changes in objectivity between historians of today and historians of the past.

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The objective historians and Passage B would both reject (D). Neither think propaganda is helpful to scholarship. Because the objective historians and Passage B share the same opinion about (D), it’s not a point of disagreement.

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It’s possible that the objective historians of Passage A would agree with (E). However, we cannot infer that Passage B would disagree with (E). Although Passage B doesn’t comment on differing interpretations from historians of different eras, it also doesn’t suggest that this didn’t happen. Since we don’t know Passage B’s view about (E), it’s not a point of disagreement.

PrepTest 133 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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