PrepTest 158 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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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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Rosenthal's Purpose · To question definition of plagiarism

Rosenthal's answer · The required postmodern answer

Postmodern answer = there's no difference between plagiarism and things that people don't think are plagiarism. It's just about power; if people in power don't like certain copying, it's plagiarism.

Rosenthal's assumption · Plagiarism doesn't involve a moral issue; it's about power

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Ricks' perspective · Political history should involve moral considerations

Although there's no universal moral standard, that doesn't mean moral standards shouldn't exist. (Not sure what "political history" means, but clearly Rosenthal's book is an example of it.)

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Intro topic · Plagiarism

Accusations of plagiarism in history have been very fluid, and are influenced by commercial, artistic, and legal views. Sometimes the same act has been called plagiarism and not plagiarism.

Ricks' perspective · Critical of historical approach to ethical issues

He thinks it leads to moral relativism, which he thinks is bad.

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Author's criticism · Ricks paints with too broad a brush

Some historical approaches might be good, even if others are bad.

Concession · Ricks is right to criticize some scholarship

Not all moral standards are just about power, and it can be wrong to project modern-day ideologies onto past events. Ricks is right to make these points.

Author's perspective · Ricks is too extreme

Some historical scholarship can still be good, even if there's a lot of bad scholarship out there. Recognizing different historical understandings of plagiarism doesn't imply any agreement with one or more of those understandings.

Passage Style

19.

Passage A asserts that the ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ ████

Question Type

Stated

For this question, we only need to consider passage A. This is a Stated question about Rosenthal’s book, which questions the differences between plagiarism and imitation. Author A states that Rosenthal’s question “invariably”— or inevitably— leads to the required postmodern answer that there is no difference between plagiarism and imitation.

political history must █████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██ █████ ██████

This is not stated in the passage. Author A thinks that political history should consider moral issues, while Rosenthal seems to dismiss moral considerations. But author A never says that the inevitable answer to the question about the difference between plagiarism and imitation is that political history must avoid considering moral issues.

there is no ██████████ ███████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████

This is stated here. Author A argues that Rosenthal’s question about the difference between plagiarism, imitation, and adaptation inevitably leads to “the required postmodern answer” that there is no difference between these things.

61%

moral conventions are ██████ ██ ███████

Author A does state that moral conventions may be worthy of respect. But he doesn’t say that this is the inevitable answer to Rosenthal’s question about the difference between plagiarism and imitation. Instead, he thinks that the inevitable answer to her question is that there is no difference between plagiarism and imitation. In other words, even though (C) is stated in the passage, it isn’t related to what the question stem is asking us about.

19%

there has been ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ███████

The question stem only asks us about passage A, but (D) is stated in passage B. It isn’t “the inevitable answer to the question raised in Rosenthal’s book,” nor is it stated in passage A at all.

12%

bad history is ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████

The question stem only asks us about passage A, but (E) is stated in passage B. It isn’t “the inevitable answer to the question raised in Rosenthal’s book,” nor is it stated in passage A at all.

PrepTest 158 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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