Reading-In a new book about the antiparty feeling

[750plus]

Team

According to the passage, the author and Ketcham agree on which of the following points?

(A) The first six Presidents held the same ideas about political parties as did later Presidents in the United States.
(B) Classical ideals supported the growth of commercial forces in the United States.
(C) The first political parties in the United States were formed during Van Buren's term in office.
(D) The first six Presidents placed great emphasis on individualism and civil rights.
(E) Widespread acceptance of political parties occurred during Andrew Jackson's presidency

Can you explain why D is incorrect here ?

Warm Regards
Rajat Gugnani

[RonPurewal]

D is incorrect because it's ... it's ... just TOTALLY WRONG.

• in the second paragraph, 'individualism' is specifically cited as an 'ENEMY of classical ideals'.
the 'classical ideals' were held by the first 6 presidents.
so, 'individualism' is exactly the opposite of what choice D says.

• 'civil rights' appears nowhere in the entire thing.

[RonPurewal]

more importantly, though, you shouldn't even be reading that much.

here's what the text has to say about ketcham's view of the first 6 presidents:
the first six held values inherited from the classical humanist tradition of eighteenth-century England. In this view, government was designed not to satisfy the private desires of the people but to make them better citizens; this tradition stressed the disinterested devotion of political leaders to the public good. Justice, wisdom, and courage were more important qualities in a leader than the ability to organize voters and win elections

if you read those words you will find NOTHING about 'individualism' and NOTHING about 'civil rights'.

therefore D is wrong.
end of story.

[RonPurewal]

the real question is—why did you think D might NOT be wrong?
honestly, i'm not seeing it. if you look in the correct place then nothing from D is mentioned there at all—and, if you look further afield, you'll see that D is the exact opposite of the truth.

what did you find tempting about D?
there must be some very serious over-thinking going on here. so, this problem might have a fair bit to teach you about keeping things simple.

[KathyL227]

Hi Ron, there is another question for this argument:

The author of the passage would most likely to agree with which of following statements about Ketcham?

A He overemphasizes the influence of classical ideals on the first six Presidents of the United States.

B He fails to recognize that classical ideals had little influence on politics in the United States.

C He does not pay adequate attention to the negative aspects of the first Presidents’ commitment to classical ideals.

D He inaccurately suggests that classical ideals gave rise to our modern notion of democracy.

E He underestimates the effect of ideologies other than the humanist tradition on the first six Presidents.


the corresponding passage I found in the argument about author's attitude toward Ketcham is "Ketcham is so strongly committed to justifying the classical ideals, however, that he underestimates the advantages of their decline. ". I couldn't identify the correct answer base on that. Please give an instruction on how to find the correct answer for this question.

Thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

you got the right statement.

he underestimates the advantages of their decline

hmm... this means things that are better when those ideals are gone.

...so, clearly, bad things about those ideals.

'he doesn't pay enough attention to the bad aspects of those ideals'
...C, pretty much verbatim.

[RonPurewal]

notice that the connection you're making is trivial: if there are ADVANTAGES to GETTING RID OF something, then, quite clearly, those are the DISADVANTAGES/NEGATIVE aspects of the thing itself.

in the real world, this is a connection that even 7-year-olds can make (as long as it's phrased in terms that a 7-year-old would actually understand).
Your sister is gone at summer camp. Why do you like when she's gone?
--> think about the answers to this.

when you're dealing with formal text, though, it's all too easy to let this sort of common sense slip away. don't let that happen.

[ChristinaN208]

Another question from this passage:

The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about Ketcham?

a) He overemphasizes the influence of classical ideals on the first six presidents of the US.
b) He fails to recognize that classical ideals has little influence on politics in the US.
c) He does not pay adequate attention to the negative aspects of the first six presidents' commitment to classical ideals.
d) He inaccurately suggests that classical ideals gave rise to our modern notion of democracy.
e) He underestimates the effect of ideology other than the humanist tradition on the first six president.

OA: C

I narrowed it down to A & C but ended up choosing A which was incorrect. I picked it because the passage says "Even during the first presidency (Washington's), however, the classical conception of virtuous leadership was being undermined by commercial forces that had been gathering since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century." So that's why thought that Ketcham had "overemphasized the influence of classical ideals" even since the first president.

In hindsight, I understand why C is correct but not clear enough for me to make the distinction on the actual test. Can you better explain why C is correct and how I can avoid picking an answer like A?

Thanks!

[cgentry]

Another question from this passage:

The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about Ketcham?

a) He overemphasizes the influence of classical ideals on the first six presidents of the US.
b) He fails to recognize that classical ideals has little influence on politics in the US.
c) He does not pay adequate attention to the negative aspects of the first six presidents' commitment to classical ideals.
d) He inaccurately suggests that classical ideals gave rise to our modern notion of democracy.
e) He underestimates the effect of ideology other than the humanist tradition on the first six president.

OA: C

I narrowed it down to A & C but ended up choosing A which was incorrect. I picked it because the passage says "Even during the first presidency (Washington's), however, the classical conception of virtuous leadership was being undermined by commercial forces that had been gathering since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century." So that's why thought that Ketcham had "overemphasized the influence of classical ideals" even since the first president.

=

Take a look at the next sentence after the one you quoted. It states "Although Ketcham does not picture the struggle in quite this way..." This is a sign that the previous sentence is the author making a general point about the topic under discussion, but is not meant to directly address an argument Ketcham actually made.

A few lines down, you see "Ketcham is so strongly committed to justifying the classical ideals, however, that he underestimates the advantages of their decline." This is the author's response to an argument Ketcham has actually made, and this is what I would use to select an answer to this question.

Hope this helps!
Chris

[Gui]

Chris,

Regarding this question (above), could I argue that (a) overestimate is different from being strongly committed to justifying the classical ideals and (b) the flip side of "underestimates the advantages of their decline" is "overestimate the disadvantages of their decline" and not "overemphasizes the influence of classical ideals" as written on A? Many tks!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Good point. For this type of problem - inference - we're looking for an answer that we can deduce from the passage without making assumptions. As you point out, answer A simply "flips the wording" of the phrase "underestimates the advantages of [classical ideals'] decline", making it a safe inference.

As for the trap in answer A, it's carefully worded to tempt someone who reads hurriedly. Separating what the author thinks, what Ketcham thinks, and what the author thinks about Ketcham is important, as Chris points out.