Q26

[phoebster21]

Can someone please explain why A is not correct? I can see why D is, but I don't know what is necessarily wrong with A.

Thanks!

[ohthatpatrick]

Our first job with this question is to find a place in the passage where the author "expresses uncertainty".

I find good keywords for that in line 51. "It is not clear how .... "

So the author is uncertain how far the determined civil rights objectives of activists extended to regular Mexican Americans.

Since we have such a specific pre-phrase, I would scan the answer choices looking for something that sounds like line 51-52.

(D) looks good!

(This question is a good example of one in which you may spend most of your time up-front, finding the 'Proof Window' ... i.e. researching the passage for a keyword match with the question stem ... but once we find the line where the author expresses uncertainty, we're basically done!)

(A) This is contradicted by the final sentence. The author says that "since we lack a better understanding of XYZ, we CANNOT assume" what (A) says.

(B) no line reference for "historians PRECEDING Garcia".

(C) This is contradicted by lines 30-36, in which the author takes a clear position on consensus.

(E) Seemingly contradicted by lines 18-26

[haeeunjee]

I think (A) is also wrong because of a detail shift --

"whether or not one can assume that the increase in the number"

while the passage (ln 58) says "increase in the proportion of Mexican Americans born"

(A) is more deeply wrong because the author definitely isn't uncertain about her feelings -- she says we definitely cannot assume.