confusing CR questions

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Passage 1 In a recent survey concerning plagiarism among scholars, two University of Alabama economists asked 1,200 of their colleagues if they believed their work had Line ever been stolen. A startling 40 percent answered yes. While not a random sample, the responses still represent hundreds of cases of alleged plagiarism. Very few of them will ever be dragged into the sunlight. That’s because academia often discourages victims from seeking justice, and when they do, tends to ignore their complaints. “It’s like cockroaches,” says the author of a recent book about academic fraud. “For every one you see on the floor, there are a hundred behind the stove.”

Passage 2 Words belong to the person who wrote them. There are few simpler ethical notions than this, particularly as society directs more and more energy toward the creation of intellectual property. In the past 30 years, copyright laws have been strengthened, fighting piracy has become an obsession with Hollywood, and, in the worlds of academia and publishing, plagiarism has gone from being bad literary manners to something close to a felony. When a noted historian was recently found to have lifted passages from other historians, she was asked to resign from the board of the Pulitzer Prize committee. And why not? If she had robbed a bank, she would have been fired the next day.

  1. Both passages discuss which of the following? (A) Reactions to plagiarism committed by scholars (B) An increase in plagiarism by college professors
    (C) The impact that academic fraud can have on the communication of scholarly ideas (D) A major change in copyright laws that occurred within the past three decades (E) Recent and highly publicized cases of plagiarism

Can anyone explain me the answer?

2

A. My choice for correct answer, by the process of elimination.
B. Does either of the passages say that plagiarism is more prevalent NOW than in the past? The only thing I’m getting is that we’re cracking down more now than in the past (passage 2).
C. Kind of but not really – is there anything about the EFFECT plagiarism has here? Both passages just talk about the fact that it exists.
D. Passage 2 supports this, but passage 1 doesn’t.
E. No – the first passage says that the cases AREN’T highly publicized.

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Reaction to plagiarism Passage 1
“academia often discourages victims from seeking justice, and when they do, tends to ignore their complaints”

Reaction to plagiarism Passage 2
“When a noted historian was recently found to have lifted passages from other historians, she was asked to resign from the board of the Pulitzer Prize committee”

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