<p>Through a friend's father, Elizabeth found a job at a publishing company. Her parents were puzzled by this. The daughters of their friends were announcing their engagements in the Times, and those who joined the Peace Corps or had gone to graduate school were filled under the heading of "Useful Service" as if they had entered convents or dedicated themselves to the poor. Elizabeth further puzzled her parents by refusing to take a cent of their money, although her mother knew the truth: what you dole out to the young binds them to you. To have Elizabeth owing nothing was disconcerting, to say at least. </p>
<p>Q: the narrator mentions the daughters of Elizabeth's parents's friends in line 3 primarily to
a) criticize a behavior
b) praise an activity
c) explain a reaction
d) note a transformation
e)advocate an action </p>
<p>Through elimination, I crossed out a,b and e.
I can see in the passage the reaction of Elizabeth but not really any explanation. I wonder if the answer would be d? maybe from the action of the daughters of Elizabeth's parents's friends, the author perhaps emphasize another kind of reaction of Elizabeth????</p>
<p>ah, one more question.
does anyone understand the phrase "appeal to authority"? appeal has so many meanings and I'm really crazy with it. I've seen it several times in both practice and real tests!!!</p>
<p>I would eliminate d because that is completely out of topic.</p>
<p>You should look for the main idea and answer the question according to it. What is the passage basically saying? It is saying that Elizabeth’s parents are puzzled by her behaviour. </p>
<p>Daughters of friends are mentioned as examples of the behaviour that would be not puzzling and normal in their eyes. Daughters of friends are not main topic here. They are as a device for telling the main idea. They are a “side thing”.</p>
<p>This question asks you to give the answer according to the main idea. I think usually questions are asking that. SAT is testing how well you can discern the main point from the distractions/irrelevant points. SAT will always want you to know the main idea.</p>
<p>a) criticize a behavior - very tempting… but the examples of other daughters are not told to criticize the behaviour of Elizabeth.
b) praise an activity - this is a side point. Yes, parents see their friends’ daughters’ behaviour as normal and how they would expect her to behave but that is not the point.
c) explain a reaction - seems correct… The examples were told to explain why the parents are puzzled. They expect their daughter to behave in the same way their friends daughters are behaving.
d) note a transformation - out of topic, maybe a transformation of changing lives but that is not the point here.
e)advocate an action - no one is advocating the action here.</p>
<p>So what is the correct answer?</p>
<p>the answer is C.
I got it
thank you very much!!!</p>
<p>i was puzzled by your ‘given answer’…
C should be correct because the example illustrated why her parents were perplexed: it was due to their friends’ daughters’ cases</p>