SAT Critical Reading question

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1

Hi, I’m preparing for the SAT, and while taking some practice tests, I found some questions that I could not understand its explanation.

(the passage for the following question can be found on 22nd page of this link (or, as the page number goes, on pg. 21):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-SjC2QWxqXRQTI4bWp4UW9WUzA/view )

  1. The sentence in lines 30-31 ("Popularity...work") primarily serves to: (A) advance a provocative and unusual argument (B) clarify an obscure principle (C) note an evolving trend (D) espouse an unpopular belief (E) indicate the reasoning behind a point of view

I chose choice (D), because the sentence itself seemed to support this. The answer, however, was (E). I completely do not understand the reasoning behind this. Can someone explain this to me, please?

Much help will be greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

It’s not (D) because it’s a popular belief–she’s saying that’s what OTHER academics think, and is why they don’t like her: “my fellow garbage collectors regard my work as suspect because it has become quite popular.” In other words, she thinks they are suspicious of her work because it’s popular. She’s one person, they are many; therefore their belief is popular. More importantly, she is absolutely NOT advocating (or “espousing”) that belief–they hold it, not her, and she is complaining about it.

The answer is (E) because the point of view is theirs: her work isn’t good because it’s popular. The sentence in 30-31 is giving the reasoning: “properly rigorous academic work” is not popular (therefore her work, which is popular, must not be “properly rigorous”).

3

Oh my god, thank you, again!