Q13

[bigtree65]

I had it down to A and B and didn't like that A had the word arbitrary, also lines 42-45 seem to show support that there was disagreement over the absence of a standard dialect, so why is A the answer?

[maryadkins]

The right answer here is (B)! Hope this helps.

[bigtree65]

I'm sorry I wrote that backwards lol, I meant why is A the acceptable choice and B is the answer? The word arbitrary was never in the text

[maryadkins]

We know the second half of (A) works, and while the word "arbitrary" doesn't appear in the text, the first few lines of paragraph 4 support the idea that choosing which language to write down would be an arbitrary decision in the view of the Northern Utes. If there are many languages in a particular community and they don't know which one is to be written down and taught, that means they don't have criteria by which to decide--i.e. it would be arbitrary.

[edwinc]

Could someone explain to me why B is the right answer and not D? Thanks

[maryadkins]

We are looking for the statement that the Northern Utes would NOT agree with. (D) is stated nearly word for word in lines 40-42.

(B) uses the word "standard," which is problematic, since we were explicitly told in the passage that the Northern Utes chose not to standardize their language (line 39). (C) and (E) are both supported and are consistent with (D)"”all of these are beliefs that the Northern Utes would be likely to hold.

Hope this helps. Don't miss that "except"!

[missbenyamin]

Regarding answer choice "A", I would also add support from lines 45-47 in the passage, which states that "lack of standard orthography made sense in the context of the community's needs" - this provides support for the idea that standardizing languages is "sometimes unnecessary." (If standardizing languages was ALWAYS necessary, I don't think the author would say that a lack of a standard language makes sense, even within a specific, presumably favorable context.)

Also, in terms of the arbitrary choices mentioned in answer choice "A", I believe that answer is referring to the "various phonetic spellings of words" (line 40) - in a standard language, one of these various phonetic spellings would have to be chosen as the default, despite the fact that they all convey the same meaning. The passage provides no support for a reason to choose one spelling over another, and it thus can be inferred that deciding between them would be an arbitrary decision.

Moderators - would you agree or disagree with my analysis?