Q21

[nonameee]

Can someone please confirm that the difference between (A) and (C) is that (A), although true, does not capture the whole idea of the passage?

Thank you.

[noah]

If you kept your eye on the scale - passage-discussion-t5719.html - this should have been a manageable question.

(A) is unsupported. We never hear about the English and colonials sharing (or not sharing) any thoughts about whether they shared a common political vocabulary. The passage only mentions what the colonials thought.

(B) is true, but too narrow to be the main idea.

(C) is correct - and is seen throughout the passage, particularly paragraphs 1 and 3.

(D) is true, but, like (B), is too narrow.

(E) is again too narrow. While this topic is discussed in the last paragraph, this is far from the main idea. It's an explanation for the main idea.

I hope that clears it up.

[nonameee]

Noah, thanks for your reply. You are right.

The passage says: "[The colonists] shared a common political vocabulary with the English in England... [T]hese colonials failed to observe that their experience in America had given the words a significance quite different from that accepted by the English..."

In other words, the colonials must have thought that the words they used conveyed the same meaning as in the language used by the English in England. And it is true that the passage says nothing about what the English in England thought about the use of political terms on both sides of the Atlantic.

Thanks.