Q23

[gplaya123]

Could someone explain why it's D?

I do think that other answer choices are terrible but can't find any grounds why D is the answer...

[tommywallach]

Hey gplaya123,

So, this is a very specific question, about the end of the second paragraph. It can often be helpful on questions like these to defer to the purpose of the paragraph in general, of which this particular person is merely cited as an example. Let's quickly at the structure of the whole passage:

Paragraph 1: Intro to "golden age" theory
Paragraph 2: "Golden Age" theory sticks around
Paragraph 3: "golden age" theory sucks <--author's opinion

So the second paragraph is about how the "golden age" theory had an "extraordinarily tenacious hold" on historians. Hoff-Wilson is cited as an example of this.

(A) There were no historians in the nineteenth-century that are discussed here. Only twentieth-century historians writing about the nineteenth century

(B) Hoff-Wilson is definitely not used to show how the theory was developed, merely how it stuck around for a long time

(C) The author disagrees with Hoff-Wilson's viewpoint, and also says it's merely one example out of many, so not particularly influential

(D) This is the whole point of paragraph 2, and Hoff-Wilson fits in with this.

(E) Not current, as the author thinks the OPPOSITE view is more current.

Hope that helps!

-t