Q8 - Storytelling appears to be a universal

[irini101]

I narrow down to C by elimination but when seeing "all" I hesitate. The corresponding scope in the stimulus is "widely separated...and diverse..common...", but does it equate to "all"?

Any thought?

[noah]

I'm not in love with this question, though for a different reason than you.

We're asked for an inference - a "soft" inference since it's "most supports."

In the stimulus we learn that storytelling is universal, and we learn about common themes and story types.

(C) is the most strongly supported answer, as we have some evidence that stories from different times and cultures shared the same themes and types. This is loosely equivalent to "human concerns and interests." The stimulus doesn't explicitly say that these concerns and interests are in each and every culture, but (C) is the most strongly supported answer.

(A) is out of scope - we learn nothing about storytellers borrowing themes. For all we know, every storyteller arrives at those themes on their own.

(B) is unsupported/out of scope. We don't know what the storytellers understand.

(D) is out of scope since there's no discussion of relative importance.

(E) is out of scope.

So, with 4 horrible answers, the one remaining, though imperfect, is perfect !

[shaynfernandez]

Having a hard time buying into this answer at all.
"All" is a very strict word. How can we say that every single culture has these elements?

Would D. not be more reasonable?
"Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures.

[noah]

Having a hard time buying into this answer at all.
"All" is a very strict word. How can we say that every single culture has these elements?

Would D. not be more reasonable?
"Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures.

(C) is supported by the second sentence of the stimulus, which tells us the themes are common. If something is held in common, it means everyone's got it.

(D) is not supported by the first sentence because storytelling only appears to be a universal aspect, and, more importantly, even if it is a universal aspect of all cultures, we don't know it was as important in the past as it is now. Perhaps it was not so important 500 years ago because people were busy running from marauding hordes.

That clear it up?

BTW, I took out your quotation of (D) - even though it's arguably fair use, I wouldn't want LSAC to bug you about copyright issues.

[shaynfernandez]

That definitely helps.
The LR section for this PT was the most difficult one I have encountered. However I haven't done any post 2007 PT's yet. Is there any kind of connection?

[noah]

That definitely helps.
The LR section for this PT was the most difficult one I have encountered. However I haven't done any post 2007 PT's yet. Is there any kind of connection?

Glad that hit the spot.

There are minor fluctuations in difficulty on sections, but it always gets cleared up by the test curve. Perhaps that section had more of a question type that hits at a weakness of yours.

The real issue is whether Americans are getting smarter! Personally, the $110 billion valuation of facebook tells me otherwise.

[huitungsing]

IMO, The strong "ALL" in Choice C can be accounted for. If we sees "storytelling" as a kind of "human concerns and interests", then the "storytelling is an universal aspect of culture" will allow Choice C to be right.

Wouldnt that be better than what noah suggested: seeing "common themes" as "human concerns and interests". That would still require the addition of an assumption "The comparative studies managed to cover ALL of the cultures"

Let me know if my thinking is on the right track.

[noah]

IMO, The strong "ALL" in Choice C can be accounted for. If we sees "storytelling" as a kind of "human concerns and interests", then the "storytelling is an universal aspect of culture" will allow Choice C to be right.

Wouldnt that be better than what noah suggested: seeing "common themes" as "human concerns and interests". That would still require the addition of an assumption "The comparative studies managed to cover ALL of the cultures"

Let me know if my thinking is on the right track.

I do think the first sentence helps cover the "all" in (C). Especially since the stimulus is structured so that the second sentence is offered as support for the first.

[cwolfington]

D is also iffy because "past" in the stimulus does not necessarily mean ancient. It could be Middle Ages or 18th century.

[nchen93]

(D) is out of scope since there's no discussion of relative importance.

Hi there
Still not sure why C is a better answer than D. I have been studying for months now and seem to notice that there will be "trick answers" that pop out as obvious, with the real, correct answer just below it. I used to fall for the trap and not select the correct answer. Now that I am more vigilant however, I can get out of those traps but then fall into a trap of over thinking, like with this question. I chose D because it explicitly says in the first sentence of question that "...universal aspect" of "past and present". This makes D sound right since if it was a universal aspect then and now, then it can't be that it was less important then versus now. C just seems too definitive with the "all" and I would normally reason that it is a trick question designed to get fast readers who don't notice how definitive it is.

Any tips?
Thank you!

[JamesM914]

Having a hard time buying into this answer at all.
"All" is a very strict word. How can we say that every single culture has these elements?

Would D. not be more reasonable?
"Storytelling appears to be a universal aspect of both past and present cultures.

(C) is supported by the second sentence of the stimulus, which tells us the themes are common. If something is held in common, it means everyone's got it.

(D) is not supported by the first sentence because storytelling only appears to be a universal aspect, and, more importantly, even if it is a universal aspect of all cultures, we don't know it was as important in the past as it is now. Perhaps it was not so important 500 years ago because people were busy running from marauding hordes.

That clear it up?

BTW, I took out your quotation of (D) - even though it's arguably fair use, I wouldn't want LSAC to bug you about copyright issues.

I disagree Noah. The answer is supported by the first sentence with the term "universal." Just because something is held in common, that doesn't necessarily mean that this commonality is held by ALL. It could be just a few cultures have something in common, but that doesn't necessarily mean all.

[eddie5492]

My concern is the reason used to eliminate (A) can also be used to eliminate (C). Can someone please clarify.

Thank you.

[WesleyC316]

My concern is the reason used to eliminate (A) can also be used to eliminate (C). Can someone please clarify.

Thank you.

I beg to differ. We eliminate (A) because we have no idea whether the storytellers "borrow" themes from other cultures. All we know is that they talk about similar things, but we don't know why they do that. And in my opinion, the phenomenon can be easily attributed to human nature.

The question is a most strongly supported, not a must be true. (C) is worded in a strong way but is definitely strongly supported by the stimulus.

[ScarlettH38]

The answer I picked was originally D.

After reading the explanation here, I think the way to go about it is ... from the question stem it asked " the study of traditional narratives " - so the only relevant portion is the second sentence which starts from comparative study of traditional narratives ... diverse cultures and common themes such as XYZ.

And since it is an inference question, the
"common themes" = certain human concerns and interests, and "diverse cultures" = all of the world's cultures.

Is this line of thought correct?

[Laura Damone]

The first sentence is relevant, too! While it isn't a direct citation of the study itself. because it says "appears to be," we can infer that the claim is drawn based on the study. It is the "universal" in sentence one that allows us to pick an answer as strong as C.

Hope this helps!