Q9

[legenda689]

Hi, can you please explain why A is right? I mean I get that it logically works, but don't we have support for B in lines 14-15?
Thanks

[maryadkins]

Good question. We're asked for the first step in preparing to teach a traditional language, and we know where to look: beginning of paragraph 2.

Line 13 tells us that before a language can be taught, a community "must first document the language's grammar" and the example is a group that conducted "through analysis and classification" of its "linguistic structures."

Answer choice (A) hits this on the HEAD.

(B) is close but doesn't quite get there. Hierarchy? There's nothing about hierarchy mentioned, and "structure" doesn't necessarily equal hierarchy. Besides, the language in (A) is such an obvious match that it makes (A) the better answer.

(C) (D) and (E) are all not mentioned in this relevant portion of the passage, so we can knock them out right away.

[logicfiend]

(A) is definitely right, but I do want to point out hierarchy isn't out of nowhere. The passage does say from lines 16-18, "The grammatical information is then arranged in sequence from the simpler to the more complex of usage," interpretable as a "hierarchy" of complexity.

But this sentence comes after the part about "analysis and classification of Norther Ute linguistic structures" in lines 15-17.

If anything, (B) is the second step, but not the answer we're looking for.

[JoyS894]

I agree with the post above that hierarchy does not really come out of nowhere, although not perfect I interpreted it in the same way. I think in real time this question is definitely difficult. One question I have though is that 14-15 say that "...it must first document a language's grammar" then provides the example, "A group of Northern Utes spent two years conducting a thorough analysis and classification of linguistic structures." I see that this matches A perfectly, but I was deterred because it is an example, hence it may not apply to other groups. So it is not a leap in assumption to think that this example of what one group did is the same as what other groups did?

[WilliamS846]

I understand why B is incorrect because the question stem asks the first step in preparing to formally teach a traditional language, B according to passage refer to the line18 where it says "the grammatical information is then arranged in sequence from the simpler to the more complex types of usage." the line reference clearly implies hierarchy of grammatical information, but it's the second step because we have "then in the line reference.

[smiller]

This is a definitely a challenging question for all of the reasons cited: because of the way that choice (A) is worded using language from an example in the text, and because the passage does mention arranging grammatical information in a sequence, which makes choice (B) appealing.

As noted, the word "then" in line 18 clearly indicates that arranging the information in a sequence is not the first step, which knocks choice (B) out.

In the example of the Northern Utes, the terms "analysis and classification" serve to explain exactly what is meant by documenting a language's grammar. I can see why someone might eliminate (A) at first, but there are really strong reasons to eliminate all of the remaining answers. This might be a situation where someone would eliminate all five answers. In that case, you need to go back and look for the one that's least offensive or the best fit for the question being asked.