Non-Objectivist Discourse

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct78% picked this

   They have long assumed the possibility of a neutral depiction

   Why this is right

   We know these systems are rooted in objectivism, and objectivism holds that there is a single neutral description of events. And because our author disagrees with this perspective, it's reasonable to call this an assumption. "Long" might both give us pause, so this might not feel like a slam dunk on the first pass, but this passage has an Old/New framework and the objectivist perspective is the Old way. That can help us feel better about "long."

   Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   78%
2. B

   Unsupported Relationship16% picked this

   They have generally remained unskewed by particular points

   This answer sounds great because it copies and pastes a phrase from the target reading: "unskewed by particular points of view." But in the reading, that phrase is a modifier, and it doesn't modify the intellectual systems in question. It modifies "a single neutral description of each event." So it's the descriptions of events that are unskewed, not the intellectual systems themselves. That "generally" should also give us pause. That degree isn't present in our target reading.

   16%
3. C

   Unsupported Relationship1% picked this

   Their discursive practices have yet to be analyzed by

   The first sentence of the passage does talk about " unrecognized discursive practices" but it doesn't relate those to the intellectual systems in question.

   1%
4. D

   Contradicted4% picked this

   They accord a privileged position to the language of emotion

   The target reading tells us objectivism assigns a privileged position to the single neutral description of events. If we ctrl F for "emotion," we find in P2 that objectivist discourse systematically disallows the language of emotion and experience. So not only is this a bit of a word salad, pulling in concepts from outside the support window, it's actually contradicted by the reading.

   4%
5. E

   Contradicted1% picked this

   The accuracy of their basic tenets has been confirmed

   Our author's objection to objectivism is what's been confirmed by psychologists: "As psychologists have demonstrated, all observers bring to a situation a set of expectations, values, and beliefs that determine what the observers are able to see and hear." In other words, they confirm that there is no such thing as a neutral observer, thereby disconfirming the tenets of objectivism and the intellectual systems in question.

   1%