PT150 S2 Q25 ExplanationSociologists study folktales

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   No Impact5% picked this

   Because no single person is the author of a folktale, folktales must reflect the values of a culture rather

   This helps explain why sociologists would see folktales as a reflection of a culture, not a reflection of an individual author. But it doesn't tell us how the same folktale, being adapted to cultures X, Y, and Z, could illuminate something distinctive about culture X as compared to culture Y or Z.

   5%
2. B

   Unrelated to Goal5% picked this

   Folktales are often oral traditions that persist from times when few people

   This seems to be explaining why folktales exist in the first place, but it has nothing to do with explaining how the same narratives could be adapted in distinctive ways that would reveal the values of the culture adapting them.

   5%
3. C

   Correct74% picked this

   The manner in which a culture adapts its narratives reveals information about the values

   Why this is right

   This allows us to resolve the tension between the two things we know about folktales: - they provide sociologists with a way to understand distinctive values of a culture but - they are almost all adapted from the same ancient narratives This is saying what we guessed, which is that "Yes, it starts from the same story. But the way a culture adapts that ancient story to its culture reveals information about that culture's values."

   Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   74%
4. D

   Unrelated to Goal Explains Background12% picked this

   The ancient narratives persist largely because they speak to basic themes and features of

   This seems to be explaining why folktales tend to use the same ancient narratives. But it has nothing to do with explaining how sociologists infer distinctive values about different culture via folktales, if all the folktales are telling the same narrative.

   12%
5. E

   No Impact3% picked this

   Folktales are often morality tales, used to teach children the values important

   This looks more tempting since it connects folktales to values. But the tension we're trying to resolve is same narrative can show distinctive values? If an ancient narrative teaches children the value of hard work, and lots of different cultures have folktales adapted from this ancient narrative, then how is this folktale showing anything distinctive about the cultures using it? It would seem to show us more what sort of shared values there are.

   3%