Language & Thought

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct60% picked this

   The author of passage A is writing for a general audience, while the author of passage B is

   Why this is right

   The 2nd passage seems to assume prior knowledge of the Whorfian hypothesis, because its last sentence talks about strong/weak/non - Whorfian as though the reader will know what any of that means. Also, using terms like "numerate subjects" sounds like something a layman wouldn't understand but an academic would. Meanwhile, the 1st passage tells us about Whorf as though we've never heard of him before.

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

   60%
2. B

   Unsupported: anthropologist11% picked this

   The author of passage A is an anthropologist, while the author of passage B

   It's not clear why we would say that the author of passage A is an anthropologist. She could be, but she could just as easily be a linguist herself. She seems to have a lot of knowledge of language from other cultures, since she's referencing examples of gendered nouns in German and Spanish.

   11%
3. C

   Reversed Terms5% picked this

   The author of passage A is a neutral observer, while the author of passage B is an advocate

   The author of passage B is extremely detached and noncommittal, so we would be more likely to call him a neutral observer. His final sentence outlines three different interpretations we could draw from the data, but he doesn't pick one. Meanwhile, the author of A seems to have a clear opinion, since she begins her 2nd paragraph with, "Whorf's main mistake was to assume that ...."

   5%
4. D

   Weak Match for Both10% picked this

   The author of passage A is interested mainly in the historical development of an idea, whereas the author of passage B

   Although the author of A mentions the historical origin of the Whorfian hypothesis, her main agenda is telling us why it's wrong / what Whorf's main mistake was, and what the truth really is when it comes to how mother tongues shape thinking. It's fair to say the author of B is concerned with truth in the sense that passage B sounds scientific, and scientists are concerned with the truth. But since the author of B lays out several possible interpretations of data (and doesn't pick one), it sounds more like the author of B is concerned with possible takeaways than he is with "the one correct takeaway".

   10%
5. E

   Too Strong: dismissive / takes seriously14% picked this

   The author of passage A is dismissive of the ideas under discussion, while the author of passage B

   The author of passage A does not buy into the full Whorfian idea that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think. But she does accept that our mother tongue obliges us to think about certain things. It directs our attention to certain qualities (such as genders of nouns) which can then result in changing the feelings and associations we have with those nouns. So we could say that the author of A is dismissive of one idea under discussion, but dismissive of the ideas seems too strong. Passage B's 2nd paragraph begins by saying, "The evidence just presented in one sense supports a non-Whorfian view of our concept of number", so that's closer to dismissing Whorf than taking it seriously. The rest of that paragraph, though, brings back some glimmers of taking Whorf seriously. The final sentence gives three possibilities, "Whorf was totally right. Whorf was partially right. Whorf was wrong", and since the author doesn't show any preference for any of those three options, it's hard to support that he takes Whorf more seriously. He certainly respects his audience's awareness of Whorf enough to think he should acknowledge the extent to which this evidence does / doesn't support Whorfian claims. I think there's a softer version of this answer that's pretty fair, because if Passage A is like "Whorf definitely got something wrong" and Passage B is like "Whorf might be right on this, kinda right on this, or wrong on this", then by comparison it still feels fair to say that Passage B takes Whorf's ideas more seriously. But, again, it's too strong to say that the author of A is dismissive of the ideas under discussion.

   14%