The narratives that vanquished peoples

[eee062010]

Source:Practice Book for the Paper-based GRE® revised General Test For tests administered beginning in August 2011


The narratives that vanquished peoples have created of their defeat have, according to Schivelbusch, fallen into several identifiable types. In one of these, the vanquished manage to ithe victor’s triumph as the result of some spurious advantage, the victors being truly inferior where it counts. Often the winners iithis interpretation, worrying about the cultural or moral costs of their triumph and so giving some credence to the losers’ story.
Blank i
A construe
B anoint
C acknowledge
Blank ii
D take issue with
E disregard
F collude in
Answer: AF.

My brain is really too low for GRE. First time I thought I understood. But When I read again I felt that. I don't understand why A and F. Although for blank i I fill "acknowledge" should be the correct answer.

Could you please explain?

[tommywallach]

Ja[[u tp je;[

The narratives that vanquished peoples have created of their defeat have, according to Schivelbusch, fallen into several identifiable types. In one of these, the vanquished manage to _______ the victor’s triumph as the result of some spurious advantage, the victors being truly inferior where it counts. Often the winners __________ this interpretation, worrying about the cultural or moral costs of their triumph and so giving some credence to the losers’ story.

First, notice that we're talking about how conquered people deal with being defeated. Probably, they don't want to admit they were defeated. We need to know what "spurious" means, which is fake. Acknowledge would be wrong, because it would imply that they are recognizing something that's true. However, it isn't true that the advantage was spurious. After all, the conquerors did conquer! "Construe" means "interpret in a specific way." That's what the vanquished are doing. They're trying to interpret their defeat as some kind of victory!

In the second blank, we see the conquerors "giving...credence to the losers' story." This means they are supporting the story against themselves! "Take issue with" and "disregard" would imply that they are doing the opposite. Only "collude with" matches the intended meaning.

Hope that helps (and never criticize your own brain!).

-t

[eee062010]

Often the winners collude in this interpretation


What does this part suggest?

[tommywallach]

Hey Eeee,

What part of the dictionary definition confuses you?

-t