Q17

[anjelica.grace]

I understand why (D) is the credited response, but I had originally chosen (C). How come (C) is wrong?

[noah]

In this question, we're identifying the role of the first paragraph. It serves as background, or, as (D) notes, as context for the rest of the passage where we learn about studies that break from the tradition outlines in the first paragraph.

As for the wrong answers:

(A) is out of scope - the author isn't arguing anywhere about women's roles, he or she is outlining and commending studies of women's roles.

(B) is tempting, as the first paragraph discusses studies that differ from the ones the author discusses later. However, the answer is unsupported since we have no reason to think there will be any challenges.

(C) is tempting, however we don't learn how previous (long-standing) studies explained women's roles; we learn that those studies didn't pay attention to women at all!

(E) mentions the wrong time period. The studies discussed in the first paragraph are from the early twentieth century. Also, the studies are not about women in France - they're about the French revolution and they ignore those women!