Q8

[khaleesiwantstodolaw]

Is E wrong because the author doesn't really analyze the economic factors responsible for the development of parallel importing?

[tommywallach]

Hey Khaleesi,

So this is our main idea question. Once we've read the whole passage, we should be able to pick out the right one. However, this is why it's often helpful to write down your own main idea before you look at the answer choices. I really do recommend this to everyone, but specifically those who find themselves missing main idea questions.

(A) The passage doesn't actively criticize grey marketers.

(B) The point of the passage isn't to analyze the effects of these practices. If it were, we would have learned more about the financial consequences.

(C) The first half of this answer choice is great, but we never hear about how "successful" the methods have been (or even what "success" would entail).

(D) CORRECT. Grey marketing is clearly controversial ("Current debate" begins the final paragraph), and legal views are evaluated in the final paragraph.

(E) is wrong for the reason you said, but this should be very clear. Also, the practice in question is not "parallel importing," but all of grey marketing. We never learn why these things developed or even how. There's no history given at all.

Hope that helps!

-t

[WaltGrace1983]

So on these "function of the passage as a whole" questions, do we assume that every main paragraph's main point should be discussed?

(D) fits really nicely if that's the case because it both touches upon the first two paragraphs (it "describes a controversial marketing practice") and the last two (it "evaluates several legal views...").

I guess what I am trying to ask is, if the answer choice had just said something like "describe the views regarding grey marketing," would that be a bit too narrow? Is it essentially that we include the description of gray marketing?

[tommywallach]

Hey Walt,

Basically, you need to be picking something that every paragraph contributes to on some level. I think the answer to your question is traditionally yes, as long as you're thinking more on a structural level than a purely synoptic one. In other words, the main idea doesn't need to include the CONTENT of each paragraph (even by way of paraphrase), but, as I said, it should represent something that each paragraph could be said to be contributing to.

-t