Q9

[90kimsj]

Hi,

I just wanted to make sure if my reasoning for answer choice E is correct.
I initially didn't really comprehend the question itself so I chose A which is an obvious wrong answer. I figured that the answer is E and is this because the "seventeenth-century rhetoric" describes scientists themselves performing the actual labor, and since Boyle did not, if Boyle 'did' perform the labor as in the answer choice E, the rhetoric would accurately describe what it urges for?

I hope I made this clear...and any clarification or further explanation for this question would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, it's a pretty brutal question stem.

I initially misread it as well ... I thought it was asking "fix 17th century rhetoric so that it matches reality".

So I was looking for an answer that said "Boyle did NOT do the experiments himself ... many paid technicians helped."

But in reality the question stem is asking "fix reality so that it matches 17th century rhetoric".

The rhetoric was that of a singular scientist, working alone, having flashes of inspiration and discovery.

So to fix reality, we need (E), Boyle doing all the work himself.

=== other answers ===

(A) This is close to the opposite of 17th century rhetoric.

(B) This is opposite of 17th century rhetoric as well. We were told that the TYPICAL disdain for manual labor was thought NOT to apply to work in the laboratory (it was piously doing God's work).

(C) The "seventeenth century rhetoric" identified in line 6 is specifically about "how scientific work was done in the laboratory of a 17th century chemist". This is about WHO is doing it.

(D) This is the opposite of the 17th century rhetoric.

(E) is the correct answer

Hope this helps

[kollaros.maria]

How would we know the proper way to read the question stem in advance of answering the questions? I only realized upon reviewing the question that the stem was asking for us to change reality as opposed to change the seventeenth century rhetoric.