AAMC FL 2 passage 6

[deleted647690]

I thought the answer here would logically be B. In the passage, they talk about how Egyptian culture was misinterpreted as being ideographic, when in fact, it was more advanced than this. They "were recognized as phonetic and morphemic."

If the "egyptian culture dwindled under the Classical world's onslaught", B makes perfect sense here. The passage explains that the Egyptians were misunderstood as being less advanced than they really were. Therefore, if it were true that they had actually invented a flowing script, as B explains, then this would support the question stem that their "culture dwindled under...onslaught." (basically, their culture was misinterpreted).

Sure, I guess C more directly references a potential "onslaught"; it is more literal and requires less interpretation of the passage. However, I know that from AAMC trends that they love to try and get you to choose answers that require outside knowledge unrelated to the passage and are therefore, false.

I figured that would be the case here, making C wrong. But apparently not.

I thought C would be wrong with an explanation of something like, "Nothing in the passage references Alexander the Great."

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[Nugester]

I would use "outside knowledge" as a general rule of thumb. Yes, they do have questions that can be answered using the passage, but that doesn't mean they can't ask you to reason something using an example such as "C". "D" is wrong because it references Greeks, but the question asks about Egyptians. "A" doesn't necessarily imply that Egyptian culture dwindled; it can be argued that because the Greeks copied the Egyptians so this could be interpreted as positive. Same with "B", which leaves "C: as the best answer. If the Egyptians were invaded and Greeks attempted to assimilate/change the culture there, then yes, the Egyptian culture would have dwindled.

Also, there is no outside knowledge here so to speak. "C" is in the same vein as "A", "B", and "D"; any of those could be historically true that you may or may not have outside knowledge of.

 

[deleted647690]

I would use "outside knowledge" as a general rule of thumb. Yes, they do have questions that can be answered using the passage, but that doesn't mean they can't ask you to reason something using an example such as "C". "D" is wrong because it references Greeks, but the question asks about Egyptians. "A" doesn't necessarily imply that Egyptian culture dwindled; it can be argued that because the Greeks copied the Egyptians so this could be interpreted as positive. Same with "B", which leaves "C: as the best answer. If the Egyptians were invaded and Greeks attempted to assimilate/change the culture there, then yes, the Egyptian culture would have dwindled.

Also, there is no outside knowledge here so to speak. "C" is in the same vein as "A", "B", and "D"; any of those could be historically true that you may or may not have outside knowledge of.

Thanks. You are definitely right about that last point. I guess, more often than not, I should go with the answer that seems more obvious and requires less thinking about the passage to come to.