Hi @EmilyMArieMenendez, thanks so much for your post. I am not sure I understand what you mean when you ask whether the question is "asking for an extension," so feel free to follow up with us and clarify. That said, this question is asking you to take the information given in the passage and use that to select the one answer choice that is suggested by the text of the passage. Answer (C) is correct. First, we are told that Thoreau "did not attempt to mount any mass protest action against unjust laws." (Lines 33-34) Then, we are told that "most transcendentalists . . . included civil disobedience to unjust laws as part of their strategy. They often invoked the concept of higher law to justify their opposition to slavery and to advocate disobedience to the strengthened Fugitive Slave Law of 1850." (Lines 40-45) Because the passage indicates that Thoreau did not try to mount a mass protest against unjust laws, whereas many transcendentalists did so, the passage indeed suggests that Thoreau's "philosophy does not contain all the same elements as the philosophies of the other transcendentalists."
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
EmilyMarieMenendezJuly 14, 2018
Thank you for your explanation!
As for the wording of my question, I was trying to explain my trouble identifying if this particular question was an extension type question (type 5 out of the 6 question types). I understand that the extension question types ask for an answer that goes beyond the passage. Is this question considered an extension type?
When it comes to extension types, is going beyond the passage required to find the correct answer?
Thank you,
Emily Menendez
EmilyMarieMenendezJuly 18, 2018
Any ideas?
ChristopherJuly 28, 2018
@EmilyMarieMenendez, yes, when a question is asking for something like "the passage suggests" or "which could be inferred from the passage" it is asking you to go beyond what is explicitly stated. That said, the answer must have direct support within the passage to be correct, but it will not be an explicitly stated conclusion. So, yes, it is asking you to go beyond the passage to find the correct answer, but it will have support within the passage. This is the importance of reading the entire passage to understand the overall point. Unless you understand what's going on within the passage, you're not going to be able to answer questions like this accurately.
