In a scene in an ancient Greek play, Knights, the character Demosthenes opens a writing tablet on which an oracle had...

Anita on August 25, 2018

@EmilyMarieMenendez This is looking for what is false. Some of these could be not necessarily true, but just true in this context. However, D is demonstrably false, since we know that he read the tablet without reading aloud what was in it.

EmilyMarieMenendez on August 25, 2018

Makes sense, thank you!

Jabes on October 31, 2021

how is it that what occurs in a play gives us any insight on the lives of actual Greeks of the time? the answer choices even go so far as to distinguish between characters in ancient Greek plays and actual ancient Greeks. details like these call the scope into question on some questions but not others arbitrarily

Ravi on February 5, 2022

@Jabes, great question. Based on how the action is described in the stimulus, it appears as though Demosthenes is reading to himself. He's looking at the text, expressing amazement, his companion is asking what the text says, and then he explains it. This scene suggests that he's reading the text to himself first before reading it aloud. Thus, we can probably reject a claim that people did not read silently to themselves in Ancient Greece. It doesn't have 100% have to be false, because it is technically possible that Demosthenes was reading aloud, and it's actually also possible that characters in plays read silently even if people in the real world did not. However, we still have several reasons to think that this is false, which is why D is correct.