In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with doing which one of the following?

Ravi February 21, 2019

"@Ceci,

Happy to help.

The question says, "In the passage, the author is primarily concerned
with doing which one of the following?"

This question is essentially asking us for the primary purpose/main
goal of the passage.

You said you chose (E) instead of (D). Let's take a look at these
answer choices.

(E) says the passage was mainly concerned with "chronicling certain
historical developments"

The reason (E) is wrong is because the purpose of the passage is not
to describe history; rather, the authors' purpose is to address the
problem pertaining to the lack of evidence of medieval women doctors.
The author doesn't chronicle historical developments; if (E) were
true, the passage would've shown the development of female doctors
over time or something to that effect.

(D) says "arguing in favor of changes in method"

We know (D) is correct based on the last part of the last paragraph of
the passage. Starting with line 60, the author states, "Future studies
might also make profitable use of analyses developed in other areas of
women's history as a basis for exploring the social context of women's
medical practice." This sentence illustrates the primary purpose of
the author. Throughout the rest of the passage, she's argued that the
historian's methods have resulted in a big lack of evidence pertaining
to female medical practitioners' role in medieval society. The author
argues that we should change the methods so that we can better analyze
female medical doctors' roles in medieval society. This is further
supported by the final sentence of the passage, which starts at line
63 and says, "Information about economic rivalry in medicine, women's
literacy, and the control of medical knowledge could add much to our
growing understanding of women medical practitioners' role in medieval
society." As a result, (D) accurately captures the primary purpose of
the passage and is the correct answer choice.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!