Historian: In rebuttal of my claim that West influenced Stuart, some people point out that West's work is mentioned ...

Ravi on April 30, 2019

@claire_crites,

Great question. Let's go over (A) and (D).

(A) says, "Stuart’s discussions with Abella were one of the means by
which West influenced Stuart."

While it's true that the historian does cite Abella as evidence, we
still do not know anything about the conversations that Abella and
Stuart had with one another. For all we know, Abella could simply be
how Stuart and West came to meet. We do not know whether the influence
of West traveled through Abella. As a result, we can get rid of (A).

(D) says, "Stuart’s work was not entirely free from West’s influence."

In the stimulus, all of the historian's remarks after the "but" that
starts the first sentence serve as evidence that West did, in fact,
influence Stuart. (D) captures this, so this is the correct answer.

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