Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

Sophia on October 7, 2019

Why is E wrong?

Hi, I see from the earlier post why C is the right answer, but am still unsure of why it's preferable over E. Thank you!

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Shunhe on December 24, 2019

Hi @sophi98,

Great question. There are a few little details in (E) that make it a worse option than (C). The first is that it refers to research DESIGNED to confirm the usefulness of stealing thunder, whereas lines 11-12 tell us that "no empirical research as directly tested the effectiveness of stealing thunder in actual trials." In other words, research that is specifically designed in order to test the efficacy of stealing thunder just does not exist. (E) also tells us that the research vindicates lawyers' belief, whereas the studies in the passage merely suggest effectiveness (line 14), which are words that have different levels of confidence associated with them. In any case, the passage also doesn't suggest that the belief needed to be vindicated - it seems that most lawyers believed in the value of stealing thunder, and that it was a "commonly held belief." Hope this helps.

on January 2, 2020

What is the difference between suggesting effectiveness and vindicating the lawyers' belief in the effectiveness of stealing thunder?