Which one of the following most accurately and completely describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

AndreaK on November 14, 2019

Hi @Ryan-Mahabir,

I would try to think of this like a role question in LR. You want to be able to identify the purpose of the second paragraph and what purpose it serves in relation to the passage as a whole.

Let's break down the passage to see what we're working with:

Paragraph one - introduces two points of view, Darwin's traditional evolutionary theory and the strict constructionists theory
Paragraph two - provides more detail on the underlying concept at play in these theories (natural selection) and points out that what would be the case if the strict constructionists were right is not compatible with some real-world examples
Paragraph three - provides an example that shows the first of the strict constructionist's claims from their point of view (think back to the first paragraph) is incorrect
Paragraph 4 - provides an example that shows the second of the strict constructionist's claims from their point of view (think back to the first paragraph) is incorrect

A) In this paragraph, we aren't given the outline of an objection. If anything, what's being described in A looks a bit more like what's happening in paragraph one, as there we are told that the strict constructionists believe what Darwin objected to.
B) Like our role summary for paragraph two above, "points out that what would be the case if the strict constructionists were right is not compatible with some real-world examples" is essentially "explains the ramifications of the strict constructionists claims" and "helps clarify the relevance of the evidence offered in the subsequent paragraphs" (because the evidence offered in the subsequent paragraphs are those real-world examples that are incompatible with the theory, this paragraph is clarifying why that information is then given.)

Hope this helps! Feel free to tag me back with a response if you have any more questions.

FS101 on July 3, 2020

@andrea I do not believe you finished the explanation. I can only see the explanations for answer choices A and B. Thank you.