It can be inferred from the passage that the author uses the phrase "works of popular culture" (line 41) primarily to...

Jasmin on July 27, 2021

Why E

How is E right It feels unsupported

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jing jing on March 30, 2022

Stilgoe's assertion that the ambivalence toward . the railroad exhibited by writers like Hawthorne and (35) Thoreau disappeared after the 1880s is also . misleading. In support of this thesis, Stilgoe has . unearthed an impressive volume of material, the . work of hitherto unknown illustrators, journalists, . and novelists, all devotees of the railroad; but it is not (40) clear what this new material proves except perhaps . that the works of popular culture greatly expanded at . the time. The volume of the material proves nothing . if Stilgoe's point is that the earlier distrust of a . minority of intellectuals did not endure beyond the (45) 1880s,

Hi I am not an instructor but I will try to help.

The above quotation leads to answer choice E).

The passage states earlier that the railroad was met with enthusiasm by the great majority of people since its inception in 1830, but a minority of scholars did not share this enthusiasm and were instead ambivalent about the railroad in 1830. This ambivalence towards the railroad, which was from only a small minority of scholars, persisted beyond the 1880s, despite what Stilgoe claimed otherwise.

Thus, the assertion by Stilgoe, which stated that the ambivalence from a small minority of scholars (writers like Hawthorne and Thoreau) disappeared after the 1880s, is misleading.

To support Stilgoe’s wrong assertion about the disappearing ambivalence by a minority of scholars after the 1880s, Stilgoe unearthed many works of unknown illustrators, journalists, and novelists, all raving about the railroad after the 1880s. However, these new materials did not prove Stilgoe’s wrong assertion. In fact, these new materials only proved that the works of popular culture greatly expanded at the time in the 1880s to include these works of unknown illustrators, journalists, and novelists (all raving about the railroad). However, the works of these enthusiastic unknown illustrators, journalists, and novelists were not defined as scholarly works but were instead popular culture (remember the passage says that the definition of popular culture expanded to include these unknown artists’ works after the 1880s).

E) is correct because if these unknown popular culture works received a lot of attention and support from scholars beside Stilgoe, the argument by Stilgoe that the ambivalent view exerted by a minority of scholars disappearing after 1880s would have been correct. E) must be true to negate Stilgos’ assertion that the ambivalent view disappeared after the 1880s. Thus E) is the correct answer.

I hope that I explained it correctly. Please feel free to correct me. Thank you.