It can be inferred from the passage that Stilgoe would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statem...

Emil-Kunkin on March 31, 2022

Hi Jing Jing,

The passage begins by discussing the works of Stilgoe, who claimed that the railroads were the subject of romantic distrust at first (1830s), which then dissipated in the period between 1880 and 1930. The author then states their opinion, that Stilgoe's argument is unconvincing.

The second paragraph serves to refute the idea that romantic distrust really existed. Rather, the author claims that the writers who exemplified this distrust were a small and unrepresentative sliver, and furthermore, that these writers, artist, and intellectuals were not opposed to the railroad, only hesitant about the social change it would unleash. The third paragraph refutes Stilgoe's second point- that distrust dissipated after 1880. The author claims that Stilgoe fails to prove this point, and that there are indeed works of art and literature that show lingering hesitation about the role of railroads.

This question asks us what Stilgoe would agree with.

(A) does not have much support in the passage. Stilgoe does use the term, so it seems unlikely that he would think that we cannot know what it means.
(B) Is wrong as the passage never references the idea of popular culture eventually accepting the ideas of intellectuals.
(C) Is wrong as we are never told that the writers in question were not popular in their own time
(D) Is a good match, as Stilgoe uses works of popular culture (Thoreau, Fitzgerald) to serve as a proxy for public opinion.
(E) Is wrong as the passage does not mention letters and journals.
So, we can choose D.

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on April 1, 2022

Thanks