Reckie

@Jingerale, it was experimental.

superlative828

I don't think that was it. "Discovering a puzzling phenomenon" seemed too ambiguous of an answer choice.

I picked "Exploring a recent cultural trend" because to me that best represented what the prompt was about. The prompt was written in 1995 and throughout the piece, the author was writing about the sudden popularity of dinosaurs in the mid-1990s. In the first half of the prompt, the author explained the shift dinosaurs made to popularity, discussing the different classifications and descriptions that certain dinosaurs underwent over the years. In the second half of the prompt, the author turned to the yo-yo, another cultural trend. The author concluded his piece by talking about commercialism and how that influenced the sudden popularity of both things.

The piece fit better into the "cultural trend" description than "puzzling phenomenon" description, mainly because the author was pretty much certain about what caused dinosaur popularity. Also, since half of the prompt was devoted to explaining why dinosaurs (and yo-yos) became popular, it pretty much confirmed that it was about a cultural trend.

3lite95

I second what superlative828 said. It was certainly not puzzling, as the whole purpose of the passage was to explain the reason for the burgeoning of dinosaur interest. To those who said it is a puzzling phenomenon, why would it be considered puzzling?

superlative828

I feel like another key thing to consider is the importance of the two verbs.

"DISCOVERING a puzzling phenomenon" implies that the author has just recently begun looking through the topic and has yet to come up with an educated solution to the problem.

"EXPLORING a cultural trend" implies that the author is already well-acquainted in the topic and is in the process of explaining it in the prompt.

Hence, the latter option seems like the best fit.

It's such a simple question asking about the primary purpose of a passage, but yet the two nebulous answer choices make it unclear.

StudiousMaximus

^ Haha, the choice definitely did not say "discovering." This just demonstrates that we cannot accurately remember the choices anymore. The discussion is no longer productive.

UChalpz1

Yea it was definitely not "discovering." This thread is just turning into people trying to defend their answers in order to not have to feel depressed while waiting for the scores lol=/

Divy1234

That was obviously puzzling phenomenon at the beginning and I think we need to stay with it. The other choice you're thinking of is evaluating/discussing recreational change. So that was not it. I remember those are the two choices cause I had the latter and changed it. I think we can agree in the earliest consensus which ea puzzling phenommenon.

Kennybania

Okay I promise this is the last ill talk about this question haha. In my opinion it is puzzling because dinosaurs have been known about for thousands of years and they have just now become "cool" to like. Same with yoyos, they have been around but for some reason they had a resurgence in popularity. The phenomena of the seemingly random resurgence is puzzling because it seems that these things have been around for many years but have only recently, for some reason, become popular.

eagles94

In the first half, the author wonders why the dinosaurs are suddenly cool whereas before, the same dinosaurs were considered boring. Towards the end he does the same thing with the yo yo, finally concluding that marketing techniques are the reason. So he is accounting for a puzzling phenomenon. Cultural trend is a very close answer though.

asianandproud

Mind taking a look at this

In the answer key consolidation, scientific implication is mentioned twice, under two stories, is this correct?
Was the disproportionate question a sentence completion?

Somebody post the questions of these, or the jist of them at least?:
passage 1 - response, passage 2 - communication
the "assumptions" = not yet disproven
Teacher Eccentricity
kids like things that can't harm

I'd like the questions, because they don't really ring a bell.

And are we sure that that one question was scholarly enthusiasm? I'm not the best at CR, more of a math guy so I really don't know. But wasn't the author sort of maligning the work of himself and fellow scientists by saying so sarcastically,"I'd love to think that the work of myself and fellow scientists has sparked this interest." So I thought it may have been open contempt. But I see the flaw that the contempt, if present, wouldn't have been "open". Anybody help?

hdh8795

did you have the one about a lady from Africa coming to America?
And she was like in a taxi, observing cars and later goes into an analysis of identity..?
I had CR for experimental,
and this passage (this section) was the hardest, so I wanna make sure it was experimental.

coolpillow

^ I didn't have it so definitely experimental..... Actually sounds like an interesting passage though.

DaveMerc

Are we sure it's superfluous? this seems to be the consensus here, but I put "subversive" because the question was asking about the Greeks' initial reaction about the alphabet and I recall reading something that not only did they not care for it, but there was strong "resistance" from someone. I might be wrong; I definitely see how superfluous would fit, but I felt that that resistance was enough for them to call it "subversive."

asianandproud

^I put subversive too, I just didn't read carefully. I'm pretty sure it's superfluous though.