Why is A correct?

@Shiyi-Zhang, Why is A correct? Why is D incorrect? This is a tough question. The question asks us to choose the answer choice that is most closely analogous to the type of folklore studies produced before the early 1970s, based on the passage. The key text to look at is the beginning of the first paragraph in lines 1 to 6. There, we're told that prior to the early 1970s, in folklore studies the lore was more often studied than the folk. Folklorists concentrated on the folklore–the songs, tales, and proverbs themselves–and ignored the people who transmitted that lore as part of their oral culture. In looking at the answer choices, we want to find an analogy that shows that someone or a group of people is studying something but ignoring the creators and sharers of whatever it is that's being studied. (A) says an anthropologist studies the implements currently used by an isolated culture, but does not investigate how the people of that culture designed and used those implements. (A) is a wonderful analogy. It has someone studying something (implements) but ignoring the people of the culture and how they designed and used the implements. This is our answer choice. (D), on the other hand, is incorrect because although it the first part of (D) it says that an archaeologist studies the artifacts of an ancient culture to reconstruct the life-style of that culture, the second part of (D), but does not actually visit the site where those artifacts were unearthed, does not match up well as an analogy. In order to make (D) right, the second part of (D) would have to say something about how the archaeologist is ignoring the people and how they used the artifacts in the culture. This is why (D) is wrong; there is no mention of the archaeologist ignoring people. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!

What's wrong with C?

Hi @Meredith, Thanks for the question! The problem with (C) is that the folklore studies researchers had the problem of focusing on the folklore rather than the people themselves—the content of what the people produced, rather than the actual lives of those people and who they were. (C) isn’t analogous because the historian not reviewing newspaper accounts written by journalists who lived through the event isn’t the same as the folklore studies researchers not studying the people. What would be analogous would be if they didn’t study the actual lives of the journalists (or people who lived through the historical event) themselves and who those people were. But the newspaper accounts written by journalists are more analogous to the “songs, tales, and proverbs” PRODUCED by those people. They don’t necessarily give us insight into who those people are, and so (C) is wrong. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions if you have them.

Why not B?

Hi AneeshU, The passage tells us that folklore studies before 1970 focused on the lore, but not the folk. That is, they only cared about the things that people thought/believed, but did not focus on the actual people whose beliefs and stories they were studying. I think Ravi put it better than I can why A is correct, so lets look at B. My first issue with B is that the focus is on factory equipment. A story (or the tools of an isolated culture) are clearly linked to cultural context and have clear cultural elements. Factory machines do not. There is quite a lot to learn about a culture from their folklore, but plant equipment exists (at least according to B) in order to maximize efficiency. Second, I think that (B) lacks the aspect of "fails to consider the way that people use it" that the passage has. While both have elements of people being ignored, there is a shift in subject matter. B is not concerned with the way that employees use.relate to the subject matter (machinery), but with their overall thoughts on improving efficiency. Perhaps something like "but they failed to consider the suggestions of equipment operators about how the machinery could be made more efficient. The way B is written, these suggestions could include everything from finance to HR efficiency., coming from employees who do not work on the machinery in question. Finally, the group of people is not a match either. In the passage, the people in question are the producers of the subject matter- or at least the current owners of a cultural phenomenon. For an analogous group of people, we would have to consider either the owners of the plant, or the company that made the equipment, not the employees.

Very comprehensive explanation. Thanks!