28. RC detail / inference / function
Point to the line: every right answer is anchored to specific text.
Core ideas
- Every right answer has an address: point to the specific lines that prove it before selecting.
- Detail questions: the answer paraphrases the text; beware choices that recycle the passage's words with twisted meaning.
- Inference questions: still text-bound, just one small logical step; if you needed outside knowledge, it is wrong.
- Function questions ("in order to"): ask what job the cited line does for the paragraph's point, not what the line says.
Worked example 1
Excerpt: "The glassmakers of Ostrena guarded their formulas so closely that apprentices were forbidden to leave the island. Ironically, this secrecy accelerated the craft's decline: when a fever swept the workshops in 1710, several formulas died with their sole custodians, and no mainland artisans existed who could reconstruct them."
Question: According to the passage, the loss of certain Ostrenan glass formulas was made possible by the fact that
(A) mainland artisans refused to study Ostrenan methods
(B) knowledge of each formula was confined to a small number of people on the island
(C) the fever of 1710 destroyed the glassmakers' written records
Show solution
Point to the lines: secrecy kept formulas with "sole custodians" on the island, and when those custodians died, "no mainland artisans existed who could reconstruct them." That is (B) paraphrased: confinement of knowledge enabled the loss. (A) twists the text; mainlanders did not refuse, they were never allowed access. (C) invents written records; the passage says the formulas died with people, implying they were not written down elsewhere. Anchor found, answer defended. Answer: (B).
Worked example 2
Excerpt: "Proponents of the deep-sea mining ban often cite the fragility of vent ecosystems. Yet consider the hydrothermal fields near the Belmara Trench: surveyed in 1998 and again in 2019 after two decades of small-scale extraction nearby, they showed species counts within the range of natural variation. Such cases suggest the blanket ban debate would benefit from site-by-site assessment."
Question: The author mentions the Belmara Trench surveys primarily in order to
(A) prove that deep-sea mining is harmless to vent ecosystems
(B) provide an example that complicates a generalization used to support a blanket ban
(C) describe the methodology of ecological surveys
Show solution
Function question: ask what job the example does. The paragraph's point is the final sentence, that blanket-ban reasoning deserves site-by-site scrutiny. The Belmara case is deployed against the generalization "vent ecosystems are fragile," showing at least one site tolerated nearby extraction. That is (B): a complicating counterexample. (A) overreaches; one site within natural variation does not prove mining harmless, and the author only says "suggest." (C) mistakes the content of the lines for their purpose. Answer: (B).
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