Apes are our friends

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by akashamrev » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:08 am
I would go with option E ....

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by parul9 » Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:00 am
The EXCEPT questions always puzzle me. And this was a long passage too.
I had marked C.
Then some thinking... and E.

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by artistocrat » Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:04 pm
Just because you can compare something does not mean that it is the same. Choose A.

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by mirfan2 » Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:47 am
I am among those who chose E, partly because I thought that the question is oversimplifying Noam Chomsky's theory (one of those gross generalization answer choices we often see in RC), since this theory was mentioned, hence one can imply that indeed E is incorrect albeit at a tertiary level. So E is one of those choices can drive you away from A. If POE is used one tries to vet E and A, A emerges as the winner because, A is outside the bubble in this passage (purpose and scope) .

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by parul9 » Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:13 am
It's A!

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by krathi » Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:13 am
Hi Dana,

"Eliminating E takes a bit of attention to detail that I myself lacked... The clue to this is in the last sentence of the second paragraph: "Behind Noam Chomsky's theory that there is an inherited deep structure of language, one can see a creationist view of the universe. " This means that Chomsky's theory is consistent with creationism, a religious view of the birth of the human race. " Your explanation is right if we assume creationism is some religious theory, But generally as far as I have read GMAT does not expect you to have knowledge of these things, right?

For a person who does not know what creationism is or who Noam Chomsky was , he won't get the right answer.Although that para mentions about "divine" theories, it actually states the opposite. Only the last line of the para(as I know from you now) helps you eliminate option E.However, this expects prior-knowledge.I am not sure if such question appear on real GMAT.

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by ArunangsuSahu » Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:18 pm
Think simply:
Look at the term "essential" in the choice A.
Actually author discusses about some difference

(E)..has been discussed, Darwin.Noam Chomsky etc

So A is the answer

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by rsalantry » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:54 am
E - very subtle answer option , i had narrowed down to A and E.

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by somsubhra86 » Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:44 pm
E is the right answers

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by nitts » Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:54 pm
My Answer is A

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by Rastis » Fri Feb 24, 2012 5:55 am
Would it be possible for an expert to post their response on here? I think the answer is E myself and the explanations for why A is the correct answer do not make sense whatsoever.

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Apes are our friends

by fangtray » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:39 am
DanaJ wrote:This was a pretty hard one for me and I must admit I too selected E as you guys did. I was pretty surprised when I noticed that wasn't the correct answer, but oh well... The explanation from the Beat The GMAT Practice Questions helped clear things out.

So the correct answer here is actually A, but it's really hard to spot so I think I'll list why the rest are wrong first.

B is incorrect as niksworth mentioned and the proof of this can be found in the "transition between paragraphs" section, i.e. last sentence of paragraph 1 and first sentence of paragraph 2.

C is also incorrect because of the third paragraph, where we find out that before Darwin, there were scientists willing to accept evolution.

Again, as niksworth pointed out, the reasoning behind eliminating D is in paragraph 4.

Eliminating E takes a bit of attention to detail that I myself lacked... The clue to this is in the last sentence of the second paragraph: "Behind Noam Chomsky's theory that there is an inherited deep structure of language, one can see a creationist view of the universe. " This means that Chomsky's theory is consistent with creationism, a religious view of the birth of the human race.

Now, why A is wrong: in the sentences

Debate centered on the question of what it was that made the human mind qualitatively different, and not whether it was qualitatively different at all. Language-using apes have eroded that earlier notion and also exposed uncertainty over the proper definition of human intellectual abilities.

The fact that we have "qualitatively" there suggests that there is no qualitative difference between the human and the animal mind. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that there are no other (non-qualitative, maybe quantitative?) differences between the two.

how are you supposed to do this under 2 minutes if you are to find everything in the passage?

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by liquid » Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:22 am
I was down to A and E and couldn't for the life of me find anything having to do with religion in a short period of time, I picked E. Then I looked here and find it is A. Good question, definitely helpful.

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by scholardream » Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:47 pm
Thanks DanaJ,
The question is tough enough to make me feel the true importance of looking for DETAILS in RC

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by minhchau1986 » Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:00 pm
I chose E answer. This is tough one. I was holding on for A and E and quickly eliminated A to get to E

Look at this quote, now I could eliminate A

"there were intrinsic differences between human and animal intelligence" . There was different between human and animal intelligence. "A"mentions there is no different. After eliminating, I put doubt on E because I could not find the religious view on that answer. Make me eliminate all the other answer B C D. Tough one!