16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardTwo authors on the meaning of a record

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The 1720 inventory of the farmhouse lists no books, so its family was illiterate, argues historian Wyn Teague. Text 2 The inventory was made for probate and lists what could be sold. Books of small value were routinely left out, as were Bibles, which passed to the widow. The same family's parish accounts of 1718 are in the farmer's own hand. Absence from an inventory is not absence from a house.

Which choice best describes how the author of Text 2 responds to Teague's argument?

  1. A. By explaining why the inventory would omit books and citing direct evidence that the farmer could write.Correct
  2. B. By denying that the inventory exists.
  3. C. By agreeing that the family was illiterate.
  4. D. By arguing that the family owned a large library.

Answer: A. By explaining why the inventory would omit books and citing direct evidence that the farmer could write.

Probate omissions; accounts in his own hand.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. By denying that the inventory exists.
Not disputed.
C. By agreeing that the family was illiterate.
The reverse.
D. By arguing that the family owned a large library.
Not claimed.

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