A finding question tests whether a new piece of evidence would back up a claim. As you read the sentence stating the claim, put it in a few words. A claim with two requirements needs evidence for both, so test every part. Ask what a record would have to show to meet each requirement, then compare the findings with that prediction. A finding can share the claim's topic while leaving a key requirement unproved.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the two requirements in the historian's final sentence. What does the record need to show about the wife's role?
- Hint 2
The passage distinguishes collecting goods from choosing a supplier and negotiating terms. Ask which role gives someone a say in the purchase.
- Hint 3
Ask whose strategy the decision follows. The historian wants more than evidence that the wife was involved, so check the clause about her husband's established business strategy.
Step-by-step
Test both parts of independence
Step 1Turn the claim into two tests
Account books often named the person who collected goods, so a wife's name alone doesn't tell us who chose the supplier or terms. What more does the historian want? The evidence must connect her directly to a substantive decision, meaning an important choice about the purchase, and show she's not merely carrying out her husband's established business strategy. Let's predict a buying decision she makes that isn't set by his plan.
- Step 2
Check who controls the change
Who controls the switch in authorized shifting? The husband's memorandum calls for that exact change, so her approval carries out his plan. In recommends replacing, he orders a change he had already decided on, which leaves her recommendation short of showing that she made the decision. Under the wife's name gives no direct proof that she chose the supplier, and the household's routine switches when credit shortened could explain the change. These records leave the wife's independent choice unproved.
- Step 3
Find her own buying decision
In the correspondence, the wife negotiates extended credit with Bell & Sons and orders the agent to move the account there. Why isn't this carrying out her husband's strategy? His standing instruction was to buy only from Mercer & Co., so her switch goes against his stated plan. Accepting a higher unit price to preserve cash also shows her own choice about price and payment, directly connecting her to a substantive decision. Choice A.