A finding question tests whether new evidence supports a writer’s claim. Read the proposal closely, and put its parts in a few words, including any limits on how the result happens. For a claim about improvement, ask what would show a change led to better results, then predict evidence for every part. A supporting finding shows how the proposed cause could lead to the result and stays within the claim’s limits. Evidence can be about the same topic and still leave part of the claim unsupported.
Hints
- Hint 1
Morgan’s final proposal is the claim to test. What does it say about users, the instructions, and who directs revisions?
- Hint 2
Compare variation with Morgan’s proposal. What reasons does the passage give for recipes to vary?
- Hint 3
Follow the changes over time. Ask what each stage tells you about the remedy’s results and who guided its revisions.
Step-by-step
Trace the claim from flaw to improvement
Step 1Split the claim into parts
Morgan’s informal circulation networks are supposed to help users recognize a remedy's practical shortcomings. What else must the evidence show to support her? Users must improve the instructions without central direction, not only spot a flaw. Since Morgan says sometimes, one clear case that meets all three parts can support her.
- Step 2
Separate variation from improvement
The passage allows copying errors or adaptations to locally available ingredients as reasons for a recipe to change. So what would show that users learned how to fix a remedy? Predict a finding that follows a practical problem through a revision to a better result, with the revision shared among users. A changed recipe alone doesn't show an improved remedy.
- Step 3
Set aside findings that miss a part
The finding about recorded more remedies counts more recipes, not improved remedies. A committee’s officially revised formula doesn't show improvement without any central authority directing the revisions, because that committee controls the change. And replaced imported herbs with local ones shows ingredient substitutions, but the notebooks never say whether those remedies worked better.
- Step 4
Follow the salve recipe through time
Does the salve finding connect the pattern of changes over time to practical improvement? Early copies report separation in storage; later lending-circle copies add the same stabilizing step, and the complaints then stop. That sequence ties a recognized flaw to a better practical result, while the shared step shows a revision spreading among users. Since the circles have no shared editor, the change also happened without central direction. Choice B.