A finding question tests which new evidence would best support a claim in the passage. Read the proposal closely, and split its different roles into parts so you know what each needs. What would you expect to see if every part were true? Use that prediction to check whether a finding shows every part of the claim. Evidence may share the topic or show one role without showing the whole proposal.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the historians' proposal, not the scholars' older view. Identify what the images are supposed to do for a reader.
- Hint 2
In the sentence beginning “According to this proposal,” look for how the historians connect the motif to the passages.
- Hint 3
The last sentence sets a limit on what counts as support. Ask how a motif links passages, not only how it fits nearby text.
Step-by-step
Test both roles of the images
Step 1Name the images' two jobs
The phrase both cross-references and interpretive cues gives the images two jobs, and the question asks for evidence of both. What does each job do? A cross-reference points from one passage to another, while an interpretive cue helps readers understand what the passages mean. The finding has to show more than a picture that fits one passage.
- Step 2
Predict the link the finding must show
How might the images do both jobs? The historians describe the same motif, a repeated image, appearing beside passages located far apart in a manuscript. They say changes to the motif may highlight a link between the passages' ideas. Predict a repeated image whose change helps explain how distant passages relate.
- Step 3
Check what each finding shows
Test the findings against a conceptual relationship between those passages. The fox that faces away from the text stays unchanged, so it doesn't show how a change helps readers connect the ideas. The fox on the next page doesn't show a link across distant passages. The fox now standing upright changes, but crouching and upright figures follow margin shape throughout the manuscript. Page space offers another reason for that change, so the pose isn't strong evidence of a link between ideas.
- Step 4
Explain what the new gesture adds
What does the fox now pointing toward identify one's own deceptions show? The repeated fox links the distant passages, and its new gesture connects the earlier warning against deceit to the later advice about finding deceit in yourself. This goes beyond showing that each marginal image reflects the passage immediately beside it, because the change shows how one passage's idea applies to the other. Choice D.