Question

yael is writing an essay about the development of folk tales. read the excerpt from her essay.
every culture throughout time has had its own folk tales, which were first transmitted from person to person with the technology available at the time. folk tales began as an oral tradition. with the invention of written language, folk tales were recorded by community scribes, until 1450, when the printing press was invented. the result was a wider distribution of folk tales, which were collected in books.
based on the beginning of yael’s essay, how does the structure support her central idea?
○ yael gives details in order of importance, which does not support her central idea by showing development.
○ yael gives details in order of importance, which supports her central idea by showing development.
○ yael gives details in chronological order, which does not support her central idea because it does not show development.
○ yael gives details in chronological order, which supports her central idea by showing development.

Explanation:

1. Analyze the structure of Yael's essay: The excerpt uses words like "began as", "With the invention...", "until 1450, when...", which shows a chronological (time - order) sequence of the development of folk tales (from oral tradition, to being recorded by scribes, to being distributed more widely after the printing press).
2. Evaluate how this structure supports the central idea (development of folk tales): A chronological order is suitable for showing development over time. So the details in chronological order support the central idea by showing the development of folk tales.
3. Eliminate other options:

• The first two options say details are in order of importance, but the essay is structured by time (oral tradition → written language/scribes → printing press), not importance.
• The third option says chronological order does not support the central idea, which is wrong because showing the time - based development of folk tales (from oral to printed) does support the idea of their development.

Answer:

D. Yael gives details in chronological order, which supports her central idea by showing development.