researcher’s language
(D) Reducing the number of questions and carefully
specifying the content of the questions that the
investigator can ask the informant
(E) Reporting all of the information that the informant
provides regardless of the investigator’s personal
opinion about its intrinsic value
5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity
6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic
of the ethnological research on Native Americans
conducted during the nineteenth century was the use
of which of the following?
(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording
life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of
information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions
of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural
data
7. The passage mentions which of the following as a factor
that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’
transcriptions of life stories?
(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the
basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the
culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the
researchers