Lucas M. answered • 24d
99th Percentile SAT / ACT Tutor, Reading and Writing Expert
Answer Choice A is the correct answer because the words “clueless” and “mind-reading” are more casual, informal words and are used in slightly humorous ways in the Text, like in Lines 61-62, which say, “But perhaps this is holding your mind-reading abilities to too high a standard?” This most closely matches Answer Choice A, which says that the words affect the tone of the Passage by contributing “to a casual and gently humorous tone that renders a potentially specialized discussion more approachable.” Answer Choice B is incorrect because these its not clear that the words contribute to a “mocking and disapproving tone,” and because the author isn’t critical of the researchers’ conclusions. Answer Choice C is incorrect because it’s too strong to say that these words contribute to a pessimistic tone and because the author doesn’t say that we can ever know how others perceive us, and in fact says that we do have a “tiny glimmer of insight.” Answer Choice D is incorrect because neither these words nor the Passage try to cast doubt on “the real-world usefulness of experimental data.”
