Would anyone be able to help me understand Q9 in the CARS section for FL 6?
For a serious link between the Olympic Games and politics in ancient times, we must turn to municipal internal affairs. In that sphere, much depended on the character of the city and its politics: whether it was a genuinely autonomous community or whether it was part of a larger state, as in the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire. What a successful athlete like Alcibiades could achieve politically, helped by his glamorous success in the Olympic chariot race of 416 BCE, obviously could not be repeated by an Athenian five hundred years later, when Athens, for all its honored past, had been reduced to just another Greek city subject to the final authority of a Roman provincial governor.
Not every outstanding athlete had an interest in politics, and some delayed their entry into that field until age compelled them to retire from the Games—Theogenes, for example, whose Games record over a period of more than twenty years left him with neither the time nor the energy to spare for public affairs. In contrast, a certain Polemaeus, in about 100 BCE, abandoned an already successful Games career at an early age, went off to study in Rhodes, then one of the centers of philosophy and rhetoric, and returned home to become a leading political figure. At a still later date, M. Aurelius Demostratus Damas of Sardis, a man of considerable education and from an elite family, seems to have devoted himself largely, if not entirely, to the Games, first as an outstanding competitor and later as an official of the Games association.
We would need much more biographical information to know why any individual chose one or another course. One of Damas’ colleagues among the high Games association officials, M. Aurelius Asclepiades of Alexandria, was forced to give up his sport at the age of twenty-five because of injuries. But normally we lack this sort of relevant detail. We must therefore fall back on two general statements. The first is that it was rare for an athlete from a lower-class background, no matter how famous, to achieve political importance in later life. A lack of education, of family and social connections, would have been too grave a handicap in a world in which someone’s class was always a major consideration in the political sphere. One might receive honorary citizenship or such a post as “sacred herald,” by no means meaningless honors, often with material perquisites, but politically empty, devoid of authority. The one factor that permitted exceptions was wealth. If such an athlete succeeded in amassing enough money, there was the chance, at least in the centuries after Alexander the Great, of a minor position, membership in the city council, for example, from which the athlete was expected to shower benefactions on the community.
In contrast, upper-class athletes were under severe pressure to throw their prestige into the political balance. The gymnasium played a large part, both when it was closely linked with military training in its earlier phases and later, when it became primarily a sporting, nonmilitary center. The gymnasium served as a clubhouse for the “gilded youth,” and, similar to certain modern clubs, it was a place where the older generation indoctrinated the young in the right views and values, where political contacts were made, political plans were laid, and support mobilized. What went on there rarely received mention in the permanent historical record or even in the contemporary speeches in assemblies and councils, but politics have always had that “invisible” background.
Which of the following statements is supported by evidence in the text?
- A. “[S]ome [athletes] delayed their entry into [politics] until age compelled them to retire from the Games” (paragraph 2).
- B. “[I]t was rare for an athlete from a lower-class background, no matter how famous, to achieve political importance in later life” (paragraph 3).
- C. “If…an athlete succeeded in amassing enough money, there was the chance…of a minor [political] position” (paragraph 3).
- D. “The gymnasium served as a clubhouse for the ‘gilded youth’” (paragraph 4).
I chose B and I guess I am sort of lost on how there is no evidence that supports that answer. The quoted sentence is stating that it is rare for an athlete of low SES to get in to a political role. Okay, the next sentence in the paragraph demonstrates why due to lack of education and family connections sure. But further down in the paragraph it says that the one time you can is if said person amasses money and joins the city council for example. Is this not demonstrating a rarity? Like it does not happen very often but it can happen.
I see how A could work so I am not arguing that is wrong but I guess I am confused on how B does not also work.