Question

Difficulty: HardRhetorical Structure and Sentence Function

Read the passage below. Identify the sentence that functions primarily to present specific historical evidence supporting a revisionist perspective. Enter the sentence identifier (e.g., Sentence 4) into the blank.

Answer:[Sentence 1] For much of the twentieth century, legal historians analyzed the sixteenth-century codification of French customary law primarily as a top-down instrument of royal centralization designed to suppress municipal autonomy. [Sentence 2] Under this prevailing framework, royal commissioners sent to redact local customs were viewed as agents of autocratic uniformity who systematically excised regional legal idiosyncrasies. [Sentence 3] However, recent archival examinations of provincial drafting records reveal that municipal magistrates frequently co-opted the redaction process, inserting traditional local privileges under the guise of procedural standardization. [Sentence 4] To substantiate this revisionist perspective, historians cite the 1539 codification in Auvergne, where local delegates successfully enshrined agrarian tenant protections that directly contradicted royal edicts favoring seigneurial landholders. [Sentence 5] Consequently, the codification movement can no longer be interpreted as a unilinear triumph of monarchical authority over regional tradition. [Sentence 6] Rather, it represented a dynamic institutional compromise in which local elites redefined their legal standing within the expanding apparatus of the early modern state.

Target Sentence: 【Sentence 4】

Answer

Sentence 4
Sentence 4 is the correct choice because it explicitly serves to ground the revisionist thesis introduced in Sentence 3 by offering a specific historical case study: the 1539 codification in Auvergne, where local delegates successfully passed tenant protections opposing royal edicts.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the structural role of Sentence 1 and Sentence 2.
Sentence 1 and Sentence 2 establish the traditional historiographical consensus regarding sixteenth-century French legal codification.
Understanding the baseline scholarly view is necessary to recognize where a revisionist counter-argument begins.
2
Identify the transition to the revisionist claim in Sentence 3.
Sentence 3 introduces the revisionist position using the contrast marker 'However' and asserts that municipal magistrates co-opted the process.
This establishes the new historical perspective that requires empirical backing.
3
Evaluate the rhetorical role of Sentence 4.
Sentence 4 provides a concrete historical example—the 1539 codification in Auvergne—to explicitly substantiate the revisionist claim made in Sentence 3.
The sentence begins with 'To substantiate this revisionist perspective' and details specific historical evidence (tenant protections conflicting with royal edicts).

Key Concept

Rhetorical Structure and Sentence Function
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