'attitude' means 'perspective'?

Question

The aim of the ethnographers is to understand the ( 1 ) of how people live, especially when these might be difficult to see on the surface of everyday life. Thus, Hicks did not attempt to analyze the social relationships of the Appalachian people in the conventional social terms of friendship and kinship, but instead looked at how the people themselves identified such relationships. His understanding was not based on his expertise, but on his coming to an inside ( 2 ) of people.

1.
(a) attitudes (b) depths (c) economies (d) principles

2.
(a) culture (b) knowledge (c) structure (d) vision

The answers are 1. (d), 2. (b).
I understand that, but why not 1. (a), 2.(d)?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I'm a native English speaker in the US and I took the test without looking at the answers and I got both right: 1,d and 2,b. This one was "easy," for a native English speaker, because just from the point of view of grammar and usage - without even considering the content of the passage - d and b have to be the answers.

In 1, the phrases: "attitudes/depths/economies of how people live" are not right grammatically and usage-wise, so the answer has to be d. In particular, the phrase "the attitudes of how people live" is not correct usage of the word "attitudes." The word "attitude" would refer to how a person views things, not the way people live.

In 2, a and c are out right from the start: the phrases "coming to an inside culture/structure of people" are not right grammatically or usage-wise. That leaves b and d. Of the two, b is the better answer. The phrase, "coming to an inside vision of people", is awkward. The word "vision" is typically used for the "outside" of things, so if you're inside of something, you'd have a hard time seeing anything.

'attitude' means 'perspective'?

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