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Hi Dave,
In one of your RC theory videos (A Little Bit of Grammar), you addressed that in a sentence containing two clauses separated by commas, the first clause is usually subordinate to the second clause - which in this case would make B the correct answer over A.
I understand this was mentioned in a RC video but assume the same applies in LR.
Can you explain/clarify the discrepancy here?
Much appreciated!
First, good catch! This is a bit of an outlier.
Second, remember that rules of grammar and structure are always subservient to rules of logic in LR (so that the question isn't "which part of the sentence is the more important part?" but is instead "which part of the sentence is the rest of the argument there to try to prove?"). Use your Why Test, in other words.
Finally, one way to explain is that the difference may come in the difference between RC and LR.
Or it's between what I'd say is important and what is the conclusion of an argument: this argument is pseudo-prescriptive (it doesn't actually say that we ought to limit burner temps, but after reading it you probably think "Hey, we ought to limit burner temps!"). The main conclusion is that near-prescription: we'd have fewer fires if we limited temps.
That said, I think there's a reasonable argument to be made that the second clause is in some ways more important: it's there to counter the likeliest rebuttal. If that clause weren't there, we'd have a really good reason to reject the conclusion in the first clause.
If you agree with my assessment of importance here, then you see that a clause can be important—perhaps even the most important—without being the main conclusion.
Hope that helps,
d