T I M I N G P R A C T I CE E X P L A N AT I O N S
Reading Comprehension 10
PrepTest B, Section III
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Reading Comprehension 10
PrepTest B, Section III
Reading Comprehension
Passage 1: Invertebrate Schools
Don’t let the scientific vocabulary throw you off the track in
this first passage. Like all Natural Science passages, it uses
some technical terms. But remember, you will always be able
to discern the meaning of words used on the LSAT, either
through context or because the passage will define them for
you. Moreover, most Natural Science passages follow one
of a small number of basic formats, as does this one. “Until
recently” in the first sentence suggests that the author will
detail new scientific findings that contradict whatever it is that
scientists used to believe.
The Topic of this passage is invertebrate “schools,” (2) and
as usual it is found early on in paragraph 1. The Scope, on
the other hand, doesn’t really surface until line 7, when the
author begins to discuss the “recent research.” Sure enough,
that research contradicts what biologists once thought about
invertebrate schools, and we can expect that the rest of the
passage will fill in the details for us.
Paragraph 2 simply confirms that invertebrates school just like
fish do and gives us a definition of schooling. The next two
paragraphs detail the advantages of schooling with respect
to predators. Don’t get bogged down in all the details of how
schools can better evade predators—remember, you don’t
need to know the details of a passage on the LSAT until a
question asks you for them, and if that happens you can come
back to the passage for research. Paragraph 5 finishes the
passage with yet more details, this time about invertebrate
schools’ behavior towards food and some disadvantages of
schooling.
Notice that in all this time, the author hasn’t given us an
opinion on schooling. So the Purpose must reflect that
neutrality: to describe what recent research has shown about
invertebrate schooling behavior. The Main Idea will likewise
be neutral. It is simply that invertebrates do engage in
schooling, and that they get certain advantages as a result.
Roadmap:
¶1—New research shows that invertebrates
school.
¶2—Def. of schools
¶3—Benefits of schooling
¶4—More benefits (defense mechanisms)
¶5—Advantage (food) and disadvantages to
schooling
1. (D) Global (Main Idea)
The Main Idea must take the scope of the entire passage into
account.
The author doesn’t display an opinion on invertebrate schools.
In fact, the most controversial idea in the whole passage is
that the schools exist in the first place—not a particularly
strong position. We won’t be able to use a strong opinion to
find the correct answer to this question, so we’ll have to rely
on the scope. Only (D) brings together all of the information in
the passage without distorting or ignoring part of it.
(A) might have been tempting coming right off of the end of
the passage. The optimal size of a school of invertebrates is in
the end of paragraph 5.
(B) and (E) both distort information from paragraphs 3 and
4. They contain information about schooling’s advantages
in defending against predators, but never speak to the
size of the school determining what maneuvers the school
can perform or the relative importance of the benefits of
schooling.
(C) is half right, half wrong. The passage discusses similarities
between invertebrate schools and fish schools, but no
differences.
2. (B) Detail / EXCEPT
Use your Roadmap to guide your research in Detail/EXCEPT
questions.
The characteristics of schools appear several times in
the passage, but each appearance discusses different
characteristics. We can use our Roadmap to help us remember
where each characteristic appears, and check each choice
against the appropriate part of the passage.
(A) The number of members in a school is discussed in
paragraph 5, and the final sentence of the paragraph
confirms that (A) is true of invertebrate schools. Eliminate.
(B) sounds like it would be mentioned in paragraph 2, where
we get the basic definition of a school. But lines 15–16
contradict (B): the members of a school “are neither directly
above nor directly below a neighbor.” This choice is correct.
For the record:
(C) and (D) Lines 6–7 define schools as “social units whose
members are evenly spaced and face the same way.” Line 15
provides additional support for (D) by noting that positions
within the school are “consistent relative to fellow school
members.” Eliminate.
(E) sounds like a disadvantage to schooling, so our Roadmap
directs us to paragraph 5. Sure enough, lines 55–57 say that
“as a school’s numbers rise . . . females may produce smaller
clutches of eggs.” Eliminate.
3
Timing Practice Explanations
3. (D) Logic Function
A question that asks you to replace a word in the passage
is really asking you how that word is used—in other words,
what is its function?
The context is the key to answering Logic Function questions.
You should always read more than the word or line cited, and
it’s a good rule of thumb to assume you’ll need to read at
least the full sentence in which the quote appears.
“Resolve” in line 36 is used in the context of a school’s
defensive maneuvers, specifically one performed so that
“predator’s senses may be unable to resolve individuals.” It
sounds like the word is used in the sense of being able to tell
one individual from another: (D), “distinguish,” captures this
sense perfectly.
(A) It doesn’t make much sense to say that a predator’s
senses could “control” individual members of a school,
unless sharks have recently evolved ESP.
(B) “Answer” is what you are trying to do with the question,
not what a predator does with prey.
(C) was probably the most tempting wrong answer choice.
But “reconcile” in this context would mean making two or
more individuals the same, which is the opposite of the
predator’s goal.
(E) “Pacify” doesn’t make much sense in the context of
predators trying to locate prey.
4. (E) Logic Function
Use the paragraph summaries in your Roadmap to answer
questions about the function of a paragraph.
Good paragraph summaries will answer certain questions for
you. This is a great argument for anybody who still thinks that
writing out a Roadmap takes too much time. Yes, jotting down
summaries takes up some time as you’re going through the
passage, but it saves twice as much time when you tackle the
questions.
5. (A) Detail
Remember to circle Keywords as you work through the
passage; they can help with your research later.
There are actually two clues in this question stem: jellyfish,
and the fact that they are used as an example. If you circled
the Evidence Keywords “for example” in line 5, you likely
made short work of your research. According to the example,
jellyfish do not form schools: (A) is correct.
(B) is a definition of schools from line 6. If you read a bit
further into context and got confused, you might have been
tempted by this choice, but it’s a 180.
(C) and (D) The passage never tells us why or how jellyfish
groupings form, only that they are not schools.
(E) Lines 10–11 cite krill, not jellyfish, as an example of
invertebrates that collect in large schools.
6. (C) Inference
Keywords in the question stem will always refer back to the
passage, but may not directly quote it.
“Cannibalism” isn’t a direct quote from the passage, but it
refers back to something discussed in the last paragraph:
“as a school’s numbers rise . . . adults may start to feed on
the young” (55–58). You may not have remembered this
exact quote, but even so, your Roadmap could direct you
to it. Cannibalism within a school certainly sounds like a
disadvantage, so we could have started with paragraph 5 and
found this quote pretty quickly.
According to the passage, cannibalism occurs when schools
have exceeded their optimal size, which means that “some
of the animals will join another school” (59–60). If individual
members are leaving the school for others, it would also make
sense that new members wouldn’t join the school, as (C) says.
Here, our Roadmap summary, “advantages and disadvantages
of schooling” points us straight to (E). Don’t be thrown off
by the end of the choice, “actions for avoiding the adverse
consequences.” A quick glance at the end of the last
paragraph shows that it does suggest a way to avoid the
disadvantages of a school exceeding its optimal size: joining
another school.
(A) and (D) Feeding at the edge or the back of schools is a
behavior found in schools that are too big, and is mentioned
just before cannibalism is. But lines 51–52 suggest that this
is a behavior of crustaceans that are already members of the
school, not individuals that encounter it for the first time.
(A) There are no opposing points of view in paragraph 5, nor is
their any reconciliation. (A) is way outside the scope.
(E) is a distortion of a completely different part of the
passage. Paragraph 4 mentions complex defensive swimming
maneuvers, but not in the context of cannibalism.
(B) does mention disadvantages, but they are not related to a
particular choice or type of choices.
(C) Even if we think of schooling as the “phenomenon” in this
choice, there are not “two different interpretations.”
(D) mentions disadvantages again, but ignores the advantages
mentioned at the opening of the paragraph. Questions about
4
a paragraph must always take the entire paragraph into
account.
(B) is a 180. Cannibalism as discussed in the passage is
adults feeding on the young, not the reverse.
Reading Comprehension 10
7. (C) Logical Reasoning (Weaken)
Undermining an assumption is one way to weaken an
argument.
Question 7 gives us a very specific place to look in the
passage. When the LSAT gives you a gift like this, don’t pass
it up. The assumption cited is that schooling “must bring
important benefits” (21). Any answer choice that suggests
invertebrates don’t benefit from schooling will undermine this
assumption. (C) does so by telling us that invertebrates have a
better chance of survival on their own than they do in a group.
No matter what the advantages of schooling might be, if it
tends to reduce the chances of survival, it’s a net loss.
(A) Even if some groups of invertebrates cannot execute
defensive maneuvers, some other groups may be able to do
so. Besides, this is not the only advantage of schooling that is
mentioned in the passage.
(B) negates a single defensive advantage of schooling, but it
does not suggest that all the other advantages of schooling
would be outweighed by this fact.
(D) confirms a fact that is mentioned in the second sentence
of paragraph 3. The passage has already confirmed that the
advantages of schooling outweigh this disadvantage.
(E) So what if optimal school sizes are smaller than they
used to be? As long as the optimal size for a school is larger
than one individual, there must be some advantage for the
members of the school.
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Timing Practice Explanations
Passage 2: Disproportionate
Punishments
8. (E) Global (Main Idea)
A well-defined structure and the liberal use of Keywords
make the second passage in this section easier to tackle
than it might seem at first glance. By the end of paragraph
1, this passage has established its Topic (disproportionate
punishments) and its Scope (the source of the idea that
certain punishments don’t fit their crimes). It is fairly typical
to find these two structural elements so early on, but this
paragraph gives the critical reader even more. The last
sentence tells us the question that the rest of the passage
will try to answer, and in doing so, gives the Purpose of the
passage: to discern the source of the idea of proportionality.
Furthermore, the opening of paragraph 2 gives the structure
of the rest of the passage. We can expect that the last
three paragraphs will compare and contrast the “two main
rationales” mentioned in line 9. Even if you found the subject
matter or vocabulary a bit difficult to grasp (who has really
thought deeply about line 21’s “retributivist point of view”?),
this structure will help guide you through the passage.
We’ve got a huge advantage in answering the Main Idea
question for this passage: the last sentence. We can use it
as our prephrase, checking every answer choice against the
idea that the retributive rationale for punishments is actually
grounded in the social-benefit rationale. (E) paraphrases this
idea perfectly.
Paragraph 2 gives us the details of the conflict between the
two rationales, defining each one and telling us why the
2nd rationale is “controversial” (17). The Keywords in this
paragraph provide ample opportunity to Roadmap. We can
simply underline or circle “the first rationale” (11) and “the
second rationale” (14–5), knowing that we can quickly return
to answer any question that deals with the basics of either
one. The Contrast Keyword “but” in line 21 makes the contrast
between the two explicit.
Paragraph 3 takes this contrast even further, telling us of
the “problem” (24) with the first rationale and attempting to
vindicate the retributivist point of view. The final paragraph
wraps all this up by combining the two points of view,
suggesting that the retributivist idea of proportionality is
grounded in the social-benefit theory. There is even a “thus”
in line 50 to signal to us that the final sentence is the author’s
Main Idea: our intuitive concept of proportionality is grounded
in the social-benefit theory of punishment.
Roadmap:
¶1: Some crimes seem disprop.; Why?
¶2: 2 rationales, 2nd controversial
¶3: Problem w/rationale #1: appropriateness
¶4: Main Idea: 2nd rationale really comes
from 1st.
When the LSAT explicitly provides the Main Idea within the
passage, use that as your prephrase.
(A) gets the relationship between the two rationales
backwards: the retribuitivist rationale is the one that can be
explained by our intuitive sense of justice (40–41).
(B) comes from the opening of paragraph 3. This may have
been tempting if you were in a rush and didn’t read critically
all the way to the end. Never answer a Global question without
considering the entire passage.
(C) is a detail from the end of paragraph 3, but ignores the
way the final paragraph ties the two rationales together.
(D) This choice is a definition of the social-benefit rationale.
The passage never advocates that rationale as the only way to
justify a punishment.
9. (A) Detail
Use your Roadmap to note where opinions appear in the
passage; it will pay off in the questions.
The passage calls the second rationale “controversial” in line
17. The stem of Question 9 doesn’t put the word in quotes,
but it still draws this Keyword directly from the passage. If
you underlined or circled this word as you read the passage,
as you should always do when the author expresses or notes
an opinion, the research for this question was a snap. Lines
18–19 give us a perfect paraphrase of (A): the rationale is
controversial because it is “difficult to see how a punishment
can be justified if it brings no societal benefit.”
(B) and (C) The opening of paragraph 3 lists these as problems
with the social-benefit rationale, not the retributivist rationale.
(D) Lines 12–13 suggest that the prospect of punishment
“deters a person from committing a crime,” but that is a
justification for the social-benefit rationale, not a reason that
the retributivist rationale is controversial.
(E) The passage does imply that the retributivist rationale is
based in “our notion of just punishment” (40–41), but this is
not cited as the reason it is controversial.
10. (B) Inference
The LSAT makes certain questions more difficult by forcing
you to dig deeply into the context to find the correct answer.
At first glance, the research for this question seems like it
will be a breeze, but line 50 provides no definition of the
“retributive nature” of the second rationale. If you were
6
Reading Comprehension 10
thinking critically, you may have jumped back to paragraph
2 to find that definition: “The second rationale is that a
punishment is justified by the severity of the crime” (14–16).
If you went back to find that definition, (B) probably leaped
out at you: it is almost a word-for-word paraphrase. Noting
the location of definitions in your Roadmap will pay off just as
much as noting the location of opinions.
(A) The final paragraph tells us that the second rationale
“balances societal benefit against harm to the criminal”
(47–8), which doesn’t seem to match (A) at all. This choice is
a distortion.
(C), (D), and (E) all mistake paragraph 3’s criticisms of the
social-benefit rationale for anything having to do with the
retributivist rationale.
11. (C) Detail
Concrete language like “the author states” always signals a
Detail question.
“The injustice of an overly harsh punishment” is actually a
quote from line 43. Even though the question stem doesn’t
place the phrase in quotes, we can use these Keywords to
locate the correct answer here. By reading into the context,
we can find our prephrase of the answer in the next two lines:
“such a punishment is more harmful to the criminal than
beneficial to society” (44–5). (C) matches this prephrase,
albeit with a little bit of a twist to make it harder to identify.
(A) The passage implies that society benefits from punishing
criminals, just not enough to justify overly harsh punishments.
(B) The punishment is not “potentially harmful”; the passage
acknowledges that it is harmful to the criminal. The question
of whether or not the punishment is overly harsh comes from
the relationship between the harm to the criminal and the
benefit to society.
(D) and (E) both get our intuition backwards. (D) reverses the
relationship between the benefit to society and the harm to
the criminal, and (E) would be true of a just punishment but
not an overly harsh one.
12. (B) Inference
Beware of Inference answer choices that go beyond the scope
of the passage.
The author expresses several different opinions about the
second rationale over the course of the passage. Paragraph 2
calls it controversial, paragraph 3 says that it is intuitive
and does not justify the same overly harsh punishments
as the first rationale, and the final paragraph tells us that
it ultimately stems from the first rationale. Any of these
could be the source of the correct answer, but the view
expressed in paragraph 3 wins out. (B) paraphrases the idea
found in lines 39–40 that the retributive rationale allows
for “proportionality between punishments and crimes” as
opposed to the sometimes-too-harsh punishments allowed by
the social-benefit rationale.
(A) The passage suggests that the second rationale is more
intuitive than the first, but this does not necessarily imply
that it is more widely accepted. The fact that it is called
“controversial” (17) seems to suggest that any acceptance of
the second rationale needs to be justified, which would argue
against widespread acceptance of it.
(C) is an irrelevant comparison. The “kinds of punishments”
allowed by each rationale are never discussed in the passage.
(D) We don’t really know where each rationale is used. In
fact, in combining the two in the last paragraph, the passage
seems to suggest that both are used equally and that the
distinction between the two is a false one.
(E) is a distortion of the distinction between the two
rationales. Just because the second rationale does not permit
overly harsh punishments does not mean that it allows more
lenient punishments.
13. (E) Inference (Author’s Attitude)
To quickly eliminate answer choices in Author’s Attitude
questions, compare your prephrase to the beginning of
each choice.
The question stem here doesn’t use exactly the same
language to describe harsh penalties for minor offences as the
author does. Perhaps that is because using the phrase “overly
harsh” (43) would give away the answer to the question. It
is clear from this quote that the author disapproves of such
penalties, and all we have to do is skim the answer choices to
find the one that matches this opinion:
(A) “Reluctant approval” is the opposite of the author’s
attitude towards overly harsh penalties. Eliminate.
(B) “Mild skepticism” isn’t a strong enough opinion, and a
quick check with the rest of (B) shows that the skepticism
is directed at the wrong part of the penalties. The author
is skeptical that the benefit to society justifies the harm to
the criminal, not that the benefit exists in the first place.
Eliminate.
(C) If the author were indifferent to the penalties’ effects on
criminals, he wouldn’t have spent so much time on the fact
that they are “overly harsh.” Eliminate.
(D) The tone of the passage is so neutral that (D) may have
been a tempting choice. But the author is neutral in his
examination of the two rationales, not towards the question of
whether certain punishments are justified. Eliminate.
(E) picks up on the author’s disapproval, and the fact that
it is couched in the description of the penalties in question
instead of explicitly said. This choice is correct.
7
Timing Practice Explanations
14. (A) Logical Reasoning (Principle)
Delve deeply into the details when a question stem refers to
an entire paragraph.
Paragraph 2 gives us the definition of the second rationale
and the reason why it is considered controversial. Both
deal with the way in which the rationale justifies certain
punishments for crimes: not by asking “whether it is
beneficial, but whether it is just” (22–23). This definition can
serve as our principle, and leads us to (A). The questions of
whether a punishment is appropriate and whether it is fair are
ultimately the same.
(B) distorts the first rationale, and may have been tempting if
you rushed into the second paragraph without taking the time
to guide your research. But even the first rationale is based in
benefit to society, and not society’s idea of what is correct.
(C) and (D) both suggest that the second rationale is based
“partly” on two different considerations, when paragraph 2
makes it clear that the rationale is based entirely on the idea
of fairness.
(E) is the principle behind the first rationale, which justifies
punishments based on the consequences to society and not
on their appropriateness.
8
Reading Comprehension 10
Passage 3: Hispanic-American
Writers
This passage is written from a unique perspective. It is very
rare that an LSAT author will use “we” to describe his subject
matter. This author is clearly invested in the Topic of this
passage, Hispanic-American writers’ use of Spanish in their
writing. The Scope doesn’t really appear until line 10, and is
best defined in lines 15–16: the “often conflicting tactics” of
“cosmopolitanism and nativism.”
The author spends the rest of the passage discussing the two
tactics and the conflict between them. They are so central to
the passage that you would do well to underline or circle them
every time they are mentioned. In fact, paragraph 2 doesn’t
do any more than introduce the conflict and give a couple of
examples of it. The third paragraph goes a bit deeper, defining
each of the tactics and introducing the back-and-forth nature
of the conflict between the two: for a certain period of time,
one tactic will be dominant, followed by a period in which the
other is dominant, and so on.
The final paragraph brings this all together, with the author’s
note that contemporary Hispanic-American writers “attempt
to reconcile the opposing tendencies” (58–59). Don’t mistake
this for a call to action; the author is clear that HispanicAmerican writers already confront this challenge “each day”
(55) simply by continuing to write in Spanish. This leads to
a more neutral Main Idea than you might have expected:
Hispanic-American writers attempt to reconcile the two
conflicting tactics of cosmopolitanism and nativism. (Perhaps
the author wanted to avoid offending his fellow writers by
telling them what to do?) Similarly, the Purpose is to examine
the conflict between these two tactics. This is much more
neutral than, say, exhorting Hispanic-American writers to
resolve the conflict once and for all.
Roadmap:
¶1: H-A writers try to break dependency on
Spain; 2 tactics to do so (w/def.)
¶2: Opposition btw. 2 tactics
¶3: Def. of tactics; Each dominates alternating
periods
¶4: Contemp. H-A writers try to reconcile 2
tactics.
15. (B) Global (Main Point)
Keeping a close eye on the scope of the passage will help you
find the correct answer to Global questions.
The correct answer to a Global question must include the
scope of the entire passage, without adding anything that the
passage didn’t mention. Use your Roadmap to ensure that
you include every part of the scope: the two tactics used by
Hispanic-American writers to break free of Spanish literature,
the alternating dominance of the tactics, and the continuing
attempt to reconcile the two. Only (B) includes all of these
elements without adding anything to the passage.
(A) is a distortion: according to the passage, HispanicAmerican writers use Spanish to “break the ties of
dependency” with Spain (line 8).
(C) adds a distinction about the beginning of the writers’
careers, which is not found in the passage.
(D) “Literary critics” are also not found in the passage; only
the author’s opinion is included, not anyone else’s.
(E) The “full potential” of Hispanic-American literature?
“Writers of differing cultures?” Neither of these things are part
of the passage.
16. (A) Detail
A segment from the passage doesn’t have to be in quotes to
be a clue.
“Hispanic-American literary works produced between 1918
and 1930” may not be a direct quote, but it’s close enough to
know where to look in the passage. Paragraph 3 mentions that
period as a time when cosmopolitanism was dominant. You
needed to dig deeply into the context to find the answer, but
(A) is a close paraphrase of line 43’s “exceptional boldness of
expression.”
(B) and (E) Both of these choices refer to events that took
place after 1930. “Colloquial language” and “works less
indebted to current trends in the mainstream culture”
are cited in lines 45–46 as characteristics of the nativist
movement that followed the period mentioned.
(C) Paragraph 3 notes that writings from the period in question
were influenced by movements from Europe and North
America, but does not specifically mention Spanish literary
forms. In fact, (C) is a 180, since the first paragraph notes that
cosmopolitanism and nativism were attempts to break free of
the literature of Spain.
(D) is another 180; Line 34 mentions periods when
“introspection prevail[s],” but the period mentioned is
cited as a time when “the outward oriented sensibility
predominates” (32).
17. (E) Detail
Note where definitions appear in the passage—it will pay off
when a question asks for them.
The Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension tells you to
note details while you are making your Roadmap, but to avoid
reading deeply into them until you need to. The only time
you’ll need to read deeply into the details is for a question
that asks you about them, like this one. Here, we must find
a definition of nativism. Ordinary test takers wasted time by
9
Timing Practice Explanations
trying to memorize this definition as they read the passage,
or hunting back through the entire passage in an effort to find
it. Kaplan test takers underlined the words and noted in the
margins where their definitions appeared.
Our Roadmap points us to the end of paragraph 1 and the
beginning of paragraph 3 for definitions of nativism. We
can predict from these points that nativism is an attempt to
“describe the nature of the U.S. . . . and the Hispanic people
who live there” (13–14) or to “return to the private or original
culture” (30–31). (E) is the first of these definitions.
(A) and (B) Experimenting with different “forms and styles” is
part of cosmopolitanism, according to lines 11–12.
(C) “Transforming the Spanish language” is not found
anywhere in the passage. (C) is a classic outside the scope
answer.
(D) Lines 39–40 talk about “movements that were
also inspiring other North American writers” as part of
cosmopolitanism, not nativism.
passage talking about “contemporary Hispanic-American
writers who write in Spanish.” But keep in mind that the
author eventually comes to a conclusion about these writers:
that they continually “attempt to reconcile the opposing
tendencies of cosmopolitanism and nativism” (59–60).
A quick scan of the choices finds a paraphrase of this
conclusion in (A).
(B) may have been tempting, since the latest period the
author mentions (in paragraph 3) was one of nativism. But
that period began after 1930, over 70 years ago. There is no
guarantee that contemporary Hispanic-American writing is still
dominated by nativism.
(C) Lines 54–55 note that Hispanic-American writers still
struggle to reconcile the two tactics, and the author calls
this struggle “the challenge that we confront each day.” That
certainly doesn’t sound like contemporary Hispanic-American
writers are “unaffected by the debate.”
(D) and (E) both distort the author’s views of the dichotomy
between cosmopolitanism and nativism.
18. (E) Inference
It is sometimes easiest to eliminate wrong answer choices
until only the correct answer remains.
We know from paragraph 3 and from our work on Question
16 that the period from 1918–1930 was a time when
cosmopolitanism dominated Hispanic-American literature.
Lines 43–46 suggest that the period following 1930 saw a
return to nativist tendencies. Thus, any of the characteristics
of cosmopolitanism cited in paragraph 3 would be wrong
choices, and easy to eliminate:
(A) Line 37 talks about “experimentation” as part of the period
preceding 1930 and a characteristic of cosmopolitanism.
Eliminate.
(B) and (C) Line 38 mentions “movements from expressionism
to surrealism” as characteristics of the period from 1918–
1930. Eliminate both of these choices.
(D) We needed to dig a bit deeper into context to eliminate
(D), but the passage says that the period after 1930 saw the
creation of works that were “less indebted to current trends in
the mainstream culture” than those from the preceding time.
(D) is another characteristic of the period preceding 1930.
Eliminate.
(E) remains, and must be correct. In fact, “naturalness of
expression” and “a return to . . . colloquial dialects” (44–45)
are just two ways of saying the same thing.
19. (A) Inference
Your work on Global questions can help you answer Inference
questions that encompass a broad segment of the passage.
At first, the clue in this question stem may not have seemed
to be much help. After all, the author spends nearly the entire
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20. (B) Inference (Author’s Attitude)
The tone of the passage will help you answer Author’s
Attitude questions.
Question 20 asks for the author’s attitude toward one of
the two tactics cited in the passage. Keep in mind that the
author does not favor one of these tactics over the other,
but approves of both of them and the ongoing attempt to
“reconcile the opposing tendencies of cosmopolitanism and
nativism” (59–60). (B) captures this tone, showing approval
but not favoritism.
(A) was probably the most tempting wrong answer choice. It
goes just a bit too far. The author does not support one tactic
over another, but approves of them both.
(C) The author shows no reluctance toward either tactic.
(D) and (E) both introduce a negative tone towards nativism,
which is found nowhere in the passage.
21. (B) Global (Purpose)
Paraphrase the purpose and main idea before you tackle the
questions, then seek out the globals to pick up quick points.
The LSAT will often place Global questions at the beginning
and the end of the question set, even though these questions
are easiest to answer immediately after you finish the
passage. Even if you make a strong paraphrase of the answers
to the Global questions, it can be difficult to remember
once you’ve spent a few minutes answering questions on
specific parts of the passage. For that reason, it is easier to
answer Globals early, no matter where they appear in the
question set.
Reading Comprehension 10
As we were working through the passage, we paraphrased the
purpose as “to examine the conflict between cosmopolitanism
and nativism.” (B) sums up this paraphrase perfectly. If you
answered this question as soon as you finished the passage,
this paraphrase or something close to it probably leapt to
mind; but if you answered it last, you may have gotten stuck.
(A) and (D) are too broad. The author is concerned with
Hispanic-American literature, not literature in general.
(C) This choice comes closer to the purpose, but the author
is really less interested in the achievements of HispanicAmerican writers than in the ongoing debate between their
two tactics.
(E) What prevailing assumption? (E) is way outside the scope.
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Timing Practice Explanations
Passage 4: Renaissance Women’s
Education
Hopefully, you tackled the final passage in this section fourth
because you were able to tell that it would be difficult, and not
just because it was last. With its esoteric vocabulary, neutral
tone, and paltry payoff (only five questions), this passage is
best tackled after you’ve already picked up the easy points
elsewhere.
Passage 4 deals with the rather dense Topic of Renaissance
women’s education. As is often the case, we quickly learn that
current scholars’ views on the topic differ from previously held
beliefs. This new belief will form the Scope of the passage:
how Renaissance educational reforms “increased restrictions
on women” (lines 8–9), despite the fact that more women
were educated in the Renaissance than beforehand. From
the moment these restrictions are mentioned until almost
the end of the paragraph, this passage is light on substance
and heavy on details. Don’t let yourself get bogged down in
the nitty-gritty of the difference between humanist education
and medieval monastic education or the definition of rhetoric.
Focus on the Keywords (“Although” in line 13; “but” in
line 21) to keep track of the author’s argument, and only delve
into the details as far as you need to go to understand the
passage or to answer a question later. It is not until the end
of the detail-heavy first paragraph that the Scope narrows
even further to encompass the difference between men’s and
women’s education in the Renaissance. It now appears that
the Purpose of the passage will be to examine how and why
women’s education in the Renaissance was more restricted
than that of men.
The Keyword “Thus” in line 34 signals the appearance
(finally!) of the conclusion supported by all the evidence in
paragraph 1: the advanced studies required for practical
application of education were closed to women. This is what
the author meant by increased restrictions on women’s
education. In fact, when coupled with the information about
“the prevailing attitude” (41) towards women’s education in
the Renaissance, this is also the Main Idea of the passage:
women’s education in the Renaissance was restricted to the
topics that were considered appropriate for their gender.
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¶2: Why Ren. women’s ed was restricted:
“prevailing attitude”
¶3: Results of restrictions on women’s ed.
22. (B) Global (Main Idea)
Beware of Global wrong answer choices that focus on the
details of the passage.
It can be difficult to prephrase a main idea in a dense, fairly
neutral passage like this one. But here, the Keywords help
guide us to the correct answer. Line 34’s “Thus” tells us that
we are dealing with a conclusion, and both the remainder
of paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 give evidence to support it:
women’s education in the Renaissance was restricted due
to the “prevailing attitude” (41) that advanced rhetorical
education was inappropriate for the roles available to women.
(B) matches this prephrase well, and even incorporates
paragraph 1’s emphasis on the difference between education
for men and women.
(A) Not only does (A) focus on a detail from paragraph 1,
it gets the detail backwards: lines 6–7 refer to “more
widespread education for privileged classes of women.” This
choice is a train wreck.
(C) Perhaps the Renaissance educational curriculum wasn’t
meant to prepare women for careers in literature, but
paragraph 3 suggests that some women made notable literary
achievements. (C) distorts this detail.
(D) is another distortion of a detail. Lines 10–12 define
the language and liberal arts, and make it clear that the
separation of grammar from dialectic and rhetoric is a division
within the language arts, not between them and the rest of the
liberal arts.
(E) is true, but it is a detail from line 20. The choice doesn’t
encompass the full scope of the passage.
23. (D) Detail / EXCEPT
Detail/EXCEPT questions can be time-consuming; use your
Roadmap to help you eliminate wrong choices.
Paragraph 3 gives us the “uneasy resolutions” (52) that
resulted from women’s education that was not only more
widespread but also more restricted. Again, the details aren’t
nearly as important as the fact that they are used here to
support the author’s overall conclusion.
EXCEPT questions will usually take longer than regular
questions, but Kaplan’s tested techniques will still get us
to the correct answer. Thankfully, we have a clue to guide
our research in the question stem: “aspects of Renaissance
humanist education.” This directs us to the details listed
in paragraph 1, as well as parts of paragraph 2. Let’s scan
through those as we check each choice to see what we can
eliminate:
Roadmap:
(A) Lines 28–29 refer to “argumentative role-playing” as a
method of rhetorical training. Eliminate.
¶1: Ren. women’s ed. “increased restrictions;”
details of Ren. ed; why Ren. authors
thought rhetoric was bad for women
(B) Rhetorical training is called “preparation for public life” in
line 33, giving us the goal of rhetorical education. Eliminate.
Reading Comprehension 10
(C) Lines 20–21 tell us the beginning of the sequence of
language arts education. Eliminate.
(A) “compositional techniques” do not have anything to do
with the distinction drawn in lines 44–47.
(D) doesn’t seem to appear anywhere in the passage, which
makes it the correct answer. Let’s see if we can eliminate the
last choice, just to be certain:
(B) Again, whether or not the subjects of debate were set, the
distinction between grammar training and dialectical training
remains.
(E) Lines 37–38 call dialectic and rhetoric “disciplines
required for philosophy, politics, and the professions,”
making the two disciplines prerequisites for those careers.
Eliminate.
(C) The sequence of education is only discussed in lines
20–21, which tell us that grammar training was first for all
students.
24. (E) Inference
(E) repeats the definition of rhetoric and dialectic given
in lines 24–27. This won’t help us weaken the distinction
between them and grammar training.
Be careful to note exactly what the question asks for.
The stem in Question 24 does not refer to women’s education
in the Renaissance. The casual or hurried reader might expect
this question to discuss the topic of the passage, and so
would lose time searching for an answer that wouldn’t be
among the choices. But this question asks about women’s
roles in the Renaissance, which should focus your attention
on the later parts of the passage. Line 54 says that welleducated women were considered “preternatural” in the
Renaissance, and (E) picks up on this opinion.
(A) The only time the passage suggests that women were
involved in providing education is in paragraph 2, when line
44 mentions the “teaching of very young children.”
(B) Paragraph 3 says that “some” women “gave fashionable
oratorical performances” (56–57), but that those
performances “were ceremonial in nature” (58). They certainly
wouldn’t have dealt with classical rhetoric, since women were
not educated in rhetoric.
(C) We can use (C)’s reference to when men’s and women’s
education diverged as Keywords to direct our research to
paragraph 1. Lines 20–21 tell us that all students “progressed
to stylistics and literary criticism” and that the divergence was
prior to rhetorical training.
(D) is a 180. The subjects women became notable for were
those which they were allowed to study, not those omitted
from their curriculum.
25. (D) Logical Reasoning (Weaken)
Read into the context of line references in an LSAT
question stem.
Anyone can read lines 44–47 when the question stem tells
them to do so. The LSAT tests whether or not examinees are
willing to read further to find the correct answer to questions.
The answer to this question lies in line 49’s assertion that
women’s education did not include “instruction in speaking.”
(D) refutes this assertion by placing such instruction within
grammar training, which is part of the education offered to
women.
26. (C) Logical Reasoning (Parallel Reasoning)
Use your Logical Reasoning skills to answer Logic questions
in the Reading Comprehension section.
In the Logical Reasoning section, we find the correct answer to
Parallel Reasoning questions by searching for the same type
of conclusion supported by the same type of evidence. We’ll
do the same thing for the Parallel Reasoning question found
with this passage. The situation in the second sentence of the
passage is Gibson’s view of Renaissance women’s education:
that although education became more widespread, it was also
more restricted. This sets up a paradox: something is newly
available, but its use is restricted, suggesting that there is
greater quantity but less quality. (C) matches this situation by
giving another example of quantity triumphing over quality—
more workers are employed, but in lesser positions. This is
even reminiscent of the “glass ceiling” phenomenon said
to affect contemporary women. All of the remaining choices
distort part of this relationship:
(A) does suggest that a certain course of action (voting) was
permitted for greater numbers of people, but it includes an
element of corruption that was not present in the passage.
(B) is a twist on the passage, giving us a situation where
something becomes more available in one sense but less
available in another. This equivocation does not pick up on
the distinction between the increased availability of education
for women that was stymied by restrictions on that education.
(D) If this choice were analogous, the male students in the
Renaissance (the “original participants”) would have become
more aggressive towards the female students, but the
passage never makes any suggestion that this occurred.
(E) is tempting, but education in the Renaissance was not
more difficult for women to master, it was restricted so that
certain topics were not available for them to even try to
master.
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