Reading comp PrepTest 145 · Section 1 · Question 2

Passage

 .       The Federal Theater Project (FTP) was  . established in the late 1930s by the United States  . government. Although Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Humanities

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • History of a program-within-a-program and its historical importance
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Federal Theater Project - Short-lived but wide ranging
    • Legacy (no study until recently) - African American sub-groups/units; arguably close to founding national Black theater
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • The context, content, and goals of these units is discussed, and an example is given
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Context - Harlem Renaissance - Already thought on function of art in African American community
    • Content - Question as to three types (rural, urban, or adapt plays by white playwrights)
    • Goal - Question as to three goals (go mainstream/be different; target white/African American audience; instruct/entertain)
    • Diverse output - Ex. The Swing Mikado (adaptation with Black actors as traditionally white characters)
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Wrap it up
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Doesn't say much new
    • Reflected diversity of African American audience
Main Point:
The "Negro Units" of the FTP provided for a wide network of actors, writers, and producers to put on a variety of shows representing the diversity within the African American community and coming close to establishing a Black national theater.

Key Lines:
Lines 7-11 - The topic of the passage is introduced, with a note that it wasn't studied much until recently
Lines 14-20 - The main thesis of the passage is noted
Lines 24-27 - Historical context is provided
Lines 27-29 - A question is introduced (content/types of plays)
Lines 35-36 - Another question is introduced (goals)
Lines 42-44 - The force behind the diversity central to the Author's argument is highlighted
Line 45 - An example is introduced
Lines 55-59 - The Author reiterates the diversity of programming

Meta-Structure:
Important recently discovered historical event/trend—The LSAT will frequently feature passages about something that happened in the past—an event, a trend, a phenomenon, etc . . . —that, until recently, wasn't understood or wasn't studied. The "recent discovery" of this phenomenon will feature in some answers, so it's important to note.

Question/Answer - This passage poses two sets of questions. The first is about the content these units should have produced, and the second is about their goals. It'd be important to note where in the passage these showed up so that they could be quickly found, but it wouldn't be necessary to note each one or memorize them. Interestingly, there's not a definitive answer to either set of questions. Rather, it's noted that the program was large enough to "reflect[] the genuine diversity of African American artists and their audiences" (Lines 56-58)—in other words, the answer to which content and goal should be produced was, "Yes."

Last Thoughts:
There were a lot of little details in this passage, but they all fell into common categories—historical context, examples, etc . . . So using our normal notes for those elements will help us get through this question set!

Question prompt

According to the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Answer choices

  1. A
    evolve over the course Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Bizarro Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Identify the section(s) that talks about the Federal Theater Project, then check each answer against it and find the one that isn't included

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    There are a few things to consider here.

    First, Lines 1-7 spoke about the FTP generally, so we should expect at least a few incorrect answers to show up there.

    Second, the "Negro Units" were a part of the FTP, so anything that is true of them could also be said to be true of the FTP. Anything that lines up with our main point about those units is likely in the passage somewhere.

    Third, it's really easy to spot FTP in the passage since it's a series of capitalized letters in a row, so we should do a quick scan to see if any answer that we can't find at the beginning of Paragraph 1 shows up elsewhere.

    With that noted, it's time to head to the answers.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Line 3) The second sentence in the passage says the FTP existed for "only four years," so it couldn't have evolved over several decades. This answer is therefore correct.

    Key Takeaway:
    The trick to this question was definitely identifying that things done by sub-Units of the FTP counted as being done by the FTP overall. This is the type of thing you want to ensure you think about during your anticipation step—ways that the writer of the question can try to hide correct (or, in this Bizarro case, incorrect) answers from you.
  2. B
    operate in cities throughout Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 5) It operated 185 production units in 28 states, which certainly counts as cities throughout the US.
  3. C
    produce plays about African Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 9-11) As we noted in our Answer Anticipation, the "Negro Units" were a part of the FTP, and they produced plays about African American subjects.
  4. D
    employ designers and technicians
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 11-13) The passage notes that designers and technicians (among others) were hired into the "Negro Units" of the FTP.
  5. E
    entertain large audiences weekly
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 6-7) The FTP entertained nearly half a million people weekly. That's a large audience, especially in the Ô30s!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 97%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 1%

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