Reading comp PrepTest 158 · Section 1 · Question 19

Passage

Passage A is adapted from an essay by historian Christopher Ricks; passage B is from the introduction, by historian Paulina Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary Topic:
Humanities

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Rosenthal: No difference between plagiarism and imitation or adaptation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to Rosenthal:
      • Rosenthal questions the differences between plagiarism and other forms of imitation (first sentence)
      • Rosenthal finds that historically, there is no difference between them (last sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author (Ricks):
      • Questioning of differences between plagiarism and imitation leads to the "required postmodern answer" that there is no difference between them (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "But…” (last sentence); "invariably leads to the required postmodern answer"(last sentence); "opprobrious” (last sentence)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Author (Ricks): Rosenthal minimizes the moral dimension of plagiarism
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Although Rosenthal's book teems with a "political fervor" which is "clearly moral," Rosenthal minimizes the moral dimension of plagiarism — that it is obviously dishonest (first and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Rather than focusing on honesty and dishonesty, Rosenthal considers only the "cultural location of the text and the position of the author" (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "clearly…" (first sentence); "What in moral terms is a matter of honesty or dishonesty…" (last sentence); "reduced to…" (last sentence)
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Author (Ricks): Rosenthal's approach delegitimizes valuable moral considerations
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect, according to the author:
      • Rosenthal's historical approach to plagiarism leads to the idea that if a moral thought is not universal, it is not valuable (second and third sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "demeans and degrades moral thought" (first sentence); "does not itself entail…" (second sentence); "may be valuable, indispensable, worthy of respect…" (third sentence); "a sad loss to political history" (last sentence)


Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Attitudes about plagiarism have fluctuated over time
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Plagiarism, like all ideas, has a history (first sentence)
      • Virtually identical acts of plagiarism have been greeted with very different responses (last sentence)
    • List of factors that have influenced attitudes about plagiarism over time, according to the author:
      • Commercial circumstances, new theories of artistic creation, developments in copyright law (third sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage A wants us to consider plagiarism a moral issue, while the author of passage B affirms the ever-shifting nature of our considerations of plagiarism (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "repeatedly complicated judgments of plagiarism" (third sentence); "an abiding sense that plagiarism is morally wrong" (last sentence); "much fluidity" (last sentence)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Ricks's critique of moral relativism about plagiarism is somewhat simplistic
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to Ricks:
      • A historical approach causes an "extenuating moral relativism" that degrades the dishonest nature of plagiarism (first sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Not all historical approaches to plagiarism discount their importance (last sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage B recaps and responds directly to the author of passage A's claims
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Documenting historical attitudes about a concept doesn't necessarily involve endorsing them
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author’s view:
      • Ricks is justifiably critical of anachronistic scholarship and the tendency to reduce moral standards to expressions of power (first and second sentences)
      • But historical analysis should still try to reconstruct how people felt about plagiarism in the past (fourth and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Historical and contemporary figures have different views about plagiarism, just like people today have different views about plagiarism (last sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage B responds directly to the author of passage A's claim. The author of passage B claims that although the author of passage A is justified in their disdain for scholars who always associate moral standards with expressions of power, a historical relativist approach can still be valuable in understanding past points of view.
    • Author's attitude: "rightly dismissive" (first sentence); "also true" (second sentence); "historically remote" (second sentence); "bad history is no argument against history itself" (third sentence); "no necessarily to vindicate them" (fourth sentence); "hardly a consensus" (last sentence)


Main Points?
Passage A: Removing moral considerations from political histories, such as Rosenthal's book on plagiarism, is detrimental to political history.
Passage B: While Ricks is rightfully dismissive of some attempts to reduce moral considerations to mere expressions of power, historical studies on plagiarism should still attempt to try to reconstruct how people felt about plagiarism in the past.

Key Lines?

Passage A:
Paragraph 3, Sentence 1 (P1, S3) - Author's issue with Rosenthal's book
P3, S4 - Author's conclusion

Passage B:
P2, S2 - Author's response to the author of passage A
P3, S1 - Author's concession in favor of the author of passage A
P3, S3-5 - Author's conclusion

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?
Relationship - Opposing Viewpoints: The authors of these two passages have slightly opposed viewpoints. While both authors agree that the tendency to dismiss moral standards as expressions of power is unfortunate, they disagree on the implications of this tendency. While the author of passage A asserts that any exclusion of plagiarism's moral dimension compromises the historical analysis (PA, P3, S4), the author of passage B argues that there is, in fact, some value to omitting moral standards in historical studies. By doing so, we can better acknowledge the perspectives of our predecessors (PB, P3, S5).

Meta-Structure - Criticizing a Viewpoint: Both passages utilize a Criticize a Viewpoint Meta-Structure. In passage A, the author criticizes Rosenthal's study on plagiarism, which discounts the moral dimension of plagiarism in favor of the "required postmodern answer" that there is no difference between plagiarism and imitation in the arts — other than the fact that those in power get to determine which artistic appropriations are considered plagiarism (PA, P1, S2; PA, P3, S1). To the author of passage A, Rosenthal's study is unfortunately emblematic of recent political histories on plagiarism (PA, P3, S4). The author of passage B, in turn, criticizes passage A's argument. The author of passage B acknowledges that passage A makes a few good points (PB, P3, S1-2), but ultimately concludes that setting aside moral considerations can help historians reconstruct what historical figures actually thought about plagiarism (PB, P3, S5).

Last Thoughts?
Don't forget to read the introduction before "Passage A"! If you overlooked that, you might have missed that Ricks is the author of passage A and that passage B is a direct response to the argument made in passage A.

Question prompt

Passage A asserts that Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Humanities

Answer choices

  1. A
    political history must avoid Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Does this say the inevitable answer to the question raised by Rosenthal's book is that there is no difference between imitation and plagiarism?

    Nope. While this is an issue that the authors of both passage A and B weigh in on, it's not the question Rosenthal's book addresses. In fact, passage A doesn't attribute any answers about the role of morality in political history to Rosenthal. Therefore, we can safely eliminate this answer choice.
  2. B
    there is no difference Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    Question Type:
    Minor Point/Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Refer to your notes or what you highlighted/underlined to locate where the passage discusses the question raised in Rosenthal's book, and refer to the relevant part of the passage as needed to find that answer choice that must be true

    Answer Anticipation:
    For questions that ask us to find a specific detail mentioned in the passage, quickly finding and reviewing that piece of information is paramount. That is why we make brief notes describing the role of each paragraph and highlight or underline definitions and the minor Meta-Structures — doing so helps us find the salient information efficiently and reliably. Once we review that part of the passage, we can look through the answer choices to see which one is best supported by what we reviewed.

    Here, the question asks what the author believes is the answer to the question raised in Rosenthal's book. Where did this show up in passage A?

    Because this specific reference doesn't play a major role in the author's main point, it's probably easiest to use CTRL/Command + F to search for "answer." That will allow us to locate the relevant text in the first paragraph. In that paragraph, the author states that Rosenthal questions the differences between imitation and plagiarism (PA, P1, S2). Immediately following this statement, the author claims that the question "invariably" leads to the answer that there isn't any substantial difference between them (PA, P1, S3). Let's for an answer choice that restates this opinion.

    Answer Choice Explanation:
    Does this say the inevitable answer to the question raised by Rosenthal's book is that there is no difference between imitation and plagiarism?

    Bingo. This answer choice matches our prediction almost exactly, so experienced test-takers can feel confident about choosing this answer choice and moving on to the next question.

    Key Takeaway:
    These "find the detail in the passage" Must Be True questions are good practice to build your ability to quickly locate the relevant information in the passage, using your notes, what you highlighted or underlined, and the CTRL/Command + F search function. However, you should be aware that these "find the detail in the passage" questions are much less common on recent LSATs. While recent Reading Comp sections include Must Be True questions, most of those questions require you to synthesize multiple pieces of information to form valid deductions.
  3. C
    moral conventions are worthy Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Does this say the inevitable answer to the question raised by Rosenthal's book is that there is no difference between imitation and plagiarism?

    Nope. This is the conclusion the author of passage A reaches (PA, P3, S3). However, this question asks about the conclusion Rosenthal reaches in her book. Rosenthal concludes that there's no difference between plagiarism and imitation. Rosenthal doesn't arrive at any conclusions about moral conventions. For this reason, we can safely eliminate this answer choice.
  4. D
    there has been much Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Does this say the inevitable answer to the question raised by Rosenthal's book is that there is no difference between imitation and plagiarism?

    Not quite. If we refer back to the passages, we'll see that this is a claim made in passage B, not passage A (PB, P1, S4). That's enough to eliminate this choice.

    Besides, Rosenthal's question doesn't ask about the way that charges of plagiarism were assigned. Rather, it was about the similarities between plagiarism and other forms of artistic appropriation. Rosenthal's conclusion isn't about how people applied charges of plagiarism versus charges of imitation — it's about whether there are any actual differences between plagiarism and imitation. For this reason, expert test-takers would confidently eliminate this answer choice.
  5. E
    bad history is not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Does this say the inevitable answer to the question raised by Rosenthal's book is that there is no difference between imitation and plagiarism?

    Nope. If we refer back to the passages, we'll see that this is a claim made in passage B, not passage A (PB, P3, S3). We can eliminate this answer choice for that reason alone.

    Moreover, Rosenthal's question wasn't about bad historical studies. It was about whether there was any difference between plagiarism and other types of artistic appropriation. So, Rosenthal didn't reach an answer about bad history.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 9%
  2. B Credited 58%
  3. C 18%
  4. D 12%
  5. E 3%

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