PrepTest 121

[lcid:3582] Prep Test 121 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 6-12  .        The poet Louise Glück has said that she feels  . comfortable writing within a tradition often Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background; 2 approaches
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Background - English tradition, only male poets
    • Contemporary women poets - Rejected tradition as inadequate for women
    • Bluck - Embraces it (“tradition of her language”)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Gluck’s embrace of tradition
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Read poems with great themes - loss, time, desire
    • Themes are universal, poems/tradition explore them

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Gluck’s critics
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Working in male-dominated tradition will lead to accepting assumptions
    • Forms/tools can’t confront history
    • Need to create uniquely female poetry - new forms/voice

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Gluck’s response to Critics
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Female perspective as limiting as critics view tradition
    • Differences between genders emerge more naturally without conscious intent
    • Themes are timeless; literature isn’t and reflects social/historical context

Main Point: While some critics maintain that the English poetic tradition’s domination by male voices requires women to develop their own forms and voice, Gluck focuses on writing about universal themes, believing that any differences between genders will come out naturally rather than consciously.

Key Lines?

Lines 7-9 - Gluck’s influences

Lines 9-11 - Gluck’s view of herself

Lines 11-13 - View of critics

Line 14 - Gluck’s view

Lines 25-28 - Gluck’s views on universal themes

Lines 33-36 - Critics’ counterpoint

Lines 41-44 - Critics direction for poetry

Lines 45-48 - Gluck responds

Lines 48-51 - Gluck argues goal will be reached without conscious approach

Meta-Structure?

Exploring a Debate - While passages that present two opposed viewpoints usually see the Author resolve it, either by taking sides or bringing the two viewpoints together, in this case, he doesn’t have any moments where he clearly sides with one viewpoint over the other! This is previewed in Lines 11-14, where the two sides of the debate are highlighted without editorializing, and then it’s explored in the back-and-forth nature of the passage, with Gluck presenting her viewpoint in Paragraph 2, the Critics responding in Paragraph 3, and Gluck responding to the Critics in Paragraph 4. While the Author doesn’t overtly take sides, the focus is clearly on Gluck here, with more space and the last word/rebuttal being given to her. When in an Exploring a Debate passage, the two sides make up the main point, with a focus on whichever viewpoint the Author focuses on (if there is a focus). Here, that means the main point reflects both the view of the Critics and Gluck, with a focus on Gluck, as we summarized above.

Last Thoughts?

This passage is interesting in how the viewpoints all interact with one another. The Author is largely passive, presenting the “debate” between Gluck and her critics. Gluck shows up presenting her own view in Paragraph 1, and the Author mentions the view of the critics. Paragraphs 2 and 4 are both on Gluck’s views, which, combined with her viewpoint in Paragraph 1, will make it hard to find information about what she believes without more specific notes covering content (e.g., Theme for Paragraph 2). Paragraph 3 interjects between the Gluck paragraphs with the view of the Critics. Let’s try to keep the viewpoints and, for Gluck, content of each section clear in our head and in our notes!

Question prompt

Based on the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review Gluck’s view on the English poetic tradition, then find an answer reflecting that view

Answer Anticipation

The majority of the passage presented Gluck’s views, and they all largely circled around her feelings on poetry and the English poetic tradition, so this question is a bit wide open as to where the support for the correct answer is going to show up. That said, we can be pretty certain it won’t be Paragraph 3, since that’s where the viewpoint of Gluck’s critics is discussed!Since there is so much material on this subject, we should focus instead on Gluck’s big-picture view of the tradition - she “embraces it with respect and admiration” (Line 14). With this in mind, let’s head to the answers. We’ll focus on those that reflect a level of respect and admiration, using the passage to confirm any other details as necessary.

Answer choices

  1. A
    This tradition is somewhat Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 11-14) This answer is a weaker version of the argument made by Gluck’s critics, and it doesn’t reflect Gluck’s unqualified “respect and admiration” for this poetic tradition.

  2. B
    This tradition transcends its Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 56-59) This answer does sound positive towards the tradition, but checking our notes shows us that she discusses social and historical context in Paragraph 4. There, she says that universal themes transcend context, but literature “inevitably” speaks of its context, so the poetic tradition can’t transcend it.

  3. C
    The male–dominated aspect of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 41-44; Lines 45-48) This answer reflects the argument made by Gluck’s critics - she believes that developing a uniquely female voice would be as limiting as the critics believe the tradition to be.

  4. D
    The view of this Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 9-11) Gluck believes that she is a member of this poetic tradition, but she never says that embracing it is “necessary” to success, so this answer is too strong.

  5. E
    This tradition, though male Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) (Lines 17-20; Lines 1-7) This answer is positive towards the tradition and reflects what we know about the passage - Gluck’s viewpoint focuses on universal themes, stating that she “could sense many” of them in the poetry she grew up reading. Checking the intro, we can also see that Gluck would agree the tradition is male-dominated, as she highlights only male poets in her list of influences.

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