PrepTest 132

[lcid:3626] Prep Test 132 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        The work of South African writer Ezekiel  . Mphahlele has confounded literary critics, especially  . those Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An writer confounds critics; Author explains
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Critics - Mphahlele’s autobiography is too fictional; his fiction is too autobiographical
    • Author - Mphahlele doesn’t fit labels - he uses prose to advance social message

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Criticism of Mphahlele’s work; Mphahlele’s response; Author’s response
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Criticism - Even positive has negative subtext
    • Example - The Wanderers - Praised firsthand experiences (and other things), but others dismiss for autobiography
    • Mphahlele - Fictional relationship serves as beginning/end
    • Author - Mphahlele has a strong vision of the future “wonderfully articulated”
    • Critics balk (how do we get there?)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Mphahlele’s views on writing
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Mphahlele - Can’t write just fact or fiction - experiences pervade fiction, and maximizing social message changes facts
    • Mphahlele (Author) - Writing isn’t about classification but about transmitting ideas
    • Quote

Main Point: Those who criticize the works of Mphahlele for not clearly falling into autobiography or fiction don’t recognize that he writes to convey a social message and thus classifying him misses the point, as Mphahlele himself recognizes.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-4 - An opposing point

Lines 12-14 - More of the opposing view

Lines 16-17 - The Author’s view on Mphahlele

Lines 18-19 - More from critics

Lines 30-33 - Mphahlele defends his work

Lines 33-35 - The Author’s defense of Mphahlele’s works

Lines 46-51 - Mphahlele’s thoughts on writing

Lines 51-53 - Mphalele and the Author on writing

Meta-Structure?

Defending an Artist from Critics - One common Humanities Meta-Structure is Defending an Artist from Critics. In this type of passage, the Author highlights criticism of an artist and why that criticism is wrong. It’s important to track the view of the Critics, why the Author thinks they’re wrong, and what the artist thinks, if that’s present in the passage. Putting all of this together led us to the main point as we stated it above.

Last Thoughts?

A lot of this passage dealt with a split between autobiography and fiction. The Critics felt that there was a distinct line between the two, while the Author and Mphahlele believed that it could be broken down in service of conveying a social message. As such, we need to be careful when answering questions that we know from whose viewpoint it’s being asked, and either draw a distinction between fiction and autobiography if the Critics’ view is being asked about, or blur that distinction for questions about the Author’s or Mphahlele’s view.

Question prompt

In lines 18—25, the 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 the purpose of the paragraph including Lines 18-25, then use that and the immediate context to define what was meant by “negative subtext”

Answer Anticipation

Lines 18-25 are in Paragraph 2, where the Author brings up criticism of Mphahlele’s work and Mphahlele’s and the Author’s response to it. Lines 18-25 are in the first section, where the criticism is noted.Before diving into the context of the passage, “negative subtext” generally means that someone is saying one thing while meaning something else that’s negative. That lines up with the beginning of Line 18, where the Author says “[e]ven when” criticism is good, it has a negative subtext. So despite what might sound positive, the criticism is really negative.What criticism is this applied to? A statement that “if” certain characteristics are the “sole requirements” for great literature, then Mphahlele’s book is a masterpiece. So what’s the negative subtext there? Well, it’s conditional, and the critic wouldn’t add the condition if she believed that the condition were true - she’d just call The Wanderers a masterpiece. So she must not believe that those are the sole criteria for a masterpiece. Let’s find an answer reflecting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    the critic believes that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) The Author argues that the critics are too rigid in their classifications of works as fact or fiction, but the criticism leveled against Mphahlele in this section has nothing to do with the writer’s views towards classification, so this answer is incorrect.

  2. B
    the comment is unfairly Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 25-26) The Author says that the critic in Lines 18-25 might not have meant to question the contributions of the novel, so she doesn’t believe it was definitely “unfairly one-sided.”

  3. C
    the requirement of firsthand Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 27-30) This is a tempting answer because the critics do believe works should be clearly autobiographical or clearly fictional, and the Author follows up this criticism by talking about how critics dismiss The Wanderers because it’s supposedly a work of fiction but has an autobiographical framework and real characters. However, that’s the view of critics who are outright dismissive of Mphahlele’s work, and the “negative subtext” is in the writing of critics who give him a favorable reading.

  4. D
    the requirements for great Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) This is another tempting answer, but while the Author clearly thinks the critic might have been suggesting these criteria aren’t the sole criteria for great literature, there’s also no indication she believes the critic thinks those criteria aren’t relevant at all. This answer goes a step too far in characterizing the passage, so it’s incorrect.

  5. E
    the requirements for great Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) Unlike (D), this answer doesn’t go past the passage. The Author believes there’s negative subtext to the criticism stated in Lines 18-25. That criticism places a condition on Mphahlele’s work being a masterpiece - if certain criteria are the sole criteria for great writing. The Author’s negative subtext would read that statement to suggest that he’s not a great writer, so she’d read that statement to suggest that perhaps there are other criteria and thus Mphahlele’s The Wanderers doesn’t meet all of them. This answer is therefore correct.

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