PrepTest 127

[lcid:3607] Prep Test 127 LSAT — Reading Comp — S4 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        With his first published works in the 1950s, Amos  . Tutuola became the first Nigerian writer Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Critics' debate on Tutuola (fresh approach to novels vs. inaccurate retelling of local tales) and the author's rebuttal (he doesn't write novels)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Some literary critics' view:
      • Praise Tutuola for writing fresh/inventive novels (second sentence)
    • Other literary critics' view:
      • Criticize Tutuola for retelling local tales with unwelcome liberties (third sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Critics assume incorrectly that he's a novelist, but they need to get his genre right to analyze him (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "estimate properly Tutola's rightful position" (last sentence); "essential to be clear" (last sentence); "assumed too facilely" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author contrasts Tutuola's folktales genre with the novel (novel is realistic and original; folkltales are drawn from tradition)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Tutuola's genre is folktales, and the best approach to evaluate his works should consider that he works within the African oral tradition (first and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Novels are expected to be real and original, while folktales use traditional stories and frameworks (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "not designed to satisfy" (first sentence); "right" (third sentence); "important" (third sentence); "most useful approach" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Expectations of the teller of folktales within the African oral tradition (inventive changes, improvisation, strong delivery of a familiar story)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Audiences anticipate inventiveness and improvisation — not accuracy — from the teller of folktales within the African oral tradition (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "depends on" (second sentence); "the most brilliant tellers" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on how Tutuola's works within the tradition (repeats, embellishes, modern settings, blends English/Yoruba, uses traditional accents and techniques like a summary)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of the characteristics from folktales and the African oral tradition present in Tutuola's works, according to the author:
      • Repetition for emphasis (first sentence)
      • Embellishes to personalize (first sentence)
      • Blends English with local words and Yoruba grammar (second sentence)
      • Uses traditional accents and techniques that a traditional teller would use (last sentence)
    • Example of one of the traditional accents and techniques in Tutuola's works, according to the author:
      • Omniscient narrator summaries at the end of work (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "clear" (first sentence); "singular ways" (second sentence); "perhaps most revealingly" (last sentence); "clearly discernible" (last sentence)

Main Point: Critics misinterpret Tutuola's works because they incorrectly assume he wrote novels, but the best way to analyze his work is by seeing him as a teller of folktales within the African oral tradition.

Meta-Structure?

Correcting the Record: This passage best fits the Correcting the Record Meta-Structure.* In a Correcting the Record passage, the author will describe at least one common misconception or false belief. The author will then explain why the beliefs are false and occasionally offer an alternative belief. That description fits this passage perfectly. The author brings up two different critical appraisals of Tutuola in the first paragraph — one that says that Tutuola offers a fresh spin on the novel and another that says he's just rehashing Nigerian stories. The author spends the rest of the passage correcting those misconceptions in the fourth paragraph, saying that both sets of critics get it wrong because they all assume he writes novels. Instead, the author argues, his works should be viewed as folktales within the African oral tradition.

In a Correcting the Record passage, the main point is often the author's explanation of why the misconception is false (or just an assertion that the misconceptions are false). Alternatively, if the author provides an alternative belief or approach, the main point is the author's opinion about that belief or approach. The latter description applies to this passage because the author argues that Tutuola's work should be viewed as folktales. The author summarizes their opinion on this alternative approach at the end of the second paragraph, so we use that to help us understand and articulate the passage's main point. We can also frame that sentiment as a response to critics, which we did in our summary of the main point.

*As is the case with many passages that fall under the Critical Meta-Structure umbrella, we could use a few different Meta-Structures from that family to describe this passage. We could certainly call this a Rebutting Critics or Criticizing a Viewpoint passage and come away with a solid understanding of the passage's organization and main point. And if we thought of the two sets of literary critics in the first paragraph as two sides of a debate on Tutuola's merits, the Resolving a Debate Meta-Structure would work just fine for this passage as well.

Last Thoughts?

From our research, Tutuola from Law & Order: SVU is named in honor of Amos Tutuola. The more you know!

Question prompt

Which one of the 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

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, and use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the author's attitude on this topic, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author's attitude

Answer Anticipation

For Author's Attitude questions, the answer choices tend to fall into one of two categories: two-word answer choices or opinion + detail answer choices. The former generally capture only the direction (positive/negative/neutral) and strength of the author's opinion. The latter generally captures the direction and strength in one word, then fills in some details in the passage. This one falls into the latter camp.In this case, the question asks about the author's attitude on Tutola's position in world literature. That's a very broad topic in this passage. Now, we could go back to the passage to review all of the author's stated opinions. However, this approach would require us to re-read and review a lot of the passage. That's an inefficient use of our limited time, so it's not the approach we recommend. Instead, we'll recall the author's main point, as well as the corollary points the author makes. Then, let's work our way through the answer choices, tabling any that don't align with the author's views and examining any answer choice that conforms to those views.In this case, the author's main point is that Tutuola's works should be considered folktales rather than novels. That doesn't necessarily reflect the author's opinion on Tutuola's "position" in the literary world. But we know (if not from our memory of the passage, our first paragraph note) that the author thinks that critics appreciate that he doesn't write novels. So, the correct answer could say something like Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics.The correct answer could also reflect the author's positive opinion towards Tutuola. In general, unless you have a specific reason to believe otherwise, the authors of humanities passages present a positive attitude towards the artist(s) in the passage. (On occasion, the attitude will be scholarly neutrality; rarely — and we mean rarely — will it be critical/negative.) We have no reason to believe that the author has anything but a positive view of Tutuola's writing. A quick scan of some of the author's tonal words in the last paragraph ("clear," P4, S1; "singular ways," P4, S2; "clearly discernable" P4, S3) will confirm that positive opinion. The correct answer could reflect the author's belief thatTutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form.

Answer choices

  1. A
    convinced that Tutuola's works Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this reflect the author's opinion that Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics or that Tutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form?

    Yes, this reflects the former point. If you need textual confirmation, we can find it in the second paragraph. There, the author states that the "most useful approach" to analyzing Tutuola's works is to think of him as "working within the African oral tradition" (P2, S4). This answer restates that, so this is the correct answer. We can justifiably select it and advance to the next question.

  2. B
    certain that Tutuola's works Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this reflect the author's opinion that Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics or that Tutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form?

    Nope, so we can eliminate (B).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (B) even if we re-read the entire passage. The author doesn't discuss renewed interest in studying oral traditions. Even though the author believes Tutuola works within an oral tradition, it's a stretch to say that this will generate interest in them.

  3. C
    pleased at the reception Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this reflect the author's opinion that Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics or that Tutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form?

    No. In fact, this contradicts the first point. The author thinks critics misevaluate Tutuola, so the author definitely isn't "pleased" by the reception of his works. We can confidently cross off (C).

  4. D
    confident that the original Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this reflect the author's opinion that Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics or that Tutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form?

    No, so we can cross off (D).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (D) even if we re-read the entire passage. The passage says Tutuola includes literal translations of Yoruba in his works (P1, S2), but it doesn't discuss whether his work is translated into other languages.

  5. E
    optimistic that Tutuola's works Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this reflect the author's opinion that Tutuola's position is not appropriately evaluated by many critics or that Tutuola successfully incorporates elements of African oral tradition into written form?

    Nope, so we can eliminate (E).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (E) even if we re-read the entire passage. The author never makes any predictions of the future, nor does the author discuss any trends in literature.

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