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

The primary purpose of Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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 any major Meta-Structures, then find an answer that best captures the latter with the details from the former

Answer Anticipation

A question that asks for a passage's "primary purpose" asks us to select the answer choice that describes why the author wrote the passage. The correct answer will describe an action: what the author hoped to do in the passage and how the author accomplished that.Now, in a broad sense, every author hopes to convince us that the main point is true. However, different authors employ different means to convince us of that main point. That's why the passage's Meta-Structure can be revealing: it helps us predetermine how this specific author was attempting to convey the main point.In this case, the central Meta-Structure was Correcting the Record. So, the author's primary purpose is to correct misconceptions. If we fill in some details from the main point, we can surmise that the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist. Let's look for an answer choice that says something like that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    illustrate the wide range Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this say the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist?

    Nope. We can eliminate (A). Besides, this mischaracterizes the passage's subject matter. The passage doesn't illustrate the wide range of Tutuola's body of work. It doesn't look at a variety of examples of his work, and it says that it all fits into the same genre.

  2. B
    explain the significance of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this say the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist?

    Nope. We can eliminate (B). Besides, where's Tutuola in this answer choice? He is a central part of the author's argument, so an answer without him can't be correct. This answer, at best, defines the third paragraph.

  3. C
    provide an account of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) Does this say the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist?

    Yes! The passage describes Tutuola's work to show that he fits in the genre of folktales, not the genre of novels, as critics have attempted to frame him. The author says, in establishing the passage in the first paragraph, that "to estimate properly" Tutuola's literary position, it's "essential to be clear about the genre" he wrote in (P1, S4). The author then shows that the critics are wrong to treat him as a novelist, and why he's best analyzed as a teller of folktales. This answer is, therefore, correct. We can justifiably select it and wrap this passage up.

  4. D
    distinguish accurately between the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this say the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist?

    Nope. We can eliminate (D). Besides, like (B), this answer is missing any reference to Tutuola. He is a central part of the author's argument, so an answer without him can't be correct. This answer only really describes the purpose of the third paragraph.

  5. E
    summarize the disagreement among Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say the author's primary purpose is to correct critics' evaluation of Tutuola's works by showing that he should be viewed as a teller of folktales rather than a novelist?

    Nope. We can eliminate (E). Besides, this answer choice is too limited in its description of the passage. While the author does highlight two divergent views of Tutuola held by critics, that's over the third sentence of the passage. The author then pivots to lumping them all together to say they all get it wrong in treating him as a novelist instead of a teller of folktales. This answer misses the author's argument after that pivot, so it misses the passage's primary purpose.

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