PrepTest 125

[lcid:3596] Prep Test 125 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 13-19  .        Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914), one of the  . most widely acclaimed African American performers  . of Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background on Walker (acclaimed, popularized the cakewalk) and the cakewalk (roots in West African ceremonial dances)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • The cakewalk was similar to West African ceremonial dances and, like other African American dances, featured African dance forms (last sentence)
    • Examples of African dance forms in the cakewalk, according to the author:
      • Gliding steps and improvisation (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "was a means of" (second sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Development of cakewalk (ironic additions of European dances to parody slavers)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • It's ironic that the European elements were meant to parody slavers but ended up helping popularize the cakewalk, which then got parodied by European American performers (first and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • While African dances feature flexibility, large groups, and separate-sex dancing, the cakewalk developed into high-kicking walks with couples (first sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
      • The addition of European elements to the cakewalk caused the cakewalk to appeal to European Americans and become one of the first activities to cross North America's racial divide (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "Ironically" (second sentence); "self-important manners" (third sentence); "further irony" (last sentence); "helped shape" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Why the cakewalk's complex evolution made it popular (rapid changes in U.S. meant popular art had to possess many meanings)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The cakewalk's complexity aided its popularity at a time when things were rapidly changing in the United States and art had to mean many things to many different people to attract a large audience (first and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "complex evolution" (first sentence); "not a simple cultural phenomenon" (first sentence); "is in fact what enabled the dance" (first sentence); "had to be capable of being many things to many people in order to appeal to a large audience" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • How Walker's cakewalk appealed to different groups (middle-class African Americans, middle/upper-class European Americans, newly rich)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Walker's success at popularizing the cakewalk stemmed from her interpretation's ability to appeal to different types of people (first sentence)
    • Examples of different groups who found something to enjoy in Walker's cakewalk, according to the author:
      • Middle-class African Americans enjoyed Walker's ability to refine the "disreputable" dance that was being parodied by European Americans at the time (second and third sentences)
      • Middle/upper-class European Americans, who felt threatened by the rapid changes of the time, were comforted by what they saw as the most authentic version of dance (fourth sentence)
      • The newly rich saw in Walker's grand flourishes a way to celebrate their wealth (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "remarkable success" (first sentence); "relatively rigid racial boundaries" (first sentence); "varying and sometimes conflicting demands" (first sentence); "refining" (third sentence); "fundamental grace" (third sentence); "tremendous cultural flux" (fourth sentence); "derived from her distillation of what was widely acclaimed as the most authentic cakewalk" (fourth sentence); "grand flourishes of her version" (last sentence)

Main Point: Walker popularized the cakewalk, a pre-Civil War African American dance that developed ironically over time, by emphasizing the complex and conflicting elements of the dance, allowing her version to mean many things to many people.

Meta-Structure?

Phenomenon/Explanation: The Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure best fits this passage.* In such a passage, the author describes an observable fact, behavior, or situation before offering one or more explanations of that observable fact, behavior, or situation. This passage follows that pattern, although the phenomenon is somewhat obscured. The passage notes that Aida Overton Walker popularized a dance called the cakewalk. The popularity of her version of the cakewalk could be considered a phenomenon, and the author proceeds to explain why her version became so popular. The passage notes that Aida Overton Walker (an aptonym for the ages) popularized a dance called the cakewalk. The popularity of her version of the cakewalk could be considered a phenomenon, and the author proceeds to explain why her version became so popular.

In a Phenomenon/Explanation passage, the main point is generally the author's explanation. To quickly articulate that main point, we can look for whether the author provides a conclusion that summarizes the explanation or their opinion on the explanation. The author summarizes their explanation at the beginning of the fourth paragraph, so we can use that sentence for questions where we need to consider the main point. Or we can use our own summary of the author's explanation, which adds some historical context about the cakewalk.

*Indeed, this passage isn't a perfect fit for any of the major Meta-Structures. However, in addition to Phenomenon/Explanation, Importance of [Subject] could work for this passage, which highlights why Walker's cake was important during its time. Question/Answer could also work since the passage answers the implicit question of why Walker's cakewalk was the most popular version of the dance.

Example (or List): The most prominent minor Meta-Structure appears in the fourth paragraph, where the author provides several examples (or a list) of groups to whom Walker's cakewalk appealed. The author also explains what made Walker's cakewalk appealing to each group. While these examples are limited to one paragraph, they directly speak to a key element of the main point — Walker's adaptation of elements of the cakewalk to appeal to different groups. So, we should expect a question or two about these groups.

Last Thoughts?

Those two ironies listed in the second paragraph and referred to as "mimetic vertigo" in the third paragraph will likely be the focus of a question or two, so we should be prepared for that by knowing what makes the situation ironic — a parodic thing became celebrated by some of the people it parodied, and then some of those people began parodying the thing the original parodied them.

Question prompt

The passage most strongly 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, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author's attitude

Answer Anticipation

This is another Author Agree question that doesn't provide any insight into where the supporting information might show up in the passage. After all, Walker's significance in the history of the cakewalk is a central topic in this passage. While the second and third paragraphs didn't deal with Walker, they were still relevant to why her version of the cakewalk was popular. Since the first and fourth paragraphs dealt directly with Walker and her version of the cakewalk, the correct answer could rely on information from pretty much anywhere within the passage.This means the correct answer is likely to relate back to the author's main point. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). We can also review any notes about the author's attitude or any text we highlighted because it expresses the author's opinion. After doing that, we can head to the answer choices, tabling those that don't line up with the main point. For those answer choices that conform to the author's main point, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if they're correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Walker broadened the cakewalk's Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Is this consistent with the author's main point or our notes on the author's argument?

    Yeah. The main point says that "Walker popularized the cakewalk" by "emphasizing the complex and conflicting elements of the dance." Her version probably didn't invent all of those complex and conflicting elements, so we can surmise that she may have highlighted elements that were already present in the dance. Therefore, we should check the passage to confirm that this is supported.

    This answer speaks to the characteristics of Walker's cakewalk, so we should look to the fourth paragraph. There, we see that the author presents three characteristics, each appealing to a different group. Reviewing any one of these groups would allow us to see that Walker emphasized characteristics that were already present in the cakewalk. The first characteristic is Walker's "emphasi[s on] its fundamental grace" (P4, S3). If that grace is fundamental, then that's a preexisting characteristic. For the second group, Walker "distill[ed] what was widely acclaimed as the most authentic cakewalk" (P4, S4) — and distilling something requires that it already exists. Finally, the third group celebrated the "grand flourishes" of Walker's version (P4, S5), which matches up with how earlier versions were described ("high-kicking walk" and "grandiloquent walks," P2, S1). So, all of the elements in Walker's version of the cakewalk were present in earlier versions, and these elements are tied to its success. So, reviewing any one of these groups (we don't need to — and for time's sake, probably shouldn't — review all three) would allow us to confirm that this is the correct answer. We can justifiably select it and advance to the next question.

  2. B
    Walker's version of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this consistent with the author's main point or our notes on the author's argument?

    Not quite. Walker popularized the cakewalk, so her version was more popular than earlier versions. However, our main point is that Walker popularized the cakewalk by "emphasizing the complex and conflicting elements of the dance." So, she didn't just emphasize the satire. She emphasized the satire and the cultural origins of the dance. Therefore, this answer choice conflicts with the author's main point. We can confidently eliminate it without reviewing the passage.

  3. C
    Walker popularized the cakewalk Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the author's main point or our notes on the author's argument?

    Not quite, although this is an extremely popular answer choice. After all, the point of the last paragraph can be a bit confusing. How could Walker make the cakewalk mean different things to middle-class African Americans, middle and upper-class European Americans, and the newly rich without doing a different version of the dance for each group?

    However, a review of the fourth paragraph will reveal that the author refers to Walker's cakewalk as "her interpretation" of it (P4, S1) — not her interpretations of it. The rest of the fourth paragraph discusses elements that could all be present in a single dance, so there's no indication that she made different versions to appeal to different groups.

  4. D
    Walker added a "mimetic Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this consistent with the author's main point or our notes on the author's argument?

    No. Neither the main point nor our notes suggest that Walker added a "mimetic vertigo" to the cakewalk by imitating other performers. For that reason, we should resist any urge to review the passage and instead table or eliminate (D).

    Besides, we wouldn't find any support for (D) even if we re-read the entire passage. The mimetic vertigo is noted as the result of the cakewalk's evolution (P3, S1). Walker herself didn't insert this mimetic vertigo — it's a characteristic inherent to the dance because of its history.

  5. E
    Walker revitalized the cakewalk Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this consistent with the author's main point or our notes on the author's argument?

    Nope. The author's main point makes almost the precise opposite argument as (E). According to our anticipated main point, the author argues that "Walker popularized the cakewalk" by "emphasizing the complex and conflicting elements of the dance." These complex and conflicting elements come from the dance's African origins and European American additions. The author doesn't argue Walker disentangled or removed these elements. In fact, the entire premise of the cakewalk involves the inclusion of "certain elements from European dances" (P2, S1), which would make it pretty hard to remove them and still have a cakewalk!

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