PrepTest 104

[lcid:3514] Prep Test 104 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 8-14  .        Personal names are generally regarded by  . European thinkers in two major ways, both of which Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • European thinkers generally think of personal names as lacking semantic content, while other societies, like the Hopi, assemble personal names as miniature poetic compositions.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • European perspectives on personal names lack semantic content (first sentence)
      • Two major perspectives on personal names:
        • John Stuart Mill: distinguish individuals from one another (second sentence)
        • Claude Levi-Strauss: classify people socially (second sentence)
      • Interpretation and understanding of personal names in societies that imbue them with more significance than Europeans has been lacking (third sentence)
        • Hopi: names refer to historical or ritual events (fourth sentence)
          • Names not only confer identity and place people in society, but they are poetic compositions (fourth-fifth sentences)
        • Author’s attitude: “both of which deny” (first sentence); “instruments of social classification” (second sentence); “neglected” (third sentence); “confer an identity” (fourth sentence); “type of poetic composition” (fifth sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Hopi names have meaning because they reflect the ritual initiations the person has gone through.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Hopis receive several names during ritual initiations (first sentence)
      • Occasions are birth, childhood, and puberty (second sentence)
      • Names are conferred by adult of another clan (third sentence), and can combine a person’s characteristics with the animal of the name-giver’s clan (third sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “sometimes combining characteristics” (third sentence); “name might translate” (fourth sentence); “reflects” (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • However, Hopi names are usually more complex and poetic, reflecting events and rituals that are not discernible in the literal translation of the name.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • More often, names refer to events or rituals (first sentence)
      • A Lizard clan member is named “beautifully ascended” by a member of the Badger clan because the Badger clan performs a ceremony evoking the ascension of spirits (second-fifth sentences)
    • Hopi personal names evoke a condensed image, which, similar to Western Apache place names, can be seen as poems (sixth sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “not apparent” (first sentence); “tells nothing” (third sentence); “splendid colors and movements” (sixth sentence); “condensed image” (seventh sentence); “tiny imagist poems” (seventh sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Hopi personal names indicate social positions and individual identity, but they are also aesthetic compositions that produce delight.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Hopi names do several things at the same time (first sentence)
      • Confer identity and indirectly indicate social relationships (second sentence)
      • Are poetic texts as well with aesthetic beauty (third sentence)
    • Hopi names debunk Mill’s contention that names don’t have meaning and Levi-Strauss’s contention that names only indicate social standing (fourth sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “do several things simultaneously” (first sentence); “equally important” (second sentence); “poetic quality” (second sentence); “aesthetic delight: (second sentence); “opposed” (third sentence); “beauty and significance” (fourth sentence)

Main Point: Typical European views that personal names lack meaning except to confer identity and indicate social position are inadequate to describe the functions of names in cultures like that of the Hopi, where personal names refer to events in a poetically evocative and semantically significant way. 

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 2 (P1 S2) - European views of personal names (Mill and Levi-Strauss)

P1 S3 - Author’s criticism of both European views

P1 S5 - Hopi names do not conform to either European view

P3 S7 - Hopi names, like Western Apache place names, are miniature poems

P4 S3 - Hopi names subvert Mill’s view and Levi-Strauss’s view

Meta-Structure?

Criticizing a Viewpoint: This passage uses a Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure. The author begins by laying out the two viewpoints they intend to criticize: John Stuart Mill’s contention that personal names lack meaning except to individuate persons and Claude Levi-Strauss’s contention that personal names simply indicate social status. Both views, the author says, deny that personal names have any semantic content or significance. The author then goes on to discuss the functions performed by Hopi personal names, which they say defy both Mill’s and Levi-Strauss’s views. Hopi names, according to the author, have semantic content in that they recall important rituals and events, indicate personal characteristics, indirectly indicate social relationships, and function as miniature evocative poems. All of these characteristics prove, the author contends, that the popular European views that personal names have no semantic significance is wrong.

The minor Meta-Structure evident in this passage is Comparison. It is by comparison to the popular European views of Mill and Levi-Strauss that the author defines the functions performed by Hopi personal names. And it is the European views that the author compares, to their disadvantage, with Hopi views on the formulation and poetic potential of personal names.

The author’s viewpoint is prominent throughout this passage. It is the author making the argument against the European views of personal names and for the Native American views; they don’t speak through “critics” or other people. The clarity afforded by this approach is helpful in tracing the various arguments being made throughout the passage.

Last Thoughts?

This passage wears its heart on its sleeve. Two viewpoints are put forward, evidence is presented that disproves those views, and a conclusion is drawn based on the evidence. The focus in this passage is not on coming up with a comprehensive definition of personal names or a list of all the functions they can perform, but on indicating that the European views presented at the beginning of the passage are inadequate to cover the functions of personal names in all cultures.

Question prompt

Based on the passage, 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

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Consult your notes or passage to recall the author’s attitude about the topic in question, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the author’s opinion on that topic.

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to find the answer choice about Mill’s view on personal names that the author would most likely agree with. We can review our notes and what we highlighted/underlined to determine where the discussion of this topic takes place. Once we locate the relevant parts of the passage, we can review those to anticipate what the correct answer might say.Looking at our notes, we'll notice the author mentions Mill’s view on personal names in P1 S1-2. First, the author states that Mill’s view denies that personal names have any semantic content, that is, meaning. Second, the author states that Mill believes names serve only to distinguish individuals from each other (P1 S2). The author’s view of Mill’s argument is generally negative, as evidenced by the fact that they spend most of the passage trying to disprove it using the example of Hopi naming practices, so the right answer to this question will cast Mill’s view in a negative light.We should also consider the author's main point when assessing each answer choice. After all, the author wrote the passage to prove the main point — it's the view the author holds with the most conviction, in all likelihood. The correct answer will need to be consistent with the main point. In fact, we may be able to eliminate one or more answer choices because they conflict with the main point.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Its characterization of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this answer choice accurately reflect the author’s negative view of Mill’s perspective on personal names?

    Yes. This answer choice captures both the tenor of the author’s attitude (negative) and the idea of the author’s argument (Mill’s view of personal names is wrong). Because the author believes that the European views (Mill’s and Levi-Strauss’s) do not fit the functions that personal names serve in Hopi culture (P1 S4), this answer choice’s statement that Mill’s characterization of the function of personal names is too narrow to apply to every culture is correct, and this is the right answer to this question.

  2. B
    It would be correct Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice accurately reflect the author’s negative view of Mill’s perspective on personal names?

    No. This answer choice contends that if you combined Mill’s view with Levi-Strauss’s view, you’d have an accurate characterization of personal names that would encompass the main example the author uses in the passage (the Hopi). However, this is not true, according to the passage. The author argues that, in addition to fulfilling the two functions that Europeans think personal names serve (identifying individuals and locating them in society), Hopi names also serve as miniature poems (P1 S2, P1 S4-5, P3 S7, P4 S1-4). Thus, Hopi names perform more functions than those two enumerated by Mills and Levi-Strauss. Therefore, the author wouldn’t think that a characterization of personal names that mentioned only those two functions would be “correct,” as the answer choice says.

  3. C
    Its influence single–handedly led Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice accurately reflect the author’s negative view of Mill’s perspective on personal names?

    No. The author never says Mill’s definition of personal names single-handedly did anything. The author concedes that scholars and others have neglected the uses of personal names that are not described by popular European notions of naming (P1 S3), but they do not credit Mill’s definition with causing this neglect by itself.

  4. D
    It is more accurate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice accurately reflect the author’s negative view of Mill’s perspective on personal names?

    No. The author says that both Mill’s and Levi-Strauss’s notions of how personal names function are flawed because Hopi personal names perform more functions than those two thinkers enumerate (P4 S4-5), but the author never says Mill’s view is more or less correct than Levi-Strauss’s.

  5. E
    It is less relevant Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice accurately reflect the author’s negative view of Mill’s perspective on personal names?

    No. As in the explanation of (D), the author never makes a judgment call as to whether Mill’s definition or Levi-Strauss’s definition is more accurate. They simply say that both are inadequate to encompass the full spectrum of functions that personal names perform in Hopi culture and other cultures (P4 S4).

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