PrepTest 134

[lcid:3635] Prep Test 134 LSAT — Reading Comp — S4 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 13-19 Passage A  .        Evolutionary psychology has taught us to examine  . human behavior from the standpoint of Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Science


Passage A

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An approach is described, and a question/problem with it is noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Approach - Evolutionary Psychology - Apply evolution (proliferation of genes) to behavior
    • Problem - How do you explain altruism?

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • A probable answer is provided
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Probable answer - Identification/empathy - Help those with similar appearance and thus probably same genes
    • Pass on genes for empathy/identification

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Progression of evolution noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Start - Small, kin-based groups that promoted altruistic genes
    • Later - Larger groups when people had altruistic genes, expanded to cover others

Passage B

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An approach is heavily criticized
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Evolutionary Psychology - “conspiracy theory” - genes are said to have motives, when could be you just love your kids

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • (Concession) Why Evolutionary Psychology is persuasive
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Example - Monogamy/slowly maturing offspring = monogamy is to propagate genes

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author’s criticism of Evolutionary Psychology is fleshed out
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Overall strength of opinion - EPs may be right, may be wrong
    • Flaw - Pick one explanation when “all sorts” are possible
    • Need to show - Explanation makes sense and is “only” explanation
    • Humans might do X because of Y, or might do X because they like X

Main Points:

Passage A - While altruism might appear problematic to Evolutionary Psychology, an evolutionary drive to propagate your own genes can explain why humans evolved to help others in need.

Passage B - Evolutionary Psychology can appear persuasive on its face, but it rests on an assumption about the motives of genes that it hasn’t shown to be true because there are alternative explanations.

Key Lines?

Passage A:

  • Lines 1-3 - A key approach/field is introduced
  • Lines 7-12 - A problem/question about that theory is raised
  • Lines 13-14 - A probable answer is presented
  • Lines 24-26 - That answer is explained

Passage B:

  • Lines 35-38 - The Author criticizes (strongly) an approach/field
  • Lines 43-44 - The Author concedes that the opposing view (approach/field) is initially persuasive
  • Line 53 - The Author shows his opinion to be more middling than Paragraph 1 may suggest
  • Lines 54-56 - The Author’s key criticism is noted (there are alternative explanations)
  • Lines 56-59 - A requirement for the opposing side is raised

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?

Both passages discuss Evolutionary Psychology, but they have very different opinions on it. The Author of Passage A has bought into the field, saying that it has taught us how to examine human behavior. It does raise a “thorny” question, but the Author believes there’s an answer to it. The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, believes that the field is a “kind of conspiracy theory,” though he does walk that back a bit by saying that evolutionary psychologists may be right or may be wrong. While the initial language might suggest a much more negative view in Passage B, it turns out that the Author believes that there’s a logical flaw/shortcoming in their argument that needs to be addressed, but he’s not committed to saying the field is definitely wrong.

Question/Answer - The Author of Passage A brings up a “thorny” issue for Evolutionary Psychology - altruism. Why would someone spend resources to help others if behavior is driven by evolution? She presents a probable answer in Paragraph 2 that she then explores through the rest of the passage. An answer to a key question is generally the main point of the passage, leading us to the main point as we wrote it out. Passage B also has a Question/Answer structure, presenting a question at the end of Paragraph 2 that calls the concession it makes into question. And, similar to Passage A, the answer to the question largely drives the main point - that the evolutionary psychologists might be right or might be wrong - they’ve put forward an explanation without showing it to be the only explanation.

Last Thoughts?

Passage B, in particular, is a bit weird. The opening paragraph makes the viewpoint sound very strong, but the Author walks it back in Paragraph 2 (by making a concession about the apparent plausibility of Evolutionary Psychology) and in Paragraph 3 by suggesting that it might be correct. We should be careful in analyzing answers about the Author’s attitude in that passage, as it’s much more nuanced than it initially appears.

Question prompt

According to passage B, 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

Science

Strategy Overview

Head to Passage B, see where we noted an example, and then find an answer reflecting that example

Answer Anticipation

This question asks about an example from Passage B, and we should always note examples since they so frequently show up in questions.Heading to our notes, we can see that one was raised in Paragraph 2 of Passage B. There, the Author discusses the apparently persuasive explanation for monogamy by evolutionary psychologists. However, he ends the paragraph by asking whether they’re right, and he follows that question up by saying maybe yes, maybe no. That uncertainty reflects a belief that the explanation is questionable (he asked a question about it, after all!), so let’s find an answer bringing this example up.

Answer choices

  1. A
    the early human tendency Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 27-28) Passage A discussed the early human tendency to live in small communities, not Passage B.

  2. B
    the slow maturation of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Line 47) Passage B treats as true that human offspring mature slowly, but it doesn’t provide an explanation as to why. Rather, it says that it’s a factor in the formation of monogamous relationships.

  3. C
    forming monogamous families
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) (Lines 49-53) The Author of Passage B says that evolutionary psychologists explain monogamy by looking at the interest in propagating our own genes. He then asks if this is right, and he says that it might be, but isn’t definitely. That means the explanation for monogamy put forward by evolutionary psychologists is questionable, according to the Author of Passage B, so this is the correct answer.

  4. D
    misinterpreting the interests that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) This is a tricky answer because of how it’s phrased. However, this answer is saying that evolutionary psychologists questionably explain how humans misinterpret the interests that motivate human action, which isn’t what Passage B says. Rather, the Author of Passage B claims that the evolutionary psychologists might be misinterpreting the interests that motivate human action. It’s one of those answers that answers the wrong question - don’t forget what the stem is asking!

  5. E
    caring for some things Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 65-66) The Author believes that people care about some things for their own sakes, not because of any evolutionary reason. The evolutionary psychologists believe that people care about things for evolutionary reasons. Therefore, the evolutionary psychologists aren’t explaining why people care for some things for their own sakes, as they don’t believe that to be the case.

What this tests

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