PrepTest 153

[lcid:3711] Prep Test 153 LSAT — Reading Comp — S4 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 22-27  .       Social historians have noted that European social  . and political thought of the nineteenth and early  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Social Sciences

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A history of the approach to social/political thought (19th and early 20th centuries)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Social/political thought centered on "grand theories" that explained many events with general rules
    • Examples - Marxism (economic) and Freudianism (psychological)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • The love of "grand theories" has waned in recent years for several reasons
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • They were influential enough to be seen as hard-and-fast rules
    • These theories hurt by events that don't fit them, and being linked to failed or abusive governments
    • They worked at the time, but they no longer work
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • A pivot to why "grand theories" were popular and thoughts on how to address that need with a new approach described by the author
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • They were popular because they made people feel as if history/life made sense ("historical inevitability").
    • We need something to address that need that doesn't have the problem of "grand theories"
    • Solution - An approach that focuses on contingency, unique details, "constrains" rather than "necessitates," and allows all possibilities without saying history is fully determined
Main Point:
Despite working when they were proposed, "grand theories" can no longer be seen to accurately describe the world, and we need to move to a view that includes historical contingency, perspective, and a lack of inevitability.

Key Lines:
Lines 1-5 - Introduce the background view that the Author is going to pivot away from
Lines 18-20 - The pivot to show that this view is no longer viable
Lines 37-40 - Introduces the problem that the Author is ultimately trying to solve in coming up with a new approach
Lines 42-50 - An overview of the new approach advocated for by the Author

Meta-Structure:
Old theory/New Theory
Problem/Solution

This passage combines these two structures, to bring up an old theory that has problems ("grand theories"), and then to pose the problem that needs to be addressed in order to create a new approach to the study of history. The Author then concludes with a general description of this new approach.

Last Thoughts:
The passage relies heavily in the first two paragraphs on the examples of Marxism and Freudianism, so we should expect some questions on that. The second paragraph also includes two reasons for the old theories to have fallen out of favor (events that don't fit the theories; association with failed governments), so we should expect questions there, too.

The last paragraph is a bit complex and nuanced, so we should expect there to be questions that play into the difficulty in distinguishing exactly what the Author is saying there. Knowing that it's a solution to how to incorporate what was good about the old theory (provide some type of story/sense into history) without falling into its problems (fully determined history) should help for questions that ask about it.

Question prompt

Which one of the 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

Social Science

Answer choices

  1. A
    description of a group Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 29-30) There are no examples of their predictive accuracy—just examples of the grand theories. In fact, the Author notes at the end of the second paragraph that, as history unfolded, their predictive accuracy was notably poor.
  2. B
    explanation of the decline Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Paragraph 2; Lines 33-40) This answer's first half reflects the second paragraph, so it starts off good. However, the Author doesn't defend the logical coherence and rigor of grand theories—rather, she defends their appeal on more emotional fronts in that they give us comfort.
  3. C
    identification of the mistake Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Methods of Reasoning

    Strategy Overview:
    Review our summary of each paragraph and then find an answer reflecting that structure

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    While we don't recommend you fully write out a summary of each paragraph as we do here, you should spend some time (and maybe jot down a few words) describing each of their roles (and you can break a paragraph up into 2 or, rarely, 3 sections if it has multiple roles).

    Here, the first paragraph brought up an old approach to social/political thought and historical analysis that was popular. The second highlighted why this approach has fallen out of favor, including with the Author. And the third pivoted to talking about what was good about those theories, and how a new approach presented by the Author could bring that goodness to new theories that are more accurate.

    Let's find an answer reflecting this structure.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Paragraph 2; Paragraph 3) The Author introduces a group of theories (grand theories) in the first paragraph, explains their shortcomings in the second and beginning of third, and then pivots to a new approach that incorporates the appeal of these theories while addressing those shortcomings. This answer hits those points, so this is the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    Knowing the role of each paragraph (or section of the paragraphs, if it accomplishes multiple things) is key for a lot of questions on RC. However, these Organization questions are much easier if you have that outlined in some way (even if just mentally) before heading to the answers. Be sure to either mindfully describe the role after reading each paragraph, or jot down a few words to reflect that role.
  4. D
    summary of the history Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 18-21) The Author doesn't speculate about the future of the grand theories—she notes that they've already fallen out of favor.
  5. E
    identification of the essential Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Paragraph 1) This, at best, describes Paragraph 1, but then it ignores Paragraphs 2 and 3. Since that first paragraph was mainly background, it was the least important one to be reflected in this question!

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