PrepTest 158

[lcid:3728] Prep Test 158 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

Passage

Passage A is adapted from an essay by historian Christopher Ricks; passage B is from the introduction, by historian Paulina Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary Topic:
Humanities

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Rosenthal: No difference between plagiarism and imitation or adaptation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to Rosenthal:
      • Rosenthal questions the differences between plagiarism and other forms of imitation (first sentence)
      • Rosenthal finds that historically, there is no difference between them (last sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author (Ricks):
      • Questioning of differences between plagiarism and imitation leads to the "required postmodern answer" that there is no difference between them (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "But…” (last sentence); "invariably leads to the required postmodern answer"(last sentence); "opprobrious” (last sentence)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Author (Ricks): Rosenthal minimizes the moral dimension of plagiarism
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Although Rosenthal's book teems with a "political fervor" which is "clearly moral," Rosenthal minimizes the moral dimension of plagiarism — that it is obviously dishonest (first and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Rather than focusing on honesty and dishonesty, Rosenthal considers only the "cultural location of the text and the position of the author" (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "clearly…" (first sentence); "What in moral terms is a matter of honesty or dishonesty…" (last sentence); "reduced to…" (last sentence)
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Author (Ricks): Rosenthal's approach delegitimizes valuable moral considerations
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect, according to the author:
      • Rosenthal's historical approach to plagiarism leads to the idea that if a moral thought is not universal, it is not valuable (second and third sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "demeans and degrades moral thought" (first sentence); "does not itself entail…" (second sentence); "may be valuable, indispensable, worthy of respect…" (third sentence); "a sad loss to political history" (last sentence)


Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Attitudes about plagiarism have fluctuated over time
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Plagiarism, like all ideas, has a history (first sentence)
      • Virtually identical acts of plagiarism have been greeted with very different responses (last sentence)
    • List of factors that have influenced attitudes about plagiarism over time, according to the author:
      • Commercial circumstances, new theories of artistic creation, developments in copyright law (third sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage A wants us to consider plagiarism a moral issue, while the author of passage B affirms the ever-shifting nature of our considerations of plagiarism (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "repeatedly complicated judgments of plagiarism" (third sentence); "an abiding sense that plagiarism is morally wrong" (last sentence); "much fluidity" (last sentence)
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Ricks's critique of moral relativism about plagiarism is somewhat simplistic
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to Ricks:
      • A historical approach causes an "extenuating moral relativism" that degrades the dishonest nature of plagiarism (first sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Not all historical approaches to plagiarism discount their importance (last sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage B recaps and responds directly to the author of passage A's claims
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Documenting historical attitudes about a concept doesn't necessarily involve endorsing them
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author’s view:
      • Ricks is justifiably critical of anachronistic scholarship and the tendency to reduce moral standards to expressions of power (first and second sentences)
      • But historical analysis should still try to reconstruct how people felt about plagiarism in the past (fourth and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Historical and contemporary figures have different views about plagiarism, just like people today have different views about plagiarism (last sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The author of passage B responds directly to the author of passage A's claim. The author of passage B claims that although the author of passage A is justified in their disdain for scholars who always associate moral standards with expressions of power, a historical relativist approach can still be valuable in understanding past points of view.
    • Author's attitude: "rightly dismissive" (first sentence); "also true" (second sentence); "historically remote" (second sentence); "bad history is no argument against history itself" (third sentence); "no necessarily to vindicate them" (fourth sentence); "hardly a consensus" (last sentence)


Main Points?
Passage A: Removing moral considerations from political histories, such as Rosenthal's book on plagiarism, is detrimental to political history.
Passage B: While Ricks is rightfully dismissive of some attempts to reduce moral considerations to mere expressions of power, historical studies on plagiarism should still attempt to try to reconstruct how people felt about plagiarism in the past.

Key Lines?

Passage A:
Paragraph 3, Sentence 1 (P1, S3) - Author's issue with Rosenthal's book
P3, S4 - Author's conclusion

Passage B:
P2, S2 - Author's response to the author of passage A
P3, S1 - Author's concession in favor of the author of passage A
P3, S3-5 - Author's conclusion

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?
Relationship - Opposing Viewpoints: The authors of these two passages have slightly opposed viewpoints. While both authors agree that the tendency to dismiss moral standards as expressions of power is unfortunate, they disagree on the implications of this tendency. While the author of passage A asserts that any exclusion of plagiarism's moral dimension compromises the historical analysis (PA, P3, S4), the author of passage B argues that there is, in fact, some value to omitting moral standards in historical studies. By doing so, we can better acknowledge the perspectives of our predecessors (PB, P3, S5).

Meta-Structure - Criticizing a Viewpoint: Both passages utilize a Criticize a Viewpoint Meta-Structure. In passage A, the author criticizes Rosenthal's study on plagiarism, which discounts the moral dimension of plagiarism in favor of the "required postmodern answer" that there is no difference between plagiarism and imitation in the arts — other than the fact that those in power get to determine which artistic appropriations are considered plagiarism (PA, P1, S2; PA, P3, S1). To the author of passage A, Rosenthal's study is unfortunately emblematic of recent political histories on plagiarism (PA, P3, S4). The author of passage B, in turn, criticizes passage A's argument. The author of passage B acknowledges that passage A makes a few good points (PB, P3, S1-2), but ultimately concludes that setting aside moral considerations can help historians reconstruct what historical figures actually thought about plagiarism (PB, P3, S5).

Last Thoughts?
Don't forget to read the introduction before "Passage A"! If you overlooked that, you might have missed that Ricks is the author of passage A and that passage B is a direct response to the argument made in passage A.

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: E

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Answer choices

  1. A
    despite widely held beliefs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Does this answer choice say that the authors think that some historical studies on plagiarism reduce the moral dimension of plagiarism to an expression of power or project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies?

    Nope. Experienced test-takers would eliminate this answer choice once they saw it wasn't a match for their anticipation. Moreover, we can eliminate this because the author of passage A almost certainly disagrees with this statement. The author of passage A implies that plagiarism is more dishonest than imitation (PA, P2, S2). We also don't know whether the author of passage B would agree with this. The author of passage B says that many different people have many opinions on what constitutes plagiarism and what constitutes imitation (PB, P1, S4). Still, the author never provides their thoughts on the matter.
  2. B
    the fact that no Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Does this answer choice say that the authors think that some historical studies on plagiarism reduce the moral dimension of plagiarism to an expression of power or project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies?

    No. In fact, this is the exact opposite of what we're looking for. Both authors suggest that moral standards are not mere manifestations of power (PA, P4, S2; PB, P3, S1). Therefore, both authors would disagree with this claim.
  3. C
    currently widespread views regarding Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Does this answer choice say that the authors think that some historical studies on plagiarism reduce the moral dimension of plagiarism to an expression of power or project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies?

    No. Expert test-takers would cross (C) off as soon as they saw it wasn't a match for their anticipation.

    If we needed to review the passages more carefully to eliminate (C), we'd see that the author of passage A definitely disagrees with this claim. The author of passage A says that modern studies that attempt to distinguish between plagiarism and imitation invariably reach the "required postmodern answer" that there is no difference (PA, P1, S1-2). This suggests that the current views on plagiarism (at least among historians) are less stringent (strict) than they once were. Moreover, the author of passage B suggests that there isn't a consensus on plagiarism today (PB, P3, S5). Passage B's author might dispute (C)'s claim that there is a "widespread" view on plagiarism today.
  4. D
    historical scholarship that focuses Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Does this answer choice say that the authors think that some historical studies on plagiarism reduce the moral dimension of plagiarism to an expression of power or project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies?

    Not quite. So, decisive test-takers would again remove this from contention without reviewing the passage.

    If we needed to take a closer look to eliminate (D), we'd notice a couple problems. First, it brings up "historical scholarship that focuses on changes in attitudes toward plagiarism." The author of passage A criticizes historical scholarship that attempts to inject current ideologies into historical controversies about plagiarism. That's not quite the same thing as "historical scholarship that focuses on changes in attitudes toward plagiarism." The former involves applying today's attitudes to yesterday's controversies, while the latter focuses on how attitudes actually changed over time. The author of passage A might believe that historical scholarship that attempts to inject current ideologies into historical controversies about plagiarism absolves plagiarists from responsibility. But we don't know whether the author of passage A thinks scholarship that focuses on changing attitudes would also absolve plagiarists.

    Moreover, the author of passage B doesn't bring up absolving "plagiarists of responsibility for their actions." Besides, the author of passage B wants a scholarship to address how attitudes toward plagiarism changed over time (PB, P3, S5), so it seems unlikely that the author would criticize scholarship that focuses on changing attitudes.
  5. E
    an inferior kind of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Question Type:
    Tone/Author Agree

    Strategy Overview:
    Review the main point of both passages, use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the authors' attitudes, and find the answer that both authors would agree with

    Answer Anticipation:
    This question asks us about the authors' views but doesn't provide any insight into the topic of the correct answer or where the supporting information might show up in the passages. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passages to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of each author's main point. We can also review any notes about the author's attitude or any text we highlighted because it expressed the author's opinion.

    For this particular question, the authors draw divergent conclusions, so the correct answer won't reflect their authors' main points. However, reviewing our notes and what we highlighted/underlined in passage B should reveal one point of agreement between the authors. The author of passage B claims that the author of passage A is justified in their disdain for scholars who always conflate moral standards and expressions of power and scholars who project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies (PB, P3, S1-2). Indeed, the author of passage A pokes fun at this tendency at the beginning of that passage. The author says that historical studies that attempt to distinguish between plagiarism and imitation "invariably leads to the required postmodern answer: that there is no difference between these things" other than the belief that people in power get to decide what's "plagiarism" (PA, P1, S1-2).

    Therefore, the correct answer will likely address this point of agreement. If no answer choices match that anticipation, we can simply ask whether both authors would agree with the answer choice, using our notes and what we highlighted/underlined in the passage to guide our assessment.

    Answer Choice Explanation:
    Does this answer choice say that the authors think that some historical studies on plagiarism reduce the moral dimension of plagiarism to an expression of power or project modern views on plagiarism onto historical controversies?

    Finally, yes. Both authors would agree with this statement. The author of passage A makes fun of current historical scholarship that projects current ideological preoccupations — like reduction of the moral component of plagiarism to a discussion of power dynamics — inappropriately onto past controversies (PA, P1, S2). The author of passage B agrees that some "shoddy scholarship" projects "modern-day ideologies" onto "historically remote controversies" (PB, P3, S2). Since both authors would agree with this statement, we can confidently select (E).

    Key Takeaway:
    Like a Point of Agreement question in Logical Reasoning, we need both authors to agree with the answer choice on this question type in a comparative passage. As you analyze each answer choice, first consider whether each author clearly agrees or disagrees with the statement. If it isn't immediately apparent whether an author agrees or disagrees with the answer choice, feel free to hold off on it for the moment and check other answer choices.

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