PrepTest 115

[lcid:3556] Prep Test 115 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 13-20  .        Donna Haraway's Primate Visions is the most  . ambitious book on the history of science yet Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's conclusion (Haraway's primatology book most ambitious feminist science history book)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Haraway's book is a more ambitious feminist science history than any other book to date (first sentence)
      • Primates seem like us, so Haraway can use them to make conscious and unconscious projections of her beliefs about nature and culture (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "the most ambitious" (first sentence), "not only" (first sentence), "particularly apt vehicle" (last sentence), "they provide ready material" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway argues the division between knower/object is masculine and colonial)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between the "traditional" division in scientific inquiry (between knower —scientist/historian — and object — nature/history) and Haraway's approach (miscellaneous human actors & creatures contribute to the knowledge of nature, which isn't singular) (first, fourth, and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "most radical departure" (first sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway's fragmented, unique writing style reflects her views)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between "traditional history" writing and Haraway's fragmented approach (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "iconoclastic" (first sentence), "unorthodox" (first sentence), "will not succumb" (second sentence), "fragmented" (third sentence), "familiar enough" (third sentence), "rarely been but into practice" (third sentence), "complex alternative" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's support (Haraway ignores distinction between scientific theory/practice and social issues/beliefs)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • A distinction is drawn between "internal" scientific issues and "external" scientific issues (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "equally innovative" (first sentence), "difficult to set aside" (second sentence), "simply ignores it" (third sentence), "one must shed a great many assumptions" (last sentence)

Main Point: By challenging traditional assumptions of science and adopting a unique writing style, Donna Haraway's Primate Vision is an innovative work of primatology and the most ambitious book on the history of science written from a feminist perspective.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: This passage adopts the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure.* This structure is usually reserved for passages about artists but can occasionally appear in passages about scientists, historians, philosophers, and others. In this case, we could call this an "Innovative Scientist" passage, as it's about a primatologist with some ambitious, unconventional ideas.

When a passage falls into the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure, the main point focuses on that innovation, as reflected in our main point above. Further, it's important to track whether and the extent to which the author approves of these innovations. In this passage, the author adopts a tone that suggests that the author truly admires Haraway's innovations, referring to her book as "the most ambitious book on the history of science yet written from a feminist perspective" (P1, S1), her writing style as a "complex alternative" to the traditional (P3, S4), and her analysis as "innovative" (P4, S1). The author does use some words that can have a neutral or even negative connotation, like "iconoclastic" (P3, S1) and "unorthodox" (P3, S1), and does make a concession that Haraway's writings could be considered by the more traditionally minded to be "distracting … bewildering … digressive" (P4, S4). However, on balance, the author seems to approve of Haraway's work.

*As is often the case with Innovative Subject passages, you could also reasonably call this passage an Old Approach/New Approach passage, characterizing Haraway's approach as the "new approach."

Comparison: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the comparison. As is often the case for passages that utilize the Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure, the subject's innovations are frequently distinguished from the conventional approaches. The author distinguishes Haraway's approach from the traditional division between "active knower" and "passive object" in the second paragraph, distinguishes Haraway's writing style from the traditional style in the third paragraph, and distinguishes Haraway's topics from the traditional focus of scientific studies in the last paragraph. We should expect several questions about these.

Last Thoughts?The author uses many words and phrases that convey authorial opinions, so expect several questions about the author's attitude.

Question prompt

The passage suggests that Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review your notes and the main point to recall Haraways's views, then find an answer that she would agree with, according to the passage

Answer Anticipation

This question stem asks us to infer a belief Haraway would agree with. Often, one's views are described at length throughout the passage, so reviewing the passage or anticipating what the correct answer will say is not a wise investment of our limited time. Instead, we can remind ourselves of what we noted about her views and go on to the answer choices. We'll eliminate each one we know is wrong (for instance, if we know it contradicts her views) and table any choice that includes a detail we don't remember reading. If we see a detail we recall, even vaguely, we can review the passage to see if we can find the supporting text.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Those scientists who have Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice reflect Haraway's views as they are expressed in the main point or our notes?

    Nope. If anything, this answer choice seems to conflict with Haraway's view described in the second paragraph. According to that part of the passage, Haraway thinks diverse human actors and actors are both active participants in creating knowledge and that there is no single, coherent reality (P2, S4-S5). This answer choice suggests that different people, recording different animals, would craft a similar reality. This is in tension with Haraway's idea regarding a multiple and variable reality that is at least partially created by the animals being observed. Moreover, the passage never divulges Haraway's feelings about the importance of "proper training," which also makes this answer choice unsupported.

  2. B
    Primatologists are more likely Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice reflect Haraway's views as they are expressed in the main point or our notes?

    No. Neither our notes nor the main point suggests that Haraway believes that primatologists record better observations than other animal behaviorists. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (B) and advance to the following question.

    If we needed to review the passage to eliminate (B), we'd see that the passage only discusses Haraway's feelings about primatology, as compared to other animal studies, in the first paragraph. There, the author explains that Haraway focuses on primates because primates "seem so much like ourselves that they provide ready material for scientists' conscious and unconscious projections of their beliefs about nature and culture" (P1, S2). Haraway, therefore, may feel that primatologists are less likely to accurately record observations than other animal behaviorist since the primatologists are more prone to projecting their beliefs onto the primates.

  3. C
    Scientists studying primate behavior Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice reflect Haraway's views as they are expressed in the main point or our notes?

    No. Neither our notes nor the main point suggests that Haraway believes that primatologists record better observations than animal behaviorists studying other animals. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (C) and advance to the following question.

    If we needed to review the passage to eliminate (C), we'd notice that this answer choice is extremely similar to (B) and wrong for the same reason. According to the first paragraph, Haraway may believe that primatologists are less likely to record accurate observations about primates, precisely because those animals are so similar to ourselves (P1, S2).

  4. D
    Scientists who study primates Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Does this answer choice reflect Haraway's views as they are expressed in the main point or our notes?

    Yes, sort of. Our note for the second paragraph is, "Author's support (Haraway argues the division between knower/object is masculine and colonial)." This suggests that Haraway thinks there is an interplay between the studier (a scientist) and the subject being studied (a primate), as this answer also suggests.

    So, we can review the passage to confirm that (D) is correct. Although the second paragraph doesn't furnish support for (D), a comparison made in the first paragraph does. In the first paragraph, the author explains that Haraway chose primatology as the theme of her tract because primates "seem so much like ourselves that they provide ready material for scientists' conscious and unconscious projections of their beliefs about nature and culture" (P1, S2). Based on this line, it is fair to conclude that Haraway believes that scientists studying primates will be very likely to project their own beliefs about nature and culture onto the primate and, therefore, interpret the primate's behavior in terms of those scientists' own beliefs. So, (D) is supported. We can justifiably select it and advance to the following question.

  5. E
    Scientists who take a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice reflect Haraway's views as they are expressed in the main point or our notes?

    No. Neither our notes nor the main point suggests that Haraway believes that scientists who take "passive roles" will record similar observations as those who take "active roles" when studying animals. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (E) and advance to the following question.

    If we needed to review the passage to eliminate (E), we'd see that the passage distinguishes "active" observers and "passive" objects of observation at the beginning of the second paragraph (P2, S1). However, the passage never discusses Haraway's beliefs about "active" and "passive" observers. As such, we can't conclude whether she thinks passive observation would yield similar results as more active observation.

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