PrepTest 110

[lcid:3536] Prep Test 110 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 7-12  .        The term "blues" is conventionally used to refer to  . a state of sadness or melancholy, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Common belief and author's correction (blues and spirituals both aim for spiritual transformation)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Common beliefs/assumptions: The blues refer to a state of sadness and is often received disapproval from church communities (first and second sentences)
    • Author's correction: Understood more fully, the blues arises from the same history as spirituals and both attempt to produce a "spiritual transformation" (third and last sentences)
    • Similarities between the blues and spirituals, according to the author:
      • Both attempt to produce "spiritual transformation"/a religious response (third sentence)
      • Both arise from the same "reservoir of experiences" and African-American cultural aesthetic (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "miss its deeper meaning" (first sentence); "Despite … despite" (second sentence); "understood more fully, actually has much in common with the traditional religious music known as spirituals" (second sentence); "In fact" (fourth sentence); "clear" (fifth sentence); "may well arise" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's comparison between blues and spirituals (both transform pain/sorrow into "ecstasy" and come from the same tradition)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Critics' view: African American folk tradition doesn't sharply divide dichotomies like secular/spiritual, good/evil, misery/joy (first sentence)
    • Comparison between blues and spirituals, according to the author:
      • Both express longing or sorrow, and both aim to transform those negative feeling into a transcendent elation or exaltation often called "ecstasy" (third and last sentences)
      • Both arise from traditional African American culture in North America and are linked to traditional West African religion (fourth sentence)
    • Contrasting definition of “ecstasy,” according to author:
      • Ecstasy in the blues/spirituals refers to having an out-of-body, religious experience, rather than remaining centered within one’s self (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "consistent with" (second sentence); "are indicative of neither genre's full scope" (third sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • How the blues transform sorrow into ecstasy (performer makes negative experience into tragic-comic lyrics)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Example of tragic-comic lyric, according to the author:
      • "If the blues was money, I'd be a millionaire" (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "virtuosity and ecstatic mastery" (first sentence); "double-edged irony" (second sentence)

Main Point: The blues, more fully understood, has much in common with spirituals, as both attempt to transform negative experiences into a transcendent feeling called "ecstasy."

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 (P1, S1) - Common belief

P1, S2-3 - Author's correction

Meta-Structure?

Correcting the Record: This passage most closely follows the Correcting the Record Meta-Structure*. The author describes mistaken beliefs about the blues at the beginning of the passage (P1, S1), before correcting this belief throughout the rest of the passage. The author mentions that many people believe that the blues only reflect the performer's sadness or self-pity before clarifying that the blues — more fully understood — aims to transform that sadness into a transcendent experience called "ecstasy." Rather than wallow in negative feelings, the blues attempts to lift the performer and audience up, much like religious spirituals.

In a Correcting the Record passage in which the author provides an alternative belief, the main point is the author's opinion about that belief. In this passage, the author doesn't summarize their opinion on the alternative belief in any one sentence, so we summarized the main point for the author: "The blues, more fully understood, has much in common with spirituals, as both attempt to transform negative experiences into a transcendent feeling called 'ecstasy.'"

*You may have determined that this passage uses a Criticizing a Viewpoint or Rebutting Critics Meta-Structure. Either Meta-Structure would help you identify this passage's main point and understand its structure. However, we ultimately went with Correcting the Record because we felt the passage placed more emphasis on the correction than the critics. The author, at times, addresses critics directly. However, the author's primary goal is to support their alternative viewpoint on the blues — not to attack the opposing viewpoints.

Comparisons: This passage teems with comparisons, one of our minor Meta-Structures. Every comparison mentions a similarity between the blues and spirituals. We highlighted all of these comparisons in the Passage Summary above. On test day, it may help to highlight some of the comparative terms in the passage ("in common" (P1, S2); "each genre, in its own way" (P1, S3); "shares" (P1, S5); "common reservoir" (P1, S6); "both aim" (P2, S3); "both musical forms may be linked" (P2, S4)). This highlighting can help us locate the relevant text to answer any questions about these comparisons.

Last Thoughts?

Question prompt

The reference to "standing Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the reference to "standing out from oneself" in the passage, consult your notes about that paragraph, and answer based on your understanding of that reference in the passage's overall argument.

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us why the author said "standing out from oneself" in the second paragraph. Unless a detail conflicts with the paragraph's purpose, the author probably mentioned that detail to advance the paragraph's role. So reviewing the second paragraph's role, which we hopefully wrote down in the notes on our scratch paper, will generally reveal why the author included that detail.Our note for the second paragraph is, "Author's comparison between blues and spirituals (both transform pain/sorrow into "ecstasy" and come from the same tradition)." Judging from this note, the reference to "standing out from oneself" is probably used to compare blues and spirituals, either because they both transform negative feelings into "ecstasy" or because they come from the same cultural tradition.Re-reading the end of the second paragraph, we can see the author references "standing out from oneself" as part of their definition of ecstasy. The author says the version of "ecstasy" produced by the blues is a transcendent, out-of-body experience where the participant "stands out from oneself" and one's centered, grounded psychological state (P2, S5). Immediately before this definition, the author mentions that both the blues and spirituals come from traditional African American culture and West African religion, in which worshippers create religious experiences (P2, S4). That sentence suggests that the "ecstasy" produced by the blues and spirituals has a religious component. It seems, then, that the reference to "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience. Let's look for something like that in the answer choices.

Answer choices

  1. A
    distinguish the standard from Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this say that "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience?

    This gets close to our anticipation, as it references the definition of a word. However, (A) misstates the context. In the second paragraph, the author never suggests that there are two definitions of "ecstasy" — one standard and the other "nonstandard, and thus incorrect." Instead, the author only refers to one particular definition of "ecstasy" that applies to the blues and spirituals.

  2. B
    specify a particular sense Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this say that "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience?

    This is stated in much more general terms than our anticipation, but it conveys the same idea! The author says "standing out from oneself" to define the type of "ecstasy" that the blues and spirituals evoke. The author "intends the word to convey" the definition that involves "standing out from oneself" — a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious version of "ecstasy." Therefore, this answer choice matches our anticipation.

    Because this answer choice is stated in much more general terms than our anticipation, even some expert test-takers may not feel comfortable selecting (B) until they have assessed the remaining answer choices. Once we can confirm that (C) through (E) don't fit our anticipation, we can select (B) confidently.

  3. C
    point out a word Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this say that "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience?

    Nope. This answer choice suggests that the author doesn't think the word "ecstasy" describes the experience of watching a blues performance. The author doesn't believe that at all — the author suggests the transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious definition of "ecstasy" perfectly describes the feelings evoked by a blues performance. (C) is completely off base.

  4. D
    identify a way in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this say that "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience?

    Nope. Our note says that the second paragraph, including the reference to "standing out from oneself," shows how similar the blues and spirituals (a type of religious music) are. Therefore, the reference to "standing out from oneself" is not intended to show how religious participation differs from the blues.

  5. E
    indicate the intensity that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say that "standing out from oneself" is meant to show how the type of "ecstasy" the blues and spirituals produce is a transcendent, out-of-body, near-religious experience?

    Not quite, although (E) is a fairly tricky answer! "[S]tanding out from oneself" may refer to the emotions that the blues and spiritual arouse. However, the author never suggests that this type of "ecstasy" is only evoked by "good blues artists." Maybe any blues artist — or any person watching any blues performance — can experience this ecstasy!

    Moreover, this answer choice doesn't include anything about defining the word "ecstasy" or comparing the blues to spirituals. Therefore, this answer choice doesn't convey the role the "standing out from oneself" plays within the second paragraph.

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