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

Which one 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

Strategy Overview

Review the relevant part of the passage and notes, if necessary, to anticipate the key connections among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices

Answer Anticipation

These Application/Analogous Situation questions closely resemble Parallel Reasoning questions in Logical Reasoning. We want to find the answer choice that is structurally similar to the element we're asked to analogize. The correct answer won't have the same subject matter as the passage; instead, it will feature similar characteristics or themes as the element from the passage. Therefore, we should start by reviewing the key features of the element we're asked to parallel.In this case, we're asked to parallel the connections among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices. If you do not recall where this discussion showed up, using CTRL/Command + F to search for "West Africa" will direct us to the end of the second paragraph. In that excerpt, the author says that both the blues and spirituals may come from traditional African American culture and West African religion, in which worshippers create "psychological conditions that are conducive to religious experiences" (P2, S4). The author calls this psychological transformation "ecstasy" — a transcendent, out-of-body experience (P2, S5). In other words, blues and spirituals may both derive from West African religion, which might explain why the three different practices produce similar transcendent effects. The correct answer will probably present two things that may share a common ancestor, which could explain why all three things produce similar effects.This anticipation may sound rather broad, but we want our anticipation to be very general for these questions. This will help us assess the elements or themes of the answer choices independent of their subject matter.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Two species of cacti, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice present two things that may share a common ancestor, which can explain why all three things produce similar effects?

    This gets very close until the last-minute switcheroo. The two species of dissimilar cacti that feature similar flowers resemble the blues and spirituals — two dissimilar musical forms that nonetheless produce similar effects. These cacti evolved from a third species, similar to the blues and spirituals' shared origin in West African religious practices.

    If this third species of cactus had similar flowers to the first two, this answer choice would be analogous to the connections among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices. All three have similar effects, so all three cacti should have similar flowers. However, the flowers from the third cactus species are "quite different" from the first two, which deviates from our anticipation. That's enough to render (A) incorrect.

  2. B
    Two species of ferns, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice present two things that may share a common ancestor, which can explain why all three things produce similar effects?

    No, not quite. The first two ferns are "closely similar in most respects." If these ferns stand in for the blues and spirituals, this is already off-base — the blues and spirituals are dissimilar in many ways but, nonetheless, may share the same ancestor and produce similar effects. These ferns have "subtly different" stem structures. If these stem structures stand in for the effects that the blues and spirituals produce, this is further off-base. These structures should be similar, not distinct.

    If we kept reading, we'd find that these ferns at least share a common ancestor — like the blues and spirituals. However, this common ancestor has another "different arrangement of stem structures." Again, if these stem structures stand in for the effects of the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices, they should be similar, not different. Therefore, (B) has many dissimilarities to the relationship among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices, and we can safely eliminate it.

  3. C
    Two types of trees, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice present two things that may share a common ancestor, which can explain why all three things produce similar effects?

    This gets very close! And this explains why (C) is such a popular answer choice among test-takers.

    If the "two types of trees" stand in for the blues and spirituals, there are some similarities between these trees and the two musical forms. These two trees have "essential similarities" in their flower structures, and both evolved from "another species." This parallels the similar effects produced by the blues and spirituals and their shared ancestor in West African religious practices.

    But there are a few red flags in this answer choice. First, botanists "long believed" that the two trees were unrelated. Have scholars of African American folk arts "long believed" that the blues and spirituals are unrelated? Not exactly. In fact, some people have already characterized the blues as "secular spirituals" (P1, S4), which suggests that people have acknowledged the relationship between the two for at least some time.

    Second, this answer choice says that these trees "should be reclassified" after discovering their common ancestor. Is there anything in the passage akin to reclassifying the blues and spirituals? No. No one argues that the blues should be considered religious music or that spirituals should be considered secular music.

    Finally, this answer choice says that these two trees definitely evolved from the third species. That's a bold declaration. The passage only states that "both musical forms may be linked to ... ancestral cultures in West Africa" (emphasis ours, P2, S4). So, the botanists know these trees share a common ancestor, while the scholars only think the blues and spirituals evolved from the same source.

    Even expert test-takers may not notice all of these problems on their first reading of (C). Most would acknowledge that the "reclassified" part isn't a perfect match for this passage and would decide to keep looking. Once they found another contender, they'd start picking each answer choice apart, figuring out which one has more problems. Ultimately, (C) is an OK answer choice that simply features more issues than the correct answer.

  4. D
    Two species of grass, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice present two things that share a common ancestor, which explains why all three things produce similar effects?

    This also gets close until a last-minute switcheroo. The two species of grass have some subtle similarities — just like the blues and spirituals — and are very similar to a third species — just like the blues and spirituals are similar to West African religious practices.

    If this answer choice said that we can infer that these two species of grass evolved from the third species, it would probably be correct. Instead, it says that the third species may have evolved from one of the first two. That doesn't parallel the passage. That would be like the passage stating that West African religious practices evolved from the blues or spirituals. So, (D) is incorrect.

  5. E
    Two species of shrubs, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) Does this answer choice present two things that share a common ancestor, which explains why all three things produce similar effects?

    Yes, this gets the closest of all the answer choices. Here, the two species of shrubs stand in for the blues and spirituals. The shrubs are superficially unalike but have a similar leaf structure. This is similar to the way the blues and spirituals produce similar ecstatic effects.

    Also, we think these shrubs may be related to an older species, much like the posited relationship between the blues and spirituals to certain West African religious practices. And we think this relationship may explain why the three shrubs have similar leaf structures; this matches how we think the relationship between the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices explains why they all aim to produce ecstatic effects.

    Importantly (and unlike (C)), this answer choice doesn't go overboard in describing the relationship between the two shrubs and the older species. The passage only states that "both musical forms may be linked to ... ancestral cultures in West Africa" (emphasis ours, P2, S4). Therefore, it's appropriate that this answer choice only says the shrubs' similarity "may be due" to their relationship to the older shrub.

    Therefore, this answer choice does a good job of paralleling the relationship among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices and doesn't commit any of the errors the other answer choices do. We can select it confidently.

What this tests

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