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The Reading Comprehension section, as you might suspect, consists of long, fairly complex passages, each accompanied by a series of questions about that passage. The passages span quite a range in subject matter, but typically there’s one from each of the following areas: arts/humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and law. You do not need any prior knowledge of any of these areas to be able to answer the questions.
LSAC’s latest twist to the Reading Comprehension section is the inclusion of dual passages (or comparative reading). In this chapter, we will walk through the basics of taking apart Reading Comprehension passages and answering each type of Reading Comprehension question, with a special focus on the skills and techniques specific to the newer comparative question types.
You may be wondering where these passages come from. Does LSAC write them, or do they come from some other published source? Actually, it’s a little bit of both. Most of the time, the LSAT writers will take material from a book or journal and then adapt it to make it suitable for testing purposes. What does “adapt” mean? Because you’re not supposed to need outside information to be able to understand the passage, the test writers must remove any material that would require a deeper understanding of the subject beyond the limits of the passage. As they edit out these references, however, much of the transitional material that made the passage readable in the first place is taken out as well. What they’re left with is a pretty dense passage, chock full of details, with choppy or sometimes even nonexistent transitions from one subject to the next.
More than anything, Reading Comprehension tests your ability to answer questions about the logic of the author’s argument and to find specific details scattered throughout the passage. Because the passages are presented in such a way as to hinder comprehension, this section also tests your ability to manage these tasks efficiently in a short period of time.
Reading Comprehension is on the LSAT to test your ability to read carefully and manage large amounts of information in a short period of time. This section also tests your ability to answer questions about a passage without bringing in any information from outside the passage.
The following text is a list of general strategies that you should use when you are working on the Reading Comprehension section. Make sure you take these strategies seriously.
The people who write this test are not your friends. Therefore, they may not give you the easiest passage first or the hardest passage last. Fortunately, you don’t have to work the passages in the order that they appear. It is important to take a few seconds to assess the difficulty level of a passage before you dive in. Quickly read the first few sentences to get a sense of how tough the passage text will be, and glance over the questions. Abstract, theoretical language and ideas will make a passage hard to understand, while concrete and descriptive passages will be much easier to follow. Long question stems and answer choices, and questions that ask you to apply new information to the passage, will usually be much more challenging than short and straightforward questions. Don’t overreact to unfamiliar topics; remember that all the information you need to answer the questions will be included right there in the passage text. If a passage looks especially formidable, nobody says that you have to do it now, or at all. Leave the hardest passage for last, or randomly guess on it and spend your time getting the other questions right.
Do the same within each passage, assessing the difficulty of the individual questions. Does the third question look especially formidable? Move past it and come back once you’ve worked the others on that passage. Are you having a horrible time deciding between two answer choices? Pick the one that looked right to you the first time, move on, and come back to that question one more time before going on to the next passage. You’d be amazed what a few minutes away from a question that’s giving you trouble can do for you. However, don’t get bogged down on one question, reading it over and over. If you are really stuck, take your best shot and move on.
Your mantra: I will remember that I am in control of the section. If a passage or question seems likely to be especially difficult, I will move past it. If a question frustrates me, I will work on a different one and come back later with a fresh perspective. If I am still stuck, I will pick the most likely choice and move on.
Reading Comprehension is probably the section of the test that feels the most familiar; you have been reading things and answering questions about those things for most of your life. However, doing well on LSAT Reading Comprehension requires reading in a way that is different from how you handle material for school, work, personal enjoyment, or even for other standardized tests. Too many test takers read the passage the first time through like a text book, scrutinizing every word and trying to remember all of the details. This approach uses up too much of your limited time. You gain points by correctly answering the questions, not by memorizing the passage. Be willing to slow down when a question gives you trouble. Going back to the passage to make a tough decision between two answer choices isn’t wasted time; it’s what Reading Comprehension is all about.
However, you do need to have a basic understanding of the author’s argument in the passage in order to effectively address the questions. This involves knowing where key ideas are located, understanding the logical structure of the passage, and defining the purpose of the passage as a whole. Each passage has several big ideas, which will be illustrated or expanded upon. As you read, actively separate the core ideas, or claims, from the evidence used to support those claims. Focus your energy on identifying and understanding the claims, and leave the details for later (if and when they become necessary for answering the questions). The passage isn’t going anywhere; if a question asks you for a detail that you skimmed over, you can always go back to find it. If you feel yourself getting bogged down, don’t read troublesome text multiple times. Instead, push forward and keep an eye out for something else that helps you understand the content or purpose of that confusing part of the passage. Most fundamentally, as you read you should think about how the major claims relate to each other and how they finally add up to the main point and purpose, or bottom line, of the entire passage.
Many people find it useful to quickly preview the questions before reading the passage. This can help you decide which parts of the passage to read more carefully, and which sections you can skim through more quickly.
Your mantra: I will get through the passage efficiently, concentrating on the big ideas and logical structure, leaving the details for later.
Work on all the questions on a particular passage and then transfer your answers to the answer sheet. You need a few seconds to regroup after each passage, and transferring your answers allows your brain to do something mindless for a few seconds. When you’re down to five minutes, make sure you’ve filled in an answer for every single question. Then, go back and work on remaining questions you have time for, changing bubbles one at a time as you go. That way, if time is mistakenly called early, you’ve got an answer for every single question.
Your mantra: I will transfer my answers in groups after each passage until five minutes are left.
After you’ve completed each passage and transferred your answers, take three deep breaths. You’ve cleared your mind, and you’re ready to push on to the next passage.
Your mantra: I will take time after each passage I complete to take some deep breaths.
We’re about to give you a four-step process that will help you with the Reading Comprehension section of the LSAT. Whenever you do a passage, or set of passages, follow these steps exactly. This process is designed to help you read the passage actively, searching for what you’ll need to answer the questions. That’s the key to working efficiently and effectively through this section of the LSAT.
In your first read-through of the passage, you are laying the groundwork for the process of answering the questions. If you have little or no understanding of what you have just read, you will have very little to work with in the following steps, and your accuracy and overall efficiency will suffer. However, if you plod through the passage text, paying equal attention to every word and trying to memorize every fact, you will be overwhelmed by the mass of information (and will spend too much time in the passage before you get to what is really important: answering the questions). Remember that the test writers are not going to make it easy for you. Passages are often densely packed with detail, oddly organized, and, let’s admit it, deadly boring.
So, what can you do? Think of the passage as a long argument, made up of moving parts that perform different functions. Within each paragraph, separate the major claims from the supporting evidence. Even though the passages may be written or edited in a way that makes them difficult to follow, they will still often include wording that indicates the purpose and relative importance of certain parts of the passage. For example, the word therefore in a sentence is a clue that the sentence presents a major claim that is important to the main point of the passage. A word like however alerts you to a potential shift or contrast within the passage that will also be logically important. A sentence that begins with for example indicates that what follows is supportive evidence for a larger claim; what you should be thinking about, then, is the larger claim that is being supported or illustrated rather than the details of the evidence.
After you read each paragraph, pause and define the main point and purpose of that chunk of information. As you move through the passage, describe to yourself how the different paragraphs relate to each other; pay special attention to changes in direction and to any expression of the author’s opinion. Many passages include multiple points of view. Keep close track of when the passage shifts from one view to another. Also be alert to shifts in the author’s own argument. It is common for an author to describe a theory or claim in detail, only to go on to criticize or discount it in the next sentence or paragraph.
Finally, before you move on to answer the questions, articulate the bottom line of the passage by stating the main point and purpose of the passage as a whole.
You need to squeeze everything you can out of the limited amount of time you have to read the passage. Therefore, as you read, you should annotate (mark up) the passage to create a visual map that you can use as you are answering the questions. If the passage is at all complex or confusing, break it down for yourself by making notes in the margin defining the main point of each paragraph. Be especially careful to note and label where different points of view are described, or where shifts in the author’s own argument occur. Also, circling key words in the text is much more effective than underlining. Underlining is too passive; it is easy to underline large chunks of text without thinking about the importance and meaning of what you are underlining. Then, as you are answering the questions, you will have to reread huge chunks of text to remind yourself of why you underlined it in the first place. Have a purpose when you circle (and think about the logical purpose or function of the words and phrases that you are circling), rather than simply underlining anything that “sounds important.”
So how do you decide what is truly important? Here are the key things to circle in the passage text:
Additionally, use symbols in the margin to note crucial parts of the author’s argument. Put a plus or minus sign next to places where the author expresses a positive or negative attitude. Put a star next to question topics that you recognize from previewing the questions. If there is a topic sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph, bracket it. Finally, if a sentence expresses the main point of the entire passage, mark it with an MP in the margin. (Keep in mind, however, that many passages will not have a single sentence that sums it all up for you.)
By the time you’ve finished working the passage in this way, you should be able to describe the overall logic of the author’s argument in the passage and state the main point and purpose of the passage as a whole. Make this a distinct step; a solid understanding of the main idea or bottom line of the passage is one of the most useful tools you have in eliminating wrong answers.
This may sound like a lot to do and think about in the 3–5 minutes you have to read the passage before you attack the questions. However, if you consistently practice reading in this way, you will find that it becomes automatic, intuitive, and fast.
Once you have prepared the passage, you are ready to assess the questions. While you may have previewed the questions before reading the passage, and although you have read through parts of the passage relatively quickly, this is not the time to skim. Read each question word for word to understand exactly what that question is asking you to do. The LSAT writers are quite skilled at finding complicated ways to phrase what could have been a very straightforward question. Always take a moment to paraphrase the question before you take the next step.
Part of understanding the question task is identifying the question type. LSAT Reading Comprehension questions fall into four basic categories. Here are the four categories and their subtypes.
These questions require you to take the passage (or, in some cases for a Comparative Reading passage, both passages) as a whole into account. Main Point questions ask you to summarize the author’s central point, while Primary Purpose questions require you to accurately describe the author’s purpose in writing the passage.
Extract: Fact questions are usually phrased, “According to the passage …” The correct answer to these questions will often be a paraphrase of something that is directly stated in the passage. Extract: Inference questions ask what can be inferred from the passage, or what the passage suggests, indicates, implies, or supports. Either type of Extract question may give you a line reference or lead words from the passage. Inference questions may also be phrased in more generic form, as in, “With which of the following statements would the author be most likely to agree?” Regardless of the exact wording of the question, Extract questions are asking you to find the answer choice that is best supported by information provided in the passage.
Structure: Organization questions ask you to describe the overall structure of the passage. The correct answer will outline, step by step, what happens in each section of the passage. Structure: Function questions ask you for the purpose of a particular part of the passage; that is, what role is played by a specific statement made by the author. Function questions therefore ask about the importance of one part of the passage, rather than about the structure of the passage as a whole.
Reasoning questions ask you to apply or compare new information offered in the answer choices to the information provided by the passage. They may ask you to find the answer that most strengthens or weakens a claim described in the passage. Or, they may ask you to find the answer choice that is most similar or analogous to something in the passage.
For each of the different question types, you’ll have a particular approach to follow. Regardless of the type, however, you must go back to the passage to locate the relevant information. Whenever the question gives you lead words and/or a line reference, go back to the passage before you look at the answer choices. Read at least five lines above and below the reference, but make sure that you begin reading where the passage begins discussing the relevant topic, and that you keep reading until the author moves on to another issue. Use your annotation, and your understanding of the logical structure of the passage, actively. For example, if you have read five lines below, but the next sentence begins with a word like however, keep reading. What comes after that shift is highly likely to be relevant to the question and to the correct answer.
Once you have read (or reread) the relevant information, paraphrase it. Then, define what the correct answer needs to do, based on the question type and the passage text. For most questions, you should have an answer in your own words, based closely on the passage, before you begin reading the answer choices. This will save you time in the long run, as you will be able to more quickly eliminate the “close, but not quite” answers. For questions that don’t give you a particular passage reference (including Big Picture questions), check back to the passage as you evaluate the choices.
Don’t fall into the trap of relying on your memory. Reading Comprehension is essentially an open-book test; all the information you need is in the passage. Under the best of circumstances, no one can remember every nuance (and if you can, you are probably spending too much time memorizing the passage in the first place). The test writers are highly skilled at creating wrong answers that will “sound good” if you aren’t actively rereading and relying on the exact wording of the passage text. And, the stress and fatigue you may be feeling during the test certainly don’t create ideal circumstances! Use your resources wisely, and go back to the passage consistently and carefully.
As usual, this is the final step in our strategy. You want to compare what you said the answer needed to do in Step 3 with the choices you’re given. Your goal is to eliminate things that are definitely wrong, meaning that you can pinpoint something in the choices that makes them wrong. “It sounds bad” is never a valid reason to cross off an answer choice—the choices are designed to be unappealing. Cross off answers that don’t match what you came up with or that aren’t supported by information in the passage. Also beware of information that’s in the passage but has no relevance to the question being asked. We’ll talk at greater length about Process of Elimination (POE) later in this chapter.
What you should definitely keep in mind as you go through answer choices, however, is that the one that has nothing wrong with it is the one you’re looking for, whether or not it’s phrased in a way that matches what you said you were looking for. We’re not looking for the best-phrased answer choice; we’re looking for one that does what we need it to do without having anything wrong with it. Whether we think the credited response is worded badly is beside the point.
Okay, those are the four steps. Now, let’s see how they work on a real Reading Comprehension passage. Take your time on this passage, and focus on learning and implementing the process. Eventually you may need to work on going faster, but for now, the focus should be on accuracy.
After the passage, we’ll give you some extra techniques for attacking this section of the LSAT, just as we did in the Arguments and Games chapters.
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1. Which of the following statements best summarizes the above passage?
(A) An assessment of privacy law reveals that publicity law is a more appropriate legal remedy for public personalities.
(B) The promotion of creative endeavor justifies the legal recognition of the right of publicity.
(C) The courts, rather than the celebrities themselves, must determine the relative importance of commercial and constitutional concerns.
(D) The legal issues regarding the right to publicity are complex and have yet to be fully resolved.
(E) Widely accepted approaches to deciding publicity law cases conflict with First Amendment interests.
2. Based on the passage, the judicial response to “right of publicity” questions has been
(A) theoretical
(B) inconclusive
(C) creative
(D) disdainful
(E) widely respected
3. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of “devisability” (line 52) is the ability to be
(A) commercially appropriated with the author’s permission
(B) divided into more than one legal entity
(C) inherited
(D) recognized as a commercial monopoly
(E) structured in several equal branches
4. Which one of the following can be inferred from the information in the passage?
(A) First Amendment ramifications of extending the right of publicity to politicians should be analyzed.
(B) There is rarely any provable nexus between exploitation during life and career incentive.
(C) Celebrities invest substantial time and money to achieve uncertain success and are thus entitled to whatever value accrues from these efforts.
(D) Concerns regarding unjust enrichment from biographical data outweigh the right to disseminate information under the First Amendment.
(E) It is usually in the public interest to reward successful entertainers for their efforts and thereby encourage artists to devote their lives to creative endeavors.
5. According to the passage, privacy laws are inadequate as legal remedies for celebrities because
(A) public personalities have no redress for unauthorized commercial appropriation of their images
(B) private individuals waive privacy rights by becoming public figures
(C) stars wish to be protected from the public only when they are not successful
(D) the laws do not address the financial issues inherent in a public figure’s fame
(E) celebrities have a responsibility to the public to share their created personae and not avoid public attention
6. To which one of the following situations would the “right of publicity” as discussed in the passage most clearly apply?
(A) A novelist objects to the unauthorized reprinting of a portion of his book in a student’s paper.
(B) An athlete plans to design and market, but not promote, a line of sportswear.
(C) The well-known catch-phrase of a local talk-show host is used as part of an ad campaign for a supermarket.
(D) The president of a small company bequeaths his business to an employee but his family contests the will.
(E) The work of a celebrated screen actor is re-edited after the actor’s death.
Step 1: Prepare Below is a list of what each paragraph of the passage told us, and what we felt was important in it. Then we’ll show you what we thought were the main idea and structure of the passage as a whole. Here we go:
Paragraph 1: Introduction of the concept of “right of publicity” and its problems
Paragraph 2: Why right of publicity was needed: privacy laws didn’t do the job
Paragraph 3: What the right of publicity seeks to protect and courts’ considerations
Paragraph 4: Courts consider pros and cons of the right of publicity
Paragraph 5: How long does right of publicity apply? Differing judicial perspectives
Paragraph 6: Right of publicity and politicians: often a problem
As you can see, we have retained few of the details here. All we have done is define the core idea of each paragraph in terms of what it contributes to the passage as a whole. From this outline, we can come up with the bottom line of the passage, and define its logical purpose. Always state the bottom line (the main idea, tone, and purpose) before you move on to answering the questions.
Bottom line: The right of publicity, which seeks to protect the economic interest of celebrities in their own fame, may have certain benefits, but must also be weighed against other concerns.
Just as there are certain types of games and arguments, there are certain types of passages, as defined by their logical structure and purpose. We will discuss these types in more detail in a later section of this chapter. This passage, which describes different aspects of an issue without taking a clear stand for or against, is intended to tell a story.
Steps 2, 3, and 4: Assess, Act, and Answer For each question, we will define the question type and translate what the question is asking us to do, go back to the passage and decide what the correct choice needs to accomplish, and use POE on the answer choices.
1. Which of the following statements best summarizes the above passage?
(A) An assessment of privacy law reveals that publicity law is a more appropriate legal remedy for public personalities.
(B) The promotion of creative endeavor justifies the legal recognition of the right of publicity.
(C) The courts, rather than the celebrities themselves, must determine the relative importance of commercial and constitutional concerns.
(D) The legal issues regarding the right to publicity are complex and have yet to be fully resolved.
(E) Widely accepted approaches to deciding publicity law cases conflict with First Amendment interests.
Here’s How to Crack It
This is a Big Picture: Main Point question, so we’ll want to remind ourselves of what we said the author’s main point was. We said that the right of publicity is a relatively recent development and that all its ramifications have yet to be fully worked out. We’ll want to match this against the answer choices, looking for the response that in some way relates to every part of the passage.
Choice (A) is too specific. Privacy law is mentioned only briefly in the second paragraph. Choice (B) is also too narrow; the promotion of creative endeavor is mentioned only in the fourth paragraph. Although (C) may be true, the passage as a whole is not about who must determine the relative importance of these concerns—it’s about right of publicity. Choice (D) looks pretty good; it mentions right of publicity and the lack of complete resolution. Choice (E) is too strong and too narrow. While the author suggests in the fourth paragraph that the two might come into conflict, the passage as a whole is not focused on this possibility. The best answer, therefore, is choice (D).
2. Based on the passage, the judicial response to “right of publicity” questions has been
(A) theoretical
(B) inconclusive
(C) creative
(D) disdainful
(E) widely respected
This is an Extract: Inference question; we are asked to characterize the judicial response to questions concerning the right of publicity. A look at our map shows that there is discussion of the judicial response in paragraphs 3, 4, and 5. Since the correct answer could come from a few different sections of the passage, it’s time to look at our answer choices. The passage states that the court considered “underlying legal and policy goals” (paragraph 3). Since this indicates a more practical than purely theoretical response, choice (A) is out. The fifth paragraph describes how courts disagree on whether the right of publicity persists after death. So, we should keep choice (B), “inconclusive,” in contention. Nothing in the passage describes the courts’ response as innovative or creative, and so choice (C) is gone. The tone of choice (D) is much too negative; the author never criticizes the courts’ response, nor does the passage show a lack of respect towards the courts. Finally, the passage does not indicate how widely respected the courts’ actions have been (although we know that the right of publicity is widely accepted, we don’t know that the same is true of the courts’ decisions). Therefore, we are left with choice (B) as the best response.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of “devisability” (line 52) is the ability to be
(A) commercially appropriated with the author’s permission
(B) divided into more than one legal entity
(C) inherited
(D) recognized as a commercial monopoly
(E) structured in several equal branches
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an Extract: Inference question; we are asked to decide what the concept of “devisability,” as used in the passage, might mean. Note that this question begins with the phrase “It can be inferred that …” In Reading Comprehension, an inferable answer choice is one that is directly supported by evidence in the passage. You should never try to make real-life inferences on the LSAT. That is, do not speculate or extrapolate or make use of any outside knowledge you might have.
We’ve also been given a line reference, so that helps us locate the information in the passage. Make sure to go back and read the paragraph in which it’s located because context will be crucial to determining the answer. In this case, all we know is that it relates to the issue of whether the right of publicity ends with a celebrity’s death or whether it continues, as would a property right. Now let’s look at the answers. Choice (A) refers to a situation in which permission has been given by an author—this is not discussed anywhere in the passage. Choice (B) discusses division of something into multiple things, which is also not discussed.
Choice (C), “inherited,” is supported by the author’s connection of devisability to the question of whether or not publicity rights survive death, and the equation of it by some courts with a property right that does not terminate with death (para-graph 5). Choice (D) is too strong. While the passage mentions the risk that recognition of publicity rights may lead to commercial monopoly (paragraph 4), the author does not connect this directly to the discussion of devisabilty, or indicate that monopoly is especially likely if the right survives death. Choice (E) is out of scope—structuring something in branches is not mentioned. Therefore, choice (C) is best supported by the passage.
4. Which one of the following can be inferred from the information in the passage?
(A) First Amendment ramifications of extending the right of publicity to politicians should be analyzed.
(B) There is rarely any provable nexus between exploitation during life and career incentive.
(C) Celebrities invest substantial time and money to achieve uncertain success and are thus entitled to whatever value accrues from these efforts.
(D) Concerns regarding unjust enrichment from biographical data outweigh the right to disseminate information under the First Amendment.
(E) It is usually in the public interest to reward successful entertainers for their efforts and thereby encourage artists to devote their lives to creative endeavors.
Here’s How to Crack It
Even though this is an Extract: Inference question, there is nothing in the question stem that leads us to a particular part of the passage as a starting point. As we saw above, to infer means to find the answer that is best supported by the passage. So, we will have to check each answer choice against passage information. This is where our map will be a real time saver. Use POE to eliminate anything we can’t find evidence for, or that takes the information in the passage too far.
Choice (A) paraphrases part of the information in the last paragraph of the passage, so we definitely want to keep it under consideration. Choice (B) is inconsistent with the passage. Take a look at paragraph 4, which suggests that there may in fact be a connection or nexus between exploitation of a celebrity’s image and the incentive to undertake creative endeavors. To the extent that this choice is relevant to the passage, it is inconsistent with it. The passage never discusses the amount of time and money invested by celebrities in their career (or how likely it is that they will achieve success); thus choice (C) is incorrect. Choice (D) definitively states that the possibility of unjust enrichment outweighs First Amendment considerations; however, the passage simply suggests that the two must be weighed against each other (paragraph 6). Finally, choice (E) is too strong. While the passage indicates that there may be some value in encouraging creative effort (paragraph 4), the author does not go so far as to argue that it is usually in the public’s interest to reward successful entertainers. Therefore, choice (A) is the correct answer.
5. According to the passage, privacy laws are inadequate as legal remedies for celebrities because
(A) public personalities have no redress for unauthorized commercial appropriation of their images
(B) private individuals waive privacy rights by becoming public figures
(C) stars wish to be protected from the public only when they are not successful
(D) the laws do not address the financial issues inherent in a public figure’s fame
(E) celebrities have a responsibility to the public to share their created personae and not avoid public attention
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an Extract: Fact question; we are asked why privacy laws don’t adequately take care of celebrities’ legal needs. If we look at our map, we see that this issue is addressed in the second paragraph. Upon rereading it, we learn that privacy laws weren’t fully equipped to deal with the economic aspects of fame. We want an answer that talks about the financial side of things.
Choice (A) is a trap answer; it sounds like something argued by the author, but it takes it too far in stating that privacy law offered “no redress.” Lines 16–21 discuss this concept, yet those lines indicate that privacy law did in fact provide some measure of protection, even if that protection was inadequate. Furthermore, this choice makes no mention of economic interests of celebrities, and we know from the work we did in Step 3 that this is the key issue for this question. There is no support for choice (B); even if you personally think that public figures waive their right to privacy, the passage never suggests this to be true. And, the question asks why privacy laws are inadequate, not why celebrities may or may not deserve privacy. As for choice (C), there is nothing in the passage that tells us when stars will or will not want privacy. And, there is no mention of financial issues in this answer. Choice (D) does bring in the financial issue, and does so in a way that is consistent with the relevant part of the passage. So, this choice is looking good. Choice (E), on the other hand, raises an issue (whether or not celebrities have a right to privacy) that is not relevant either to the passage or to the question. Thus, we are left with choice (D) as our correct answer.
6. To which one of the following situations would the “right of publicity” as discussed in the passage most clearly apply?
(A) A novelist objects to the unauthorized reprinting of a portion of his book in a student’s paper.
(B) An athlete plans to design and market, but not promote, a line of sportswear.
(C) The well-known catch-phrase of a local talk-show host is used as part of an ad campaign for a supermarket.
(D) The president of a small company bequeaths his business to an employee but his family contests the will.
(E) The work of a celebrated screen actor is re-edited after the actor’s death.
Here’s How to Crack It
This is a Reasoning question; we are asked to take the concept of “right of publicity” and apply it to a situation that is not discussed in the passage. As with any reasoning question, however, we’ll still need to go back to the passage to figure out what we need to compare the answer choices to. In this case, we need a solid definition of what the right of publicity covers. Once more, we look to our map. The third paragraph discusses what the right of publicity is meant to protect, so we should look there. We also know that what’s underlying this right is the desire for financial protection.
Choice (A) is not appropriate because the student is not writing the paper for financial gain. Choice (B) is not appropriate because the athlete has a right to his or her own fame. Choice (C) looks good—the supermarket is making commercial use of the talk-show host’s celebrity image. Choice (D) has no direct connection to the issue of celebrity or fame. Choice (E) is attractive, but the last paragraph of the passage tells us that the courts are undecided about whether the right of publicity survives death. So, if we compare choices (C) and (E), the right of publicity is most clearly applicable to the scenario in choice (C).
Now that you know the basic approach, it is time to work on refining your technique in each step of the process.
Many test takers find it useful to preview the questions first, before reading the passage. What does previewing the questions entail? You quickly read through the question stems (not the answer choices), picking out references to passage content. Don’t worry about identifying the question types in this stage; that comes later. Knowing what the questions are asking can help you to focus on the important information as you prepare the passage, and to skim over the details that may or may not be important. If there is a line reference in the question, go ahead and put a star next to that line in the margin of the passage (but don’t jump in and read that section of the passage out of context). As you read the passage, when you come across a topic you recognize from the questions or see a star in the margin, pay special attention to that section, since you know that you will need it later on. An added benefit of previewing the questions is that having some context when you start to read the passage may well help you to better understand the author’s argument the first time through.
Try our four-step strategy—with and without previewing the questions—on two different sets of several passages. If you are not used to previewing, it will feel a bit strange at first. Practice it until you become comfortable with the approach, so that you can know for sure whether or not it is helpful for you. Once you have tried out both ways, choose the method that maximizes your efficiency and your accuracy, and use that approach consistently from then on.
There are a few things to keep in mind when previewing. First, it shouldn’t take you more than 20–30 seconds per passage. You are not trying to memorize the questions, but rather to get a sense of what parts of the passage will be most important for answering the questions. Also, don’t stop midway through the passage to answer questions, even if you think that you have the relevant information at that point. What the author says later on may affect the answer to that question. Also, for most of the questions it will be necessary to have a good understanding of the main point of the passage. If you stop reading in the middle of the process of preparing the passage, you will likely get distracted and have a harder time understanding the overall logic of the author’s argument.
Working a game in the Analytical Reasoning section requires you to map out the structure of that game. Answering a question in the Logical Reasoning section requires that you understand the logic of the argument. In the same way, to answer many of the questions for a Reading Comprehension passage you will need to understand the logical structure of the passage itself. And, just as games and arguments fall into certain categories based on structure, so do the passages.
As you read and prepare a passage, pay close attention to the purpose of the different paragraphs and how they relate to each other. Think of each chunk of the passage as a piece of a puzzle, and fit the pieces together as you go. To do this you will have to read actively, not passively. It takes a lot of mental effort, but not necessarily more time; since active reading helps you to pick out the most important parts of the author’s argument, it also helps you to avoid wasting much time on the less crucial details. Pay especially close attention to (and circle) pivotal words like however, yet, but, or on the other hand. These words often mark important shifts or contrasts, often between different points of view. Also focus on and annotate any wording that indicates the author’s own opinion or point of view. When you finish reading the passage, identify the logical purpose of the passage as a whole; do this as part of articulating the bottom line. As you go through the Act and Answer steps, use your analysis of the logical structure of the passage, and your annotation that maps it out, to predict and identify wrong answers.
Passages fall into five basic categories. If more than one category seems to apply, don’t agonize over choosing one or the other; use both to describe what the author is doing. Here are the categories.
These are the passages that sound least like arguments; the author is often simply relating a series of events with a neutral tone. The passage may, for example, describe the development of an artistic style, or the process involved in a scientific discovery, or the progression of a political movement. However, these passages are still made up of “moving parts,” each of which performs a particular function. Pay close attention to words that indicate a transition between one event or issue and another. When you are answering the questions, look out for wrong answers that misrepresent the sequence of events or that attribute an inappropriate tone to the author.
These passages are similar to Tell a Story passages, but they do express a point of view. They explain how our understanding or interpretation of something has changed. It is particularly important in these passages to identify what the previous point of view was, and to use your annotation to distinguish the old view from the new. During POE, eliminate wrong answers that try to trick you by mixing up the old and new ideas.
These passages often compare and contrast different theories or points of view. What distinguishes them from passages that defend, advocate, or criticize, is that the authors themselves do not take sides. In your annotation and analysis, pay close attention to the transitions between one side and the other, and to the differences or similarities described. When answering the questions, use your prep work to help you eliminate answers that describe the wrong position or side, or that mistake a similarity for a difference or vice versa.
In these passages, the author will express a definitive point of view, either defending an idea or policy against its detractors, or making a recommendation about a particular point of view or course of action. As you work the passage, pay close attention to words that indicate the strength of the author’s argument and make sure to carefully distinguish the author’s position from any opposing positions that might be described. As you answer the questions, use this work to eliminate wrong answers that inaccurately describe the author’s tone (often by making it stronger or more extreme) or that confuse the author’s point of view with an opposing position.
Criticize passages do just that; they say bad things about an idea, policy, or action. What distinguishes them from Defend/Advocate passages is that the author does not suggest or recommend an alternative. As you read and annotate the passage, pay close attention to exactly what is being criticized, and how strong the argument is (for example, is the author denouncing something, or rather just pointing out certain drawbacks). As you answer the questions, use your understanding of this logic to eliminate choices that describe supposed author recommendations that the author did not in fact make, answers that mix up what is and is not criticized, and choices that are inappropriate to the strength of the argument in the passage.
We have already touched on the different question types; now let’s look at the four basic categories and their subtypes in more detail. We will also look ahead a bit to POE for each.
The question type tells you a lot. Think of it as setting out a task for you to accomplish. Identifying the type of question you are dealing with allows you to define what the correct answer needs to do, and what you need to do with the passage in order to find it. However, if you can’t define the question type, don’t panic. Paraphrase the question and define for yourself what that question is asking you to do.
Big Picture
These questions are often worded as follows:
Which of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Which title best describes the contents of the passage?
These questions are usually phrased as follows:
The primary purpose of the passage is to
Both of these are asking you to find an answer that describes the passage as a whole. In most cases, you will not need to go back to the passage before you begin assessing the choices; you have already defined the bottom line, or purpose, of the passage. However, you will need to go back to the passage as you move through the answer choices. Even on a Big Picture question, one word can be enough to invalidate an answer choice.
The most common type of attractive wrong answers for this type are statements that are too narrow; they describe the content or purpose of only one part of the passage.
Extract
These questions are often worded as follows:
According to the passage
The author states that
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?
These questions are phrased as some variation of the following:
It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that
Which of the following is implied/suggested/assumed?
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the passage?
With which of the following would the author be most likely to agree?
Which of the following can be most reasonably concluded from the passage?
As it is used in the passage, X refers most specifically to
Which of the following does the author appear to value most?
The answers to Extract: Fact questions will tend to be close paraphrases of something stated in the passage. Extract: Inference questions will sometimes require you to do a bit more work; the correct answer will be directly supported by one or more statements in the passage, but may not be stated outright in the text. However, the approach to any Extract question is the same. If the question stem gives you lead words or a line reference, go back to the passage first and read at least five lines above and below that reference. Be sure to reread all of the relevant information. If the author’s discussion of that topic begins earlier or continues longer (including situations in which the topic is discussed in more than one section of the passage) you will need to read more than those 10 or 11 lines. Once you have read and paraphrased the passage information, generate an answer in your own words (based on what the passage says), defining what the correct answer needs to do. If the question stem has no reference to the passage, go back to the passage as you evaluate each answer choice. Regardless of the exact form of the question, here is where previewing the questions and annotation really pays off; if you have already circled the relevant words in the passage, your task becomes much easier.
Common types of wrong answers are those that are too extreme to be supported by the passage, choices that focus on the wrong issue (that is, they are not what the question is asking about), and choices that quote words or phrases from the passage out of context, creating a statement in the answer choice that has a different meaning than the passage text.
Structure
These questions may be phrased as follows:
Which one of the following most accurately states the organization of the passage?
These questions will be phrased as some variation of the following:
The primary function of the second paragraph is to
The main function of the reference to X is to
The author mentions X in order to
For both versions of Structure questions, use your annotation actively. Words like therefore, for example, in contrast, and so on tell you a lot about the purpose and function of that part of the passage.
Structure: Organization questions require you to describe the passage as a whole. They differ from Big Picture questions in that the correct choice will describe the logical structure of the passage step by step, rather than summarizing the content of the passage in a single statement. To answer these questions, break down each choice into pieces and check each piece against the passage. Here is where your articulation of the main point of each paragraph in succession will be especially useful, as the correct answer will follow the same progression.
Look out for wrong answers that describe something that the author did not in fact do, or, that mix up the progression of topics or issues.
Structure: Function questions have a more narrow focus. They ask you to define why the author wrote a particular paragraph or made a particular claim. Your understanding of how the parts of the passage work together will be key here.
Look out for wrong answers that describe the function of some other part of that passage that the question is not asking about.
Reasoning questions come in a variety of forms. What they all have in common is that they ask you to apply new information to the passage and go a step further. They may ask you to strengthen or weaken a claim made or described by the author. They may require you to find an answer choice that is most similar or analogous to something in the passage. Or they may ask you what sentence would most reasonably follow from the end of the passage (i.e., what would the author say next). All of these forms of Reasoning questions will give you the new information in the answer choices. Another form of Reasoning question will give you new information in the question stem, and then ask you to apply it to the passage.
For all Reasoning questions, it is still crucial to go back to the passage. Find the relevant part of the passage and paraphrase it. Then, articulate what the correct answer needs to do. While you will rarely be able to come up with the actual answer in your own words, you can still define what direction it needs to take, or what issue it needs to involve.
While all Reasoning questions involve working with new information, this does not mean that the correct answer will be out of the scope of the passage. Any credited response (unless it is an Except question) will be directly relevant to an issue raised in the passage, even if it is bringing in new facts or scenarios. Answering Strengthen and Weaken questions in Reading Comprehension, unlike in Arguments, does not require you to look for assumptions. Just define the author’s argument in the passage, and find the answer choice that most supports or undermines it.
When evaluating the answer choices, be on the lookout for wrong answers that are in fact out of scope; that is, they are not relevant to the argument made by the author. This would include answers that are relevant to the wrong part of the passage. Also be careful with direction. An answer to a Strengthen or Analogy question must be consistent with the passage, while the answer to a Weaken question must be inconsistent. Strong language is not a problem for Strengthen and Weaken questions; instead, beware of answers that do not go far enough to do anything to the passage.
Many test takers find it useful to do the questions in a particular order (within the set of questions attached to a passage). Some find it easier to first do the Extract or Structure questions that give you some concrete reference to the passage. By going back to the passage to answer these questions, they learn more about the author’s argument and have more of a foundation for answering the rest of the set. Other test takers prefer doing the Big Picture questions first, since they have just read the passage and defined the bottom line. Almost everyone does better by leaving the hardest questions within the set for last; these are often the Reasoning questions, or any question that is long, convoluted, and hard to translate. Experiment with these different ordering strategies, find the one that works best for you, and use it consistently from that point on.
As you saw when working on the previous passage, going back to the passage and answering in your own words in the Act step helps you to be both more accurate and more efficient. However, using POE is fundamental on any Reading Comprehension question. The test writers are highly skilled at writing wrong answers that sound just like what you are looking for, but in fact have something wrong with them. If you are not approaching the choices critically and with a reasonable level of suspicion, looking for what is wrong with each choice, you will fall for a lot of trap answers. We have already discussed some aspects of POE for each of the question types above. Now, let’s summarize the most important POE techniques.
As we mentioned earlier in the chapter, many of the wrong answer choices do contain content consistent with the passage. The problem is that this information is from a different part of the passage. For instance, if a passage is describing the properties of three different kinds of acids, and a question asks about the properties of the second acid, many of the wrong choices will be properties of the first and third acids. As long as you focus on the information about the second acid only, you’ll be able to eliminate any choices that talk about the first and third acids.
As we mentioned in the Arguments section, answer choices that make extreme claims or that use absolute wording often go beyond what can be supported by the passage. Because LSAT authors can have some strong opinions from time to time, however, you shouldn’t simply eliminate choices with extreme language without checking that language against what was said in the passage. Think of extreme language as a red flag. When you see it, you should automatically look back to the passage to see whether the passage supports such a strong statement. If it doesn’t, and the question hasn’t asked you to strengthen or weaken the passage, then you can eliminate the answer choice.
Main idea and primary purpose questions often have wrong answers that are either too narrow or too broad. Remember that the main idea or primary purpose should encompass the entire passage but not more or less than that. You’ll see many wrong answers that either mention something that was contained in only a part of the passage or was accomplished in only a single paragraph, or others that would include not only the main topic of the passage, but also much more beyond that (for instance, the passage discusses dolphins, but the answer choice talks about all marine mammals).
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This is a popular type of wrong answer on LSAT Reading Comprehension. Your goal is to seek out and eliminate answer choices that contain anything at all that might make them wrong. So no matter how good a choice may start out, if you see anything amiss, you have to get rid of the answer. Very often, a single word may be the cause of the problem (for example, use of the word not to create a contradiction). In addition, it’s possible that the problem with the answer choice may show up late in the choice—the test writers are hoping to lull test takers into a false sense of security. For this reason, it is imperative that you read each answer choice thoroughly and carefully all the way to its end.
As we’ve said many times, you must be able to prove your answer with information from the passage. Any answer choice that can’t be proven in this way can’t be right, even if you know it to be true from outside knowledge of a subject. Don’t invent a connection between an answer choice and the passage if you can’t find one already present.
Beginning with the June 2007 exam, LSAC has replaced one Reading Comprehension passage with a comparative reading set comprised of two shorter passages, each with a different treatment of a similar subject. These passages require the same skills as a regular Reading Comprehension passage; in fact, analyzing these passages is very similar to analyzing a single passage with multiple viewpoints. The difference is that the questions will often ask you to compare and contrast the structure, tone, and content of the two passages. Sometimes the questions will ask you to find differences or similarities between the two passages. You may also be asked how the author of one passage would respond to a part of the other author’s passage. As you read, keep an eye out for these similarities and differences so you’ll be ready to answer the questions.
Let’s work a comparative reading set together.
1. The word “aleatoric” has which of the following meanings in both passage A (line 25) and passage B (line 2)?
(A) gimmicky
(B) influential
(C) electronic
(D) unconstrained
(E) fruitless
2. Which of the following CANNOT be supported on the basis of passage A?
(A) The author of passage A finds some jazz pieces more interesting than some Cage pieces.
(B) Percussion orchestras existed before the 1960s.
(C) Variations was an aleatoric work.
(D) The author of passage A thinks Cage’s later, more conventional works were generally not harmonically strong.
(E) The author of passage A believes removing one’s personality from the creative process always leads to a dead end in music composition.
3. The authors of both passages agree that
(A) some composers later imitated Cage’s techniques
(B) Cage used chance procedures outside human control to compose musical works
(C) the use of indeterminacy reduces the musical quality of performances
(D) Cage pushed his techniques further than did some other composers using those techniques
(E) exploring the tension between freedom and constraint inspired Cage’s choice of techniques
4. Which of the following best captures the relationship between passages A and B?
(A) Both passages cite specific musical works as examples, but only passage A offers a positive view of Cage’s musical compositions.
(B) Both passages cite specific musical works as examples, but only passage B offers a positive view of Cage’s musical compositions.
(C) Multiple musical examples are mentioned in each passage, but only passage B identifies lasting value in Cage’s work.
(D) Multiple examples of Cage’s techniques are mentioned, but only passage A is essentially neutral in tone.
(E) Only one passage cites a specific musical example, but both passages examine the role of theatrical elements in Cage’s career.
5. Which of the following is most likely to represent how the author of passage A would evaluate Lutosławski’s String Quartet?
(A) The work does not succeed because of the way Lutosławski removed his personality from the creative process.
(B) The work succeeds because Lutosławski made use of chance procedures rather than indeterminacy.
(C) The work succeeds because it reflects Lutosławski’s own situation rather than using external gimmicks, such as the results of casting the I Ching.
(D) The work does not succeed because of its similarity to Cage’s Variations.
(E) The work may succeed because, much like the jazz of the 1950s, it does not go to extremes in its use of performer choice.
6. Compared to the author of passage A, the author of passage B demonstrates less interest in
(A) improvisation
(B) the popularity of a musical work
(C) the politics of a musical work
(D) the coherence of a musical work
(E) whether a technique has a place in music composition
7. Compared to the author of passage B, the author of passage A more clearly indicates that
(A) control should be exerted over the listener’s experience
(B) control should be exerted over the composer’s creative process
(C) control should be exerted over critical reception of a musical work
(D) control should be exerted over whether artistic elements are hanging above the stage
(E) control should be exerted over the specific musical techniques used by performers
8. Which of the following, if it occurred, would most weaken the main point of passage A?
(A) Discovery of archives from the 1700s indicating that Mozart experimented with indeterminacy
(B) Discovery of archives from the early 1900s indicating that Debussy had invented Cage’s I Ching–based chance procedures before Cage did
(C) Discovery of archives from the early 1970s indicating a vogue for “aleatoric” composition among students at top conservatories
(D) Discovery of, in the current day, a website where Cage enthusiasts trade homemade chance-based music in digital format
(E) Discovery, following time travel to the year 2275, that almost all the most beloved symphonies during that century contain elements of indeterminacy
Step 1: Prepare Here we’ll break down the two passages to figure out what’s most important.
Passage A
Paragraph 1: Introduces the idea of John Cage as an innovator, but at first he had only modest innovation.
Paragraph 2: Cage ceased to become a true composer as he gave over control to performers; later he switched back to more conventional composition.
Main idea: Cage’s preferred set of techniques, giving almost complete freedom to performers, resulted in a dead end for music composition.
Passage B
Paragraph 1: Describes how Cage’s compositional techniques in creating “aleatoric music” influenced other composers, including Lutosławski.
Paragraph 2: Describes another composer, Stockhausen, who was also influenced by Cage’s techniques, and states that Cage’s techniques have had a significant influence.
Bottom line: Cage’s aleatoric techniques have had a significant influence on other composers.
Step 2: Assess For each question, we’ll not only determine what the question is asking and classify it as Big Picture, Extract, Structure, or Reasoning, but also be sure we know which passage, if not both, the question is referring to.
Steps 3 and 4: Act and Answer We’ll go through each of these steps for every question individually. Let’s get to it.
1. The word “aleatoric” has which of the following meanings in both passage A (line 25) and passage B (line 2)?
(A) gimmicky
(B) influential
(C) electronic
(D) unconstrained
(E) fruitless
This is an Extract: Inference question, asking what a word means as it is used in each passage. We want to be careful to find an answer that fits with both passages, not just with one or the other. In passage A, the author uses the word “aleatoric” to refer to the Variations series, where the directions are “mostly abstract drawing hanging above a stage.” This comes in the context of a description of how Cage’s compositions “gave performers immense control” over how the piece was to be performed. The author of passage B uses the term in a similar way, to refer to compositions that allow the performers a great deal of leeway in deciding how a piece is to be presented. Although the two authors have different opinions about Cage’s work, they both use the word “aleatoric” to refer to the same type of composition. Choice (A) is incorrect, as it fits with the negative tone of passage A, but not with the more positive tone of passage B. Furthermore, while according to passage A Cage’s aleatoric works were gimmicky, that is not what the word itself means. Choice (B) is incorrect in part for the opposite reason. Passage B describes Cage’s work as influential, but passage A describes it as a “dead end.” And just like in choice (A), this answer fits with a judgment made (in this case in passage B) about aleatoric music; it isn’t the meaning of the word itself. As for choice (C), there is no discussion of electronic music in passage A. In the context of passage B, this choice has the same problem as choice (B); Stockhausen’s music was electronic, but this is not what the word “aleatoric” means. Choice (D) is promising; in both passages, the word refers to compositions whose performance is not highly constrained by the composer. Finally, choice (E) fits with the negative tone of passage A, but not with the positive tone of passage B. And, yet again, it is a judgment, not the meaning of the word. Therefore, choice (D) is the correct answer.
2. Which of the following CANNOT be supported on the basis of passage A?
(A) The author of passage A finds some jazz pieces more interesting than some Cage pieces.
(B) Percussion orchestras existed before the 1960s.
(C) Variations was an aleatoric work.
(D) The author of passage A thinks Cage’s later, more conventional works were generally not harmonically strong.
(E) The author of passage A believes removing one’s personality from the creative process always leads to a dead end in music composition.
This is an Extract: Inference question, asking what cannot be inferred from the first passage. The best way to answer this question is to eliminate answer choices that are supported by the first passage. Choice (A) can be inferred because the author compares jazz pieces favorably to Cage’s works, using the phrase “musically interesting.” Choice (B) can also be inferred; if Cage was imitating percussion orchestras before 1950, they must have existed before the 1960s. After discussing Variations, the author refers to “these aleatoric pieces,” so choice (C) can be inferred. Choice (D) can be inferred: The author says “traditional melody and harmony were never strengths for Cage.” This leaves only choice (E). The author may believe this statement to be true of Cage, but never says that removing his personality was the problem; rather, the problem was the extreme level to which he pushed his procedures. There is also nothing that enables us to generalize about other composers. Choice (E) is the credited response.
3. The authors of both passages agree that
(A) some composers later imitated Cage’s techniques
(B) Cage used chance procedures outside human control to compose musical works
(C) the use of indeterminacy reduces the musical quality of performances
(D) Cage pushed his techniques further than did some other composers using those techniques
(E) exploring the tension between freedom and constraint inspired Cage’s choice of techniques
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an Extract: Inference question, asking what the authors of both passages would agree on. The author of passage A doesn’t discuss later composers who imitated Cage. Jazz artists are mentioned, but the author says they were using performer choice before Cage began using it, so choice (A) can be eliminated. Passage A only discusses indeterminacy, although it does not use that term. Chance procedures are mentioned in passage B but are not discussed in passage A, so choice (B) can be eliminated. The author of passage B gives an example of how indeterminacy could enhance a work, so choice (C) can be eliminated. Both authors do describe Cage as having taken his procedures further than someone else (i.e., jazz composers, Lutosławski, Stockhausen), so choice (D) looks pretty good. Passage A cites a different source of inspiration for Cage (personality removal); passage B describes freedom/constraint as an inspiration for other composers, not for Cage himself. Therefore, choice (E) is incorrect. Choice (D), then, is the credited response.
4. Which of the following best captures the relationship between passages A and B?
(A) Both passages cite specific musical works as examples, but only passage A offers a positive view of Cage’s musical compositions.
(B) Both passages cite specific musical works as examples, but only passage B offers a positive view of Cage’s musical compositions.
(C) Multiple musical examples are mentioned in each passage, but only passage B identifies lasting value in Cage’s work.
(D) Multiple examples of Cage’s techniques are mentioned, but only passage A is essentially neutral in tone.
(E) Only one passage cites a specific musical example, but both passages examine the role of theatrical elements in Cage’s career.
Here’s How to Crack It
This question is a Big Picture question. A question that asks you about the relationship between two passages is asking about similarities and differences. A lot of these answer choices seem to be focusing on tone. We can get rid of choices (A) and (D) because they discuss the author of the first passage as being positive or neutral in tone, when clearly he judges Cage’s compositions in an essentially negative tone. Choice (E) does not match the content of the passage because theatricality is mentioned only briefly in passage A, and both passages mention specific musical examples. This leaves choices (B) and (C), which seem similar at first. Choice (B) says that the author of passage B has a positive view of Cage’s musical compositions. However, passage B does not comment on Cage’s compositions, but rather his techniques. Choice (C), then, matches the best; both passages cite musical examples (i.e., the specific pieces, the techniques, jazz), and only passage B identifies the lasting value of Cage’s work.
5. Which of the following is most likely to represent how the author of passage A would evaluate Lutosławski’s String Quartet?
(A) The work does not succeed because of the way Lutosławski removed his personality from the creative process.
(B) The work succeeds because Lutosławski made use of chance procedures rather than indeterminacy.
(C) The work succeeds because it reflects Lutosławski’s own situation rather than using external gimmicks, such as the results of casting the I Ching.
(D) The work does not succeed because of its similarity to Cage’s Variations.
(E) The work may succeed because, much like the jazz of the 1950s, it does not go to extremes in its use of performer choice.
This type of question is unique to comparative reading sets. It asks us how the author of one passage would respond to a specific aspect of another passage. Go back to the passage and focus on Lutosławski. His works were coherent and successful, with a written score and yet elements of indeterminacy. We have no sense that Lutoslawski removed his personality from the creative process, so choice (A) can be eliminated. He used indeterminacy, not chance procedures, so choice (B) can be eliminated. We don’t know whether or not the author of passage A believes composing from one’s own situation is a criterion for success, so eliminate choice (C). String Quartet is not entirely similar to Variations, and the work does succeed according to passage B, so eliminate choice (D). Choice (E) is the credited response. The author believes that the use of performer choice is okay if it doesn’t go to extremes, much like the jazz of the 1950s.
6. Compared to the author of passage A, the author of passage B demonstrates less interest in
(A) improvisation
(B) the popularity of a musical work
(C) the politics of a musical work
(D) the coherence of a musical work
(E) whether a technique has a place in music composition
Here’s How to Crack It
This is an Extract: Inference question that basically asks us to find something mentioned in passage A that’s barely mentioned in passage B, if it at all. Improvisation is explicitly mentioned in the first paragraph of passage B. It is also implied by the discussion in passage A, but the author of passage B shows equal or greater interest; choice (A) can be eliminated. The author of passage A mentions that Cage’s “aleatoric” works are not popular, but passage B does not address popularity at all, so choice (B) seems pretty good. Political relevance is a reason for the use of indeterminacy by Lutosławski; passage A doesn’t mention it all, so eliminate choice (C). Musical coherence is a reason for the success of Lutosławski’s piece. Passage A doesn’t mention coherence; instead it focuses on other qualities (“musically interesting,” “pleasingly listenable”), so choice (D) is not correct. As for choice (E), both passages are concerned with this issue; it’s the main thing they disagree about. The level of interest is roughly equal, not significantly less for passage B. Choice (B), therefore, is the credited response.
7. Compared to the author of passage B, the author of passage A more clearly indicates that
(A) control should be exerted over the listener’s experience
(B) control should be exerted over the composer’s creative process
(C) control should be exerted over critical reception of a musical work
(D) control should be exerted over whether artistic elements are hanging above the stage
(E) control should be exerted over the specific musical techniques used by performers
Here’s How to Crack It
The question asks us for something that the author of passage A feels more strongly about than the author of passage B. It’s another way of asking a very similar question to the previous question, even though the stems look different. Off the bat, choice (A) looks like a good choice, because the author of passage A feels Cage “surrendered” too many choices to performers and did not structure his works enough to provide a good listening experience. As for choice (B), neither author suggests anything about how the creative process should work. Also, neither author says that critics should have particular opinions, which eliminates choice (C). While the author of passage A does mention drawings hanging above the stage, the text doesn’t support the idea that control over such things should be exerted. This eliminates choice (D). And, finally, the passages are concerned with composer techniques, not performer techniques, so choice (E) is out. Choice (A) is the credited response.
8. Which of the following, if it occurred, would most weaken the main point of passage A?
(A) Discovery of archives from the 1700s indicating that Mozart experimented with indeterminacy
(B) Discovery of archives from the early 1900s indicating that Debussy had invented Cage’s I Ching–based chance procedures before Cage did
(C) Discovery of archives from the early 1970s indicating a vogue for “aleatoric” composition among students at top conservatories
(D) Discovery of, in the current day, a website where Cage enthusiasts trade homemade chance-based music in digital format
(E) Discovery, following time travel to the year 2275, that almost all the most beloved symphonies during that century contain elements of indeterminacy
This is a Reasoning question, the first in this passage set. Note that the main idea of passage A is that Cage’s techniques represented a dead end for music composition. The answer choice that most weakens that point would be the one that most clearly indicates a lasting presence in music composition for Cage’s techniques. Choices (A), (B), and (C) do not provide any evidence of an effect on music composition. Choice (D) talks about Cage enthusiasts in the modern day, but doesn’t discuss the extent of this trend. Choice (E) is a stronger answer. It does the best job of weakening the main point of passage A. It clearly shows that Cage’s ideas have lasted for 300 years, that popular symphonies make use of his techniques, and that apparently those techniques have been in use for at least 75 years (“… during that century …”). It may be that the use of these techniques is not as extreme as it was with Cage, but extremity of application is not necessary to counteract the black-and-white conclusion of passage A.
There are many things to consider when you choose the passages to attempt on a section, but before you dive into a passage, you should always try to get a sense of its difficulty. If a passage appears hard, there may be an easier one later in the section.
What are the ingredients that will help you to determine a passage’s difficulty? There are several, and what some people tend to focus on the most—subject matter—isn’t as important as you might think. Given that you’re planning to apply to law school, a passage on some law-related theme might be of greater interest, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be easier to read. It’s possible that it might be written in a very abstract manner, making it difficult to process. Likewise, a science passage might not be familiar territory, but the language and ideas may be very straightforward and easy to understand.
Some students also think that the number of questions a passage has should determine when they attempt it. But if a really difficult passage has a large number of questions, that doesn’t mean it will be any easier to get those questions right. In fact, you could end up sacrificing more time on that passage, causing you not to attempt an easier one with fewer questions, and still end up missing half of them. If two passages appear to be of equal difficulty, however, feel free to go for the one with more questions.
As you can see, there is not one specific characteristic that always makes a passage easier or harder. And, unlike in Games, the nature of the answer choices can significantly affect overall difficulty. As you work through the passages in this book and in the real LSATs you’ve ordered, note your impression of the passage’s difficulty on the top of the page before you begin it. Afterward, check that impression against the reality of the passage—was your impression correct? If not, was there something you could have seen by reading the first few sentences and scanning the questions that would have led you to evaluate it more accurately? In this way, you will improve your skill in identifying which passages you should attempt and which you should avoid.
Now it’s time to put everything you’ve learned in this chapter to work on the following three Reading Comprehension passages. The goal of this drill is to see how well you’ve mastered the four steps and how accurately you can work, not to see how fast you can get through these passages. So, work carefully and thoroughly on these until you’re sure you have them right.
If you want, you can measure the time it takes you to do each passage. By measure, we mean set your timer to count up, and then turn it away so that you can’t see the clock as you work on the passage. Later you can time full sections, but this drill has only three passages, so you should only be timing up. Put the timer in a drawer or in another room if necessary. When you’re done, stop the clock and note how long it took you to complete the passage and then see how accurate you were. This will help you figure out approximately how long it takes you to do a passage accurately, and by extension, how many passages you can reasonably expect to get through on a given section. Also take note of the difficulty level of each passage—if you found a passage particularly challenging, it’s only natural that it would have taken longer to work on.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) identify the likely causes of past ice ages and predict the occurrence of the next ice age
(B) describe efforts to understand the causes of ice ages and indicate what they suggest about the current global warming
(C) assess the effectiveness of Milankovitch’s hypothesis at explaining past climate change and propose an alternative theory
(D) inventory the damage already caused by global warming and project the likely long-term consequences of this damage
(E) present the geological evidence indicating that Earth’s past included both cold epochs and shorter interglacial periods
2. Which one of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?
(A) Currently accepted theories attributing the incidence of ice ages to fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels provide a fuller explanation of these phenomena than the orbital hypothesis advanced by Milankovitch.
(B) Currently accepted theories that describe the role of shifts in carbon distribution between Earth’s crust and its atmosphere in past climate change suggest that global warming caused by human use of fossil fuels may have serious and long-lasting effects.
(C) Milankovitch’s hypothesis attributing the cyclical recurrence of ice ages to changes in Earth’s orbit indicates that it is possible to predict how much longer the current interglacial period will last and demonstrate that steps must be taken now to mitigate the effects of those changes.
(D) Climate scientists have concluded that popular fears about the possible effects of the industrial use of fossil fuels are exaggerated because factors unrelated to human activity have led to similarly radical climate change in the past.
(E) Climate scientists have recently recognized that the factors of land distribution, volcanic activity, and global precipitation, although they have some effects on global climate, are themselves the product of more fundamental changes in Earth’s orbit and atmosphere.
3. Which one of the following, if true, would provide the strongest support for the view of Earth’s climate described in lines 8–9?
(A) The temperature in localized areas of Earth’s surface is correlated most strongly with the amount of solar radiation received in those areas.
(B) Fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on Earth appear to be primarily random and cannot be fully explained by any other factor.
(C) No existing scientific theory can explain how the orbit of Earth’s solar system around the center of the Milky Way galaxy might affect Earth’s climate.
(D) Snow that does not melt during an unusually cold summer reflects solar radiation back into space, leading to even colder temperatures and even more snow accumulation in future years.
(E) Volcanic activity acts to increase global temperatures by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide but also acts to lower global temperatures by contributing to greater cloud cover and precipitation.
4. As they are described in the passage, current theories attributing climate change to shifts in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide most directly explain which one of the following phenomena?
(A) variations in Earth’s orbit
(B) the sudden onset of past ice ages
(C) the uplift of the Himalayan massif
(D) the arrangement of land masses on Earth’s surface
(E) the severity of the last ice age
5. Which one of the following, if known, would provide the strongest further evidence against the Milankovitch hypothesis as it is described in the passage?
(A) Variations in Earth’s orbit cannot influence the rotation of hotspots within Earth’s interior.
(B) The amount of solar radiation received by Earth’s oceans is a main determining factor in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
(C) Several past climate changes predicted by the hypothesis are known to have occurred shortly before the orbital variations purported to have caused them.
(D) Although glacial periods recur regularly, the length of interglacial periods in recent millennia has varied from two thousand to twenty thousand years.
(E) One orbital pattern identified by the hypothesis coincides almost perfectly with the onset of ice ages throughout Earth’s geological history.
6. It can be inferred from the author’s statements that each of the following influences atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide EXCEPT:
(A) changes in Earth’s land masses
(B) volcanic activity
(C) sunspots
(D) the actions of organisms on Earth’s surface
(E) global precipitation levels
7. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) A hypothesis is presented and defended with supporting examples.
(B) An issue is raised, causal factors are listed, various theoretical approaches are assessed, and future implications are suggested.
(C) A claim about a widely accepted hypothesis to explain a long-standing mystery is presented but ultimately rejected.
(D) Opposing views of a controversial subject are presented, assessed, and then reconciled.
(E) Two current theories of a past phenomenon are evaluated in light of new information relevant to that phenomenon.
1. The passage suggests that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements?
(A) Traditional readings of much English poetry of the early seventeenth century overemphasize its orthodox devotional character while neglecting the tension and turmoil it reflects.
(B) Seventeenth-century poetry is noteworthy more for its intellectual inventiveness than it is for its lyric beauty.
(C) Seventeenth-century poets such as Donne and Herbert are worthy of study because they were able to provide a placid historical gloss of the turbulent times in which they wrote.
(D) The tortured quality of Crashaw’s poetry and the surprise contemporary readers may feel in encountering some of his imagery were intended by Crashaw to express his mystical beliefs.
(E) The emergence of interest in the human faculty of reason in Renaissance England is responsible for the increasingly radical nature of Protestantism during that time.
2. The author suggests that the poetry of Richard Crashaw
(A) is superior to the poetry of Donne and Herbert
(B) reflects an obsession with the strictures of Christian orthodoxy
(C) was intended to convey heretical beliefs
(D) has been routinely misinterpreted by traditional scholars
(E) is characterized by an excessive love for rhetorical inventiveness
3. Based on the passage, traditional scholarship fails to comprehend that the poetry of early seventeenth-century England
(A) is in part a reflection of the era in which it was written
(B) represents a radical departure from earlier English poetry
(C) reflects a serious interest in reason as well as Christian orthodoxy
(D) is noteworthy only because of the work of Richard Crashaw
(E) served as a form of political protest
4. The phrase “either embarrassingly unaware of itself or actively subversive” (lines 20–21) is used in the passage to indicate which one of the following about Richard Crashaw’s poetry?
(A) its similarity to early works of Donne and Herbert
(B) its mystical and unorthodox qualities
(C) its uneven and maladroit use of imagery
(D) its difference from conventional devotional poetry
(E) its intention to confuse and distort
5. Which one of the following most accurately describes the organization of the passage?
(A) description of a particular scholarly shortcoming; discussion of possible courses of action that could be taken to remedy that shortcoming; extension of these courses of action to other similar cases; assertion that these courses of action are unlikely to be taken seriously
(B) description of a particular historical era and scholarly treatment of some literature of that era; discussion of the inadequacy of that scholarly treatment in one particular case; assertion that the inadequacy is not limited to that case; explanation of the reason for and the meaning of this inadequacy
(C) description of a historical era and scholarly interpretations of it; discussion of the ways in which this interpretation neglect a key development of the era; illustration of the consequences of this neglect in a particular case; explanation of the ways scholarly errors undercut all cases of this kind
(D) summary of the conventional view of a controversial time; discussion of a new view that contradicts the conventional view; application of the new view to a particularly troublesome instance during the time in question; rejection of the conventional view in favor of the new view
(E) summary of two conflicting scholarly approaches to a literary problem; evaluation of the merits of the two approaches separately; application of these approaches to a particular historical case; assertion that both approaches must be used to ensure a complete understanding of all such cases
6. It can be inferred from the passage that the author interprets the famous image described in lines 46–47 to indicate
(A) that Herbert’s attitude toward Christian orthodoxy is not as simple as it is interpreted to be in traditional readings
(B) that Herbert’s poetry contains a veiled critique of the increasing Protestant radicalism of his time
(C) that Herbert’s desire to employ the human faculty of reason is constrained by Christian orthodoxy
(D) that the turmoil of Herbert’s times led him to employ inventive rhetoric that undermines the stated purpose of his poetry
(E) that the conflict between desire and Christian orthodoxy led him to question the worth of human reason in mediating between them
7. The author’s position in lines 32–40 would be most weakened if which one of the following were true?
(A) Traditional views of the period do not consider the possibility that Crashaw could have intentionally employed imagery and language in his poetry that would have been interpreted as shocking or sexually suggestive at the time he wrote.
(B) None of Crashaw’s other writings indicate an interest in the faculty of human reason except insofar as that faculty could be exercised in accordance with the dictates of Christian orthodoxy.
(C) Although John Donne’s early poetry is sexually suggestive, his later poetry and sonnets indicate that Donne regretted the excesses of his youth and fully accepted the strictures of orthodox Christianity.
(D) The images in Crashaw’s poetry that seem subversive to current-day readers employ words that have taken on violent or sexually suggestive connotations that these words did not have at the time when Crashaw wrote.
(E) Although Crashaw was forced into exile by his conversion to Roman Catholicism, both Donne and Herbert were considered models of piety in their time, and they were popular both before and during the Interregnum.
1. Passage A suggests that Dahl believes that American democracy
(A) is faithful to the Madisonian idea of using checks and balances to prevent the concentration of political power
(B) prevents the tyranny of the majority by pitting various factions against each other in a struggle for control
(C) resists analysis based on subscription to an idealized perspective while lending itself to a more explicative view
(D) fails to achieve the minimum number of conditions required for designation as a democracy and therefore cannot be considered as such
(E) transforms into a polyarchy as the necessary consequence of its inability to fully attain the eight normative conditions of true democracy
2. Downs’s reformulation of voting behavior is most similar to which of the following situations?
(A) A biologist sets out to group all animals into species designations that require certain criteria. After finding a number of animals do not fit easily into these designations, the biologist settles for cataloging the traits of each animal.
(B) A mathematician attempts to prove a conjecture proposed by another mathematician. After years of work, the mathematician proves the conjecture and it becomes a widely accepted theorem.
(C) An archeologist use records and diaries left by a noted anthropologist to hypothesize about the existence of a heretofore unknown civilization. Later investigations do in fact substantiate the archeologist’s supposition.
(D) A psychologist wondering about the functioning of the human brain teams with a neuroscientist to investigate the chemical processes taking place inside the cerebellum. Together, the two develop the new field of cognitive science.
(E) An astronomer proposes an alternative theory of planetary formation after a physicist discovers a miscalculation in the models that underlie the currently favored view of celestial motion.
3. The passages are similar in that they both
(A) discard a prior theory in favor of one that better describes reality
(B) provide an explanation for the thought processes an individual uses when arriving at a voting decision
(C) describe a book that had a monumental impact on the way political scientists thought of American government
(D) indicate that the theories discussed owe something of their formulation to antecedent works
(E) assert that the contributions of the theorists displaced the prevailing viewpoints of their respective academic fields
4. The theoretical works discussed in the two passages could best be described, respectively, as ones of
(A) elucidation and subversion
(B) reconstitution and recalibration
(C) rectification and standardization
(D) innovation and reevaluation
(E) progression and accommodation
5. Unlike passage A, passage B contains
(A) a description of a possible problem with using a particular theoretical model to describe actual conditions
(B) a possible explanation for the preponderance of a certain viewpoint in one academic discipline
(C) a description of the specific consequences of the publication of a new theoretical model of democracy
(D) the definition of a newly coined term used to better explain the functioning of American democratic processes
(E) information regarding the reasoning used to arrive at a behavioral model
6. Dahl and Downs would likely disagree over which of the following statements?
(A) The importance of groups in American society has declined in recent years.
(B) James Madison was successful in enshrining adequate protections into the Constitution against the tyranny of the majority.
(C) Applying the term democracy to the American political system misrepresents the true meaning of the term.
(D) American political behavior cannot be reduced to simple mathematical models.
(E) Political behavior can be understood only in light of the larger society that fosters it.
7. Dahl would probably respond to Downs’s theory of voting behavior by indicating that Downs had failed to consider
(A) whether an economic theory is compatible with a normative conception of democracy
(B) whether Madison had intended for the American political system to be dominated by small groups
(C) to what extent societal and peer pressures affect the voting calculation made by individuals
(D) the voting behavior of citizens of countries other than the United States
(E) whether people make similar economic calculations when deciding the utility of joining a group or political organization
Step 1: Prepare
Step 2: Assess
Step 3: Act
Step 4: Answer