LSAT PrepTest 44 Section 1 Question 26 Explanation | Reading Comprehension

I didn't write the following blog post. It was already on the blog when I took over the URL. The following blog post may contain mistakes. -Steve

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Here's a Reading Comprehension question from the October 2004 LSAT.

Let's make up some paragraph summaries so we can get an overview of the passage.

Paragraph 1 = Modernism didn't fit building methods

P. 2 = Modernism dominated architecture

P. 3 = Modernism too demanding, lost popularity

This overview is necessarily superficial, but it will help us get an idea of how the passage progresses (kind of like our chains of phrases in Logical Reasoning) and will help a lot on future questions from this passage. Now, let's jump into the question.

It says around the mentioning of Wright and Wagner that the Modernists paid attention to those architects only because of the modern elements of their work and that other elements were "conveniently ignored." So, let's pre-phrase an answer. They're examples of something like "the tendency of modernists to pay attention to and admire only modern elements in another architect's work." We notice that B fits fairly well with this pre-phrase, mentioning how the leading modernists took architects like Wagner and Wright to be modernists while ignoring other parts of their work. Let's go through the other choice quickly:

A) Out of the passage's scope. The passage never says how much Wright, et al. were appreciated by the public. It talks about how leading modernists viewed them.

B) Correct.

C) The opposite of what the passage says and out of scope. Opposite because the modernist movement, the passage makes clear, was never really "popularized" with the general public at all, even though it dominated architecture. Out of scope because the passage never says that Wright and others popularized modernism but rather only that they were popular within the movement.

D) Out of scope. The passage just says that those architects were prized for their modernist elements. It alludes to the architects having some non-modernist elements that were ignored, but the passage never says those architects did the opposite of the modernists by actually listening to clients instead of persuading them. They may have, but the passage never says that.

E) The opposite of what the passage says. It says that the modernists identified these architects as modernists (and ignored non-modern elements), not that the modernists saw them as non-modernists.

Remember:

1) Make paragraph summaries to capture the passage's main points. They should probably be written down into short phrases, in addition to the limited underlining you should do. Pre-phrase answers to save time.

2) Watch out for answer choices that are beyond the scope of the passage or are the opposite of what the passage says. Occasionally, an answer choice is both, as it was here, which makes it even easier!