LSAT PrepTest 44 Section 1 Question 21 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 using the passage we just started with a couple of days ago.

Let's recall the paragraph summaries we wrote up last time. They should be helpful on a "main idea" question like this one. Getting practice on these, by the way, is good because they show up very frequently on the RC (often as the first question after a passage).

Paragraph 1 = Modernism didn't fit building methods

P. 2 = Modernism dominated architecture

P. 3 = Modernism too demanding, lost popularity

Given these summaries, let's pre-phrase a main idea of the passage. It's something like "modernism came to dominate architecture but then lost that position because it was too uncompromising and difficult to implement". We see that choice A fits pretty well, since it mentions modernism being too impractical and difficult, as our pre-phrase does. Let's quickly go through the other answer choices.

A) Correct.

B) The opposite of what the passage is saying. The passage says that modernism wasn't practical or rational, and that that was a reason for its downfall.

C) Beyond the passage's scope. It says that modernism used all sorts of building materials and exposed them in a new way, but it doesn't say that modernism gave rise to the use of new sorts of building materials.

D) Wrong for the same reason as C. Modernism used materials in new ways and exposed them as previous architects had not, but it wasn't a change in the nature of materials that led to modernism (at least according to the passage, and that's all that matters here).

E) The opposite of what the passage said. Modernists didn't care much about functionality, as the author often mentions.

Remember:

1) Use the paragraph summaries you write up while reading the passage for the first time to help answer the questions. These summaries should be 2-3 words or so, nothing elaborate. You can write them alongside each paragraph. Even more than underlining does, I think it helps you to keep the passage's information straight and answer questions more quickly and accurately. These summaries are especially useful on main idea/main point questions.

2) Eliminate answer choices that are beyond the passage's scope or that are the opposite of what the passage said on "main idea" questions...if the passage didn't talk about it or contradicted that answer choice, it can't be right! These two simple categories, as we've seen time and time again, can usually eliminate all the wrong answer choices.