LSAT PrepTest 43 Section 1 Question 10 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 June 2004 LSAT.

Time for some quick paragraph summaries (they can be even shorter or abbreviations when you write them down, but I've made mine a bit longer just so they're more comprehensible):

P 1: Situational/rhetorical factors explain most code-switching

P 2: Where, what, and who is in the conversation affects it

P 3: Sometimes code-switching done just for rhetoric's sake

We know that in Paragraph 3, we should find information about rhetorical code-switching of the sort this question's asking about. Indeed, we find at the end of the passage that another language is sometimes used "to express intimacy or humor more emphatically." So, let's find a choice that contains that feature; our pre-phrase of what we're looking for is something like "code-switching is used to convey a certain feeling or idea."

A) The opposite of what we want; we're looking for elective code-switching for rhetorical effect, but this person has no choice but to change languages because he/she doesn't know the word in the other language. This isn't code-switching to emphasize a point or anything. it's just out of necessity.

B) Wrong for the same reason as A; those invented words are untranslatable (they don't have an equivalent in the other language, since the author invented them in his own language) and so there is no choice but to code-switch. It isn't for rhetorical effect.

C) Wrong for about the same reason as A and B; the salesman isn't code-switching just to emphasize a point but out of necessity, in order to succeed in his business.

D) Correct, since this is a rhetorical use of language. The code-switching makes his speech more expressive. He decided to change language for rhetorical effect, which is what we're looking for.

E) Again, wrong for the same reason as A, B, and C. This is done basically out of necessity, since there's no other way to maintain fluency in the other language. It isn't to emphasize a point or anything like that.

Take-home points:

1) Use paragraph summaries and pre-phrase even a very broad idea of what you're looking for, if not an exact answer (since any number of situations could be examples of rhetorical code-switching).

2) Get rid of choices that are the opposite of what you want. This sounds extremely obvious, but knowing exactly what you're looking for (the pre-phrase helps a lot here...we were looking for rhetorical code-switching) and clearly understanding how an answer choice fits or doesn't fit with that helps a lot on the LSAT but may be harder than you expect.