LSAT PrepTest 43 Section 1 Question 16 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 (RC) question from the June 2004 LSAT.

Let's recall the summaries:

P. 1 : 2 theories, formalism and reader-response, latter is better

P. 2: Formalism objective; need to see reader/text interaction

P. 3: Reader-response (RR) opens new interpretations

Now let's get into the choices. Because the author may agree with many things, we won't pre-phrase:

A) The 3rd paragraph summary indicates this is the opposite of what we want since the author says RR opens new interpretations and, although it's a literary theory, isn't limiting.

B) Correct. The author critiques formalism, one lit theory, on the grounds that it doesn't do this and praises RR on the grounds that it does. These seem to be his criteria for judging a lit theory.

C) The opposite of what he agrees with since he critiques formalism for doing this (trying to find an objective meaning in the text, etc.). Our 2nd paragraph summary makes this clear.

D) Wrong for the same reason as C. He criticizes formalism for positing some kind of single, objective view of a text, so it's not a view with which he'd agree.

E) The whole passage contradicts this, so it's the opposite of what we want. The author does say that some theories restrict interpretation, but he advances another theory, RR, that opens interpretation. As such, readers should eschew some theories in favor of others but not abandon theory altogether.

Remember:

1) Make simple paragraph summaries.

2) Eliminate choices that are the opposite (in this case, directly contradicted by the passage and thus not likely to be something the author agrees with) of what you want.