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This Reading Comprehension question is from the October 2004 LSAT.
First, let's look back at the paragraph summaries we wrote out when we did Questions 6 and 9; you'll definitely be doing this on the real thing:
Paragraph 1 = historiography of frontier is by white explorers and written down
Paragraph 2 = should consider actions of Asian immigrants in frontier
Paragraph 3 = Chinese had an important view of the land
Paragraph 4 = Chinese used their special skills to improve the land
Your summaries can be even more concise than that, just shorthand, but I decided not to use any shorthand because it wouldn't be intelligible to others. Given those summaries, let's try to pre-phrase a "main point" of the passage.
It goes from talking about how historiography is incomplete to how it can be supplemented by considering the actions of Asian immigrants to explaining those actions. So, it seems the main point is something like "the important actions of immigrants should supplement historiography's reliance on written accounts by white explorers." Let's see if any of the answer choices match that.
C seems to fit our pre-phrase well, since it talks about supplementing the traditional historical record by looking at the actions of Asian immigrants, just as we mentioned. Since this is practice (you won't be spending nearly this much time looking at the wrong answers on test day, thanks to pre-phrasing), let's take a look at the other answer choices to rule them out:
A) Wrong because it's the opposite of our pre-phrase and the passage's point. The actions of the immigrants doesn't merely "confirm," or add support to, traditional historical accounts but modifies them and supplements them.
B) To narrow a scope. The passage talks not only about how some historiographers ignored the actions of the immigrants, but about how others are paying attention to them and says a lot about the actions in particular. The main point of this passage is far broader than this answer choice would have it.
C) Correct.
D) Beyond the passage's scope. It doesn't talk about historiographers debating the methodological foundation of their discipline. It just says that some historiographers agree with the author's approach and are moving toward it while others don't agree. There may well be such a debate, but it can't be the main point of the passage, since the passage doesn't mention it. Also, the passage spends a lot of time talking about the details of how the Chinese farmed, but this "main point" ignores that entirely.
E) The opposite of what the passage is saying. It said that it adds to the historical count, not that the actions of Asian immigrants directly contradict the established historical record.
Remember:
1) Use the paragraph summaries you make while reading the passage to answer as many questions as you can, and look at them together to answer the common "main point" questions. They seem simple but can be unexpectedly difficult.
2) Watch out not only for answer choices that are beyond the passage's scope but also choices that are too narrow, or focus on only a small piece of the passage, when looking for the passage's "main point." Also look for answer choices that say the opposite of what the passage does, and eliminate them.
3) Pre-phrase answers to help you find the right answer choice more quickly on this tightly-timed test.
