Reading comprehension questions

[hanvan]

Hi there, I'm looking for explanations for my reading comprehension home work (lesson 2), I don't know where should I log in. Please help. Thanks!

[Steve Stein]

Hi Hanvan,

Explanations are posted for homework from logical reasoning, and logic games setups are provided as well. If you have specific questions about reading comprehension, though, you can certainly get assistance--are you in the virtual course or the classroom course?

Thanks!

~Steve

[hanvan]

Yes, I am. And thank you o much!

[Steve Stein]

Hi Hanvan,

Have you had a chance to take a look at the answer key provided after the homework, in the book? It includes line references for every Reading Comprehension question, allowing you to pinpoint the selections from the passage necessary to answer each question.

~Steve

[hanvan]

Hi Steve, I did take a look at the answer choice were located at the back of the book. Thanks, but I really want to check the wrong questions also. Anyway, thanks for your help. I have some questions, on the page 2-92 , question 6, ( powers ore test pre book),the right answer is e, please explain why. I didn't see the whole passage that way!
Another question is in page 2-97, question 4, the answer is. " the author mentions the relative INACCESSIBILITY of the Aurignacians...."But the 2nd passage of the paragraph mentioned"....the paintings were usually placed in ares ACCESSIBLE only with..."
I don't understand the question, and the answer! Please help! Thanks so much!

[Adam Tyson]

Let me see if I can help here, Hanvan. Question 6 to that October 2005 passage is a variation of a main point question - rather than asking the more straightforward "what's the main point", as many reading comp sections start out, they put it in the form of a proposed title for the passage. This makes it a little more subtle, perhaps. So, what was the author writing about in the big picture, rather than in the details? The key here is early in the passage (as if often the case in these Main Point questions). Look at the start of the second paragraph - "Ironically, the same set of requirements... ." The authors love their irony, and the irony is usually key to understanding the passage or some important element of the argument. Here, the irony is that the more restrictive requirements set out by the government led to art forms that strayed from those requirements. The effect was the opposite of what you might expect - the essence of irony. The rest of the passage goes on to show examples of Chinese art that did not follow the restrictive rules, but rebelled against them. That's what the author is primarily concerned with - the unintended, unexpected consequences of the restrictions.

Hope that helps!

Adam Tyson
PowerScore LSAT Instructor

[Adam Tyson]

Looking now to the December 2005 passage about the cave paintings, Question 4 is asking why the author mentioned the relative inaccessibility of the paintings. That's back in the second paragraph, where we learn that the paintings were not out in plain sight for everyone to see, but were instead hidden in dark and hard to reach places. The rest of the passage goes on to tell us about the more practical purposes of the paintings, based on the Aurignacians' likely belief in magical powers over animals.

So, why did the author tell us the paintings were hard to get to and hard to see? It was to set up the rest of the passage, where he talks about those practical purposes, as opposed to them being just for the sake of beauty and pleasure. That's answer choice B - to lay the groundwork for a fuller explanation of the paintings' function. If they were easy to see, out in the open, we wouldn't need the complex explanation in the rest of the passage, right?

Hope that shed a little light on things!

Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT Instructor

[hanvan]

Thanks so much, Adam.. Your answers are really helpful!