Hi, LSATer,
On the narrow point of whether the answer must be in line 22, the answer is no. Could the line be in line 22 itself? Certainly. Should you ever preferentially restrict yourself to one line in particular? Absolutely not.
When given a reference, first understand the question itself. Then proceed to read the area of the text containing the citation, beginning far enough above (maybe 1") to give yourself necessary context. Keep the question in mind as you read carefully. Read through the citation until you are perhaps 1" below the citation. Never let the question task stray far from your attention. Before you return to the answer choices, try to predict or anticipate what the credited response will say or do.
In re your question, for instance, the information needed to answer this question correctly involves a combination of information in line 22 itself, that it, orient yourself with what the criteria accomplish, and then in the following lines. You will find three possible responses in the lines that follow line 22, that the accounts can be verified in part through:
- How well they correspond to other contemporaneous accounts
- Whether the account is plausible
- Whether the account is consistent with the rest of the author's character, or suffused with tendentious, motivated reasoning
You should have some clarity about what information the text contains and how the question might be answered before you consider the answer choices. For this particular question, it would be difficult to achieve the requisite degree of clarity from line 22 alone.
Good question. I hope this helps!
