#16 - Must Be True, Purpose

[SherryZ]

HI there, thank you for your help! It means a lot to me

Oct 2000 LSAT, Sec 2 RC, Q16:

I hesitated between D and E, eventually I chose D which is wrong. Could you tell me why E is correct?? Is it because of the phrase "As-Told-To" in the first paragraph?? I am not native speaker so I don't know what this phrase means

Thank you again for your help!

---Sherry

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Sherry,

You did a great job identifying the key phrase - "as-told-to" is the reason why E is correct. This means that one person (the non-Native American collaborator) listened to the Native American individual tell his or her life story out loud, and then wrote down the story later. Basically, an author writes someone else's story, based on the verbal account provided by that other person.

Does that help?

[SherryZ]

Dear Emily,

Thank you so much for your reply! It helps me a lot! Wish me luck on Dec

Sincerely,
Sherry

[afulbright.2000@gmail.com]

Hi! Can someone help me understand why A) is wrong?

I selected A) because the passage says that non-Native Americans were the ones who solicited, translated, recorded, and edited autobiographies.

I took the fact that the non-Native Americans creating these autobiographies fit A), which states "bicultural composite authorship" were written by a member of one culture (non-Native American "culture"/White, Europeans) but based on the artifacts and oral traditions of another culture (Native American culture)...

Just want to understand how I've misinterpreted A) so I don't make the same misinterpretation on other RC passages!

[Luke Haqq]

Happy to address why answer choice (A) is incorrect.

That answer choice states that "'bicultural composite authorship' as it is used in line 5 of the passage" refers to materials that were "written by a member of one culture but based on the artifacts and oral traditions of another culture."

To understand the meaning of that phrase, it's helpful to take the sentence in which it occurs in whole: "In studying the autobiographies of Native Americans, most scholars have focused on as-told-to life histories that were solicited, translated, recorded, and edited by non-Native American collaborators—that emerged from 'bicultural composite authorship'" (lines 1-5).

Based on that context of what the author means by the phrase, answer choice (A) falls out of contention because it refers to artifacts. To see this, compare how similarly (A) and the correct answer, (E), are worded:

(A) written by a member of one culture but based on the artifacts and oral traditions of another culture
(E) written by a member of one culture but based on oral communication by a member of another culture

In the context, "bicultural composite authorship" is only referring to "as-told-to" life histories. Answer choice (A) adds in artifacts, which isn't supported by the context, making answer choice (E) the superior answer choice.