#22 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Canada2019]

Let me preface this by saying I've been struggling with MP question in the RC sections. So, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

For this question, I originally chose "A" since, although I couldn't come up with a pre-phrase, it seemed to reflect what was spoken of throughout the majority of the passage. I remembered the part where it says faking was "virtually nonexistent" in medieval Europe, but I didn't consider that to falsify the fact that faking has occurred throughout history. In hindsight, I understand that "in virtually every culture" is unsupported information.

But even if "virtually every culture" makes "A" wrong, I can't understand why "D" is correct. I don't see anything to indicate the author is discussing "determining whether a work of art can appropriately be called fake." The only thing I can find that's close is line 18-20 where it says that anciently it may have been hard to determine whether a sculpture was fake, but now those sculptures are properly exhibited as "Roman copies." Could someone explain this?

More generally, can someone help me understand how to identify and pre-phrase a Main Point in a passage such as this where the majority, if not all, of what is discussed is describing or selecting contents from another source. If the author doesn't express anything, how can she/he have a main point?

Thanks in advance!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Canada2019,

First, great analysis of answer choice A! You've accurately zeroed in on the thing that definitively rules it out.

Answer choice D is strongly supported by the first and last paragraphs. In the first paragraph, the author discusses the primary concerns of the Mark Jones study, by stating, "[t]he question mark in the title of Mark Jones’s Fake? The Art of Deception reveals the study’s broader concerns. Indeed, it might equally be entitled Original?, and the text begins by noting a variety of possibilities somewhere between the two extremes." When the author says, "it might equally be entitled Original?," the author hones in on the fact that the study exhibits uncertainty about what is properly called "fake" and what is properly called "original." The author amplifies and echoes that uncertainty by suggesting the different title, a title that is really just the other side of the coin.

The author picks up that issue of uncertainty (about what is truly "fake" and what is truly "original") in the third paragraph with the discussion of the Bambaran chi wara mask. The author is not as certain as the "so-called" experts that "only the ritual mask should be seen as authentic," and questions in the final sentence "whether the Bambaran artists would agree," thus ending the entire passage on a strong note of uncertainty about what should truly be called fake and what should truly be called original. The author's main point is thus to make the reader aware of this uncertainty, and the resulting "difficulty" of determining what is appropriately called fake and what is appropriately called original.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[lsat200812]

Hi,

I got this question right, but I am trying to practice how to prephrase main point questions. What would the process look like for prephrasing a question like this? Based on your previous answer, it sounds like you focus in on the first and last paragraph to find sentences that generally encapsulate the main point of the passage. Is that usually how you generalize main points for questions like these?

Thank you!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lsat,

While the first and last paragraphs are often good places to identify key ideas that get at the main point based on how many passages are organized, that is not really the optimal strategy for determining/pre-phrasing the main point and doesn't always work.

Instead, after you've finished reading the passage, ask yourself a few basic questions.

1. What is the passage about? In other words, what is the topic of the passage?

Here, the passage is about fake art, including what is considered fake art, and about a specific book on this topic.

2. What does the author think/How does the author feel about this topic?

The author believes that this topic is complicated and that there are many possibilities between the extremes of deliberately fake (i.e. intended to deceive, like a forgery) and something considered original. While the support for this primarily appears in the first and last paragraph, you should determine this based on the message of the passage rather than looking for the answers in specific set places in the passage. In other words, the support for the main point could have been located elsewhere, so it's important to note the author's viewpoint as you read and diagram the passage, so that you can determine the main idea/point no matter where it appears.

Finally, one trick that can be helpful is to imagine the author in front of you and you ask the author to convey the meaning/most important idea of the passage in one sentence. In other words, why did the author write this passage? What is the idea that the author is trying to convey? What is the one piece of information that the author would like readers to know and take away after reading the passage?