#12 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=7427)

CR, Must—AP. The correct answer choice is (D)

This question asks for the statement about cultural antiquities with which the author would agree.
This open ended question makes it difficult to create a specific prephrase, but the answer must, as
with all Must Be True questions, pass the Fact Test and be confirmed by the information in the
passage.

Answer choice (A): While the author does reference a national museum, the author would not agree
with such a broad claim about all cultural antiquities.

Answer choice (B): This choice refers to some of the regulations created by countries building on the
UNESCO doctrine, but this does not reflect the author’s perspective, so it cannot be the right answer
to this Must Be True—Author’s Perspective question.

Answer choice (C): The author makes no such statement about the value of cultural antiquities nor
about state ownership of such antiquities.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. In the final paragraph the author concedes
that the suggested approach might not be as informative or as well-conducted as if the excavations
were run by professionals, but it would be better than what actually happened. This statement speaks
to the author’s belief that ideally, antiquities should be excavated by professional archaeologists.

Answer choice (E): The author would not equate possession with ownership in this way, so this
choice can be confidently ruled out of contention.

[Cking14]

Hi,

I chose (B) for this question. The passage was talking about how the artifacts should be handled and I did not see how (D) applied. I see the author mention in the last paragraph that the excavations could have been handled by people who are not as professional, but it would be a better tradeoff given the alternative, which was how the artifacts were handled after excavation (or am I missing something). It seemed to me like the author was stating that the country where the artifacts were found should remain in that country because we lose knowledge..... Why is (D) superior to (B)?

Thanks!

Chris

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

That's a good question. That one asks for the statement about cultural antiquities with which the author would agree. In the final paragraph, the author discusses how things could have been different if, from the beginning, UNESCO had assisted Mali with excavations and with educating people as to the value of accurate records, and everything had to be recorded and registered before removal. Such excavations might not have been perfectly conducted, says the author, but that would still have been preferable to what really took place.

In the final paragraph the author concedes that the suggested approach might not be as informative or as well-conducted as if the excavations were run by professionals, but it would still be better than what actually happened. This statement speaks to the author’s belief that ideally, as provided in correct answer choice (D), antiquities should be excavated by professional archaeologists.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

~Steve

[Cking14]

That does make sense! Thank you!

[jmramon]

Hi,

I understand why D is correct, but am trying to locate a section in the passage that would prove E incorrect. Would lines 6-10 prove E incorrect by referring to those that found the cultural artifacts as "looters"? Or, do lines 41-47 prove E incorrect via specifically proposing an alternative to "cultural antiquities belong to whoever finds them (answer E)" by instead having "people licensed to carry out excavations" do so?

Thanks for the help!

[Eric Ockert]

Hi jmramon!

Remember, in a question such as this, the correct answer must be provable based on what you read in the passage. However, this does not mean that you must be able to prove the incorrect answers are not true in order to rule them out. As long as the passage fails to support an answer choice, then it cannot be correct. So, on most Reading Comprehension questions, incorrect answers are wrong simply because you can't prove they are true.

That's exactly what happens here with answer choice (E). We don't need to find a particular place that rules this answer out. As long as nothing in the passage supports it (and nothing does here) then it isn't provably true and must be incorrect.

Hope that helps!

[Mattwin1999]

Just wanted to start off by saying that I typically averaged 15 correct questions on RC but after reading the RC Bible from PowerScore I got 23/27 on this section. So anyone can improve with practice!

So for this question, I chose E not confidently. I ruled out A, B, and C and I didn't find much support for D in the text. For D and E I was primarily looking at lines 51-56 (for D) and 47-51 (for E).

The way I read it, the excavations encouraged by such a system (the supposed system in lines 47-51, where Mali would require objects to be registered) would not be as good (conductive and informative) as professional archelogist. But, it (the supposed system in lines 47-51) would have been better than what happened.

That is how I chose choice E. I am not sure how with those lines the author is arguing for professional archaelogists (choice D). For example, students received 70s on their test. Suppose they received 80s. Students scoring 80s may not be as great as scoring 90s. But wouldn't it be better than what actually was scored?

Wouldn't I be arguing for (most likely to agree) that students should score 80s? Why else insert that "suppose" statement?

So my two questions are why is E incorrect with lines 47-56 and what lines prove D?

Thank you

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

First off, Matt, let me congratulate you on fantastic RC improvement so far!

This is a tricky question. I like where you pointed for answer choice (E). But the problem comes in with the wording in the passage versus the wording in the answer choice. Our author here suggests that an alternate system than the one that exists might have been preferable. But answer choice (E) is phrased as though the alternate system DOES exist. It says the artifacts DO belong to those that find them. That's not the case now; that was just a potential alternate legal structure suggested by the author.

Answer choice (D) on the other hand, is well supported by lines 52-end. The author prefers that antiquities be dug up by professional archaeologists where possible. The author also lists concerns at the beginning of the passage (around line 10 or so) related to how these antiquities are dug up.

Hope this helps!