#4 - Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14202)

The correct answer choice is (A)

Since this is a Global Reference, Must Be True question, the answer is difficult to prephrase, but
the correct choice will be the one that passes the Fact Test and can be confirmed by the information
presented in the stimulus.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The author presents the three collections as
examples of innovation within the genre, their authors as revolutionaries who “redrew the boundaries
of this literary form.”
Answer choice (B): The author mentions journal entries as one of the forms present in the innovative
collections, but does not specify that each one quotes from previously unpublished journals. Since
this choice does not pass the Fact Test, is cannot be the right answer choice.

Answer choice (C): Although the passage mentions that the works deal with multicultural issues, it
does not claim that the works contain analysis of the ways in which cultural background influenced
their content. This choice cannot be confirmed by the passage and should thus be ruled out of
contention.

Answer choice (D): Only the third example, Getting Home Alive, contains writings produced by
more than one author, so this choice is inaccurate according to the passage.

Answer choice (E): The passage does not mention whether the works in question include
explanations of methodologies used, so this cannot be the right answer to this Must Be True
question.

[lunsandy]

Hi Powerscore,

When I was doing this exam, I was stuck between A and C and ended up choosing the wrong one- C. I chose C because of line 48 "express the complexities inherent in the formation of their identities." Can you speak to why C is wrong?

Lines 18-20 and line 53 proves A, but I can't wrap my head around why C is incorrect.

Thanks a lot!

[Claire Horan]

Hi Lunsandy,

You want to know why line 48 does not support answer choice (C).

If we look at them together...

line 48: "express the complexities inherent in the formation of their identities."

(C) Each contains analysis of the ways in which its content was influenced by its author’s cultural background.


...we see that line 48 uses the word "express" while answer choice (C) says "contains analysis."

Expressing and analyzing are totally different. For example, one can express sad feelings by crying, but that would not be analyzing feelings. Conversely, analyzing feelings might include thinking about why one might be sad, and of course it's possible to do that without expressing sadness.

In some ways, the LSAT can be a vocabulary test, but an unusual one. Rather than a vocabulary test with unfamiliar words that test-takers are asked to understand superficially, the LSAT presents familiar words that test-takers are asked to understand with a high degree of nuance.

[lsatnoobie]

For Question #4, I still don’t see how E is wrong. Doesn’t each autobiographer list out their respective methodologies?

Anzaldua — juxtaposes narrative sequences and poetry (line 25)
Moraga — lists the events in her life story not chronologically but rather in terms of political development (line 28-30)
Getting Home Alive – bringing together the voices of two people, a mother and daughter.

Aren’t these methodologies?

[lsatnoobie]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14202)

The correct answer choice is (A)

Since this is a Global Reference, Must Be True question, the answer is difficult to prephrase, but
the correct choice will be the one that passes the Fact Test and can be confirmed by the information
presented in the stimulus.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The author presents the three collections as
examples of innovation within the genre, their authors as revolutionaries who “redrew the boundaries
of this literary form.”
Answer choice (B): The author mentions journal entries as one of the forms present in the innovative
collections, but does not specify that each one quotes from previously unpublished journals. Since
this choice does not pass the Fact Test, is cannot be the right answer choice.

Answer choice (C): Although the passage mentions that the works deal with multicultural issues, it
does not claim that the works contain analysis of the ways in which cultural background influenced
their content. This choice cannot be confirmed by the passage and should thus be ruled out of
contention.

Answer choice (D): Only the third example, Getting Home Alive, contains writings produced by
more than one author, so this choice is inaccurate according to the passage.

Answer choice (E): The passage does not mention whether the works in question include
explanations of methodologies used, so this cannot be the right answer to this Must Be True
question.

Hello,

I think the third paragraph clearly lists out the methodologies utilized by each autobiographer. I listed them above. Can you help point out where I'm wrong in my thinking?

[Adam Tyson]

Hey there lsatnoobie, thanks for the question. While it is true that the author of this passage explains those methodologies, the question is asking about what is true of the AUTOBIOGRAPHIES themselves. Does Borderlands/La Frontera, for example, contain within its text any explanation of the author's methodology? That is, does Anzaldúa actually say in her book "here is how I am writing this book," or does she simply write it that way?

Since the books themselves do not explain their methodologies, we should not select answer E, because it is saying that each autobiography explains its own methodology. The passage did that for us, but the autobiographies and their authors did not.

I hope that clarifies that for you!

[emekj]

Hi
I chose C because I believed that to choose A, I would have had to bring in outside information. The passage just states that the Latina Autobiographies are innovative and that their use of a mixed structure of essays, skits, poems, etc is an example of that innovation. I do not see where in the passage that it states that these other writings (essays, skits, poems and journal entries) normally belong to other kinds of writings, and although I am sure that they do, I thought that that knowledge would be outside of what is actually stated in the passage.

[James Finch]

Hi emekj,

It isn't bringing in outside information to draw an inference, which this question asks of us. The third paragraph expressly details the "mixture of genres" that one of the works does, while the next work mentioned is described as "depart[ing] even further from the conventions typical of autobiography." From this we can conclude that the authors brought in elements typical of other genres, but not autobiographies. This is the support that makes (A) correct.

Hope this helps!

[JulesC]

Hello,

I am struggling accepting response A as in lines 17-20 it says "This effort manifests itself in the generically mixed structure of these works". I didn't accept A because I thought the word generically meant that you could not find several genres within each work.

[James Finch]

Hi Jules,

That quote actually means the opposite of how you interpreted it: these works mix genres, bringing disparate elements from other forms of writing into the autobiography. Paragraphs 3 and 4 really hammer home this point: paragraph 3 describes in detail what elements each work brings in, while the fourth paragraph talks in more general terms about how these autobiographies mix genres, "revolutionizing" the autobiography.

Hope this clears things up!