#17 - Must Be True

[15veries]

I was not sure between C and D...

I thought Noguchi used "chrome-nickel steel"...is this part of metal so it does not count?

How should we answer those questions? by memory? If we want to try to go back to the passages, I think it's kind of hard...(bc each answer is from different places)

[Adam Tyson]

You're right that chrome-nickel steel is a metal and thus doesn't answer the question.

As to memory vs. going back to the passage, I am all for going back. That's what your notes are for as you read through the passage, to guide you back to the appropriate part of the passage to find your answer. In this case, for example, if we had noted the shift from his time with Brancusi to his work on Fuller's bust, we might have found a note around line 29 for the date (1929) and what happened then (he returned to the States). From there forward, we can skim the passage that we had already read to see if there was any reference to some other material. This shouldn't take long at all, because you already read the passage, and you'll not see a reference to any other material. Thus, no support is found for answer D, and it's out.

I should say that my approach is a combination of memory and going back. I typically trust my memory just for the process of quickly sorting losers and contenders. If I come across an answer that my memory tells me is wrong, I call it a loser, but anything that I am not sure about or that sounds good, I keep it around. If I end up with just one contender, I usually just pick it and move on, but on questions like this one I am likely to have two or sometimes three contenders, and those are the ones that send me back into the passage searching for evidence. RC on the LSAT is all about gathering evidence, and since the evidence is all there in front of me, I use it. You should, too - your memory will fail you, and the authors will trick you and distract you, if you don't.

Practice your note-taking and your process of prephrasing, searching for evidence, sorting answers into losers and contenders, and ultimately selecting the best one based on the evidence you found, and you should see your RC scores climbing. Don't worry that it takes time at first - you'll get faster as you get better.

Good luck!

[ChicaRosa]

Is D correct because of ln 57-59?

I thought it was answer A because Noguchi worked with Brancusi as a stonecutter.

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Is D correct because of ln 57-59?

I thought it was answer A because Noguchi worked with Brancusi as a stonecutter.

Thanks!

Hello ChicaRosa,

Yes, it looks like " At the moment when his explorations had won critical recognition of the genius..." helps with answer D.
As for answer A, it's likely that he learned stonecutting before working with Brancusi.

Hope this helps,
David

[cmnoury1221]

Hello,
Is E wrong because of the " lighted from within" point? The sculptures received the lights, instead, from the surrounding environment?
Thanks!
Carolyn

[Adam Tyson]

Correct, Carolyn! The passage talks about positive light sculptures (reflective ones) and negative light sculptures (those that depend entirely on shadows), but never mentions translucent ones lit from within. While that sounds cool, it's not in the text, and so that answer is a loser. Good work!