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LSAT Reading Comprehension Answers

Let’s look at some questions you might get about a passage we’ve been studying in this series. This is the third article in a series of articles about the TestSherpa LSAT Reading Comprehension Method. The series includes:

  • LSAT Reading Comprehension Method
  • LSAT Reading Comprehension Outlines
  • LSAT Reading Comprehension Answers
  • LSAT Reading Comprehension Answers

    Typically, you will see six to eight questions for each passage. Here are some examples.

    The most common question type is the primary purpose or main idea question.

    The primary purpose of the passage is to
    (A) insist that diversity that exists in the population with regard to human intelligence
    (B) show reasons for conflicting viewpoints regarding human intelligence
    (C) Describe the importance of research on the opinion of the general public
    (D) demand a change in the way IQ tests are administered
    (E) contrast the competition between media and researchers in the battle for public opinion

    Your evaluation of the tone of a passage can immediately help you eliminate some wrong answers in a primary purpose question. Is the tone of the passage very argumentative, somewhat argumentative, or simply descriptive. Judging from words like “controversy,” “conflict,” and “unfortunately,” this author, like most, has a clear point of view.

    But the passage isn’t really making an argument as much as it is describing a conflict. Since the tone of the passage is not very argumentative, you can eliminate answer choice (D) and (A). Even though a point of view is asserted in the passage, the words “demand,” and “insist,” simply aren’t consistent with the author’s tone. The words “describe,” “show,” and “contrast,” do fit the tone so we cannot rule out (B), (C) and (E) on tone.

    How cool is that? You’ve already narrowed it down to three answer choices based on the first word in each answer.

    Looking at the remaining three choices, (B) sounds the most reasonable. The thread that connects the paragraphs together is the reason we’re conflicted in our views on human intelligence.

    Answer (C) cannot be correct because it contradicts the spirit of the passage. The passage indicates that the general public has not paid attention or agreed with research on human intelligence.

    (E) goes too far in that the author doesn’t imply there is a competition between media and researchers. The author only points out that there is a conflict in the views from each source.

    It’s interesting to note answer choice (A). We ruled it out for tone earlier, but notice that even if you miss the wrong tone in the word “insist,” the answer choice talks about a small point made in the passage, not the primary purpose. In this case, the scope of the answer is too narrow to be the main idea. Answer (D) is so far out of scope – the author never discusses the administration of tests – as to be totally bizarre.

    Next, let’s take a look at a detail question. With detail questions, your job is to quickly locate where the detail is inside the passage and compare the answers to the text. Remember, this is like an open book test. You don’t need to memorize the content, just get a handle on where to find the details later if you need them. There are tens, sometimes hundreds, of details in any given passage. Use your paraphrases and underlines to find the paragraphs you need.

    According to the author, which of the following is true with regard to the relationship of intelligence and quality of life?
    (A) There is no correlation between intelligence and quality of life.
    (B) As quality of life improves, so does intelligence.
    (C) Intelligence has a positive impact on a person’s quality of life.
    (D) Intelligent people rarely drop out of school.
    (E) The happiest people are the most intelligent.

    The way to tackle detail questions is to review your outline and find the right paragraph to find the details in. Here is a recap of our outline:

    P1: Psychologists’ views on human intelligence are the correct, but misunderstood, views.

    P2: Intelligence tests are fair and accurate because they seem to be correlated to success.

    P3: People are not born equal when it comes to intelligence.

    P4: Intelligence is important and valued, yet we want to minimize the inequality it can cause.

    Which paragraph would you guess has the detail about quality of life? Probably the “correlated to success,” paragraph 2. And sure enough, that’s where we find that answer choice (C), which is a pretty close fit to our paraphrase anyway.

    Answer choice (A) is against the spirit of paragraph 2, so is actually a contradiction.

    (B) gets the order wrong – intelligence improves quality of life, not the other way around.

    (D) is a distortion. The author implies that drop out rates are a measure of quality of life (or lack thereof), but we don’t know anything about specific drop out rates.

    (E) is too extreme to be in scope. Who know who the happiest people in the world are?

    Let’s look at another detail question.

    The author indicates that the reason the general public is misinformed about human intelligence is at least partially the result of which of the following?
    (A) The general public’s reluctance to review scientific research.
    (B) A lack of effort on the part of the media and psychologists.
    (C) A general disinterest in the subject of human intelligence.
    (D) The mass media’s simplistic distortions of human intelligence research.
    (E) The lack of government funding into intelligence research.

    Which paragraph would have something to do with a misinformed public? Probably either paragraph 1 about misunderstood views, or paragraph 4 about the conflict between the importance of intelligence and the inequality it causes. The answer can be found in the first paragraph.

    Answer choice (D) is almost directly out of the text and is the right answer choice. The answer choices in Reading Comprehension, like this one, are often deceivingly simple. You might be tempted to pass up a right answer because it can’t be that obvious. The LSAT must be trying to trick me, right? In Reading Comprehension, the answers really can be very simple.

    (A) is out of scope. The author doesn’t discuss whether or not the public wants to review research, just that the media distorts the research.

    Answer choice (B) conflicts with the spirit of the passage, which seems to indicate that both the media and researchers have put forth considerable effort, just in different directions.

    (C) directly contradicts the passage, especially the phrase, “a general public that is both extremely fascinated by human intelligence…”

    (E) is out of scope. The author never discusses government funding.

    LSAT Reading Comprehension Summary Tips

    • Reading Comprehension tests your ability to quickly read long, dense and boring passages and understand the main points the author is making in each. That’s certainly a skill you will need in law school
    • The TestSherpa method for Reading Comprehension has four steps:
      1. Read the first paragraph and guess at main idea, scope and tone
      2. Read the rest of the passage and build an outline
      3. Confirm your outline
      4. Tackle the questions
    • You have about eight minutes per passage, so spend only about two or three minutes on the first three steps, then five minutes on the questions.
    • Typically, you will see six to eight questions for each passage.
    • Look for conflicts, topic, scope, purpose and try to form your own paraphrase of the main idea by reading the first paragraph or so.
    • Paraphrase each paragraph to use as your outline to refer to later.
    • Underline key words and topic sentences.
    • Ignore details for now – just know where to find them if you need them later. Think of the paragraphs as containers. You just want to label the containers and move on.
    • Your evaluation of the tone of a passage can immediately help you eliminate some wrong answers in a primary purpose question.

    Now return to our LSAT learning lab to study another lesson series.