LSAT 19, Reading Comprehension, Q1, LSATHacks

RC Question 1 Explanation, by LSATHacks

DISCUSSION: To find a passage’s conclusion, you have to ask yourself: why are they telling me this?

In this passage, everything leads to the final sentence: P.D. James has outgrown her genre, and she should try writing normal novels.

The purpose of the passage up to that point was to show that P.D. James was very good at writing characters and describing scenes, but she was sometimes not so great at following the plotting conventions of detective novels.

___________

1. CORRECT. The is a paraphrase of the final sentence. The entire passage leads up to that sentence.
2. The author disagrees with this. In paragraph 3, the author praises James’ work for its artistic qualities.
3. The author would disagree with this, too. P.D. James writes crime novels, yet they possess literary sophistication.
4. Lines 37-40 show that the author thinks P.D. James isn’t very interested in the specifics of detection.
5. The final sentence shows the author thinks P.D. James should abandon the crime-novel genre.

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