LSAT 30, Reading Comprehension, Q26, LSATHacks

RC Question 26 Explanation, by LSATHacks

DISCUSSION: There were three reasons rice cultivation was surprising: African Americans preferred to eat corn, there was no market for small amounts of rice, and landlords wouldn’t accept rice as payment. See lines 30-37.

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1. We only know landlords wouldn’t accept rice as payment. But they might still have liked eating it. Plantation owners had enjoyed eating rice (see lines 23-24).
2. CORRECT. Lines 34-37 make this clear. 
3. “After-hours” time was only mentioned in lines 24-27. That was when African Americans were slaves. Paragraphs 3-4 don’t mention how much free time the tenants had (tenants weren’t technically slaves). 
4. The passage only said that the profits to be had from rice didn’t justify the labour, lines 45-47. But that doesn’t tell us how much work rice planting was, compared to cotton. Cotton might have taken more work but been much more profitable to sell. 
5. Lines 37-39 imply that the land could be made productive for rice. It just wouldn’t be worth the effort. 

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