LSAT 145 | Section 3 | Reading Comprehension: Q26

RC Question 26 Explanation

DISCUSSION: To understand the second paragraph, you have to read a bit above it. Lines 4-6 say that African-American historians adopted a transnational approach for several reasons.

The second paragraph describes the first reason: citizenship vs. emigration. The second paragraph describes the issues, and states that investigation of the issues was necessary. Briefly, the question was: should African-Americans fight for full American citizenship, or should they aim to settle in a new country?

___________

1. CORRECT. See the analysis above. The citizenship vs. emigration question was listed as one of the reasons a transnational approach was necessary.
    
   (The passage doesn’t really say why this question required a transnational approach, but never mind that: the passage is clear in stating that the issue was a reason for the transnational approach.
2. The passage actually doesn’t say what the desired effect of the constitutional amendment was. The authors of the amendment might not have wanted to give African-Americans full citizenship. That’s a plausible reason the amendment failed to do so. 
3. The 3rd paragraph discusses African-American objections to imperialism. This question is about the 2nd paragraph.
4. This is in the second paragraph, but it isn’t the purpose of the second paragraph.
5. The author agrees that the 14th amendment should have given African-Americans citizenship. But this wasn’t the purpose of the paragraph. The purpose of the 2nd paragraph was to show that the citizenship debate was one of the reasons for a transnational approach.