RC Question 22 Explanation
DISCUSSION: You should try to justify your answer by finding a reference in the passage. Otherwise you risk choosing a trap answer.
Since the prompt says the passage helps answer the question posed by the right answer, you will always be able to find a line reference for this type of question.
___________
- The passage never mentions visual artists.
- The passage never mentions Morrison’s other books.
- The passage never says what critics thought of Morrison’s book.
- The passage never mentions other books.
- CORRECT. See lines 10-12. Other writers also used music and musicians as a theme.
As to your explanation for choice (E), do not think that lines 10-12 alone can be good evidence to indicate that both the novel Jazz and the works of other African American writers used music and musicians as “theme.” The whole sentence that contains these lines indicates a contrast, not similarity: other writers used music as theme and metaphor, whereas Morrison used music as narrative structure.
It seems that we should look at the lines 10-12 in conjunction with lines 17-18 where it says Morrison used jazz music as part of the “plot” of her written work. Your explanation makes sense only if we loosely interpret “plot” (18) and “theme” (11) as the same things. What do you think?
Good question. Adding 17-78 certainly strengthens it. But, 10-12 is enough. The key is those lines say “while many….have used”. This suggests Morrison used the theme, and so did others. So it is something they have in common, which is what 22 asks for. There is an implied unity in this phrasing. The language used can be pretty subtle on the LSAT, and the authors want you to draw inferences from their language.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.