LSAT 141 | Section 3 | Reading Comprehension: Q14

RC Question 14 Explanation

DISCUSSION: Read the whole section, the second and third sentence of paragraph 3. The second half (“now fortunately”) of the third sentence of paragraph 3 is key, the author says that the traditional social scientists’ ideas are now “fortunately recognized as unrealistic”.

So the author disagrees that anthropologists should remain separate from the people they study, and the author thinks that Dunham was correct to participate in Caribbean dances.

___________

1. The author thinks Dunham made the right decision by participating in dances. So if the social scientists thought that there was a risk of injury, the author wouldn’t agree with them.But it’s not even clear that the social scientists did think that there was a risk of injury. Second half (“both because of”) of the third sentence of paragraph 3 mention that the dances were physically demanding, but the social scientists actually didn’t mention risk of injury per se. The social scientists might simply have considered dancing to be hard work and too much exercise.
2. The social scientists didn’t recommend “initial caution”. They recommended Dunham avoid dancing altogether!
3. It’s true that the author thinks that the researchers were incorrect. But the second and third sentence of paragraph 3 don’t mention scientific rigor. The author never expresses an opinion about the scientific rigor of anthropological research.
4. CORRECT. Second half (“now fortunately”) of the third sentence of paragraph 3 supports this. It’s now recognized that anthropological researchers can’t remain entirely separate from the people they study.
5. Only the second sentence of paragraph 2 mentions scientific rigor. The author never says to what extent they think scientific rigor is possible in the study of dance.