LSAT 141 | Section 3 | Reading Comprehension: Q9

RC Question 9 Explanation

DISCUSSION: See the second and third sentence of paragraph 3. Dunham actually danced with the people she was studying. Other anthropologists avoided this, as they thought that they should be neutral observers, and that dance was physically challenging.

The wrong answers simply aren’t mentioned in the passage. It’s difficult to explain why they’re wrong. They’re completely unsupported.

If you picked a wrong answer, try to see how you were fooled by the answer choice, and how you could have avoided the error.

___________

1. The passage never mentions how long various anthropologists studied in the field.
2. The passage actually doesn’t mention Dunham’s own culture. And it doesn’t say whether or not other anthropologists related their research to their own cultures.
3. CORRECT. Participative approach = Dunham participated in dances with her research subjects. The second and third sentence of paragraph 3 show that Dunham did this and that other anthropologists didn’t.
4. The passage never mentioned politics. African-American politics are a common LSAT theme, but that doesn’t mean that every African-American passage will be political.
5. The passage says that Dunham was familiar with dance, but it doesn’t say if Dunham was familiar with Caribbean cultures.