DISCUSSION: On this sort of question, the passage will usually directly say the right answer.
Rather than spend time “thinking” about which of two answers is right, you’re better off just checking the passage to see if it says the answer. If you have a good map of the passage, you can find most facts in 3-5 seconds (this can be practiced).
“Thought” is not useful on this sort of question. Memory recall and ability to locate text is what this type of question tests.
___________
- CORRECT. Lines 6-11 say this directly.
- Physical needs are only mentioned on line 16, and Marcuse never says that society fails to satisfy our basic physical needs.
Instead, Marcuse claims that we live in an unsatisfying society (lines 8-9). It’s possible to be unsatisfied even if needs are met. - This answer is not one of Marcuse’s ideas. This is something the author argues would be true if Marcuse were right….it’s an implication of Marcuse’s ideas. People can hold ideas without believing in the implications of their ideas.
e.g. Someone who believes that more people should move to the city center but who doesn’t realize this will cause more buildings to be built.
That person believes something but doesn’t believe a natural implication of their idea. - Marcuse says that corporations benefit from advertising (lines 13-15). Marcuse doesn’t mention totalitarian political systems or whether they benefit from advertising.
- This isn’t what Marcuse says at all. False needs don’t become real needs. And advertising derives false needs from real needs (lines 17-21)….the passage never distinguishes real needs from “secondary real needs”.
This answer is nonsense designed to sound plausible because it uses some words that appeared in the passage.
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Katherine says
How should I go about practicing creating a map of the passage / finding facts more quickly?
FounderGraeme Blake says
Good question. You can do a drill with a friend or in writing. Doesn’t need to be an LSAT student; they just need to be able to follow the passage.
They read the passage. Then you do and they time you. When you think you have it mapped, stop timer, put away passage. Sum up each paragraph for them. Then have them evaluate how you did. You can use my paragraph summaries it they need help.
Then keep doing this, aiming for faster times and better understanding on average. The drill will give you feedback for how you do and what to read more/less carefully.
If your summaries suck, try adding 20 seconds of rereading. If too much time taken, try cutting some and see if the summaries suffer.
Next, they drill you on locating info. They call out a fact, and time you. You quickly look and see how quickly you can find it. Repeat. Aim for under 10 seconds and always aim for faster, wherever you’re at. Using spreeder can help improve your skimming. And so can passage mapping: if you know a fact is in paragraph 3 you can find it faster.
Paul says
Aha, okay that makes sense now. I didn’t notice the specificity in the question about it being attributed to Marcuse—that should have put me on better alert not to simply be looking for the closest reference I could recall in the passage related to consumer satisfaction—I should have been on the lookout for potentially multiple assertions about it, specifically looking for the one attributed to Marcuse.
Sigh, totally blew that one. Thank you for the quick and comprehensive response!
Paul says
I don’t understand how A is correct being that the passage says precisely the opposite thing at the end of the second paragraph that advertising ultimately leads to “needs never really being satisfied thus consumers remain at some level unsatisfied”. This seems to directly make answer A, stating that consumers falsely think they are satisfied, just plain wrong.
I am very much confused, am I somehow missing something? Answer A seems like it’s not just not the most correct, but is in fact precisely incorrect, as stated plainly in the passage.
TutorRosalie (LSATHacks) says
Hi, if you look at lines 6-11 (or on LawHub, it’s the first paragraph, the sentence starts with “Central to this type of critique…”), it states clearly that Marcuse thinks that advertisement makes people think they’re satisfied.
Only in that first paragraph do we hear anything about what Marcuse thinks. The rest of the paragraph, including paragraph 2 and the lines you cited, are the author’s claims and beliefs, not Marcuse’s.
Paul says
Sorry I meant to add my earlier comment as a direct reply to this one.
I really think you should replace the explanation provided for this question with the content of your reply here. The way the explanation is currently written is — at best — condescending, but more importantly at worst it totally ignores what is likely to be the most common mistake people answer this question incorrectly with.
TutorRosalie (LSATHacks) says
Thanks so much for the feedback! We’re edit accordingly.