LSAT 77, Reading Comprehension, Q18, LSATHacks

RC Question 18 Explanation, by LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: The summary given in passage B (lines 36–43)…

DISCUSSION: The summary in lines 36-43 describes how emperor Augustus changed women’s role to a domestic one. It’s a broad, structural analysis. No individual women are mentioned. Instead the legal and moral framework that affected women was discussed.

Note that the word “relocated” in that section is fancy academic speak for….well, a longer phrase, which is why they used it. More or less it means “change society’s perception of women and redefine their role”. Though you won’t find this particular meaning of “relocate” in a dictionary; I’m inferring the definition from the context. Academics sometimes invent new words when existing ones don’t suit their purposes.

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1. This answer is a reference to lines 10-11. The study of “women per se” means the study of women themselves.
   Passage B is an example of gender analysis, so it is not an example of women themselves. Gender analysis is a broader analytical framework.
2. CORRECT. This is a good summary. Augustus was explicitly trying to reshape Roman culture and politics by reshaping the role of women in the home (i.e. domesticity)
3. Lost ancestors? If you were tempted by this, you completely misread the passage. “Old fashioned roman morality” (line 36) refers to how people acted in the past (or were imagined to have acted). It’s not referring to specific ancestors.
4. Augustus was a man, but that’s not the same thing as the abstract concept of masculinity. The passage is not about masculinity; it’s about how new conceptions of the female role affected Roman society. (This might affect masculinity, but the the passage is not about masculinity.)
5. The author of passage B is doing gender analysis. It’s highly unlikely they think gender analysis is a bad thing. (“obscures” is a negative word, referring to confusing)