LSAT 149 | Section 2 | Reading Comprehension: Q4

RC Question 4 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The middle of paragraph 2 (line 25) directly answers this question. You should always note sentences starting with “however”. It is a vital structural word.

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1. CORRECT. See line 25, middle of paragraph 2, the line starting with however. It directly states this answer.
2. This answer is a bad read of paragraph 3. The author didn’t say dialects merge. He said Chinese-Americans can understand each other to a point, because those who don’t speak different dialects are at least familiar with some Cantonese  from movies and culture. They also share US-Chinese vocabulary. So different groups can talk amongst themselves, but that’s not the same as dialects merging.
    
   Americans can have conversations with British people, without merging the two versions of the language.
3. I don’t believe the author directly addressed the sound of the language, but it’s strongly implied they disagree with this. The end of paragraph 2 says “the supposed language barrier is imaginary”. This implies the sounds remain fairly similar.
4. This goes against paragraph 3. Paragraph 3 says that there are Chinese Americans who speak dialects other than Cantonese, but who can speak some Cantonese. This implies that Chinese Americans do not tend to abandon their native dialects for Cantonese. Understanding a bit of Cantonese is not the same as abandoning your own dialect.
5. This contradicts line 27, in the middle of paragraph 2. It says the new words “supplement, but not supplant” traditional Chinese. That means US Chinese people add new words to their vocabulary but don’t replace old ones.