Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT103 S4 P2 Q6 Explanation

James Porter

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsMain PointHumanities

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Passage

James Porter (1905–1970) was the first scholar to identify the African influence on visual art in the Americas, and much of what is known about the cultural legacy that African-American artists inherited from their African forebears has come to us by way of his work. Porter, a painter and art historian, began went on to establish clearly the range of the cultural territory inherited by later African-American artists.

An example of this aspect of Porter’s research occurs in his essay “Robert S. Duncanson, Midwestern Romantic-Realist.” The work of Duncanson, a nineteenth-century painter of the Hudson River school, like that of his predecessor in the movement, Joshua Johnston, was commonly thought to have been created by a Euro-American artist. Porter proved genre portrait with evidence of an extensive knowledge of the cultural history of various African peoples.

In his later years, Porter wrote additional chapters for later editions of his book, constantly revising and correcting his findings, some of which had been based of necessity on fragmentary evidence. Among his later achievements were his definitive reckoning of the birth year of the painter Patrick Reason, long a point of of the Western world generally, a body of research whose riches scholars still have not exhausted.

What this question is testing

Main Point

Your task

Capture the passage's overall primary point — the claim everything else supports.

Common trap

Answers that are true but too narrow (a single paragraph) or too broad (beyond the passage's scope).

Winning move

Summarize the whole passage in one sentence first, then match it to a choice.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
6.

Which one of the following most accurately states the main idea of

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported Causal Relationship4% picked this

    Because the connections between African-American art and other art in the Americas had been established by earlier scholars, Porter’s work focused on showing

    This answer is saying because people had already covered the connection between African-American and other American art, Porter decided to focus on the influence from Africa. That second idea is definitely the main emphasis we want, but the causal wind-up is unsupported. The passage never explicitly says what caused Porter to undertake this research, but at the end of the second paragraph it speculates that what may have caused him to do so was the fact that his own art was consciously trying to link back to African art. So not only can we not support the causal relationship this answer choice is building, we also have some support for an alternate causal relationship.

  2. Wrong Emphasis Too Strong: most important23% picked this

    In addition to showing the connections between African-American art and African artisanship, Porter’s most important achievement was illustrating the links between African-American art

    This answer includes the idea we want as our main point, but it doesn't feature that idea in the main clause. We want the main clause to be like, "Porter was dope because he was the first to show the connection between African-American and African art". So this answer choice is like, "In addition to The Main Point, Porter's most important thing was [something else]."

  3. Wrong Emphasis3% picked this

    Despite the fact that his last book remains unfinished, Porter’s work was the first to devote its attention exclusively to

    This answer says that Porter is noteworthy because he was the first person to exclusively profile African-American artists (it sounds more like his professor Locke was the first person to do that). Porter is noteworthy for being the first to show the connection of African-American art to African art.

  4. Wrong Emphasis Too Strong: primarily8% picked this

    Although showing the connections between African-American art and African artisanship, Porter’s work concentrated primarily on placing African-American art in the context

    This answer includes the idea we want as our main point, but it doesn't feature that idea in the main clause. We want the main clause to be like, "Porter was dope because he was the first to show the connection between African-American and African art". So this answer choice is like, "Although Porter did The Main Point, Porter's work concentrated primarily on [something else]."

  5. Correct62% picked this

    While not the first body of scholarship to treat the subject of African-American art, Porter’s work was the first to show the connections

    Why this is right

    Finally, we have a main clause that is correctly identifying why Porter is noteworthy: he was the first to make the connections between African-American art and African art. The subordinate clause that starts this answer is just referring to his professor Locke.

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

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