Reading Comprehension

PT104 · S3 · P2 · Q10 Hopi Personal Names

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

  • Save & drill this skill build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Personal names are generally regarded by European thinkers in two major ways, both of which deny that names have any significant semantic content.

Central Topic / Purpose

significance of Hopi Names / Clarify Misconception (or Highlight Something Overlooked)

Main Point

Unlike Mill's point of view (that names are meaningless) or Strauss's (that names confer social rank), the correct view of Hopi names is that they were extremely meaningful things that not only helped to indicate social relationships but also provided aesthetic delight because of their poetic beauty or significance.

Passage Map

P1 - Introduce other views on function of names before pivoting into Passage's focus: Hopi Names.

P2 - Background information on when and how Hopis receive names

P3 - Elaboration on naming process, illuminated by an example, culminating in a takeway that the names are like tiny poems

P4 - Author's summary of Hopi names, showing how neither of the views on function in names from P1 are adequate in describing Hopi names.

Other Commentary

In trying to solve the passage from the 1st paragraph, there are a few foreshadowing hints: 1st sentence:

The fact that there are two views on how to regard personal names would prompt us to think, .

The wording that "X is generally thought of as Y" foreshadows a Clarify a Misconception / Highlight Something Overlooked type passage.

When we see the 3rd sentence say, "Consequently, X has been neglected", we would think, .

In this sense, we could see the passage as a Illustrate by Example, in which the discussion of Hopi names is just the example used to illustrate the broader point that some societies use names for functions that go beyond what our two guys enumerated in the 2nd sentence.

10.

Which one of the following statements describes an example of the function accorded to personal names under Lévi-Strauss's view?

  1. Some parents select their children’s

    No Match

    Books ≠ instruments of social classification

    3% picked this

  2. Some parents wait to give

    No Match

    Looks / personality ≠ instruments of social classification

    3% picked this

  3. Some parents name their children

    No Match

    Friends / famous people ≠ instruments of social classification (if your friend was a famous/rich person, then maybe that would indirectly show that socially you're upper class, but that's too much of a stretch)

    5% picked this

  4. Some family members have no

    No Match / Opposite

    Unique names ≠ instruments of social classification If we interpreted social classification as being, in part, a reflection of your extended family and its clout, or lack thereof, then we would expect family members to share parts of their names. What's the point of being a Rockefeller or a Kennedy if you don't advertise that in your name? :)

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    Some family names originated as

    Why this is right

    Identification of occupation = instrument of social classification This is a better fit than anything else available. People tend to know how lucrative different occupations are / aren't, so knowing someone's occupation allows one to make some speculative inferences about their social class.

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

    88% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free