Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT110 S4 P4 Q23 Explanation

African American Rice Cultivation

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

TopicsAuthor's AttitudeSociety

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Passage

While historians once propagated the myth that Africans who were brought to the New World as slaves contributed little of value but their labor, a recent study by Amelia Wallace Vernon helps to dispel this notion by showing that Africans introduced rice and the methods of cultivating it into what is now United States had previously been attributed to French Acadians, who did not arrive until the 1760s.

Vernon interviewed elderly African Americans who helped her discover the locations where until about 1920 their forebears had cultivated rice. At the heart of Vernon’s research is the question of why, in an economy dedicated to maximizing cotton production, African Americans grew rice. She proposes two intriguing answers, depending on whether the of regimented labor under a field supervisor, in that they were left alone to work independently.

After the abolition of slavery, however, rice cultivation is more difficult to explain: African Americans had acquired a preference for eating corn, there was no market for the small amounts of rice they produced, and under the tenant system—in which farmers surrendered a portion of their crops to the owners of the reward—except that, according to Vernon, the transforming of the land itself was the point.

Vernon suggests that these African Americans did not transform the land as a means to an end, but rather as an end in itself. In other words, they did not transform the land in order to grow rice—for the resulting rice was scarcely worth the effort required to clear the land—but instead U.S. government had promised but failed to parcel off and deed to newly freed African Americans.

What this question is testing

Author's Attitude

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

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

The question
23.

Which one of the following most completely and accurately describes the author’s attitude

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported: skeptical2% picked this

    respectful of its author and skeptical toward

    There aren't any lines in the passage that support our author being skeptical. She seems either neutral or mildly approving of the ideas presented.

  2. Correct81% picked this

    admiring of its accomplishments and generally receptive to

    Why this is right

    We get "admiring" from the first paragraph (helps to dispel the myth / compelling discoveries). We get generally receptive from the absence of any pushback to the ideas stated in the last paragraph. If authors present someone's ideas without offering their own qualms or concerns, then LSAT considers those authors to be implicitly sympathetic to those ideas (the ideas are worthy of consideration).

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

  3. Weaker Match16% picked this

    appreciative of the effort it required and neutral toward

    This would be acceptable as an answer, I suppose, if we didn't have a better match. Our author is definitely appreciative of Vernon, but for helping to dispel a myth and for presenting compelling discoveries. There aren't any attitude moments attached to "the effort it required" to conduct this study. In fact, we're told at the beginning of the 2nd paragraph that part of the methodology of this study was "interviewing elderly African Americans". It would be weird to say, "Vernon, thank you for your study. I know it required a lot of effort to interview those elderly African Americans." When we say, "I appreciate the effort", it means something pretty generic. I appreciate the finished product. But saying "I appreciate the effort it required" is more saying, I appreciate how hard that finished product was to produce. And the second half of this answer is also a weak match. It's hard to say the author is totally neutral when she says in the first paragraph, "She [Vernon] proposes two intriguing answers".

  4. Unsupported: skeptical1% picked this

    enthusiastic about its goals but skeptical of

    There aren't any lines in the passage that support our author being skeptical. She seems either neutral or mildly approving of the ideas presented. Calling the theories (i.e. the answers to the question of why African Americans grew rice) "intriguing answers" sounds like counter-support for being skeptical of Vernon's theories.

  5. Too Strong: overtly dismissive Opposite0% picked this

    accepting of its author’s motives but overtly dismissive of

    Our author is moderately positive toward Vernon, not overtly dismissive.

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