Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT127 S4 P1 Q6 Explanation

Amos Tutuola

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

TopicsLocal PurposeHumanities

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • 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

Start practicing free

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Passage

With his first published works in the 1950s, Amos Tutuola became the first Nigerian writer to receive wide international recognition. Written in a mix of standard English, idiomatic Nigerian English, and literal translation of his native language, Yoruba, Tutuola's works were quick to be praised by many literary critics as fresh, inventive the genre in which he wrote; literary critics have assumed too facilely that he wrote novels.

No matter how flexible a definition of the novel one uses, establishing a set of criteria that enable Tutuola's works to be described as such applies to his works a body of assumptions the works are not designed to satisfy. Tutuola is not a novelist but a teller of folktales. Many of to Tutuola's works, then, is one that regards him as working within the African oral tradition.

Within this tradition, a folktale is common property, an expression of a people's culture and social circumstances. The teller of folktales knows that the basic story is already known to most listeners and, equally, that the teller's reputation depends on the inventiveness with which the tale is modified and embellished, for what room to maneuver—in fact, the most brilliant tellers of folktales transform them into unique works.

Tutuola's adherence to this tradition is clear: specific episodes, for example, are often repeated for emphasis, and he embellishes familiar tales with personal interpretations or by transferring them to modern settings. The blend of English with local idiom and Yoruba grammatical constructs, in which adjectives and verbs are often interchangeable, re-creates the of his narratives, a device that is generally recognized as being employed to conclude most folktales.

What this question is testing

Local Purpose

Your task

Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.

Common trap

Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.

Winning move

Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.

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.

The author refers to the “corpus of traditional lore” (second paragraph) as part of

Answer choices

  1. Correct87% picked this

    distinguish expectations that apply to one literary genre from those that apply to

    Why this is right

    The author is saying, "Critics, stop looking for original storylines, as you would from a novelist. My boy Tutuola is a teller of folktales, and in that genre you're not supposed to be original. You're supposed to draw from the corpus of lore."

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

  2. Too Strong: "equally valuable"1% picked this

    argue that two sharply differing literary genres are both

    The author is never assessing the value of novels vs. folktales. He's just clarifying that Tutuola is creating the latter.

  3. Out of Scope "blending literary genres"6% picked this

    challenge critics who ascribe little merit to innovative ways of blending two

    There has not been in the passage a critic that says, "I actually don't think there's much good in trying to blend together two genres". Also, the author is not arguing that Tutuola is creating an innovative blend of novel and folktale writing. He's saying "view Tutuola within the African oral tradition".

  4. Out of Scope "direct counterparts"4% picked this

    elucidate those characteristics of one literary genre that have direct counterparts in another,

    The author is never trying to identify which features novel writing and folktale telling have in common. She is acknowledging an important different between the two genres here (with novels, we want original subjects ... with folktales, we want familiar subjects)

  5. Trap2% picked this

    argue for a new, more precise analysis of two literary genres whose distinguishing characteristics

    Out of Scope "new analysis of two genres" The author is never calling for a new analysis of novel writing and folktale telling, just showing critics that Tutuola is not writing novels and that analyzing his work from that perspective is faulty.

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

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

Save and practice this skill
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