Q12

[skapur777]

Really confused. Why couldn't the answer be B or D? I'm really confused by this question and its answer choices..

[sheffieldjordan]

I think to answer this question you have to understand the main point of the passage.

I thought the main point was something along the lines of "Although the blues and spirituals have been traditionally thought to be different, they both embody the same transformational power which can be traced to earlier African cultures."
Basically they both have the same roots.

Lines 5-10 suggest that sprituals and the blues have not previously been thought to be as similar as they in fact are (e.g. Despite...despite...).

I guess maybe spirituals and the blues are similar only in the end state that they reach, but not the means.
With these things in mind, (B) can't be correct because it suggests the two are "closely similar."

For (D):
If you infer that the blues and spirituals evolved from West African religious practices, the analogy does not match. (D) has a third species evolving from one of the first two. But the first two evolved from the third.

For (E):
This is similar to my pre-phrase for the main point. It just substitutes the nouns.

The similarity between the blues and spirituals becomes apparent only when you examine their purposes.
That's the way I see it anyway.

[skapur777]

And it's not C because of the "recently discovered" clause? There is nothing in the passage to say that this has been a recently discovered connection? And the whole reclassification thing, mainly, is what threw me off..

[bbirdwell]

Great job, you guys. That's essentially it. And yes, (C) is essentially wrong because there is nothing in the passage about "reclassifying" or "recently discovered."

[interestedintacos]

C is wrong for another reason: degree. The author says twice that blues and spirituals MAY be linked to ____.

In C it simply says that the relationship is discovered. Meanwhile E uses the word "may" to refer to the potential common roots.

[gplaya123]

Here is my 2 cents:

A) and B) share the same problem. Passage suggested that Blue and Spiritual may be linked to Africa; yet this is contradicted by these two.

C) say something about re classifications. This was never discussed.

D) it says INFERRED that those two genres come from Africa yet the text says MAY BE linked. Too strong.

E) falls nicely: yes they are superficially unalike (mentioned in p1) have similarities (throughout the whole passage) and may be linked (mentioned in p2). This is perfect.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Nice work gplaya123!

I'd add the following for answer choices (C) & (D):

(C) is too strong. The author took a more cautious approach [which we see in answer choice (E)--may be due to...]

(D) is too strong and reverses the direction of evolution. It should have suggested that the two species of grass may have derived from the similar third species, not the other way around.

[cyt5015]

How does "two species of shrubs, which seem superficially unalike" in answer E supported in the text? I read through the text but didn't find any word saying their difference or "superficially unalike". Can someone help me with this please?

[ohthatpatrick]

The line about 'superficially unalike" comes from lines 6-7 (blues is sometimes criticized or forbidden in church communities) and from 14-16 (blues has been called a "secular spiritual", which sounds like an apparent contradiction ... a superficial dissimilarity). Spirituals are thought of as religious, not secular.

These are definitely subtle context clues. The easier way to get the general vibe of 'superficially unalike' is just to see the general structure of lines 5-10.

"Despite _________ , the blues actually has much in common with .. spirituals."

The way that thought is structured is telling you that the first half gives you reasons to believe that the blues and spirituals would NOT have much in common.

=== recap of the whole question ===

We need to prep our brains for Analogy questions by initially thinking of the specific answer to the question and then trying to put that answer into more generic terms (since the answer choices won't involve the same topic).

What is the connection the author said between the blues, spirituals, and West African religious practices?

He said that the blues and spirituals may have both arisen from a common reservoir of experience (the West African religious practices) and share a common aesthetic (transforming negative experiences into positive ones through a process of setting-apart, referred to as 'ecstasy')

Okay, what's a more generic version of that?

X and Y may have both arisen from Z because they share some common trait or purpose.

(A) I would already have my doubts when this says that X and Y are 'largely dissimilar'. That's not supported in the text. The author makes X and Y seem pretty similar. Also, nothing has been 'proven'. Finally, it would be wrong to say that either X or Y, rather than BOTH X and Y, evolved from Z.

(B) X and Y are largely similar but have a subtle difference. However, they may be related to Z, which is also different. Hmmm, too many differences going on here. The author's main thrust is about the commonalities between X, Y, and Z.

(C) X and Y should be reclassified? That's a strong idea. The author was just saying that X and Y spring from the same source. Also, there's a "long believed to be unrelated vs. recently discovered that they're related" that wouldn't match up with anything.

(D) X and Y have more than SUBTLE similarities, and it's wrong to say that Z evolved from X or Y. The author's point was that both X and Y evolved from Z.

(E) X and Y, despite seeming different, are similar in an important way, and this may be because they're related to Z, which is similar to each of them. Sounds good!

Hope this helps.

[keonheecho]

Hi,
With regards to (E), where is there support for the statement that African American experience is older than the blues/spirituals? I get that the blues is likely to have occurred after African American experience based on common knowledge, but I don't think thats the case for spirituals. Can we really infer that just because they arose from a common reservoir of experience, that African American culture was older? Couldn't spirituals actually have been created before/at the same time?

Or is there another statement that I missed that supports this statement better?

Also, in this case, is it safe to say that the critics are agreeing with the author? This kind of threw me off because I feel like the critics usually disagree with the author in the passages I've read up until now.

Thank you!

[ohthatpatrick]

I think you're thinking in terms of "African American" instead of "West African" (on the continent of Africa), which is what the question stem is asking about.

Our first task in pre-phrasing this question is to find a line reference with West Africa in it. "West Africa" only appears once in the passage. Lines 30-33 say that "both musical forms [spirituals and the blues] may be linked to .... ancestral cultures in West Africa".

And, yes, you're right that it's atypical for the author to never push back against the critics. The author seems to implicitly agree with the critics and uses their thoughts to support his main point that blues has a lot in common with spirituals.

Hope this helps.

[keonheecho]

I think you're thinking in terms of "African American" instead of "West African" (on the continent of Africa), which is what the question stem is asking about.

Our first task in pre-phrasing this question is to find a line reference with West Africa in it. "West Africa" only appears once in the passage. Lines 30-33 say that "both musical forms [spirituals and the blues] may be linked to .... ancestral cultures in West Africa".

And, yes, you're right that it's atypical for the author to never push back against the critics. The author seems to implicitly agree with the critics and uses their thoughts to support his main point that blues has a lot in common with spirituals.

Hope this helps.

Ah, I had a feeling I was missing something. Thank you!