Q25

[anjelica.grace]

Although I eventually got this right, I spent a lot of time not knowing on what grounds to eliminate (B).

Is it because the passage never specifies whether the European American groups studied by these historians experienced the same weakening of community ties as the Japanese Americans studied by Fugita and O'Brien?

All we know is that these historians "unsatisfactorily" explained persistence on the basis of "peoplehood," but anything more about the groups they studied is not discussed. Is that why (B) is wrong?

[demetri.blaisdell]

Thanks for posting, anjelica.grace. This is a tough question. I think you've got the right reason to get rid of (B).

(B) misses the point of the last paragraph. The last paragraph argues that the culture persisted because of a heightened sense of "peoplehood." But (B) refers to something that is briefly mentioned above: the loss of some aspects of culture while other aspects persist (see lines 12-17). That was never attributed to the European scholars.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Demetri

[trekstar]

Hello, I narrowed down the answers between A and B, and I still do not understand why B is not correct.

B) They have suggested that European cultural practices have survived although the community ties of European ethnic groups have been weakened.

In line 33, we have:
...Because of the social changes weakening the bonds of community, Fugita and O'Brien maintain that the community cohesion of Japanese Americans is notable...because "there remains a degree of involvement in the ethnic community."

So doesn't that match B exactly? Or is "involvement in the ethnic community" different from "cultural practices?" I would think not?

[rpcuhk]

The historians in question were mentioned in the context of their sharing F&O's hypothesis (i.e. community is sustained by peoplehood). Answer (B) described a view that is similar to F&O's, but not F&O's hypothesis. So (B) is wrong

[maryadkins]

The historians in question were mentioned in the context of their sharing F&O's hypothesis (i.e. community is sustained by peoplehood). Answer (B) described a view that is similar to F&O's, but not F&O's hypothesis. So (B) is wrong

Yes, exactly. We're looking for how the historians mentioned in line 49 are SPECIFICALLY compared to F&O, not how F&O are generally.

Does that make sense?

[maryadkins]

As for the others:

(C) is contradicted by the text (there was national consciousness)

(D) and (E) are not ideas offered in this portion of the text.

[olaizola.mariana]

I understand that (E) does not capture the overall point of the fourth paragraph. However, (E) seems more well-supported than (A) given the actual content of the sentence comparing F&O and those historians. The sentence doesn't compare them in terms of the "problem" but in terms of their explaining "the persistence of ethnic community by citing a preexisting sense of national culture..." (52-53). Should we assume that those historians of European communities fell into the same problem simply because it is a "common problem?"

A more general question for LSAT purposes is, how much should we take into account the context of a sentence when looking at specific information contained in that sentence?

[maryadkins]

I'm not sure I understand your point about how this supports (E). (E) is talking about community ties lasting over time, which isn't the point of the comparison here. The point is that these historians, like F and O, think these people have a "pre-existing" sense of national identity, which the author thinks is the wrong approach. That's not the same as saying that the community ties Europeans have don't get any weaker over time.

You do want to take context into consideration. I just don't think (E) is supportable even considering context.

[JasonH302]

For answer choice (B), although its format looks like F&O's study (ethnic identity persists despite of ties being weakened), we got to pay to the word "practices." Cultural practices are way more specific and different from ethnic identity. If (B) changes into "They suggested that European ethnic identity have survived although the community ties of European ethnic groups have weakened, it becomes better.