Q8

[jiehaep]

8. (C)
Question Type: Inference (4-14)
The word "inheritance" is used in the context of showing that Gluck believes she rightly belongs to a tradition of English writers (Shakespeare, Blake, Keats, etc.) that other women poets have rejected. The passage later discusses form and subject matter, but not in this paragraph. Therefore, choice (C) best defines the "inheritance" that Gluck embraces.
(A) is a contradictory interpretation. Gluck "embraces" the tradition "with respect and admiration."
(B) is an unsupported interpretation. Gluck does more than consider the inheritance "acceptable""”she is proud of it.
(D) is an unsupported interpretation. Subject limitations based on the celebrity of poets are not discussed in the passage.
(E) is an unsupported interpretation. Gluck "embraces" the inheritance rather than having it imposed upon her, and a particular writing style is not discussed in this paragraph.

[gyfirefire]

Hi Jiehaep,

I have a question regarding one of your comments "The passage later discusses form and subject matter, but not in this paragraph. " I am sure you have a better understanding of this word "form" than me.

I have hard time understanding what "form" refers to in this passage. L15 and L40 mentioned "formative encounters with poetry" and "poetic forms", so i wondered if "form" means "poetry" which is a form itself?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[shirando21]

what do "this" in line 7 and "this reason" in line 8 refer to?

[T.J.]

Just to supplement the explanation for (B), I see "the set of poetic forms and techniques" as inappropriate too. Even though "forms" appear later in the passage, we don't have information about techniques... A quick way is line 6 - "the poems" of these poets.

[logicfiend]

Thought I would put my two cents in about this question.

Q is asking what the term "inheritance" means within the context of the first paragraph:

What is the first paragraph saying? It introduces Gluck's opinion/beliefs about the male dominated poetic tradition vs. the beliefs of many contemporary women poets.

Gluck does not believe her gender, as a female, has kept her from fully appreciating the writings of male poets/the tradition established by male poets. "Rather, she believed this [male poetry] was the tradition of her language and that it was for this reason [the male poetry as the tradition of her language] her poetic inheritance." This was my interpretation of the line, hopefully it's not too confusing to understand.

Gluck very clearly sees herself as part of this family of male poets and is even continuing the tradition as we see in the next graf, whereas other contemporary women poets have simply rejected the tradition altogether.

So we're looking for an answer here that shows 1) The male poets have established a poetic tradition that has been passed down to poets like Gluck and 2) the tradition has influenced Gluck's own poetry.

This is most neatly stated in (C): Poetry written in a particular language whose achievement serves as a model for other poets writing in that language.

Gluck inherited the tradition of the male poetry as a model (universal themes), which she has adopted into her own poetry. We can prove this from the context of the first graf.

For the other choices:

(A) burden? Remember "inheritance" is from Gluck's quote. Answer choice makes "inheritance" have a negative connotation, which it does not for Gluck. Also, this is the opposite of what the passage says, as pointed out by the OP. Many contemporary women do not see the male dominated tradition as a burden. They have rejected it.

(B) I think poetic forms/techniques refers to the universal themes, which are the only techniques that are mentioned in this passage. However, we are looking at the context of the first graf. Is Gluck in her quote talking about techniques or forms here? No, she's talking about the tradition of the male poetry.

(D) unsupported—Author neither in the first paragraph or in the rest of the passage say that poets are limited by the subjects of prior poets. Only that this specific poet has been influenced by the tradition. But again, this isn't what Gluck is discussed in her quote.

(E) Passage doesn't discuss writing style, only the common "universal" themes that Gluck has picked up on. Also, imposition has the same problem of a negative connotation as "burden" in the first graf. Like OP already said, Gluck has chosen to embrace and appreciate the tradition. It is not imposed on her.

Hope this helps people out, correct me if I'm wrong on anything, please!

Also, esteemed LSAT instructors, are their any specific tricks to these questions about defining the meanings of specific terms? Or should we just rely on the context of the graf and preceding sentences to figure it out?

[AshleyT786]

I am still confused about why answer choice B is incorrect for #8. This answer is a bit narrow, but isn't it still true? I assume if you're writing within a canon of poets and trying to emulate certain poetic style that there are a set of techniques within that