If there is a central argument, then the correct answer will probably hone in on that distinction.
If there is one sentence that feels most like the overarching thesis, or the author's signature opinion, then there is a good chance that the correct answer will paraphrase that line.
An absurdly high percentage of the time, the most valuable sentence in LSAT RC passages follows one of these four words:
but
yet
however
recently
Why? Because these words come at the point in the passage when the author turns from background information into the foreground of his specific focus, or the point when the passage goes from discussing what OTHER people have said into what the AUTHOR wants to say.
This passage goes from discussing what historiographers have TRADITIONALLY done (line 10) to what they are now doing.
Lines 15-17 has both BUT and RECENTLY.
Lines 27-32 are an elaboration of the same idea, and again this sentence uses BUT and HAVE BEGUN.
The final 2 paragraphs are "a case in point" to substantiate this previous claim.
We should expect our correct Main Point answer to sound like a synthesis of the overarching idea in 15-17 / 27-32 with the example used to support it.
A) "most" is usually wrong in RC answers, as it is here. "most" historiographers would be more like the "traditional" approach, and the traditional approach did not concern itself with Asian settlers' actions.
B) "irrelevant" is too strong. Nothing in the first paragraph can justify that harsh a label. Plus, this answer would be narrowly focused on the 1st paragraph (the 'traditional' historiographers), when the passage is really about what historiographers are doing recently.
C) Sounds good. Sounds like a paraphrase of 15-17 / 27-32.
D) "debate the methodological foundations" is too strong. Historiographers are "expanding their definition of a source", but expanding a definition doesn't have to shake the foundation of methodology.
E) "inaccurate" is too strong. The author would probably agree "incomplete", but those mean different things.
