Q11

[justindebouvier7]

We are looking for a possible reason why the author included Anthony Johnson and his family in the passage.

The author mentions Mr. Johnson in lines (49-63) so we should at least read these lines unless we are confident with our answer choice. However, it is also good to briefly review with the lines preceding 49 to know the context of the example. In lines 40-44 the author mentions that the authors underemphasize that customary law was closing in on free African-Americans before the 1670's. This is crucial to the interpretation given from Innes and Breen about the reason why Johnson left. He/she mentions that this may have not been the only reason, or possibly even the real reason. The author then goes on to say that the institution of slavery was potentially harmful to his descendants in Virginia.

So, though Innes and Breen dismiss this, the author provides this examples as a possible shortcoming to their interpretation.

[ohthatpatrick]

GREAT response.

I just want to call attention to the pattern inherent in this question type:

Basically, when an LSAT question stem is structured,
"the author mentions ____ in order to"
"the author's reference to ____ serves to"
or
"the author does ____ primarily to"
I think of these as Bookend Questions.

They are about WHY a certain detail was used.

Almost invariably, the answer to this question is that "the detail was used to provide an example of the broad claim before it" or "the detail is used to get to a big take-away point that comes right after it".

So the correct answer is almost always a paraphrase of the big-idea that comes right before or right after (the bookends) the detail being asked about.

The Anthony Johnson example is part of the conversation from 40-64, in which our author points out something that Breen and Innes underemphasized.

Notice that the bookends, lines 40-44 and 55-64, both begin with "however" and "but", which are usually signs that an important author idea is coming.

[alex.cheng.2012]

I was stuck between A and B because they looked so similar.

Is B incorrect because it says they "overlooked?" The passage says they "underemphasized." Does that means they didn't overlook it, but they just didn't place enough important/attention to it?

[gultekincan92]

I'm also stuck between A and B. An explanation detailing why B is wrong and A is rather correct will be much appreciated. Many thanks.

[renata.gomez]

I would also greatly appreciate an explanation between A and B.


Thank you!

[ohthatpatrick]

From lines 40-63, we get the author pushing back against Breen and Innes. Line 40-44 is essentially the author's main point about their book.

That line is saying that they underemphasize certain evidence. That's not a great match for "overlooking relevant data".

The former involves knowing the data but not making a big deal out of it. The latter involves never having seen the data.

The author isn't saying, as (B) does, that "Breen and Innes failed to consider the data point of Johnson's family". In fact, we know the authors DID consider this data point, because lines 53-55 describe how B & I interpreted Johnson's move north.

The author is saying, as (A) does, that "it may be wrong to interpret the Johnson's move north as a freely chosen decision to seek out new land; it's probably more likely that the Johnson family saw the racial tensions soon to impinge on their freedom."